Invasion of the Body Snatchers Overview:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) was a Horror - Science Fiction Film directed by Don Siegel .

SYNOPSIS

This is the height of paranoid science-fiction terror made at the height of McCarthy-era paranoia. A small-town doctor (McCarthy) becomes the last man with a conscience when pods from outer space begin to reproduce inside their human hosts, draining all humanity from them. When he gleans the truth, a race begins to get the word out before it's too late. Long seen as a parable about individuality and the danger of conformity and group-think. Breathless, suspenseful, and the best of its kind. Remade successfully in 1978. The laser release includes a wide-screen version, commentary, including an interview with director Siegel, and trailers. Based on the serialized story in Collier's magazine by Jack Finney.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1994.

BlogHub Articles:

Silver Screen Standards: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

By Jennifer Garlen on Jun 8, 2023 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Silver Screen Standards: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Many remakes have followed in the wake of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the iconic science fiction film adapted from a serialized novel by American sci-fi writer Jack Finney, but the first outing for this terrify... Read full article


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)

By Andrew Wickliffe on May 6, 2019 From The Stop Button

The longest continuous stretch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about fifteen minutes (the film runs eighty). Small California city doctor Kevin McCarthy and his long-lost lady friend Dana Wynter have just spent the night holed up in his office, hiding from their neighbors, who have all been rep... Read full article


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)

By Andrew Wickliffe on May 6, 2019 From The Stop Button

The longest continuous stretch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about fifteen minutes (the film runs eighty). Small California city doctor Kevin McCarthy and his long-lost lady friend Dana Wynter have just spent the night holed up in his office, hiding from their neighbors, who have all been rep... Read full article


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)

on May 6, 2019 From The Stop Button

The longest continuous stretch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about fifteen minutes (the film runs eighty). Small California city doctor Kevin McCarthy and his long-lost lady friend Dana Wynter have just spent the night holed up in his office, hiding from their neighbors, who have all been rep... Read full article


Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956, Don Siegel)

on May 6, 2019 From The Stop Button

The longest continuous stretch of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about fifteen minutes (the film runs eighty). Small California city doctor Kevin McCarthy and his long-lost lady friend Dana Wynter have just spent the night holed up in his office, hiding from their neighbors, who have all been rep... Read full article


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Quotes from

[from trailer]
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!


Dr. Miles J. Bennell: This is the oddest thing I've ever heard of. Let's hope we don't catch it. I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out that you weren't you.
Becky: [laughs] I'm not the high school kid you use to romance, so how can you tell?
Dr. Miles J. Bennell: You really want to know?
Becky: Mmm-hmm.
Dr. Miles J. Bennell: [after kissing her] Mmmm, you're Becky Driscoll, all right!


Charlie: Give up! You can't get away from us! We're not gonna hurt you!


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Facts about

The film originally ended with Miles J. Binnell on the highway shouting to the people driving by, "You're next, you're next!" However, the studio wanted a happier ending that would assure the audience that the hero's efforts were not in vain, so scenes were added to the opening to show Miles in a hospital recounting his story to two other doctors and to the end when the other doctors find out about the pods and one of them contacts the FBI.
Throughout the years, Sam Peckinpah (who appears briefly in the film as the meter reader) claimed that he had done work on the script ranging from modifications to major overhauls. Those who worked on the film claimed that if Peckinpah had made any changes to the script, it was limited to a few lines of dialog. Peckinpah's claims became so inflated that the actual writer, Daniel Mainwaring, threatened to file an official complaint with the Writers Guild of America, so Peckinpah backed down. When Peckinpah died in 1984, many of his obituaries still carried the claim that he had rewritten the screenplay for this film.
The tunnel scene where the hero hides briefly from the townspeople was filmed at Bronson Cave in Griffith Park, famous with locals as the Bat Cave.
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National Film Registry

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Released 1956
Inducted 1994
(Sound)




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Also directed by Don Siegel




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Also released in 1956




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