Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney (7 page)

In the serial, the scene with Professor Budlong is quite different. Miles catches Budlong in a lie and confronts him; Budlong admits that he's a duplicate and has a long and rational discussion with Miles about the purpose of the invasion. He explains that the pods left a dying planet and moved across the universe with their only goal being survival of their race. However, he explains that the duplicates cannot live for very long due to instability in their makeup, and that they will all be dead within five years. The pods will use up life on Earth and then move on into space to look for new hosts. '"They are the parasites of the universe, and they'll be the final survivors in it"' (125).

Miles and Becky leave Professor Budlong's house (as in the novel), and the story then continues in the same fashion in both versions. Why did Finney delete this scene from the novel when he was working hard to expand his story? Perhaps the explanation of the pods' mission was too trite, too much the stuff of many science fiction stories that had come before. Or perhaps he thought that the calm discussion between Miles, Becky, and Professor Budlong hurt the suspenseful tone that he was developing. In any case, part two of the serial ends as does chapter fourteen of the novel, with Miles and Becky tiring as they head for the hills at the edge of town.

The third and final part of the serialized version of
The Body Snatchers
was expanded to comprise chapters fifteen through twenty-one of the novel. This section includes fewer changes and new passages than the sections before it, moving quickly to the conclusion. The climax of the novel is substantially different than that of the serial, however, and the changes deserve some attention.

In the novel, Miles and Becky have set fire to the field of pods and, when they are finally captured, they watch as the pods drift off into space, choosing to leave an inhospitable planet. In the serial, they are rescued at the last minute by the arrival (with a "squeal of tires" [73]) of three cars containing Jack Belicec and a number of FBI agents with riot guns and machine guns. They round up the pod people and move them back toward town. As they walk, everybody stops and it is only then that the pods begin to drift off into space.

The serial's climax is straight out of a pulp magazine and the novel is better off without it. The subsequent last chapter of the novel follows the conclusion of the serial rather closely, and they end in the same way.

As readers, we are thus faced with two versions of the same story — the three-part serial originally appearing in
Collier's
in November and December 1954, and the expanded novel appearing in 1955. Jack Finney clearly did a great deal of work to expand the serial to novel form, and careful examination of the two side by side reveals significant changes.

First and foremost is the emphasis that Finney put on the decline of the town of Santa Mira when he expanded his story to novel form. 
Several important passages demonstrate that this theme was important to the author, for he chose it as a method of fleshing out the details of his story. But who are the invaders who "threaten an established, cherished way of life"? (Johnson 5). Are they the Communists who were so feared in 1950s America? This is doubtful, since later novels such as
Time and Again
and
The Night People
suggest that Jack Finney's politics were more liberal than conservative. Are they the right-wing followers of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who hunted down Communists in America in the 1950s? This, too, is inaccurate, according to the author.

When asked about the hidden meaning in
The Body Snatchers,
Jack Finney replied that '"I wrote the story purely as a good read'" (Oliver). Judging from his loving portrayal of small towns in stories and novels throughout his career, it is unlikely that Finney would have agreed that the novel "could also easily be read as a clever assault on the dehumanizing conformity of small town life in America in the 1950s" (Sloan 186). Even the idea that a "theme of the novel is the way that small-town life nourishes the spirit of the individual and strengthens him to stand up to terrifying threats" (Otten 437) was addressed by Finney, who wrote that '"the idea of writing a whole book in order to say that it's not really a good thing for us all to be alike, and that individuality is a good thing, makes me laugh'" (King 290).

In the end, then, Glen Johnson is most likely correct when he writes that
The Body Snatchers
"encompasses and exposes for analysis the peculiar anxieties and accommodations of the early cold war period" (5). Despite Jack Finney's assertions that the story is pure entertainment, the themes that he keeps returning to in the novel version demonstrate an interest in the preservation of small town life and the way that it was beginning to disappear in the 1950s.

According to Robert Otten,
The Body Snatchers
was "favorably reviewed in the leading science fiction magazines" (436) of the time but, as a paperback original, it did not receive a large amount of attention in mainstream publications. The main reason that it became famous was the film adaptation, which was released in 1956, the year after the novel was published. Despite the fact that the producer visited Finney in Mill Valley to discuss the adaptation of novel into film, "Finney had nothing to do with" the screenplay (Ickes 36) and sold the film's rights in 1955 for $7500.

The film, titled
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
, was written by Daniel Mainwaring and starred Kevin McCarthy, who later said that the script was
'"less subtle
and
sophisticated
... than Jack Finney's serialized novel, which had come out in a paperback edition by that time'" (McCarty 238). McCarthy's take on the story is interesting, especially in light of Finney's background writing advertising copy: '"I viewed it as an attack on or satire of Madison Avenue attitudes.
The whole idea of programming us to eat the same foods, drink the same beverages, conform to certain modes of behavior'"
(252-4).

Whatever it meant, the film version of
The Body Snatchers
eventually was recognized as a classic of science fiction cinema, and has been the subject of critical attention ever since its appearance in 1956. Probably due to the popularity of the film, Finney's novel has remained in print in various editions since it was first published.

In 1975 or 1976, movie producer Robert Solo decided to remake and update
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(Timpone 126), and the result was a 1978 film of the same name, directed by Philip Kaufman. Again, Finney had nothing to do with the filmed version of his novel, which was updated to the 1970s and set in San Francisco. This film veers far from the source novel and suffers in comparison. According to Solo, Finney was angry at not being paid for the new version of his story and refused to come when he was invited to be in a scene in the film (Tim-pone 136).

