The Body Stealers (1969)

"Can the Earth survive against the aliens from outer space?"

Plot

When paratroopers begin to go missing during routine jumps, investigators are sent to shed some light on the mystery. Even more mysterious is when they reappear later with their bodies full of radiation. However, things get complicated very quickly when an alien invasion plot is discovered.

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Perhaps titled so that sci-fi and horror fans would think this is something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Body Stealers isn’t what you’d expect to be getting from a minor horror studio that produced such British classics as Witchfinder General and Blood on Satan’s Claw. Trying to reach a broader audience than normal, Tigon turned this into more of a James Bond-esque spy thriller with odd sci-fi elements thrown in there and literally no horror to speak of. It’s a disastrous attempt to diversify and only a year after their success with Witchfinder General, they didn’t strike whilst the iron was hot and capitalise with further ‘folk horror’ from the past.

The standard genre plot of an alien invasion seems to be little more than a wraparound story, with the writers focusing more on the sexual exploits of one of the characters for most of the film, and things take an almost Plan 9 from Outer Space-esque turn with the ridiculous finale. The Body Stealers is a talky affair, looking like a low budget TV episode of some mid-60s series like The Avengers, and with about as much excitement as one. It’s not that the general idea is a bad one – the opening scene at least poses lots of questions and adds a sense of intrigue, as well as a promise of a bigger budget and scope. However, I guess the aerial footage gobbled up most of the feeble budget because there’s literally nothing here which seems to have had any money invested in it. Sets are drab and stripped back and characters sit or stand around in them a lot to discuss events. On a couple of occasions, characters see things off-screen (presumably the aliens in their natural form) but the camera never once allows us chance to see, again with no attempt to invest money into a costume, a mask or even some face paint would have done! Some creepy incidental music occasionally threatens to add some suspense to the night time scenes but it's quickly drowned out by the overbearing cheesy soundtrack which does make it sound like some Bond spoof.

The Body Stealers doesn’t even seem to want to get properly started. There’s no clear direction for the film to head in, no real purpose to the scenes you’re watching, just a very pedestrian mystery which isn’t all that engaging for the audience (especially not when the plot synopsis tells us that it’s aliens at work). Characters do a lot of sitting and talking, or standing or talking or, if you’re lucky, walking and talking. Occasionally, someone will be killed but always off-screen and you’ll never glimpse the culprit. If you’re expecting something a little more horror-based as far as the body swapping goes, then best avoid this one completely. The Body Stealers doesn’t like showing us anything on-screen that would cost money so apart from a few red glows, a terrible ray-gun toy prop and a pair of humans who are actually aliens (but you never see their true form), there’s little to indicate that this is really an invasion. On an interesting side note, the alien spaceship that appears briefly in the finale originally appeared in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. which was from Amicus, a rival studio. I hope they got plenty of money from Tigon for the prop!

With one of the more recognisable British voices of his time, and someone you’d associate with hundreds of voiceovers, actor Patrick Allen takes centre stage (not top billing however) as lead investigator Bob Megan. His character would definitely be ‘cancelled’ today – he’s a bit of a perverted lothario, more concerned with hitting on every woman he comes across than getting to the bottom of the case. I’m not usually bothered by stuff like this but sheesh, his character really is a bit disturbing as within one or two lines of dialogue of meeting a new female character, he’s already trying it on. Allen played a similar character in The Night of the Big Heat – misogynistic and wholly unlikeable as a protagonist – and given that he was no oil painting as far as looks goes, I honestly can’t see why producers gave him this type of role. Sean Connery’s brother Neil is a gimmicky bit of casting as his friend, given how much of a James Bond-esque slant the characters seem to have.

He isn’t the only one though acting sordidly and Allan Cuthbertson’s Hindmarsh character spends more time having it off with his numerous secretaries than he does help the plot to move forward. The writers clearly had a thing for dominant masculinity here, reducing women to little more than eye candy waiting to be undressed. Hilary Dwyer’s Julie Slade, supposedly an intelligent scientist, instantly turns into little more than a quivering mess whenever Allen’s Bob Megan turns up, and the less said about the female alien, the better. Within seconds of meeting him, they’re already getting steamy on the beach before she has sex with him later on (and a rather risqué bit of nudity for the time period too!). Americans George Sanders and Maurice Evans get the top billing, presumably to sell this to the US market, although their roles are supporting.

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Final Verdict

It’s not a surprise to see that the director never did helm another film – The Body Stealers is one of the worst films from the Anglo-horror cycle of the 60s and 70s. Ironically enough, it was originally called Thin Air which is about as much depth as you’ll get from this limp, dull and ultimately pretty misogynistic relic of a bygone era.

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The Body Stealers Director(s): Gerry Levy Writer(s): Mike St. Clair (story & script), Peter Marcus (revised screenplay) Actor(s): George Sanders, Maurice Evans, Patrick Allen, Neil Connery, Robert Flemyng, Pamela Conway, Allan Cuthbertson, Michael Culver Duration: 91 mins