Daily Dialogue — November 30, 2016

“You fools! You’re in danger! Can’t you see? They’re after you! They’re after all of us! Our wives, our children, everyone! They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”

— Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring, magazine story by Jack Finney

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Alien Invasion, suggested by Michael Waters.

Trivia: Throughout the years, Sam Peckinpah (who appears briefly in the film as the meter reader) claimed that he had done work on the script ranging from modifications to major overhauls. Those who worked on the film claimed that if Peckinpah had made any changes to the script, it was limited to a few lines of dialog. Peckinpah’s claims became so inflated that the actual writer, Daniel Mainwaring, threatened to file an official complaint with the Writers Guild of America, so Peckinpah backed down. When Peckinpah died in 1984, many of his obituaries still carried the claim that he had rewritten the screenplay for this film.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Despite claims from Mainwaring to the contrary, it’s difficult to believe the paranoia about an alien invasion in Body Snatchers didn’t have some metaphorical relevance to the Communist witch hunt of the 1950s.