This chiller would have given Franz Kafka nightmares!  The most sophisticated & influential Sci-fi film of the 1950s uses few special effects yet blows away audiences unprepared for its creep-out insights into personal insecurity and paranoia. This new 4K upgrade remaster offers its intended camera aspect ratio, plus the ‘Superscope’ reformat imposed on its original release. The extras include four separate audio commentaries, each a winner.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ’56 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
KL Studio Classics
1956 / B&W / 2:00 widescreen + 1:85 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date June 16, 2024 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Larry Gates, Virginia Christine, Jean Willes, Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon, Bobby Clark, Dabbs Greer, Marie Selland, Sam Peckinpah.
Cinematography: Ellsworth Fredericks
Film Editor: Robert S. Eisen
Original: Music Carmen Dragon
Written by Daniel Mainwearing from a magazine serial by Jack Finney
Produced by Walter Wanger
Directed by Don Siegel

The fan base for Don Siegel’s original Invasion of the Body Snatchers only gets bigger. All four versions of the story make for good movies, with the ’78 remake best remembered for its great cast and fine direction by Philip Kaufmann. But each time we return to the 1956 original we discover more reasons to be in awe. Even when appended (altered?  compromised?) with a wraparound flashback structure, it seizes the imagination. We ’50s monster kids wanted our Sci-fi thrill fix to include futuristic hardware and scary monsters. But Jack Finney’s story gave us our first taste of hardcore conspiracy paranoia … via a horrible personal takeover that’s both physical and political, that erases who we are for the benefit of a conformist alien lifeform.

Did we fully understand the movie at first viewing?  No way. At age 14 we just knew we were being weirded out on a deeper level than ever before… Are we just biological specimens susceptible to whatever cosmic competitors, flora or fauna, that would see us as something to exploit?  Or — just what is this divine spark of humanity we’re said to possess, and how do we let it get away from us?

CineSavant has reviewed Invasion of the Body Snatchers many times, probably too many. Disc collectors reading to learn about Kino’s new release will likely skip down to the evaluation section, to find out if a 4K Ultra-HD disc of their favorite show, in two aspect ratios and with two new commentaries, is something they can’t do without. So instead of rewriting our previous 2018 review, we’ll direct you to it and list some prompts for its main topics:

•  Synopsis.

•  Boy, this movie is like, you know, profound.

•  Everything You Know Is Wrong / The Organization Man / Gooble Gobble One of Us.

•  Let the All-Night dorm discussions begin.

•  “It’s not like other monster movies. It’s not stupid. It’s really happening.”

•  Noir paranoia goes Sci-fi.

•  The 1970s Kit Parker reissue prints, altered to drop the flashback bookends (but not the voiceover)

•  Why we like the Miles Bennell flashback narration.

•  Let the Fan Cuts multiply.

•  The few laugh moments in a movie that still plays like gangbusters.

KL Studio Classics’ 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a two-disc set for a movie that’s endured a complicated history on home video. The old DVDs were sub-par, but it has been released on two very good Olive Films Blu-ray editions. Paramount has now remastered it in 4K with HDR & Dolby Vision, “from a new 4K scan of the best available 35mm Elements.”  The ‘best available’ wording is a little sketchy, but the resulting video looks fine. In my subjective comparison the new image is slightly improved, a bit more detailed and a little less contrasty.

What, CineSavant is going to mansplain Superscope again?

Many of Kino’s Blu-rays of late have been of popular titles, sometimes improved only with a new audio commentary and a slip cover. For Invasion of the Body Snatchers they are looking to attract informed collectors aware of the film’s original format and aspect ratio, the notorious 2.00:1 AR of Superscope. First-generation Superscope was a ‘Poor Man’s CinemaScope’ that copied a 2.1 slice out of a flat 35mm frame, adding an anamorphic squeeze. The resulting ‘scope projection prints would look bigger on the new wide screens that all of America’s theaters were adopting in the middle 1950s.

That meant that the final printing element was an optical copy of the entire finished film. Robert Aldrich got excellent results in color for his 1954  Vera Cruz. At MGM/UA Home Video in 1993, our first VHS releases of Vera Cruz were mastered from a flat pre-Superscope film element. At the time, I didn’t understand what were looking at … every shot had an acre of ‘extra sky’ above. The ground below often had an electric cable or two lying in the grass — all intended to be format-cropped away.

The incentive to release a picture in Superscope was of course $ money $ … ‘scope prints could be rented at a higher rate. Theaters wanted ‘scope movies for their new wide screens. When they booked a CinemaScope movie, the projectionists preferred a ‘scope 2nd feature as well, so that they wouldn’t be changing and adjusting lenses six times a day. The extra rental $$ is likely why Roger Corman made his  Day the World Ended in Superscope. The results were very good. The framing wasn’t much tighter top to bottom than normal 1:85. ^*

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was planned and filmed in normal flat 1:85. The decision to convert to Superscope was reportedly made during the film’s long post-production phase. The slightly tighter formatting only affected a few shots, most noticeably the giant choker close-ups of Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. Even in 1:85, the framing clipped chins a bit; at 2.1, the shots seemed even tighter.

The camera viewfinder image would have been a squarish 1:37, like this. The pale yellow area what is Superscope doesn’t use, to produce a wide image.  →

One movie, multiple formats.

