Invasion (1966 film)

Invasion is a 1966 British science fiction film made on a low budget. Alan Bridges directed it, with Edward Judd and Yoko Tani in the lead roles. Roger Marshall wrote the screenplay, adapting a story by Robert Holmes, and Jack Greenwood produced. The film was shot at Merton Park Studios.

The plot begins when Lawrence Blackburn hits a strangely dressed man with his car while driving home. He brings the injured man to a hospital, where blood tests show he is not human. Blackburn later dies of a heart attack after encountering two women dressed like the victim. The hospital becomes surrounded by an invisible force field. The patient wakes up and claims he is a Lystrian who crashed while transporting two prisoners. The women, however, reveal he is actually the prisoner and they are his escorts. Dr. Brian Carter dies trying to drive through the force field. The prisoner kidnaps Dr. Claire Harland, escapes, and takes off alone in his capsule, which is destroyed by a missile from the Lystrian women's spaceship.

The cast includes Edward Judd as Dr. Mike Vernon, Yoko Tani as Sita (the Lystrian leader), Valerie Gearon as Dr. Claire Harland, Lyndon Brook as Dr. Brian Carter, Eric Young as the Lystrian, Tsai Chin as Nurse Lim, Barrie Ingham as Major Muncaster, Anthony Sharp as Lawrence Blackburn, Glyn Houston as Police Sergeant Draycott, Ann Castle as Sister Evans, John Tate as Dundy, Jean Lodge as Barbara Gough, and Cali Raia as a Lystrian woman.

Robert Holmes later reused elements of the story in the 1970 Doctor Who serial *Spearhead from Space*, which introduced Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor.

The film opened at the ABC Lime Street cinema in Liverpool on 15 May 1966. Anglo-Amalgamated handled the UK theatrical release, while American International Pictures released it in the United States. A brief video release by Warner Home Video appeared in the UK in 1992. Networkonair re-released it on DVD in November 2014.

Critical reception was mixed. *The Monthly Film Bulletin* praised James Wilson's restless camera work and the film's effective use of shock cuts and overlapping dialogue. *Kine Weekly* noted the eerie opening but felt the mystery dragged. Leslie Halliwell called it an understated, effective little suspenser. *The Radio Times Guide to Films* gave it two out of five stars, calling it an endearingly daffy oddity with a cheap alien takeover. Andrew Roberts a