Trivia / Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

• Executive Meddling: The film ends with the authorities having the truth of what Miles has told them confirmed, because the studio thought the original ending was too dark and hopeless.
• Fake American: English actress Dana Wynter plays Becky Driscoll, and her native accent keeps popping out. They get around it in the script by saying the character has just returned to the U.S. after having lived in England for several years.
• One-Take Wonder: With such a low budget and tight filming schedule, every scene had to be shot correctly on the first take.
• Reality Subtext: Screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring had brushes with "Red Scare" witch-hunts during The Hollywood Blacklist era, which lends credence to the theory that the film is subtle a statement against McCarthyism. Dana Wynter agreed with that sentiment, although she didn't recall mention of any political statements on-set. Kevin McCarthy believed the film to be an attack on "Madison Avenue" attitudes. Director Don Siegel joked that the pods represented movie industry executives.
• Technology Marches On: It's The '50s, so Miles has to go through the switchboard operator to try and make long-distance calls.
• Uncredited Role: Whit Bissell and Richard Deacon as Drs. Hill and Bassett, to whom Miles is relating his story in the film's Framing Device.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film originally ended with the hero, Miles Bennell, on the highway screaming "You're next! You're next!" to all the passing motorists, leaving the audience on a cliffhanger, but the studio disliked this ending so it was changed to a more hopeful ending.
  • Producer Walter Wanger wanted to use a Winston Churchill quotation as a preface, with Orson Welles providing the narration. When they couldn't persuade Welles, Wanger tried to enlist Ray Bradbury, who declined as well.
  • Wanger considered Gig Young, Dick Powell, Joseph Cotten, and several others for the role of Miles. For Becky, he considered Anne Bancroft, Donna Reed, Vera Miles, and others.
• Working Title: The film was almost called The Body Snatchers after Jack Finney's serial, but this was rejected as sounding too similar to the Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher (1945). After such other prospective titles as Better Off Dead, Evil in the Night, Sleep No More, They Come from Another World, and World in Danger, the studio finally settled on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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