"Help! They're coming! They're coming!" Those screams echoed like a desperate siren across the street from my mother's house down in The Tenderloin, notoriously known as the roughest part of San Francisco in the late ’70s. Oblivious to the situation and ready to help a stranger in need, she dashed down her stairs in a panic and ran towards the street to find none other than Kevin McCarthy (1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Howling) filming his iconic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) cameo for filmmaker Philip Kaufman. That's the story I was told growing up, anyway. According to my late mother, Signe Ruth McClannahan, Donald Sutherland was immediately stricken with her hypnotic energy and personality, though as she put it, Brooke Adams came off as a bit of a snob.
I remember vividly that she chose to show me her proud work in Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I was a very young age. She obviously knew I could handle it after she exposed me to A Nightmare On Elm Street on numerous occasions and my smile became wider upon each viewing. She would often howl in joy while quoting her favorite line from Freddy: "I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy." I certainly owe much of my eccentric taste, odd sense of humor, and love of horror to her.
My mother is only onscreen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers for less than a minute, and she has no lines, but there's something about her that was movie magic. Immediately after Leonard Nimoy's character, Dr. David Kibner, attempts to reconcile a frightened woman with a man she clearly doesn’t recognize as her husband, director of photography Michael Chapman's camera pans across the bookstore, showing people in the early stages of their pod cycle (see clip below). The camera stops at a balcony where my mother is standing with a fellow pod companion, and as the frame zooms in, her spooky gaze examines the crowd before resting on the companion next to her in silent agreement.
When I received the gorgeous new Blu-ray from Scream Factory for this piece, I watched with Kaufman's commentary to see what he'd have to say during this scene. He briefly remarks that this particular shot is a nod to author Dashiell Hammett, but other than that I'm left with my mother's story that has helped shape my love affair with the magic of movies and the macabre, a passion that exists to this very day and will continue until the day I die.
If any of you haven't picked up this version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from Scream Factory yet, do yourself a favor and grab it. This movie has never looked better, and the special features alone are worth the price of admission. Thanks for letting me share this little story with you, and mom, if you're out there somewhere, thanks for helping a weird kid feel special and for teaching me to stop worrying and learn how to love the macabre!
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