The Body Stealers

The 1960s was the era of the brash, misogynistic hero who uses his fists first and asks questions later. He assumes that all women want to sleep with him, no matter what the age gap, and wears a variety of chunky knitwear a Cornish fisherman would feel comfortable in. This behaviour can all be blamed on James Bond. The mega-success of the Bond franchise lead to every other TV and movie producer falling over themselves trying to get a piece of the action. There were spies, espionage and action heroes everywhere. Now The Body Stealers is not a spy film as such, but it is Bond that it most closely resembles, despite its extra-terrestrial enemy. And unfortunately our Neil does not take the lead role, the honour falling to Patrick Allen. Allen was a great character actor in the 1960s, making many appearances in Hammer films, including the fan favourite Captain Clegg aka Night Creatures, along with assorted low-budget science fiction efforts. Here he plays a no-nonsense, womanising private detective called in by the military to solve the mystery of parachutists disappearing in mid-drop. Neil Connery is relegated to standing in the background in most of the scenes, playing an old friend of Allen's.

So, the plot goes something like this: The British Air Force are testing a new kind of parachute, but their jumpers (not the knitted kind) are vanishing into thin air before they hit the ground (incidentally Thin Air was the original title of the film, but exploitation master Tony Tenser, producer and head of Tigon, thought it wasn't catchy enough). It IS all a mystery. Allen, who used to be a parachutist himself, leaves a women he was enjoying an intimate picnic with at the order of George Sanders and moves into a seedy looking B&B by the airbase. After clumsily trying to chat up a female scientist, and meeting the chief scientist Maurice Evans (better known for his appearances under heavy makeup in the Planet of the Apes series), he starts to make his moves on a mysterious, bikini-clad blonde he meets on the beach. Meanwhile, for no given reason other than he may be a pervert of some kind, Neil Connery takes secret photos of his old mate Allen making love to this woman right there on the sand. But when he develops the photos, possibly for publication in a seedy magazine (everything was seedy in sixties low budget science fiction), he discovers that she doesn't appear in the photos! That's because she is an alien!

Are you following this? I won't continue, as I'm confusing myself as much as I'm probably confusing you, and I've seen the film. It's no wonder George Sanders spends most of his scenes looking mistily into the distance, no doubt reminiscing on his earlier days working with the likes of Visconti. Even Allen admits on the DVD commentary that he had no real idea of what was going on. Now depending on your view point, this confusing plot, and the lack of a satisfying conclusion, could lead you to believe that you have just wasted the last ninety minutes of your life. Or, if like me you have a certain fondness for sixties British science fiction then there is still plenty of enjoyment to be had from The Body Stealers. You can wonder how Neil Connery didn't do more to cash in on his brother's celebrity status (his only other film appearance of note is the notorious Italian Bond rip-off Operation Kid Brother), or whether this film was the tipping point for Sanders, resulting in his suicide just a couple of years later. You can admire how Allen's heroic chin can win over even the most resistant of women, and even speculate whether there couldn't have been an easier, lower-profile way for the alien race to abduct men to take back to their home planet.

A bunch of military paratroopers descend on a freefall flight and as a group from NATO wait for them to land they disappear in to thin air

A good opening hook and as the film continues you get the impression that the production have no idea to develop the film outside of the opening hook . In fact despite being a science fiction B movie you get the feeling the production crew are wanting to make a James Bond film and the premise does feel Bond like in many ways . Patrick Allen as Bob Megan is basically channeling Bond as he lights up a cigarette and eyes up every piece of skirt in sight . George Sander is a surrogate M while Neil Connery could easily be a surrogate Q How pathetic is that ? They couldn't get Sean Connery to star in THE BOY STEALERS as Bond but as a way of compensating for this they got Sean's brother !

One genuinely does wonder if at early draft stage THE BODY STEALERS may have been conceived as a straight forward esponaige thriller and rather late in the day became a science fiction genre movie ? Certainly there are scenes that remain confusing such as the culmination of a scene where Jim Radford pursues the mysterious Lorna and the rushed explanation of the ending . Quite often THE BODY STEALERS makes the top ten worst science fiction lists of people who have seen it . It's possibly not that bad and for a B movie the production values aren't all that bad simply because it is very talkative and therefore isn't reliant on special effects , but the problem is the screenplay is painfully under developed and its only al highpoint after the effective opening scene is a government minister being worried about Scotish nationalists repopulating the Highlands

In my reassessment process for my early movies watched in the past, I found at Youtube a fine print of The Body Stealers totally restored no subtitles at all, this weak minor Sci-Fi bring the weird plot about missing in air twelve NATO paratroopers thru red-beam without explanation, suspecting about foreign countries on even Alien snatchers, due it they call the hard smoking Bob Megan (Patrick Allen) with that big chin to check out what's going on under orders of Gen. Armstrong (George Sanders), by this task he requires 25.000 pounds as reward, due it a top secret state matter.

