Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Year:

1956

Duration:

80 min

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

IMDB rate:

7.8

Director:

Don Siegel

Awards:

1 win

Details

Country: USA

Release Date: 1956-02-05

Filming Locations: 1200 N. Virgil Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Cast

Actor

Character

King Donovan

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Kevin McCarthy

Dr. Miles J. Bennell

Dana Wynter

Becky Driscoll

Larry Gates

Dr. Dan 'Danny' Kauffman

Carolyn Jones

Theodora 'Teddy' Belicec

Jean Willes

Nurse Sally Withers

Ralph Dumke

Police Chief Nick Grivett

Virginia Christine

Wilma Lentz

Tom Fadden

Uncle Ira Lentz

Kenneth Patterson

Stanley Driscoll

Guy Way

Officer Sam Janzek

Eileen Stevens

Anne Grimaldi

Beatrice Maude

Grandma Grimaldi

Jean Andren

Eleda Lentz

Bobby Clark

Jimmy Grimaldi

Everett Glass

Dr. Ed Pursey

Dabbs Greer

Mac Lomax

Pat O'Malley

Baggage Man

Guy Rennie

Restaurant Owner

Marie Selland

Martha Lomax

Sam Peckinpah

Charlie

Harry J. Vejar

Pod Carrier in Miles' Office

Whit Bissell

Dr. Hill (uncredited)

Richard Deacon

Dr. Harvey Bassett

Frank Hagney

Bit Part (uncredited)

Robert Osterloh

Ambulance Driver (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

Only $15,000 of the budget was spent on special effects.

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Screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring had brushes with Hollywood witch-hunts, which lends credence to the theory that the film is an unconscious metaphor against McCarthyism. Something Dana Wynter agreed with, although she didn't recall the mention of any political statements on-set. Kevin McCarthy believed the film to be an attack on "Madison Avenue" attitudes. Siegel joked that the pods represented the front office.

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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.

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Goofs

Near the end of the movie, a character falls asleep for an instant and wakes up as a "pod person." This contradicts the entire premise of the rest of the movie, in which humans are physically being replaced by "pod person" duplicates.

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Upon discovering two pods in the trunk of his car after visiting the gas station, the hero pulls them from the trunk and sets them on fire with a highway flare whereupon they burst into flame. Nowhere else in the film is there any suggestion that these pods are flammable nor would they be if germinating into a human replica.

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Water stains on the planks in the mine.

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Quotes

Becky: I don't want to live in a world without love or grief or beauty, I'd rather die.

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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!

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Stanley Driscoll: Is the baby asleep yet, Sally?

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Faq

Q

How does a pod take over a human body?

A

According to what can be seen in the movie, the pod focuses on one person. It begins to take over that person's physical appearance. When the person is asleep, it then finishes the transformation by taking over mind and memories. Unfortunately, it cannot absorb human emotions, so the resulting clone lacks the ability to feel love, beauty, grief, hope, and all those qualities that characterize the human condition.

Q

What is 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' about?

A

Held for being insane, Dr Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) relates to a psychiatrist how the people in the small town of Santa Mira, California (near Los Angeles) are being replaced by emotionless duplicates. People he has known all his life are acting strangely, and family members swear they are somehow different. When two of his friends, Jack (King Donovan) and Teddy (Carolyn Jones) Bellicec, discover a partly-formed corpse that strongly resembles Jack, they realize that people are being replaced with alien plant pods that clone them while they sleep, Miles, Jack, Teddy, and Miles' girlfriend Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) attempt to get out of the town. However, the pod people are not about to let them escape, and it's getting harder and harder to stay awake.

Q

A Note Regarding Spoilers

A

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

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