I Married A Monster From Outer Space

(1958)

"The bride wore terror!"

The Fifties were a noteable decade for Sci-Fi films. The Cold War was on, and there was rampant paranoia about Communism; a generalized paranoia that was fueled in large part by McCarthy and his "House Un-American Activities Committee". Personal example of the time: I was born in the same year as this film was made, and I grew up in a house that had been built to my parents' specifications to include a real bomb shelter in its basement. Movies such as the classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", and "I Married a Monster From Outer Space" played on this theme, as translated into Sci-Fi films.

The sensationalist title belies the quality of the film and its well-told storyline. Although I am also fond of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", which has a similar theme, it lacks the heart of the subject of this review, in my opinion.

Marge (Gloria Talbott) and Bill (Tom Tryon) are getting married, but Marge doesn't realize at first that the night before the wedding her groom's body was taken over by an alien being. She notices the differences in his personality but brushes them aside. She soon comes to realize the true nature of what she has married, and of course tries to warn everyone, and stop the invasion of aliens...aliens who are taking over the menfolk of her town in the hopes of breeding with the women and establishing a colony on Earth. The theme is: "They look just like us....but they aren't! And they'll take over!" This is Communism as represented by the Sci-Fi genre, and it was very popular in the Fifties. The movie industry was feverishly pumping out lots of low-budget films meant to distract the American public at the local drive-in theatre. However, "I Married a Monster From Outer Space" seems to be one of the accidental gems.

Tom Tryon makes for a very likeable alien. He's tall, handsome, and manages to make his character very sympathetic as the film progresses. He starts to understand and appreciate Earth, its culture, and his beautiful wife Marge, as she simultaneously pulls away upon discovering that what she is living (and sleeping) with isn't really her husband. And as always in Sci-Fi, the dogs always know who's the alien and who's the human. Marge's present of a dog to Bill results in an episode that jolts her into realizing that something is truly wrong.

Subtle performances by both Tryon and Talbott help immensely. Both were highly respected and capable actors of the time, and Tryon in particular manages to go from gentle and kind to menacing with a very subtle and believable ease in this film. Tryon was in several well-known films, and received especially good critical reviews for his role in the film "The Cardinal". Interesting bit of trivia: he was also considered by Alfred Hitchcock for the role of Sam Loomis in "Psycho."

There are the typical Sci-Fi low-budget special effects, but what makes the film really work is the telling of the story in a manner that pulls you into all of the characters, despite the obvious shortcomings of the budget.

Note: Tom Tryon retired from acting in the late 1960's and became a successful novelist, publishing as Thomas Tryon; my mother had some of his books, such as the bestselling "The Other", "Harvest Home", and "Crowned Heads", all of which I thoroughly enjoyed and inherited.