Should Have called the Falcon
Something strange is happening as several parachutists have vanished in to thin air, quite literally as observers one minute have watched them descend and open their parachutes and the next minute they are gone. With the British brass including General Armstrong (George Sanders) scratching their heads over what is happening they call in US Air Force special investigator and ladies man Bob Megan (Patrick Allen) to try and unravel what in the world is going on. The thing is that what is going on seems not to be of this world as he learns that aliens are behind the body snatching whilst he unwittingly finds himself with his own alien problem as he starts to see Lorna (Lorna Wilde) who no one realises is also an alien.
"Mum, when is something good going to happen" those are the words I might have said if I had been forced to watch "The Body Stealers" when I was younger where as now the voice in my head was saying "do I really want to waste 90 minutes of my life on this". In fairness to those involved "The Body Stealers" was not some big budget movie and director Gerry Levy must have had to try and be creative to stretch the budget he had to make the movie but the end result ends up all so ordinary with nothing in the way of new ideas to make it memorable.
I suppose technically I should have said spoiler alert at the start of this review as I have revealed more than I should yet without revealing those things I would have had nothing to say. Basically it feels like those who made "The Body Stealers" did so with a check list which included stuffy British military types and an American hero figure with a big chin and blue eyes. And it ticks the boxes until it comes to the ones which call for atmosphere and new ideas which this is devoid off. In fact about the only thing which "The Body Stealers" has is some nice scenes of parachuting but that is it.
What this all boils down to is that "The Body Stealers" is not very good and almost feels like movie making by numbers. But I guess if you have an interest in either old sci-fi movies or those with a heavy British influence it may hold some sort of interest.
