Mildred's Fatburgers
  • Home
  • The Blog
  • Clips & Quotes
  • Blogathon Archive
  • Contact

My Pod Is Your Pod

4/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Invasion of the body Snatchers
Kevin McCarthy Perseveres
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Kevin McCarthy...Doesn't

Invasions of the Body Snatcherses (1956, 1978)

My advice to you is NOT to watch the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and its 1978 sequel back-to-back. For one thing, the fictional black-and-white town, "Santa Mira" (Holy Lookit?) comes across as an infinitely more appealing place to live than the muted, drab, realistic hellscape that was actual San Francisco in the late 1970s, which is wrong, just WRONG. For another, the Cold War really had teeth in the mid-50s and, although technically the "war" was still on in the late 70s, the concomitant hysteria had significantly ebbed by then, and the later film was forced to inject more exposition than the purer, earlier version required.

Every audience member knew when Kevin McCarthy ran blindly, hysterically through the streets in the first film, shrieking that an alien invasion was threatening humanity, he was talking about the creeping communist menace. And when he was finally believed, the implication was that the threat would be addressed and overcome. When the same, older, slightly puffier, 1970s Kevin McCarthy shrieked the same thing in a cameo in the sequel, the poor bastard is promptly and unceremoniously killed off.

Which is another problem with seeing the two pictures back-to-back. It's better to have the benefit of two decades and no Internet between you and the tidy, black-and-white hero of the first movie and the raving lunatic older actor who hurls at you out of nowhere in gritty 1970s muted color realism not one hour later. I mean, good for Kevin McCarthy and everything, but for Pete's sake. 

It's unnerving.

So does anyone, at this point, not know what Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about? OK, on the off chance, here's the deal: Members of a close-knit community wake up one day and realize that some of their closest friends and loved ones are Not Themselves. After initial skepticism and unaffected friends making the whirly-index-finger-by-the-forehead sign, it becomes clear that the entire town is being taken over by emotionless, robotic lookalikes. This is achieved by a human falling asleep next to an alien "pod" (cell?) that takes over the human's body and memories, but not his or her feelings, killing the original human and the resulting duplicate going about the former human's business, but without the messiness of sex or love or jealously, but also no independence or liberty or anything.

In the (superior) 1956 telling, these changes occur under the nose of the town doctor, Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy), who, as a 1950s doctor is dismissive of what he thinks are the hysterical imaginings of those of his patients who are women and children. His love interest, Dana Wynter, is way ahead of him on this issue and is by the doctor's side when he finally comes around. Eventually, the entire town is taken over and these remaining two are driven to their existential limits. The terror in this film is in the uncertainty -- the quiet normalcy turned sinister and unfamiliar. Plus some very well-executed, menacing crowd choreography.

The second version of this story is told in San Francisco in the late 1970s from the point of view of a city health inspector, another doctor Bennell (this time "Matthew" and this time Donald Sutherland). His friend (and crush) Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams) has discovered a new plant in her backyard one day and a strange "distance" in her boyfriend the next morning. Matthew takes her to see his psychiatrist friend, Leonard Nimoy (does it matter who his character is?) who is (SPOILER) already a pod guy and ultimately (obviously) unhelpful.

The remake spends some quality title time telling us that the pod plants come from an unspecified place in space and that they adapt and replicate the crap they land on. Later on, we observe a few of the pitfalls of organism duplication when two higher beings sleep in close proximity (see man-faced dog). My favorite characters in this version are Matthew's friends, the impossibly beautiful and young Jeff Goldblum and his character's wife, my favorite science fiction actress of the era, Veronica Cartwright, who help him navigate the threat with varying degrees of success.

I dunno. It seemed to me that the later version spilled too many origin beans for it to be as scary as the first film. I saw the remake in the theater when it came out (having already seen the original), and my 14-year-old self had deemed it the better movie. But something about the second made me wonder about a city that had houses like the protagonists had  -- one in an Alamo Square-ish zone and another in the Filbert Steps -- AND restaurants where rat turds could be mistaken for capers or crazy fuckers were *everywhere.*

What's not to love?

