NFR Project: 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956)

NFR Project: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”

Dir: Don Siegel

Scr: Daniel Mainwaring

Pho: Ellsworth Fredericks

Ed: Robert S. Eisen

Premiere: Feb. 5, 1956

80 min.

First, read the definitive essay on this film, by the great Robert Sklar, at the National Film Registry.

To it I can only add:

Here is a portrait of an alien invasion, insidious and silent. The many vectors of interpretation of the political or social ramifications underlying the movie simply prove the universal terror of being taken over by The Other, any other, of being reduced to something less (or even more) than human. It resonates with all manner of people, in all sorts of ways.

A small-town doctor notices a bunch of appointments being made at his clinic and then cancelled. Citizens stumble in, claiming that their relatives and loved ones are not themselves anymore. The doctor (Kevin McCarthy) tries to rationalize his way through the problem – until he encounters large seed pods that spawn identical copies of their intended human hosts.

From that point on, it’s a race for survival that is, again, nightmare fodder. Imagine a whole town turned against you, seeking to change you into one of them. Their reasonableness. Their persistence. Mainwaring and Siegel evoke the fight-or-flight impulse straight to the reptile brain. Our hero is prey for an alien race. And there is no mercy for Miles.

The source material is impeccable. The original novel The Body Snatchers was written by Jack Finney, a noted science-fiction writer. Daniel Mainwaring, who wrote the screenplay, had crafted such excellent scripts as his noirs Out of the Past, The Big Steal, and The Phenix City Story. Here he captures Cold War paranoia in a crisply-moving succession of uncanny setups in a nondescript rural town in California.

The protagonist, Miles Bennell, is played by the iconic Kevin McCarthy, whose reputation rests largely on his accomplishments here. He plays the hero as a reasonable man driven to madness as he warns an oblivious world of a conspiracy against its very human soul. The original ending of the movie has him ranting in the midst of traffic. “You’re next! You’re next!” he roars, and we drive past him, sheepishly. What does he know that we don’t?

Considering the lack of A-list resources at their creation, the results achieved with light, analog special effects, and subtly pitched performances make this a believable and haunting classic, a common nightmare brought to life. Ellsworth Frederick's cinematography is beautiful and well thought out. The score by Carmen Dragon is surprisingly top-notch.

The studio intervened and had them construct a framing story, a la The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Miles is brought into the nuthouse as he’s been found wandering in traffic. After the film originally ends, a scene informs us that Miles’ worst fears have root in reality.

The authorities react appropriately. Miles is left gasping as they sweep into action. He is disoriented, grieving (despite gobbling speed, his lover Dan Wynter falls asleep and instantly transforms into the Other). He lost everyone he cared about. The End. A bitter note seeps into the finale despite the studio’s rewrite. Body Snatchers resonates because it’s about first being swept away by the majority – and then hunted by it.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Modesta.