The Body Stealers (1969)

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely Fantastic

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

An extremely lacklustre and slow-moving British alien invasion film of the 1960s. There were quite a few of these low-budget movies coming out around this time – stuff like INVASION, THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING, THE NIGHT CALLER – but THE BODY STEALERS is by far the worst I've seen. The budget is so poor on this one that literally nothing happens for 90% of the running time.For the most part we're stuck with jut-jawed wooden leading man Patrick Allen, following him around as he romances blonde women and barks gruff lines of dialogue at anybody who'll listen. Neil Connery pops up to support him, George Sanders is the cameoing veteran, and Robert Flemyng (THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR) lurks around in a natty uniform.The story, when you see it down on paper, actually sounds fairly interesting: parachutists are disappearing mid-air, zapped away by aliens, with only their suits and chutes arriving on the ground. Other than some footage of skydiving, this doesn't actually equate to much, and Allen's investigation into the disappearances goes absolutely nowhere.Of course, the women of the era are lovely and the film is fairly well shot given the paucity of its production budget. But there's no action, a real dearth of imagination, and rarely any special effects, and all of these are musts for a good science fiction movie. This boring outing is the worst Tigon film I've seen yet.

It is Patrick Allen, not George Sanders, who is the playboy.Actors on the way down (George Sanders, Maurice Evans), an actor who never really had much of a career (Neil Connery--Sean's brother), and working actors treading water (Patrick Allen, Robert Flemyng).The film is indeed a big snooze, with meager science-fiction trappings and a disinterested cast going through the motions.Aliens kidnap skydivers to repopulate their plague-stricken planet. Theater owners probably had to kidnap patrons! Originally on a double bill with THE BLOOD ROSE, a French production advertised as 'the first sex- horror film.'Shelagh Fraser ("Mrs. Thatcher") appears as Aunt Beru in STAR WARS.

Abysmal sci-fi (an unwise change of pace for Tigon) which, up to this point, had been the low point of Anchor Bay UK's "The Tigon Collection" - not that there were any particular highs! Michael Armstrong, director of THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR (1969) - and who was eventually replaced by Levy - compared it to Ed Wood in his Audio Commentary for that film, and I can't say that he was too far off the mark! A competent cast flounders in the face of an inane premise and lackluster handling: veterans George Sanders, Maurice Evans (as the chief villain/alien) and Robert Flemyng; heroes Patrick Allen and Neil Connery (yes, Sean's younger sibling!); starlets Hilary Dwyer (better suited to period pieces like her three films with Vincent Price - WITCHFINDER GENERAL [1968], THE OBLONG BOX [1969] and CRY OF THE BANSHEE [1970]) and Sally Faulkner (I was impressed by her in VAMPYRES [1974] and PREY [1977], and here looks lovely if nothing else!). However, Lorna Wilde is terrible as an alien temptress(!) - and the (mercifully brief) contribution of Shelagh Fraser as Mrs. Thatcher(!), an ageing nymphomaniac barmaid with a shrill voice, is positively embarrassing!!One of its most hilarious - and dated - aspects is the way it presents Allen and Minister's aide Allan Cuthbertson(!) as a couple of would-be studs, in obvious imitation of the James Bond extravaganzas; the cheesy score (by Reg Tilsley, who fared better with THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR) doesn't help, either. A measure of the film's sloppiness is the fact that Hilary Dwyer's name has been mysteriously omitted from the cast list at the end of the picture, though I doubt she voiced her complaint about it to the production company! Patrick Allen's Audio Commentary is actually quite engaging though, understandably, he offers little insight into the film itself - given also that he doesn't remember much at all about its making, and had never even watched the damn thing until now!

Playboy aviator George Sanders is called into service by the British Government to solve the mystery of why some highly qualified British military is disappearing into thin air.About 90 minutes later there's about a minutes worth of some half-way decent special effects:that is,if you're still awake.