‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ 1956

 

“They’re here already! You’re next, you’re next… you’re next!”

This Invasion was the first and by far the best of the many versions of this familiar film story. The ’56 Invasion of the Body Snatchers is simply, but strongly told. And the Don Siegel-directed version holds up well, much like that other classic multi-layered paranoia thriller, 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Dana Wynter's Becky looks like she's getting her brain washed!

***Subtle spoilers throughout!***

At 80 minutes and for less than a half a million dollars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers makes the most of its running time and low budget. Those involved in this Invasion of the Body Snatchers surely knew they were making more than a B horror film. But they could have no idea that this tale of a town taken over by “pod” people would become such a cult classic.

Dana Wynter & Kevin McCarthy's characters are now in the minority.

Despite varying opinions from the film’s participants, as to whether Body Snatchers was a commentary on the "commie scare," communism itself, or anti-conformism, this movie was made in a time when all this and more was going on in post-war America, and the world. The era most definitely informs the feeling of paranoia this film.

Don Siegel's no-nonsense direction may not be the most stylish, but it also doesn't date the movie, like some of the more heavy-handed directors of the era. The only real flaw of the film was the studio-mandated prologue and epilogue. The original ending depicted McCarthy’s Miles escaping from his hometown to a highway, running among disbelieving drivers as he shouts: “They’re here already! You’re next, you’re next… you’re next!”

Get your pods, right off the truck!

Like the same year’s The Bad Seed, which offered an equally absurd epilogue to show audiences it was “only” a movie, Body Snatchers’ studio suits decided it was too bleak an ending, so a call comes in to where Miles is being treated, and confirms his wild accusations. It nearly feels like a Dragnet parody.

The ‘50s “smart” romantic dialogue seems a spoof by today's standards, but was probably played straight at the time. However, there are some thoughtful, as well as chilling, quotes about humanity and giving up what makes us human.

One of several timeless lines from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Kevin McCarthy is Dr. Miles J. Bennell, who offers this startling line: “I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind... All of us—a little bit—we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear.”

Doesn't Kevin McCarthy look a bit like his pal Montgomery Clift here?

I grew up watching Kevin McCarthy play charming creeps, so to see him as the good guy fighting off the eerie pod people was a jolt. McCarthy is one of those actors who had a long career, often typecast as the oily villain, in film and television work of variable quality. Off-camera, the character actor had a fascinating personal life. At age 4, McCarthy lost both of his parents to the Spanish Flu epidemic, just before WWI ended. Kevin’s sister was novelist Mary McCarthy, author of The Group. McCarthy was a co-founder of The Actor’s Studio. For a number of years, Kevin’s best friend was Montgomery Clift, until the actor’s erratic behavior eroded their friendship. Kevin and Elizabeth Taylor climbed into Monty’s mangled car to help him the night of his life-changing car accident. He later reunited with Clift in the legendary The Misfits. Kevin’s breakout role was as Biff in the classic drama, Death of a Salesman. McCarthy loved acting and lived a long, happy life until the age of 96 in 2010. It’s interesting to watch McCarthy, who was in his early ‘40s in Body Snatchers, since he resembled a white bread version of his pal Monty. It was also a given that by this age, if Kevin was not established as a top leading man, he was going to be a character actor. And Kevin McCarthy did, for nearly 60 more years.

Dana Wynter as Becky shouldn't have fallen asleep!

Dana Wynter is perfectly cast as Miles fiancee, Becky Driscoll. Wynter always struck me as the brunette version of the Hitchcock blonde. Dana was usually cool (sometimes ice cold!), smart, classy, and understatedly sexy. Dana’s cool demeanor is unnerving at the film’s finale. I love Miles noir-like narration of the line: “I didn’t know the real meaning of fear until… until I had kissed Becky!”

 Off-camera, I always found it remarkable that Dana Wynter, a movie starlet turned TV actress, was the woman who landed Hollywood super lawyer and eternal bachelor Greg Bautzer for a husband. For decades, Bautzer was Tinseltown’s most eligible bachelor. Greg had romances with many top actresses, and two serious ones: Lana Turner, and most especially, Joan Crawford. "Uncle Greg" was immortalized in Mommie Dearest and the inspiration for Lyon Burke in Valley of the Dolls. Was it coincidence or clever that Anne, who is Lyon's love interest, was played by Barbara Parkins, who looked and acted a great deal like Dana Wynter?

Dana Wynter was married to
super lawyer/ladies man Greg Bautzer.

Barbara Parkin as Anne, who marries
her super lawyer Lyon in the "Dolls" novel.

Carolyn Jones is intense as the petrified friend who finds a pod growing of her husband. Her later role as the mock horror character Morticia Addams can make you forget what an edgy actress Jones could be. Her jittery performance was exactly how I felt watching this film! Given her early dramatic career and later cult status of The Addams Family, I think that Jones would have enjoyed renewed popularity if she hadn’t died so young of cancer, at 53 in ’83.

Carolyn Jones as a woman who finds she may have another husband in the hopper!

Larry Gates, that great character actor who could either be likeable (Martha Hyer’s charming professor father in Some Came Running) or loathsome (the bigot, Endicott, who gets slapped back In the Heat of the Night), gets to be both as Miles’ fellow doctor in Body Snatchers. His memorable line, as Dr. Kauffman: “Love, desire, ambition, faith –without them, life is so simple, believe me.” O-kay!

The ’56 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers works stunningly as both a straight-forward suspense film and a chilling commentary on mass conformity.

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Every era has its own nightmare, it seems!