An extremely lacklustre and slow-moving British alien invasion film of the 1960s. There were quite a few of these low-budget movies coming out around this time – stuff like INVASION, THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING, THE NIGHT CALLER – but THE BODY STEALERS is by far the worst I've seen. The budget is so poor on this one that literally nothing happens for 90% of the running time.
For the most part we're stuck with jut-jawed wooden leading man Patrick Allen, following him around as he romances blonde women and barks gruff lines of dialogue at anybody who'll listen. Neil Connery pops up to support him, George Sanders is the cameoing veteran, and Robert Flemyng (THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR) lurks around in a natty uniform.
The story, when you see it down on paper, actually sounds fairly interesting: parachutists are disappearing mid-air, zapped away by aliens, with only their suits and chutes arriving on the ground. Other than some footage of skydiving, this doesn't actually equate to much, and Allen's investigation into the disappearances goes absolutely nowhere.
Of course, the women of the era are lovely and the film is fairly well shot given the paucity of its production budget. But there's no action, a real dearth of imagination, and rarely any special effects, and all of these are musts for a good science fiction movie. This boring outing is the worst Tigon film I've seen yet.
For the most part we're stuck with jut-jawed wooden leading man Patrick Allen, following him around as he romances blonde women and barks gruff lines of dialogue at anybody who'll listen. Neil Connery pops up to support him, George Sanders is the cameoing veteran, and Robert Flemyng (THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR) lurks around in a natty uniform.
The story, when you see it down on paper, actually sounds fairly interesting: parachutists are disappearing mid-air, zapped away by aliens, with only their suits and chutes arriving on the ground. Other than some footage of skydiving, this doesn't actually equate to much, and Allen's investigation into the disappearances goes absolutely nowhere.
Of course, the women of the era are lovely and the film is fairly well shot given the paucity of its production budget. But there's no action, a real dearth of imagination, and rarely any special effects, and all of these are musts for a good science fiction movie. This boring outing is the worst Tigon film I've seen yet.