Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1956): A Review

26th December, 2018.

Hmmm … 

That’s something I didn’t realise … 

Old friend, and Old Peculiar regular, Debbi Mack, runs a podcast: the Crime Cafe.

And its associated Patreon page: here.

Given my current financial situation?

And the fact my PayPal account hasn’t seen a penny in years?

It’s something worth looking at … if:

1. I can square it with my benefits


2. Get enough of my arse in gear to put the work in!

Frankly?

I’ve never been that good at motivating myself … 

~≈§≈~

Hmmm … 

It’s possibly worth thinking about, isn’t it?

Motivation or otherwise.

At any rate … ?

At any rate, in all this time off … ?



I can catch up with the stuff sitting in the movie collection.

And, whether Debbi would call it as a B movie or not?

Tonight, I’ve managed to sit in with the original, 1956, Don Siegel directed, version of … 

The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers … 

~≈§≈~

The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers opens in a psychiatric ward: where an unknown man is screaming dire, but vague, warnings about potential invaders.

He’s calmed: and reveals to the examining psychiatrist, that he, himself, is Doctor Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy), and a GP

A GP who, in a series of flash backs?

Tells the medical staff he had more and more of his patients coming to him.

Swearing that they’re not mad, not hallucinating … 

But also very convinced that various relatives are imposters*.

It’s only when an old friend, Jack (King Donovan) calls him other to show him the body on his pool table, that Dr Bennell starts to realise … 

People in Santa Mira aren’t hallucinating.

And many of them … ?   Haven’t seen what’s in Jack’s green house.

There’s some very odd pods sprouting in there … 

~≈§≈~

Now … 


For starters, and just in case you’ve watch the introductory video?

The impostors are being grown out of strange alien seed pods, that— according to one character — have “come out of the sky.”

Which is where ‘podules’ comes into the equation.



No: I don’t know where my imagination got the word: but it started floating around my head, as soon as someone in the film said ‘seed pod.’

No: I don’t know why, either!

At any rate … ?

At any rate, The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is a debatably quaint film: one that would possibly be very different, were it to be remade, today.

It’s long been seen — by some — to be the classic 1950s American film: where the invading aliens are a metaphor for communist fifth columnists, in the same way that the Daleks are seen as the Nazis that — thankfully — have never invaded Britain.

I couldn’t tell you for sure: although, having seen it, I can appreciate the argument.

Either way?

I’ve had a quiet night in with a movie.

Is it a classic?

I don’t know.

But The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers is a Cold War piece of paranoid Americana that’s worth seeing at least once.

The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers★★☆☆

*        Wikipedia tells us there is a genuine disorder that does this: called Capgras delusion.   Apparently, it crops up in some patients with various forms of schizophrenia, or dementia.