Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Why so much hype?

Best movie ever!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Invasion of the Body Snatchers its a great movie, not just for being a Science Fiction/Horror film from the 1950's but it also works really well if don't take the genre into account.Its incredibly effective, few movies have made me feel as paranoid as this one did, probably the 1978 remake of this film, Rosemary's Baby and The Hateful Eight. This one is now on that list of films that made me distrust everyone on screen.Politics aside, this film also has many philosophical thoughts about who we really are as individuals and what makes us human, as oppose to alien plants I guess.Overall, a classic that inspired several remakes and scared lots of people in its original run and even years later.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is one of the very good sci-fi films of the 1950s. The golden age of sci-fi films ran from the 1930s to 1946, but I think many of the better sci-fi flicks came out in the 1950s. Certainly, the decade had far fewer of the stinkers – the very low budget, poor script, funny creature films. Most of those were more laughable than they were scary. This film had an original, solid idea for a plot. And, it's a superb example of writing and acting that can create an interesting and entertaining film – without a single scary monster. The screenplay, directing, and camera work give it a film noir look and feel. Combined with the intrigue, it makes for a thrilling horror element without any ugly faces or the gore that so often populates such stories in more modern times.The movie takes place in the small fictional town of Santa Mira, California. It is based on a 1955 sci-fi novel, "The Body Snatchers," by Jack Finney. The idea proved so appealing that Hollywood has remade the movie three times, and it has had various TV series adaptations. This original film with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter most closely follows the novel and is the best. A 1978 version under the same title was based on the revised book by Finney. It starred Donald Sutherland and included Leonard Nimoy and some of the people from the original film in small roles – including Kevin McCarthy. It was set in San Francisco and had a different approach that also was successful. But subsequent revisions have been poor in comparison. Here are some of the better sci-fi films of the 1950s and of all time. 1951 had two very good sci-fi flicks: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, and "The Thing from Another Planet" with James Arness. Three very good 1953 sci-fi films included the all-time great "The War of the Worlds" with Gene Barry, and "It Came from Outer Space" and "Invaders from Mars." In 1954, the top sci- fi was a horror film, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." Besides this film, 1956 yielded "Forbidden Planet" with a big cast that included Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen. Next was "The Incredible Shrinking Man" of 1957; and in 1958, two sci-fi thrillers, "The Blob" with Steve McQueen, and "The Fly" with Vincent Price made very good date movies.

Dr. Miles Bennell (superbly played by Kevin McCarthy) suspects that something might be amiss in the sleepy small town of Santa Cruz after various people start behaving in an odd and detached manner.Director Don Siegel grounds the fascinating fantastic premise in a thoroughly believable workaday rural reality, adroitly crafts a supremely creepy and unsettling atmosphere, and likewise creates with equal expertise a quietly unnerving sense of mounting dread and paranoia that gradually builds to a shattering fever pitch in the harrowing last third. Daniel Mainwaring's ingenious script makes a profound and powerful statement on how our capacity to feel all kinds of emotions and desire for individual identity are two key important traits that make all of us special and human (if deprived of these two traits, we are reduced to the level of bland and emotionless automatons). McCarthy and Dana Wynter as the smitten Becky Driscoll make for personable leads; they receive excellent support from Larry Gates as the skeptical Dr. Dan Kauffman, King Donovan as the worried Jack Belicec, Carolyn Jones as the shaken Theodora, and Virginia Christine as the distraught Wilma Lentz. Both the crisp noir-like black and white cinematography by Ellsworth Fredericks and Carmen Dragon's spirited shivery score are up to par. Worthy of its classic status.

This movie is one of the most ringing endorsements of the term "better dead than red" I've ever seen.The theme is that our uniqueness, including our flaws, is the most precious thing. We should fight absorption by any collective with last ounce of strength, regardless of how hopeless it may seem.A lot has been made of the studio forcing insertion of some softening effects. And I agree that this is problematic. But it doesn't ruin the movie, it's still a must see. The word paranoia is used a lot in describing Snatchers but from my perspective I saw no paranoia displayed or inferred. The movie almost screams that threat is REAL and that perhaps the greatest danger we face is our denial of the meaning of the evidence right in front of our eyes.