Once again it’s time for some good old fashioned ’50s sci-fi, and of the cheesiest brand too, because what other kind was there? Last night we watched I Married a Monster from Outer Space—which is a top contender in the fun titles sweepstakes—and were well entertained by a tale headlined by Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbot about a bridegroom being parasitically occupied by a mistlike extraterrestrial the night before his wedding.
Because possession never goes off without a hitch, Talbot picks up on a few clues something is amiss with her fiancée. Her betrothed’s thoughts always seem to be somewhere far away. Dogs hate him. He hates dogs (and no wonder, as things develop). He hates cats too. He wanders off in the middle of the night—and not to a bar, which would make him very human. After a year of marriage and, presumably, regular sessions with her husband’s deep space nine, Talbot starts to wonder why she hasn’t gotten pregnant, and what her hubby is doing with his away hours.
Turns out Tryon is just one of many aliens taking over the fictional town of Norrisville, and their purpose is—wang dang sweet poontang! They can no longer reproduce because their females died, thus they hope to match their DNA through experimentation with that of human women and continue to propagate their species. Pretty soon the aliens have taken over everything—the cops, the telegraph office, the soda fountain, everything crucial. The few humans left in town are soon cut off from the outside world.
Though we make it sound silly, this is a much better movie than last week’s The Amazing Colossal Man. It contains many of the same plot beats as the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which came two years earlier, but the fact that it’s derivative doesn’t mean it’s dismissible. It’s reasonably well acted, more than competently shot, and the story works well within its setting. We think it was worth the time and popcorn expended. Try it and see if you don’t think the same. I Married a Monster from Outer Space premiered today in 1958
I bet she’s younger than me.