Just between us, 1978 was a terrible, terrible year for the Bay Area, particularly the month of November. Of course, it was just a coincidence that Body Snatchers (two) was released then, but I can't help wonder whether reality proved to be more disturbing than a remade threat of widespread doppleangerism. 
 
Bottom line? See the first film for the story; see the second for perspective..
0 Comments

    About Mildred

    I'll do just about anything a movie tells me to do. Unless it tells me wrong...

    Then I get cranky.

    But go ahead, like me on Facebook.

    RSS Feed

    Visit Mildred's profile on Pinterest.

    Proud Member Of

    Picture
    Classic Movie Blog Hub Member

    Archives

    May 2019
    December 2017
    October 2017
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    Agnes Moorehead
    Akira Kurosawa
    Alan Mowbray
    Albert Salmi
    Alice Terry
    Aline MacMahon
    Allen Jenkins
    Alloy Orchestra
    Anna Massey
    Ann Dvorak
    Anne Bancroft
    Anne Baxter
    Anne Revere
    Anne Shirley
    Ann Miller
    Ann Sothern
    Anthony Quinn
    Anton Walbrook
    Arthur Penn
    Art Linkletter
    Arturo De Cordova
    Audrey Hepburn
    Baby Peggy
    Barbara Bel Geddes
    Barbara Stanwyck
    Barton MacLane
    Basil Rathbone
    Bea Benadaret
    Beatrice Straight
    Bette Davis
    Beulah Bondi
    Billie Burke
    Bill Scott
    Billy Wilder
    Birthday Of The Week
    Bob Newhart
    Bonita Granville
    Boris Karloff
    Brian Aherne
    Bugs Bunny
    Burt Lancaster
    Busby Berkeley
    Butterfly Mcqueen
    Carl Boehm
    Carl Theodor Dreyer
    Carol Haney
    Cary Grant
    Charles Boyer
    Charlton Heston
    Chester Morris
    Christopher Morley
    Claire Bloom
    Claire Trevor
    Clark Gable
    Claude Rains
    Claudette Colbert
    Cliff Robertson
    Cloris Leachman
    Connie Gilchrist
    Conrad Veidt
    Constance Bennett
    Cybill Shepherd
    Dana Andrews
    Dana Delany
    Dan Duryea
    David Niven
    Dean Stockwell
    Deborah Kerr
    Dennis Morgan
    Diana Lynn
    Diana Wynyard
    Dick Moore
    Dick Powell
    Donald Sutherland
    Donna Reed
    Doris Day
    Dustin Hoffman
    D.W. Griffith
    Eddie Albert
    Edie Adams
    Edith Fellows
    Edward Arnold
    Edward Everett Horton
    Elaine May
    Elissa Landi
    Elizabeth Taylor
    Ella Raines
    Ellen Burstyn
    Elvis Presley
    Emilio Fernandez
    Ernest Borgnine
    Ernst Lubitsch
    Errol-flynn
    Ethel Barrymore
    Eugene-pallette
    Eve-arden
    Evelyn Varden
    Fay-bainter
    Fay-bainter
    Firesign-theater
    Frank Hurley
    Frank McHugh
    Frank Morgan
    Frank Sinatra
    Freddie Bartholomew
    Frederic March
    Fredi Washington
    Fred MacMurray
    Fritz Lang
    Friz Freleng
    Gabriel Figueroa
    Gary Cooper
    Gary Merrill
    George Brent
    George Murphy
    Geraldine-fitzgerald
    Ginger Rogers
    Gladys Cooper
    Glenda Farrell
    Gloria Jean
    Government Cheese
    G.W. Billy Bitzer
    Hal E. Chester
    Hal Roach
    Harold Lloyd
    Hedda Hopper
    Henry Fonda
    Herbert Marshall
    Howard DaSilva
    Howard Hawks
    Howard Hughes
    Howard Keel
    Hume Cronyn
    Humphrey Bogart
    Inga Swenson
    Ingrid Bergman
    Irene Dunne
    Jackie Butch Jenkins
    Jackie-coogan