As womanizer playboy Bob starts looking on landing field finding a clue a piece of parachute high level of radioactive, according the gorgeous scientist Julie Slade (Hilary Heath), the lab is leading by the old Dr. Matthews (Maurice Evans), the case is faraway to be solved, however Bob used to be walking by night at beach where he meets an eye-candy Lorna (Pamela Conway) whom starting woo her at first meeting, later his friend Jim Radford (Neil Connery) takes many photos over them at beach, however in revealing the girl didn't appear on photos just Bob, letting him know all about, after a pre schedule parachute jumping to check out what really happen during that, he received a bright red beam on the body, out of the blue Jim was found death on the base, but at night Bob has a meeting with Lorna at beach many blanc spaces must be fulfilled.

In the conclusion of the weirdo story the viewers will be baffled over so far-fetched reason of Aliens get those paratroopers, worst how Bob settles this matter, aside a superb casting the lame storyline falls apart the whole thing, some stock footage is used in the movie, a lousy FX is another low point, also a massive beauty girls on the picture improves hardly, on political cabinet, on lab, on field have many young girls driven for male audience, anyway let it see easily to less demanding.

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First watch: 1985 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.

The tale of paratroopers who disappear, literally, into thin air, this film is an odd watch forty years later. It's primary interest lies more in what it says about the time, than the film itself.

Released in 1969 three influences loom large.The year that Man first landed on the moon it reflects a fascination with, and fear of, what might lie in outer space. Militarily we were also in the midst of the Cold War when anything unexplained, and potentially evil, automatically raised the question of Communist involvement. And finally James Bond was the dominant screen character, and his shadow falls long here in more senses than one.

Veteran, square jawed character Patrck Allen, bulldozes his way through the role of an expert,Bob Megan, called in to solve the awkward problem of disappearing parachutists. One extraordinary scene speaks volumes for the Bond "character" and perceptions of women at the time. Megan chances upon a scantily clad beauty enjoying enjoying a solitary moment taking in the evening and then makes advances on her which vacillate between sexual assault and rape. No sooner is he introduced to a shapely scientist in a pencil skirt than she too is subjected to his clumsy male machismo which in the 21st century looks appalling.Of course both women come back for more. When he IS offered sex on a plate by the blousey, but ageing, hotel owner he rebuffs her to reinforce yet another sexual stereotype, the ageing temptress who can't get it because she has had it.

The Bond theme is further explored by the presence of Sean Connery's brother Neil, as Megans sidekick John Radford, in one of only two screen performances. Bearing a strong resemblance to Sean, his acting talents are strait jacketed by a preposterous script.

A dreadful ending combines the worst of "Dr Who" and "The Champions", suggesting that a 30 minute running time, rather than three times that, would have suited all concerned somewhat better. A hopeless film, but a fascinating sixties curiosity.

An investigator is called in to look into a strange scenario where parachutists seem to be disappearing mid-air during military training exercises. Their bodies do turn up later, but are infected with large doses of radiation. A mysterious and beautiful woman who cannot be photographed seems to be connected to the bizarre case.

This bit of low-budget British sci-fi was improbably made by the production company Tigon, who have become rightfully famous for their impressive 17th century set horror films Witchfinder General (1968) and Blood on Satan's Claw (1971). The Body Stealers is quite a bit away from those both in terms of genre and overall quality. It is a pretty obviously cheap production all round, which is hardly surprising to be fair but it is really a quite limited feature in all departments. The story does have some potential in the early stages but it doesn't really pan out too excitingly and the resolution wasn't all that good. It has something to do with aliens, but it would only be fair to say that it is bargain basement extra-terrestrial activity we have here. I would still say this is pretty watchable, however, and does have a certain British 60's charm to it. Despite the lacking nature of the screen-play, it was an okay watch. Also, look out for a rare acting performance from Neil Connery (Sean's brother) as one of the military types - you can see the resemblance from some angles. Another notable presence was Hilary Dwyer who made a very good impression in the earlier aforementioned Tigon classic Witchfinder General (1968) - she was not as memorable here but it was still nice to see her all the same.