L'Invasion des profanateurs de sépultures

Body Snatchers is a true anomaly in the cinematic world. It has been remade twice, and all three films are essentially adaptations of a novel by Jack Finney. And despite the often terrible nature of remakes, both the 1978 AND 1993 versions are considered to be just as good as this one. I am looking back at these films in light of the 4th Body Snatchers that is coming out this summer with Nicole Kidman (The Hours) and Daniel Craig (Casino Royale).

Invasion of the body snatchers is generally considered a political film as well as sci fi. It is a reflection of the McCarthy area (recently shown in Good Night, and Good Luck), and cold-war hysteria.

Kevin McCarthy (Death of a Salesman) and Dana Wynter were great and there was good chemistry between them.

The film did not need special effects or gore. It built up it's terror with slow suspense, a sense of impending doom, and an atmosphere that was enhanced by the superb musical score.

This is definitive sci fi and one of the best movies of the 50's.

Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is called back to his small California home early from a conference because a number of his patients have been frantically asking to see him. But oddly, when he returns home, most forget about their unspecified needs. At the same time, it seems that a mass hysteria is building where residents believe that friends and loved ones are "not themselves", literally. Just what is going on? As of this writing, it has been more than twenty years since I have seen the 1978 remake of this film, so I can't compare the two at the moment. However, it would have to be flawless to top this, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The sole factor that caused me to give the film less than a ten was the pacing during portions of the first half hour or so. While it's not bad, exactly, director Don Siegel does not build atmosphere and tension as effectively as he might have while the viewer is being filled in on the necessary exposition. Admittedly, this section is directed in a standard way for its era, but "standard" here is enough to subtract a point.

However, once we reach Miles' friend Jack Belicec (King Donovan) discovering a body on his billiard table, the suspense and tension gradually increase, and the remainder of the film is a very solid ten.

The literal "weapon" of the film's horror could have easily come across as cheesy, but it doesn't. Don Post and Milt Rice's special make-up effects and props are threateningly eerie. The transformation sequences involving the props are beautifully shot and edited--showing just enough to make them effective, but not so much that the mystery is gone.

It was ingenious to create a story where a whole town gradually turns into a villain, and even natural, unavoidable biological functions threaten our heroes' destruction. In conjunction, it all creates an intense sense of claustrophobia and paranoia for the audience.

McCarthy and Dana Wynter, as Miles' girlfriend Becky Driscoll, expertly convey a gradual transformation from common citizens to panic-stricken, desperate victims on the run. The film is also notable for slightly ahead-of-its time portrayals of relationships and divorce.

Much has been said about the parallels between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the "communist paranoia" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, especially as it was directed against Hollywood by the House of Un-American Activities Committee. (And how ironic that the star of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is named McCarthy?) However, there is another very interesting subtext present that isn't so often mentioned. The film can also be looked at as a philosophical exploration of personal identity. Just what does it take for people to be themselves? Is it how they look, act, the things they say? Is it not the case that people are constantly transformed into something they weren't just hours ago, or even moments ago? Among the many ways that these kinds of ideas are worked into the script is that sleep is a metaphor for unconscious physical change over time. It would be easy to analyze each scene in the film in this manner, going into detail about the various implications each plot development has on the matter of personal identity.

Despite the slight pacing/atmosphere flaw in the beginning, this is a gem of a film, not just for sci-fi and horror fans, and not just for its era. It's worth seeing by anyone with a serious interest in film, and can be enjoyed either on its suspenseful surface level, or more in-depth by those who want to look at the film as more metaphorical material for societal and philosophical concerns.

A doctor comes to a hospital on a late night call to hear a man whom everybody else deems insane. The doctor persuades the man to be patient and tell his story. The man then tells the doctor about how a small California town has been invaded by some sort of alien seeds that grow into human clones...

Coming straight from the McCarthy era and general Cold War paranoia this is one scary movie. There is not a gun fired, not a drop of gore shed but the final effect of the film will stay with you for a good while. More contemporary film viewers might recognize the concept from John Carpenter's "The Thing" which itself was an update of the 1951 film. However, the themes of paranoia and tension are just as nail-biting and intense here.

There is a lack of visual punch that so many people are used to today, but just think of the historical context and the implications, basically use your mind! Then you'll see why the film scared studio executives so much that they forced Don Siegel to add an intro and outro to help soften the overall effect. It wasn't the best play in the book, but the film remains a great classic chiller. --- 9/10

Not Rated. It would most likely receive a PG from the MPAA, there are several tense moments, though no violence.

