STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955)

Circuit judge Joel McCrea is making the rounds when he comes upon a town that's run completely by one man, Josiah Bannerman (John McIntire).  There also happened to be an undocumented shooting a few days ago involving Bannerman's son, Tom (Kevin McCarthy).  The shooting was supposedly in self-defense, but once McCrea starts doing some digging he sees that the younger Bannerman has a history of killing people in "self-defense".  He arrests Tom, but that go over like a dry wet fart with Bannerman and his hired guns.  Will McCrea live long enough to get Tom to trial?

The story's not original, but the strong cast makes this an interesting time waster.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of action scenes the runtime is only 66 minutes (including the credits).  Director Jacques Tourneur had a lot of films under his belt by this time in his career, so I'm sure he knew the script needed punching up, but I'm guessing the budget didn't allow it.  Fortunately, his next film, the same year's WICHITA (also staring McCrea) turned out better.

Good cast, steady pace, low action, forced romantic storyline, cat sitting on a desk, nice photography, unoriginal story.  Average lower budget 1950's Western.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

Small town California doctor Kevin McCarthy rightfully thinks that something strange is going on in his peaceful little berg when people he's known his whole life start acting strange.  At the same time, others tell him that their relatives are not their relatives.  McCarthy doesn't know quite what to think about this, but when his old flame comes back into town, he puts all that on the back burner in order to get laid.

Unfortunately, his hot date is ruined when he receives a phone call from a friend telling him there's a clone sleeping on his pool table.  Naturally, most people would absolutely freak the fuck out at this point, but McCarthy takes it pretty well and says keep an eye on the clone!  He still doesn't even freakout that hard when, later that same night, he finds a clone of his girlfriend in her basement!  What does it take to shake this guy?!! 

That's just some of the many questionable things that happen in this film.  The idea of your fellow citizens being taken over by aliens is super scary, but when the main character's logic only promotes the takeover (and therefore pushing the movie forward) all of the tension goes right out the window.  Eventually McCarthy realizes what's going on, but even then he just does a bunch of stupid shit that ends up getting people killed.

Despite the main actor's stupidity and the illogical way the pods made it to the earth, I still enjoyed the movie.  Cheap gas prices, quick pace, interesting supporting cast including Sam Peckinpah and Morticia Addams, nice photography.  Interesting idea that doesn't pan out, but still a fun watch as long as you don't take it too seriously.  I would absolutely love to watch a well-made, slow-burn, creepy as fook retelling of this story idea.  Like a miniseries on HBO.

Remake 1 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Reboot 1 - Body Snatchers (1993)
Reboot 2 - The Invasion (2007)