“I don't want to live in a world without love or grief or beauty, I'd rather die.” - Dana Wynter as Becky in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (l956).

While every day seems to bring some new tragedy, worry or stupefying craziness, at least we haven't been invaded by body snatching aliens - at least, not as far as I know. UFOs, or UAPs as the government has now decided to rebrand them, are back in the news and consciousness. But I digress.

Let’s talk about "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the 1956 classic, not the overwrought and downright awful l978 version). It has a brilliantly crafted suspenseful script by Daniel Mainwaring (he wrote the screenplay for the film noir classic, "Out of the Past", a decade earlier, by the way).

A warning, darlings: This is a movie you may not want to see alone.

It’s not a silly space alien B movie – it’s intelligently written, extremely well-acted and so suspenseful you might start looking at things that seem, well, a tad “off” in people you know differently.

The direction by Don Siegel is spot on, slowing building a feeling of "something odd is going on under the surface” which grows into a crescendo of edge-of-your-seat suspense and anxiety. And adding to the palpable feeling of dread is the music - Carmen Dragon composed an eerie, tension building score.

Kevin McCarthy plays the doctor with a growing sense something is amiss in this little town, something sinister and hidden under the surface. But what? Dana Wynter is the newly divorced former girlfriend of the doc, back in town and living with her father who seems, somehow, a bit different.

Their performances are riveting - and so are those of the rest of the cast, which includes Carolyn Jones, King Donovan, and Larry Gates.

The ending? Well, go see for yourselves! (You can find the movie on Amazon Prime; we BEG YOU, sweeties, to avoid the horrible colorized version on YouTube.)

We leave you for now with a spacey admonition to the brazenly wise – remember to WATCH THE SKIES!