After way too long, I finally cover the Original. I'm almost afraid to look back to see when I last covered the 1978 Remake and the 1993 Remake, not to mention The Asylum knock-off of the 2006 Remake (which I haven't covered). It's probably been so long that I feel old, so let's just skip that part. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 Film that, as I'm sure you know, talks about alien invaders as a metaphor for Communists. One day, you would know your Neighbor as being 'good' and 'loyal' & then the next day you find out that he was a Commie Pinko Liberal the whole time! It was a genuine fear, even if it might seem silly to us today. I guess you could say that it still goes on, just with *insert group name you hate* instead now. The Film is no doubt a Classic- after all, it usually runs on Turner Classic Movies. Does it hold up over 50 years later? To find out, read on...
The Film begins In Media Res with our Lead- Kevin McCarthy- telling Police about how strange things happened in Santa Mira...
He comes back to Town after 2 Weeks away.
He notices some small, little things like the fact that nearly all of his Patients had appointments with him for his return, but then all but cancelled them.
Oh and his Love Interest is back in Town, so he'll try to make that work.
The tension is a slow burn aa a kid says that his Mom isn't his Mom and other people say similar things.
It reaches a tipping point when they find a body in the Attic. Over night, it transforms into that of one of the men...and awakens!
They eventually discover some Pods (which look like they would give you giant peas!) and make the connection, as crazy as it sounds.
They can actually see the bodies form, covered in soapy-looking foam to cover up the nudity (as
nudity would also present problems in the 1978 Version).
If you want to nitpick, it's a shame that we don't see the original person and the soon-to-be Pod Person in the same shot.
I'm sure that the effect would have looked dodgy by today's standards, but it would have been a neat shot, no?
What is a neat shot is McCarthy left behind to keep an eye on the developing Pods.
He sees the one for his lady and can barely bring himself to destroy it, for obvious reasons.
Good work!
The duo stay behind while the other two go for help.
McCarthy discovers more about the Pods and keeps barely-escaping.
I should also mention a small role of a Pod Person is played by future Director Sam Peckinpah. Neat.
The finale is quite famous as they run from the Town. They are the only ones left!
A tragic bit sees McCarthy think he found some help...but it was just a radio. When he returns, the Lady had fallen asleep and got turned. I have many questions...but it is still sad.
He makes it onto the Freeway and they let him go, saying that nobody will believe him.
Back in the Present, nobody does...until a Pod Person's partially-transformed body shows up and someone mentions a Pod.
Time to call in the FBI to...I guess fix everything. The End.
A Film that has aged like fine wine. There are many ways that a Film like this can age poorly. One ways is to be too topical. In this case, they walk a fine line to avoid this. As noted in the Intro, the obvious Subtext here is that this is like people's fear of Communists coming out of hiding, revealing themselves to not be 'their real friends.' The Film doesn't hammer that in, however, so you can get it and not feel like the Film is dated. Unlike the Remake of Ganja & Hess, they keep the Subtext the way it should be. There are some obviously-dated bits here, sure. The Climax hinges upon the Phone Operator being replaced by a Pod Person and not allowing outgoing calls. Yes, Phone Operators don't exist anymore- at least not like this. The Story wouldn't work if everyone had Cell Phones, but that is true of most Films made before the 1990s as a whole. The Special Effects are mostly subtle here and they don't show you any truly-freaky Pod effects. The Pods themselves look fine in B&W too. You never quite get a precursor to the 'Scream and Point' Shot that we have in the 1978 one- oh well. The Original holds up well, I'm happy to say. I'm not sure which Version is my favorite, but time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy an oddly-upbeat Behind the Scenes Photo from the Film...
Next time, I go from a Classic to a forgotten beginning. After a long time, I will finally be done talking about Andy Sidaris Films- for real this time! Stay tuned...
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