Classic Movies of the 1950s’

by Jo Gray

“The Great Locomotive Chase” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” were both
released in 1956, and are well worth seeing again and again.

Remakes of the body snatchers don’t live up to the original movie that was filmed
in black and white. Kevin McCarthy starred as a small-town California doctor
known as Miles Bennell in the film.

As more and more of Dr. Bennell’s patients complained that their family
members didn’t act like themselves, the doctor sought the advise of other
physicians. He finally accepted a colleague’s diagnosis of mass hysteria.

As things only get worse, Dr. Bennell discovers it more than a matter of mental
health. He discovers the town people are being taken over by people from outer
space and are actually replaced by look-alikes who are emotionless pods spawned
from seed.

The suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat as Dr. Bennell seeks a way to
stop the invaders from achieving their goal of taking over the earth and turning
the planet into a world inhabited by pod populations.
The remake of this classic is available on DVD.

Walt Disney filmed “The Great Locomotive Chase” as a time when Civil War
nostalgia was at its peak. The action-packed thriller is about Union spies going
deep into Confederate territory where they hijacked a locomotive, the “General”.
They then began destroying bridges and cutting telegraph wires.

Their goal was to seriously disrupt vital Southern supply lines.
A suspicious Confederate conductor, Jeffrey Hunter, (played by William Fuller)
soon blew their cover and the great railroad race was on.

Hunter wanted desperately to catch and kill the Union spies. The Northern spies
were led by James Andrews (played by Fess Parker). They were just as desperate
to reach the Northern troops in Tennessee.

The film is based on a true story about a locomotive known as the “General”, that
is currently on display at the Kennesaw, Ga., Museum of Civil War and Locomotive
History.

more articles by Jo Gray

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