A chilling motion picture, well directed by Don Sigel, with a script co-written by Daniel Mainwaring and (uncredited) Sam Peckinpah, based on the novel "The Body Snatchers" (aka "Sleep No More") by Jack Finney.

The excellent musical score is by Carmen Dragon. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter head the cast of this four-star classic in which the inhabitants of a small California town are being replaced by alien look-alikes. The aliens come to Earth in the form of "seed pods" that burst open and spew out a foam which grows into human duplicates, complete with all the memories of the original. The best scene in the film takes place in a greenhouse where several alien pods burst open and disgorge the half-formed copies of the horrified humans.

A prologue, a new ending, and a voice over-narration were added after the film's initial release, to help the audience follow the strange plot. In the added scenes, the story opens with Kevin McCarthy being brought into a hospital, raving about alien invaders. Two doctors (Whit Bissell and Richard Deacon) listen to McCarthy's strange story, which the audience sees as a flashback. At the end of he movie the doctors are understandably skeptical about McCarthy's weird yarn, but an unexpected event lends credence to his story.

Many film reviewers criticize these added scenes as unnecessary, an unwise attempt to conclude the story with a happier ending. But these scenes serve a valuable purpose, increasing the viewers sympathy for McCarthy and his efforts to convince someone that mankind is in danger. The alleged "happier ending" does not establish that mankind will win the battle against the aliens. It simply implies a Chapter Two in this epic struggle. Mankind will have a fighting chance in the war, but the outcome is definitely open to debate.

The decision to make this fascinating novel into a noir thriller worked very well on its own merits as an "adventure" with mostly-implicit ideas as motivations; however, I believe the film could have been made into a dramatic work of unusual power, It is B/W, swift-paced, intelligently acted and unusually- well-directed by Don Siegel, with a literate script by Daniel Mainwaring. The project is also interesting and disturbing for a number of reasons. Jack Finney wrote a novel in the 1950s which some read as a loss of American individualism, and others as an attack on Cold-War mentality realpolitik. Whatever the wellsprings of this fine idea, Finney's story treated of "seeds from space"; the idea is that these came to Earth and have the power to reproduce themselves into any living thing's form, right down to its thought patterns, memories, etc. But of course they have no emotions--they are merely replicas, not the originals. A mass hysteria grips the town of Santa Mira, California, shortly after their secret arrival on our planet; and Dr. Miles Bennell is called home from a conference because a dozen people claim some relative or beloved friend is not who they were before. When this seems to die down, Miles has time to pursue old flame and lovely Becky Driscoll, now that both their divorces are final. But the problem does not disappear and cannot be explained away by a psychologist friend of Bennelle's, thoughtfully played by Larry Gates. Bennell and his friend Jack Belicec and his wife Teddie find a body on Jack's pool table; his wife think's it's an alien thing--to replace Jack. They three flee to Miles's house, and Bennell goes to get Becky--carrying her off into the night. The next day looks sunny and normal, except that they find huge seed pods in Bennell's greenhouse, turning into--something else. Or someone? The remainder of the film consists of Bennell trying to call for help, observing the distribution of seeds in trucks in the small town's center, being trapped in his office, overcoming two guards, fleeing, and losing Becky to the monsters, before he finally convinces authorities that he is not insane; this requires an accident--to a truck carrying giant seed pods, from Santa Mira. As Bennell, Kevin McCarthy is quite good if not ideal. Dana Wynter is classically good as Becky; King Donovan and Carolyn Jones are the Belicecs, she doing a great deal with little to work from. Ralph Dumke as the Police Chief and Virginia Christine as Becky's Aunt Wilma are also standouts. Others in the cast include Kenneth Patterson, Tom Fadden, Guy Rennie and Jean Willes as Bennell's nurse. The production values are all good, by my standards, but only the direction is outstanding, except for the special effects. Carmen Dragon supplied eerie music suitable to the action. The loss to the film occasioned by its being made as a frightening adventure can be gauged best perhaps by comparing the qualities of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister with the enjoyable adventure-level film "Marlowe" made in the 1970s. What we have here is a taut and often moving entertainment; what we might have had could have contained every element here, but could also perhaps have been even more intriguing. The theme of the film is "what makes a person human"; and no stronger idea for an idea-level fantasy can perhaps be imagined. But what we have here is a famous and interesting thriller in its own right; I like the envelope involving Richard Deacon, Whitner Bissell and others as the doctors at a mental hospital to which a raving Bennell is taken when he escape Santa Mira's nightmare. The original "They're here!" ending to me would have been unacceptably alarmist.