Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, that stars Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. The black-and-white film, shot in Superscope, was partially done in a film noir style. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's 1954 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers. The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures as a double feature with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man (and in some areas with Indestructible Man).

It was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot
In Santa Mira, California, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is baffled when all his patients come to him with the same complaint: their loved ones seem to have been replaced by emotionless impostors. Despite others' dismissive denials, Dr. Bennell, his former girlfriend Becky (Dana Wynter) and his friend Jack (King Donovan) soon discover that the patients' suspicions are true: an alien species of human duplicates, grown from plant-like pods, is taking over the small town.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) A lots of cast included Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Virginia Christine, Ralph Dumke, Kenneth Patterson, Guy Way, Jean Willes, Eileen Stevens, Beatrice Maude, Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon, Bobby Clark, Tom Fadden, Everett Glass, Dabbs Greer, Sam Peckinpah, which is amazing.
 * 2) Bennell is a very interesting protagonist.
 * 3) Plenty of great side characters like Becky, Dr. Kauffman, Jack, Teddy, and Chief Grivett.
 * 4) The Pod People are pretty neat villains and their designs are neat as well.
 * 5) Most of the crafted sets are very well that has great grasp of the source material.
 * 6) A very eerie atmosphere.
 * 7) A large amount of drama and suspense.
 * 8) Many memorable, creepy, and disturbing moments where it had great scares instead of just cheap jump-scares.
 * 9) The music is very well composed and disturbing.
 * 10) Great chemistry between the characters.
 * 11) The story is very well written, intriguing, and engaging. It also has fantastic grasp at the source material and used the black-and-white.
 * 12) Due to this, it start out the legacy where it started with cameos, and even references as well.

Bad Quality

 * 1) It's pretty vague regarding how the Pod People function and what happens to the original person.

Reception
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was well-received by critics and audiences alike and is widely regarded as a classic film and one of the best films of 1956. The film holds a 98% approval rating and 9/10 rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site's consensus reads: "One of the best political allegories of the 1950s, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an efficient, chilling blend of sci-fi and horror.".

Trivia

 * The film was almost called "The Body Snatchers" after Jack Finney's serial, but it sounded too similar to the Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher (1945). After several such titles as "They Come from Another World", "Better Off Dead", "Sleep No More", "Evil in the Night" and "World in Danger", the studio finally settled on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".
 * The film's action required leading man Kevin McCarthy to run for days on end. In numerous scenes, his character sprints for dear life over every possible terrain. "I got charleyhorses [cramps]," admitted McCarthy. Just before the film draws to a close, Dr. Bennell runs through traffic in a panicked frenzy, screaming "They're here already! You're next! You're next!" Since the exhausted actor hadn't been sleeping well, Don Siegel told his stunt drivers to remain extra alert in case McCarthy tripped without warning. "I was terrified that his timing would be off and he might fall down under the wheel of the cars and trucks," Siegel admitted.
 * Production designer Ted Haworth came up with a fairly simple and inexpensive (about $30,000 total) idea for creating the pods. The most difficult part was when the pods burst open, revealing the likenesses of the actors. The actors had to have naked impressions of themselves made out of thin, skin-tight latex. Making the casts, which involved being submerged in the very hot casting material with only a straw in their mouths to breathe through, was grueling for the actors, especially Carolyn Jones, who was claustrophobic. Dana Wynter recalled, "I was in this thing while it hardened, and of course it got rather warm! I was breathing through straws or something quite bizarre, and the rest of me was encased, it was like a sarcophagus. The guys who were making it tapped on the back of the thing and said, 'Dana, listen, we won't be long, we're just off for lunch [laughs]!' In the end, we had to be covered except for just the nostrils and I think a little aperture for the mouth."
 * During test screenings, much of the film's original humor and humanity was cut when the audience found it difficult to follow and laughed at all the wrong moments. The studio insisted on edits because it wasn't policy to mix humor with horror.