Walter Wanger was a convicted criminal rebuilding his career when he collaborated with television director Don Siegel and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring to make a film of Jack Finney’s science fiction serial. What they were going for was a cheap B-movie like The Blob or Godzilla that could run second bill in drive-in double features. What they got was a lasting monument to our nations fears in 1956 America: Communism, Conformity, and the color red. Let’s watch Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter try to survive the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). The Super 70 Podcast is available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and my website at www.thatdylandavis.com. All music on The Super 70 Podcast is provided by Rozalind MacPhail, Joshua Cunningham and Peter John Ross whom you can all find on SoundCloud. Works Cited Kawin, Bruce F. Children of the Light. The Film Genre Book III ed. Barry Grant. University of Texas Press. Austin 1995. Kracauer, Siegfried. Hollywood’s Terror Films: Do they Reflect on an American State of Mind? Commentary 2 1998. Samuels, Stuart. The Age of Conspiracy and Conformity: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. American History / American Film: Interpreting the Hollywood Image. New Expanded Edition. Edited by John E. O’Connor and Martin A. Jackson. Continuum, New York 1988
