I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

Gene Fowler Jr was first an editor (for Fritz Lang and Samuel Fuller) and became an interesting B director in the 50's. He met the screenwriter Louis Vittes and worked together on several movies, Fowler thinking of the shooting and Vittes of the best dialogues for special stories. They first did a crime movie and a western for young Charles Bronson with some detailed psychology.Then, they go on with "I Married A Monster With Outer Space", much more adult than the previous fantastic Fowler's "I was A Teenage Werewolf". Fowler created the monsters and thought of the weakness that would destroy them : he imagined these tube-arteries that linked the face to the chest and let the dogs hang on to these and pull them off. Only two alien costumes were created which served for several aliens.Like the humanized doctor in "I Was A Teenage Werewolf", Fowler and Vittes also humanized the aliens of "I Married ...". Gene Fowler Jr : "The aliens were very sad people. After their women died, they travelled through the galaxy to find other women to perpetuate their race.They were desperate. What they were doing was honest and useful." (Filmfax N°10). The aliens theme invading the Earth for getting human appearance and couple to human women was an outrageous subject. The audience was also surprised by some very uncommon visual scenes with the aliens. Just forget the spaceship, because of a 125000 dollars budget for a 8 days shooting. The audience loved the movie which was scheduled with "The Blob", while Fowler wanted to play it with another movie he wanted to direct but complete mystery about it.Fowler's last movie is the western "The Oregon Trail", produced by Greek Spyro Skouras (Billie Wilder : "the only Greek tragedy I know is Spyro Skouras."), a terrible nightmare. We'll never know the best project with Vittes, "The Day The Adults Died", describing the world without adults. Fowler continued to direct for television, then returned to editing. When his close friend Fritz Lang was dying, Fowler stayed with him for his last days. When the Master died, Fowler called their old friends and drank to his memory.With some more budget, Gene Fowler Jr and his friend Louis Vittes could have been as great as Jack Arnold.

Tom Tryon before he became Walt Disney's Texas John Slaughter starred in this camp science fiction film, I Married A Monster From Outer Space. Only he isn't in the title role that dubious distinction belongs to Gloria Talbott.Some methane based creatures whose planet was dying and it took all their women have arrived from the Andromeda galaxy looking for male bodies on a planet with life to take over. They land in the typical American 50s suburb of Norrisville and the first guy they take over is Tryon and on his wedding day. Pretty soon Talbott discovers Tryon just ain't the guy she married.Over on planet methane there's sex, but no romance. That's what Tryon and the others are trying to get the hang of. Not easy for an alien to do. After this film just becomes a dime store imitation of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers where the citizenry learns and becomes outraged. They decide to deal with the methane guys on their own. The final confrontation led by the town doctor Ken Lynch is a hoot.You'd think they'd find some other methane planet like Jupiter to invade though.

The surprise of this little sci-fi epic is GLORIA HENRY, who manages to convey all the right expressions as the wife who comes to realize that her husband is no longer the man she married. TOM TRYON is the man who early on is attacked by an alien who takes over his body. From then on, Tryon's robot-like acting fits the demands of his role beautifully, since he only has one expression on his impossibly handsome face at all times. Talk about one-dimensional! He looks like a department store mannequin come to life--almost. It's a good thing he had a career as a Gothic writer ahead of him.However, it's the tight script, the crisp B&W photography, the jagged bits of music, and the eerie plot that bears more than a slight resemblance to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" that is guaranteed to keep you awake--even though it is obviously a B-film with no big pretensions to be anything else.***** Possible SPOILER Ahead*****It's another one of those tales where the poor wife dares not trust any of the citizens of a small town--since any one of them might have turned into an alien, like her hubby. The plot builds to a nice climactic shootout and her husband is returned to her. We know he's assumed his own body again because he actually breaks into a grin before the fadeout.Summing up: Brisk, entertaining little sci-fi tale, the kind that was popular with audiences in the '50s.

I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958) *** (out of 4) Despite the campy title this is a pretty straight forward sci-fi film that manages to be quite effective. Gloria Talbott plays a young bride who begins to fear that her husband has been taken over by aliens. As Talbott begins to fear for her safety she also starts to wonder if other men are falling victim. Sadly the title makes on go into this expecting something campy but it's actually a pretty smart film that makes the viewing think. The film manages to have some wonderful cinematography, which really helps the overall quality of the movie. The screenplay by Louis Vittes manages to work quite well except for when it borrows a little too closely to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was released two years earlier. Talbott manages to turn in a very good performance as the worried wife and Tom Tryon is good as well.