INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) **1/2 Directed verdict argument against those claiming that California didn't turn weird until the 1960s. It's in the landgeist, baby. Apologia for Red Scare McCarthy supporters vividly portrays the evils and other-worldly horror of a society with no love or God. Or is it a tongue-in-cheek mockery of dimbulb rural reactionaries who saw commies in anyone willing to wake up by 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday (beware, they're disciplined). Or were Jack Finney and Geoffrey Homes transcendant geniuses who saw nothing but black humour in the foibles of anyone willing to engage in mid-century American politics at any level, but whose weaknesses were amplified when writing dialogue? Or is it a dirge in the face of perceived milieu control, written in the code of comic books so as to reach the masses? It doesn't matter anymore, does it, pick whichever perspective you find comforting and enjoy the film. Don Siegel keeps the action regular and benefits from an unusually enteresting plot for this sort of production. The acting is standard '50s sci-fi faire, but several of the lines are so outlandishly petrified in the schmaltz of the era that applause should mix with ineluctable laughter. It's telling that the red-blooded American boy is thrown in the looney bin, or is it significant that he gets out by telling the truth and might thereby become a blue-blood?; in any case we can only be grateful that in real life the telephone company was more vigilant.