    Jackie Cooper
    Jack Lemmon
    Jacques Tourneur
    James Craig
    James-garner
    James Gleason
    James Mason
    James-stewart
    James Whitmore
    Jane Darwell
    Jane-powell
    Jane-withers
    Jane-wyman
    Jay Ward
    Jean Dixon
    Jeanette-macdonald
    Jean Harlow
    Jean Simmons
    Joan Blondell
    Joan Crawford
    Joan-fontaine
    John Carradine
    John Ford
    John Hurt
    Joseph Cotten
    Juano Hernandez
    June Foray
    Karin-swanstrom
    Karl-malden
    Katharine Hepburn
    Kathleen Byron
    Kathryn Grayson
    Keenan Wynn
    Kevin Mccarthy
    Kirk Douglas
    Lauren Bacall
    Lee J. Cobb
    Leif Erickson
    Leila Hyams
    Leonard Nimoy
    Letitia-palma
    Lew Ayres
    Lewis Stone
    Lillian Gish
    Lillian-roth
    Lizabeth-scott
    Loretta Young
    Louise-beavers
    Lucille Ball
    Lurene-tuttle
    Lyle Talbot
    Maggie-smith
    Marcia Mae Jones
    Margaret Sullavan
    Maria Schell
    Marie-dressler
    Marjorie-main
    Marni-nixon
    Marsha Hunt
    Marx-brothers
    Mary-boland
    Maxine-audley
    Max-linder
    Max Ophuls
    Mel Blanc
    Mercedes McCambridge
    Mia Farrow
    Michael Powell
    Mickey Rooney
    Mike-mazurki
    Mike Nichols
    Miles-mander
    Miriam Hopkins
    Moira Shearer
    Montgomery Clift
    Movie-theatres
    Ned Sparks
    Niall Macginnis
    Nicholas Ray
    Nigel Hawthoren
    Ninon Sevilla
    Norma-shearer
    Orson Welles
    Pamela Franklin
    Patsy Kelly
    Patty Duke
    Patty McCormack
    Paulette Goddard
    Paul Henreid
    Paul Lynde
    Peggy Cummins
    Percy Kilbride
    Peter Bogdanovich
    Peter Breck
    Peter Falk
    Peter Lorre
    Peter Ustinov
    Preston Foster
    Ralph Bellamy
    Ramon Novarro
    Renee Falconetti
    Rex Ingram
    Ricardo Montalban
    Richard Barthelmess
    Richard Basehart
    Richard Briers
    Richard Mulligan
    Rita Hayworth
    Robert Benchley
    Robert Ryan
    Robert Wagner
    Rock Hudson
    Rodolfo Acosta
    Roger Livesey
    Roland Young
    Rosalind Russell
    Royal Dano
    Rudolf Valentino
    Sabu
    Sam Fuller
    Sandra Dee
    Shelley Winters
    Shirley MacLaine
    Shirley Temple
    Skippy/Asta
    Soyuzmultfilm
    Spencer Tracy
    Spring Byington
    Sterling Hayden
    Susan Hayward
    Sydney Greenstreet
    Takashi Shimura
    Teri Garr
    Tim Holt
    Tod Browning
    Tommy Kirk
    Tony Randall
    Toshiro Mifune
    Una Merkel
    Van Johnson
    Veronica Cartwright
    Victor Buono
    Victor McLaglen
    Virginia Weidler
    Walter Huston
    Walter Matthau
    Walter Tetley
    Warren William
    Wednesdays Child
    Wendy Hiller
    William Demarest
    William Powell
    William Shatner
    William Wyler
    W.S. Van Dyke
    Yasujiro Ozu
    Zero Mostel

    More

    Upcoming Blogathons

    Picture
    Rhoda Penmark flaunts some norms in THE BAD SEED (1956)

    Blogathons Gone By

    Great Breening Blogathon
    NIGHT NURSE (1931)
    Picture
    THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
    Nature's Fury Blogathon
    THE GRAPES OF WRATH
    Reel Infatuation Blogathon
    Sugarpuss O'Shea changes my life in BALL OF FIRE (1941)
    Great Villain Blogathon 2016
    Charlotte Vale's Mean Mom in NOW VOYAGER (1942)
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.