This week's Classic American Film: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)
directed by Don Siegal
starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter
Dr. Miles J. Bennell: Listen to me! Please listen! If you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand, then the same incredible terror that's menacing me WILL STRIKE AT YOU!
Remade in l978 starring Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum and Leonary Nimoy
Remade in 2007 (as "The Invasion") starring Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Northam
for video clips from the original and the remakes, click here
Allegory for the Communist witch-hunt? parable about human identity?
Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returns from a medical conference to his small-town California practice, to discover a disturbing little epidemic brewing: relatives of his patients are complaining that their loved ones "aren't themselves." They look just the same, but something is missing--some intangible inner quality of being. When Miles' friend Jack calls him over to look at a body on Jack's billiard table, Miles discovers, to his horror, that the body has Jack's face.
Made on a small budget, with few special effects, the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a festival of hammy acting and cheesy sci fi cliches--yet it remains a genuinely creepy, disturbing film.
Many have read "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as an allegory of the mass hysteria about "communists in our midst," fueled by Sen. Joe McCarthy's Committee on Un-American Activities. In post 9/11 America, this film about stealthy terrorist infiltration and rampant paranoia still manages to tap into the national psyche
Becky: They're like huge seed pods!
Charlie: Give up! You can't get away from us! We're not gonna hurt you!
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Trivia tidbit: McCarthy cameos in Joe Dante horror films
Director Joe Dante, an ardent aficionado of 1950's science fiction and monster films would reference Invasion of the Body Snatchers frequently. He re-used Kevin McCarthy in a number of film cameos: The Howling (1981), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Innerspace (1987), the comedy spoof Matinee (1993), and including an appearance reprising his Dr. Bennell character in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), now elderly, clutching a seed pod and still muttering that everyone was next. Dante often included the seed pods in his films as well -- Dr. Catheter (Christopher Lee) clutches one in Dante's parody Gremlins II: The New Batch (1990).
