- Directed by Don Siegel
- Written by Daniel Mainwaring, Jack Finney
- Stars Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3lZPU3L
Synopsis
The police come to the hospital, and they seem to have a madman on their hands. He says he is Dr. Miles Bennell, and claims he’s not insane. He tells his story…
MIles had been out of town for a medical convention, but now he’s back and things seem different. Nurse Sally says they have a whole roomful of patients waiting for his return; none of them want to talk about what’s wrong with them. None of them will go see the other doctor in the next town. When he arrives at the office, most of the patients have cancelled. Now, they all say “It was nothing important.”
Becky, who has been out of the country for five years, comes in and says her cousin Wilma thinks her uncle Ira isn’t really Uncle Ira. Little Jimmy Grimaldi says his mother isn’t his mother. Nurse Sally calls the boy’s mother. Wilma still insists that Ira isn’t the same. She can’t explain it; he looks the same, has the same memories, but something is missing. He has no emotions.
Miles and Becky run into Dr. Kaufman, the town’s psychiatrist, and he’s had a dozen cases just like the ones Miles describes. They go to the club and are surprised that nobody’s there. They get a call from Jack Belicec, who takes them into his house and shows Miles a body. He looks like a man, but he’s not fully formed; he has no fingerprints. It’s the same size and weight as Jack. Miles tells Jack to sit with the thing all night and see what happens. Later that night it wakes up and has even grown a cut where Jack had been injured.
Miles hurries back to Becky’s house and breaks into the basement. He finds a half-formed duplicate of Becky down there. The real Becky won’t wake up, so he carries her out. Miles, Jack, and Kaufman go back to Jack’s, and the duplicate is gone. Becky’s double is gone too. The police chief says he knows all about it, and he already found that same dead body. Case closed.
Wilma tells Miles that she’s feeling much better now, she must have been wrong all along. She doesn’t need to see the psychiatrist after all. Wilma reports to Becky’s father that Becky is now staying at Miles’ house. Jimmy Grimaldi makes up with his “mother.” Miles goes home and sees a weird, frothy pod in his greenhouse that “gives birth” to little humanoid “blanks.” The blanks will grow into full-grown duplicates and replace the original person.
Miles tries to call the FBI, but his call won’t go through. What caused this? Mutation? Aliens? An atomic radiation experiment? Jack and his wife get in the car and try to leave town while Miles and Becky leave a little later. The man in the gas station opens their trunk for some reason. It’s a pair of pods. Miles tries to rescue Nurse Sally, but it’s an ambush. The police put out an APB on them.
The next morning, the entire town converges in the square and trucks drive in carrying hundreds of pods. They are distributing pods to spread to the people who aren’t already converted. This thing is going to spread through the entire country.
Jack and Dr. Kaufman come in; they’ve been converted. They say it’s not so bad; you’ll be okay with it. Kaufman explains that the seeds came from space and took root in the nearby farmers’ fields. He explains everything. Once they go to sleep, it’ll all be over. Miles drugs the others and they run for the highway. They run to the countryside with the whole town chasing them on foot.
The pair run into an old mine shaft and hide under the floor. They get away, but Becky can’t stay awake. They stumble across a pod-farm, where men load pods onto trucks for distribution. Becky goes to sleep and changes.
Miles finally makes it to the highway, but everyone just thinks he’s a crazy drunk, yelling “You’re next!” This takes us back to the framing story. The detective believes Miles’ story and he works to stop the invasion. Happy ending?
Commentary
I like that they don’t spend too much time on the “is this real” aspect and go straight into the “I can’t trust anyone” stage right away. The whole thing is surprisingly fast-moving, with lots of characters, and no doubt as to what’s really going on. They actually do explain the origin of the pods and exactly what happens when you are converted. It had a large cast and lot of extras, so it really looked like the whole town was after them.
The special effects consisted of covering dummies with soap bubbles, but it was all that was needed. The pod people have no emotions, but otherwise, they don’t seem so bad. You gotta wonder if they had the right idea and who the “bad guys” really are. There’s not a lot of vagueness about who’s good and evil in this film, but if only they did a remake, they could maybe look at this idea more closely.
There’s a bit of inconsistency as to whether people are replaced or taken over by the pods. We clearly see the pods growing new bodies, but Miles says they take over bodies, which is supported by what happened to Becky.