I am a big fan of Body Snatchers films and the various remakes and clones, so I guess it is something of a surprise that I had never gotten around to watching the original 1956 version. This is unusual for me and something I have since rectified!

I must say that of all the various films following much the same story this one is my supreme favourite now!  Filmed in Black and White in a time when the Cold War and McCarthyism was rabid, the film takes on a paranoid veneer somewhat missing in the later versions. You can almost feel the “reds under the bed” atmosphere in every scene. Scenes where the whole town swiftly changed from normal small town everybody-going-about-their-business-USA to an alien invasion in an eye blink, somehow worked better than the cities later versions revolved around. There is a brilliant scene where the town is alive and thriving on a Saturday morning, which suddenly changes to a nightmare as trucks full of pods arrive. Seemingly normal people immediately drop everything they are doing…very creepy!

I guess the only thing I did miss was Leonard Nimoy from the eighties version turning the tables on us after he is taken over (Mr Spock what are you doing?) , but we can’t have everything!