Not to be outdone, Finney took his 1955 novel and revised it for reissue in 1978 to tie in with the new film. He retitled the novel
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
and changed the name of the town where the story occurs from Santa Mira to Mill Valley, where Finney had been living since about 1950. While most of the changes are minimal, mainly updating references that would seem dated to 1978 readers, Finney does have a bit of fun in chapter three when he makes the movie that Miles and Becky attend a filmed version of his own novel,
Time and Again:
"it was a good picture ... about a guy who finds a way to visit the past" (28). Ironically, Finney's 1970 novel
Time and Again
has never been filmed.

Under its new title, the novel continued to remain in print through the 1980s and 1990s, and a third film version was released in 1993, with the title shortened to
Body Snatchers.
According to Bernadette Lynn Bosky, Finney earned an additional $3750 for "each of the remakes due to a loophole in the copyright law" (173), making his grand total for three movie adaptations of the novel only $15,000. All three films are examined in detail in chapter nineteen.

Serial, novel, revised novel, and three film adaptations — as well as an aborted television series (Timpone 138)—
The Body Snatchers
has been Jack Finney's most famous work and certainly what he is most known for. According to J. Sydney Jones,
The Body Snatchers
"changed everything" for Finney and "allowed him to support his family solely on his writing" (74). Oddly enough, after achieving success with the serials "5 Against the House" and "The Body Snatchers," both of which were expanded into novels and adapted as motion pictures, Finney returned to writing short stories and would not publish another novel for two years.

FIVE

More Short Stories and
The Third Level

In 1953 and 1954, Jack Finney published his first two serialized novels, "5 Against the House" and "The Body Snatchers," hut he did not publish any other short stories. In February 1955, he resumed publishing short stories with "Legal and Tender" in
Good Housekeeping.
It features young married couple Benjamin and Ruth Callandar in the first of their four appearances. The Callandars are quite similar to the Ryans, who had already appeared in ten earlier stories by Finney; perhaps the author was trying to create a new series for
Good Housekeeping
as he had done with the Ryans for
Collier's.

"Legal and Tender" is a light, romantic comedy in which Ben becomes interested in the phrase "lawful money" that appeared at that time on the American five-dollar bill. Printed on the bill was the phrase, "redeemable in lawful money," and Ben embarrasses Ruth by presenting a five-dollar bill at a bank and asking to trade it for lawful money. Of course, no one knows what lawful money is, and the story ends with the couple agreeing that they can still have fun even though they're married.

"Tattletale Tape" followed, in the March 4, 1955 issue of
Collier's,
and it marked the eleventh and last appearance of Finney's original young, married couple, Tim and Eve Ryan. The Ryans had not been heard from in print since September 1952; this time, they are staying at the apartment of Tim's boss, Al Webber, babysitting the Webbers' son, Alec.

After putting Alec to bed, Tim and Eve discuss the boy's parents in less-than-flattering terms. The boy secretly records their conversation and plays it back for them. Tim fears he'll lose his job if his boss hears the recording. Eve is worn out by Alec, who refuses to go to sleep, but Tim finally succeeds in putting the boy to bed with a sleeping pill.

At the story's end, Tim saves the day by revising the recording so that it contains only praise for the Webbers. This lighthearted story has nothing special to recommend it, but it does serve as a fitting end to the Tim and Eve Ryan series.

Jack Finney's next published story, "Of Missing Persons," finds him returning to the time travel theme that runs through much of his best work. In the magazine's table of contents, the editors write that

For quite some years now, and we state this with conviction and without any attempt at false modesty,
Good Housekeeping
has been considered by the country's leading authors, as well as by the general public, to be the top magazine for short stories. Here's a case in point. Stories as good as this usually appear only
here
["What's in this Issue"].

"Of Missing Persons" tells the story of Charley Ewell, a lonely bank teller in New York City who tells a travel agent, "'I'd like to — get away'" (144). He wants to escape, he says, '"From New York ... and cities in general. From worry. And fear. And the things I read in my newspapers.... From life itself—the way it is today, at least'" (144).

Charley is shown pictures of idyllic Verna, which he thinks looks like "the way America once looked when it was new" (145). The agent explains that Verna is light years away but easy to reach. For example, he mentions a family called the Bradens (an in-joke by Jack Finney, also known as Walter Braden Finney) and explains that people have been escaping to Verna for a long time — Ambrose Bierce and Judge Crater among them.

Charley decides to go, buys a ticket, and goes to a bus stop "on one of the narrow streets west of Broadway" (149), where he describes the bus: "It was precisely the sort of obscure little bus you see around there, ridden always by shabby, tired, silent people, going no one knows where" (149).

In this passage, as in the entire story, Finney's talent for setting fantastic events in the most mundane places is evident. Charley boards the bus and watches the "strained, harassed faces" (149) of drivers in passing cars as the bus takes him and its other passengers to a barn on Long Island, where they await transport to Verna.

Believing he's been tricked, Charley leaves the barn, but turns back as he does so. Like Lot's wife, this brief glance back is his undoing, as he sees—"for less than the blink of an eye" (150) —a vision of Verna, and the life he could have lived.

His one chance gone, he returns to his drab life, haunted by the knowledge that he has lost the opportunity to leave unhappiness behind and start anew. The story ends with his advice to the reader to make the trip to Verna if he ever gets the chance — because it won't come again.

"Of Missing Persons" is a story of longing to escape from the modern world, but this time the escape is to another world, where life is like it used to be, only better. Combining the best elements of today (work-saving technology) and yesterday (everything else), it offers a new start for the world-weary. Finney picks up the thread from "I'm Scared" and again offers a glimpse into a possible alternative to those tired of modern life.