American Cinematographer - March 1997 - 80

direct the picture. Siegel signed on to the tune of $21,688.
When Riot scribe Richard Collins proved un¬

Right: The
Belicecs, Miles
and

Becky study

available, Siegel suggested Daniel Mainwaring, with

the unfinished

whom the director had collaborated on three prior
films. Mainwaring, a popular novelist under both his
own name and the
pseudonym Geoffrey Homes,
wrote the script in close consultation with Siegel.
Collins later worked on several scenes after principal

duplicate of
Jack. Bottom:

McCarthy,
Wynter,
cinematographer
Fredericks and
director

photography had commenced.
As originally filmed, the picture opens with
Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) returning from a

Siegel

prepare to film
one of picture's
most

medical convention to the little town of Santa Mira
after receiving a frantic call from his nurse, Sally With¬

harrowing

scenes

in the

mine tunnel.

ers

(Jean Willes). She reports that growing numbers of
are in the grip of a weird hysteria that

townspeople

makes them believe that their relatives and friends

producing the occasional prestige
picture, along with low-budget
items such as the Bowery Boys and
Bomba the Jungle Boy series.

and

On the other hand, the

producer of Body Snatchers was
Wanger, a top-of-the-line
trifle
tarnished and battle-scarred.

veteran who at the time was a

Chris¬

ward appearances

tina, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine,

Algiers, Stagecoach, Foreign Corre¬
spondent, Canyon Passage and Scar¬
let Street, Wanger landed at Allied
after

a

disastrous fall from power.

Between 1932 and 1948,

he had

produced 51 major features for MGM, Columbia,
Paramount, Universal and United Artists. However,
he then formed

independent company to make an
epic production of Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman.
an

This film cost $4,650,506 and went in the red to the
tune of $2,480,436. Refusing to seek bankruptcy pro¬

tection, he made two good pictures for Eagle Lion and
another for Columbia in 1948-49, but lost heavily on
all three.

Wanger then languished among the unem¬
ployed until June of 1951, when his friends at Mono¬
gram Pictures, Walter and Harold Mirisch and Steve
Broidy, offered him a producer's berth. Monogram
had survived many years on Poverty Row. At $12,500
and 14 percent of net profits per picture, Wanger's
contract was a far cry from the cushy deals he had en¬
joyed during his days at the majors.
He restored his reputation in 1954, at the
newly renamed Allied Artists, by producing the hit
picture Riot in Cell Block 11 for just $298,780. The suc¬
cess

78

of Riot

was a

Jack and Theodora Belicec

(King Donovan, Carolyn Jones),
gradually realize that more and
more of the
townspeople are losing
their emotional and spiritual iden¬
tities, retaining only the passion for
mere survival.
Although their out¬

Walter

Famed for the likes of Queen

are

imposters. Miles and his former
sweetheart, Becky Driscoll (Dana
Wynter), along with their friends
Dr. Dan Kaufman (Larry Gates)

get productions. Allied was now

shot of financial adrenalin for

remain

un¬

changed, family and friends per¬
ceive them as strangers. As the
mystery progresses, the friends
confront a horrific development in
the Belicec greenhouse, where a
huge seed pod is gradually changing into Jack's like¬
ness. It becomes evident that the
pods came from outer
space; after one assumes the form of a person, it then
takes over the victim completely while he or she sleeps.
Only Becky and Miles elude pod-control, by
staying awake and pretending to be converts. Their
ruse is discovered, however, when
Becky cries out as
a
dog barely escapes road-kill status. Pursued by a
pod-controlled mob, they flee to a mine tunnel and
hide all night, and most of the next day, under boards
covering a shallow excavation.
During their ordeal, Miles hears the sounds
of angelic music and goes to investigate. He sees the
townspeople harvesting pods from a large greenhouse
and loading them into trucks. When he returns to
Becky, he discovers that she has fallen asleep. He picks
her up and carries her to a different exit. When Becky
awakens he kisses her, but Miles realizes that she is a
lost cause once he stares deep into her glazed gaze.

"Stop acting like a fool and accept us," she says before
screaming, "He's in here!" Closely pursued, Miles
flees until at last he reaches a freeway crowded with
cars.
Running blindly through the headlights, he tries

Wanger, Allied and director Don Siegel.
Wanger and Siegel would soon team up
again. Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers had been
serialized in Collier's magazine in November and
December of 1954. Wanger submitted it as a film
project to the AA management, along with five other

to warn the drivers. He then climbs aboard a truck
bound for Los Angeles and San Francisco, only to find
that it's filled with pods. The picture originally con¬
cluded with Miles staggering crazily among the cars

properties, and AA bought the

and then up to

screen

rights immedi¬

the

camera,

screaming, "They're here

ately. Impressed by Siegel's no-nonsense yet expres¬
sive directorial style, Wanger was anxious for him to

already! You're next! You're next! You're next!"
Mainwaring's skill at mastering dialogue was

American

March 1997

Cinematographer
American Cinematographer - March 1997

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