Most fans of Invasion first saw it on old flat TV screens, not at all concerned about it’s original Superscope image. The movie has been formatted in a variety of ways over the years, especially on television. Here are the different ways we think Invasion has been presented:

•  1956 theatrical prints: 2.00:1 Superscope.
•  First-generation TV prints: 1:33 full frame, more picture information above and below. The trailer on Kino’s disc shows this full-frame formatting, including the shot seen here just to the right.

…then, sometime in the 1970s…</small

•  Second-generation TV prints, 1:33 but apparently pan-scanned from a Superscope element, so very blown-up and grainy.

•  Early VHS copies were this double-cropped flat version, very soft and grainy.

•  A 1986 Janus/Voyager/Criterion laserdisc release let most of us see the original 2.1 Superscope format for the first time.

Kino’s new transfer allows for the cropping to be ‘opened’ to 1:85. It doesn’t add a great deal of information, yet even a little bit of head & foot room pleases the eye. Those choker close-ups are a little less jarring (and maybe a tiny bit less grainy).

Only someone who has closely examined an original 35mm Superscope print —  paging Jack Theakston!  — could know more, and correct possible errors here. We presume that the original flat negative for Invasion was assembled, and then optically reformatted for Superscope all at once. Kino’s ‘best available’ wording suggests that the original flat negative may be MIA. Perhaps a vault search turned up a fine-grain positive of the flat version, allowing for a re-format to 1:85?

Four commentaries, and they’re ALL good.

Four separate commentaries may sound like too much, but each track has a different approach from noted experts, all excellent communicators.

The first two talk tracks come from the 2018 Olive Signature Collection disc. The first commentary was recorded for a much earlier DVD disc that was never released. It’s important because it has enthusiastic input by both Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter.  He passed away in 2010 and she in 2011, which makes their candid memories all the more precious. Moderating is director Joe Dante, who points the cooperative, focused stars in some fun directions. At least once when Joe sneaks out a jokey remark, Dana Wynter bounces right back with a gotcha response. Both accomplished actors long ago accepted that this movie is what they’ll be most remembered for. They take that it in good spirit, grateful that it is indeed a good picture.

The second commentary is also from 2018. Richard Harland Smith’s solid track offers good analysis and research. Richard excels in information about actors that goes far beyond IMDB credits. He’s especially good with actors’ stage experience. We find out that the little boy who plays ‘Jimmy Grimaldi’ later worked as a stuntman, and played the ‘Gorn’ who did combat with William Shatner on Star Trek. Richard also notes that some of Invasion’s original double features were real losers. It was a reasonably popular release, but not a movie that ‘everybody’ went out of their way to see.

The two New commentaries are definitely not overkill. Familiar voices Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson start off on a humorous note — can we be sure neither of them is a replacement pod person?  They are soon dishing hard info and good insights … after all, both Nate Thompson and R.H. Smith are ex- TCM Movie Morlocks, a rarified breed. The slightly conversational tone does not make this dual-voice commentary into a party track. Interesting information and observations pop up throughout.

A very welcome commentary voice in recent years is that of Jason A. Ney, an academic who communicates his ideas extremely well — anybody who can make  The Scarlet Letter feel contemporary gets my vote. Jason does the deepest comparison between the Jack Finney book and the finished film, and goes further into an analysis of cut scenes and parts of scenes. All the commentaries talk about how and why the wraparound flashback structure was created; Jason points out that the story told by narrator Miles Bennell ‘cheats’: it includes at least one scene in which he’s not present, and should know nothing about.

The disc retains three featurettes produced in 2018 by Elijah Drenner. One hosted by Matthew Bernstein focuses on the prestigious producer Walter Wanger. His scandalous scrape with the law indirectly resulted in his employment by Allied Artists. Three of the commentaries cover the notorious true-life Beverly Hills gun-down involving Wanger, his movie star wife Joan Bennett and agent Jennings Lang. Bernstein’s featurette connects that love triangle to Billy Wilder’s masterpiece The Apartment.

Joe Dante and the late writer-director Larry Cohen come together for discussion of Invasion’s enduring cultural significance. And Don Siegel’s son Kristoffer Tabori reads selected pieces from his father’s book, A Siegel Film, for the featurette The Stranger in Your Lover’s Eyes.

Don’t let go of the old Olive Signature disc, if you have it, as it contains some older Scott Devine video pieces, with on-camera interview content from Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, John Landis, Stuart Gordon, W.D Richter, Stuart Kaminsky, Leo Braudy, Bob Burns and Sci-fi chronicler Bill Warren.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Invasion of the Body Snatchers 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Audio commentaries on both Discs:
With Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, and director Joe Dante
With Richard Harland Smith
With Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson (New)
With Jason A. Ney (New)
Blu-ray Disc Only:
Featurettes:
The Fear is Real (12:26)
The Stranger in Your Lover’s Eyes (11:54)
I No Longer Belong — The Rise and Fall of Walter Wanger with Matthew Bernstein (21:08)
1956 and 1978 Theatrical Trailers.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD disc and one Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: July 3, 2024
(7157inva)

^*  This may head off a few irate emails: The formally correct way to write an aspect ratio is with the full statement:  1.85:1,  2.35:1,  1.37:1.  I worked quite a bit as a projectionist while in college, and the reels of film that came in abbreviated those numbers to just plain  1.85,  2.35,  1.37,  etc. It’s simpler and easier and I tend to fumble numbers, so I’m sticking to what the old projectionists used.

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