October 18

#10 out of 13

I have seen several versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers before, but I had never seen the original 1956 version, so I found it on Amazon Prime and added it to the list of the October 13.

You could tell this was a classic because it was just a wonderful film.

The film was an allegory for the world at the time, with the Joe McCarthy Communist “Red Scare” Hearings creating a paranoia about who may not be what they seem. This is obviously a commentary about that dark period in American history with the pod people being substituted for the Commies.

According to IMDB, “A small-town doctor slowly comes to realize that the population of his community is being perfectly duplicated and replaced by an alien entity.“

Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter were our lead protagonists in this epic thriller with an amazing amount of tension and sinister suspense. The movie moves at a brisk pace and has a true creepy nature to it. The black and white worked great to keep the mood filled with anxiety.

Starting off with McCarthy as Dr. Miles J. Bennell in what seemed like an asylum flipping out was a strong beginning and a great hook for the film.

This is an iconic movie with a top notch performance from Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. You can’t help but root for them, even though you know that they were not together at the hospital like we saw at the beginning. I was hoping for a hopeful ending, and, while that may not be exactly what we got, it was a proper end to the film.