I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

Aliens arrive on Earth to possess the bodies of humans. One of their first victims is a young man, whose new wife soon realizes something is wrong with him.

Director:

Gene Fowler Jr.

Writer:

Louis Vittes

Stars:

Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Peter Baldwin

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tom Tryon	...	Bill Farrell
Gloria Talbott	...	Marge Bradley Farrell
Peter Baldwin	...	Officer Hank Swanson
Robert Ivers	...	Harry Phillips
Chuck Wassil	...	Ted Hanks
Valerie Allen	...	Francine - Hooker
Ty Hardin	...	Mac Brody (as Ty Hungerford)
Ken Lynch	...	Dr. Wayne
John Eldredge	...	Police Capt. H.B. Collins
Alan Dexter	...	Sam Benson
James Anderson	...	Weldon
Jean Carson	...	Helen Rhodes
Jack Orrison	...	Officer Schultz
Steve London	...	Charles Mason
Maxie Rosenbloom	...	Max Grady - Bartender

Storyline

In Norrisville, Bill Farrell leaves his bachelor party on the eve of his marriage with Marge Bradley. He is abducted by an alien that takes his shape and marries Marge on the next day. Marge feels something strange with Bill and one year later she realizes that he is a totally different man. One day, Marge follows Bill and he goes to the woods; she finds that he is an alien and sees his spacecraft. She tries to tell to Washington and to the FBI, but the aliens have dominated key people in town that do not allow any sort of communication with the exterior world. What is the intention of the alien invasion?

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Plot Keywords:

psychotronic film | alien | marriage | planet | outer space | 

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Taglines:

Shuddery things from beyond the stars, here to breed with human women!

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1958 (USA)

Also Known As:

Casei Com um Monstro Espacial

Filming Locations:

Malibou Lake, Agoura, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$175,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

78 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Near the end of the film, the aliens' hand weapon looks remarkably like the one the Klingons used on the original Star Trek (1966), with a shorter barrel.

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Goofs

As Marge leaves Captain Collins' office after her second plea for help, the shadow of dollying camera equipment is visible on the wall and floor.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Woman in Bar: Those guys ain't even giving us a hard look.

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Connections

Featured in It Came from Hollywood (1982)

User Reviews

It's Deeper Than You Think

Another thinly veiled reference to the Communist witch hunt, 'I Married A Monster From Outer Space' is a movie with a cheesy title and a decent story. Aliens have come to Earth to impersonate American men while using a ray-gun on the women (they really don't like hookers). The flip here is that while they ARE taking over the bodies & lives of the men they capture, they're trying to live the way we do. Are they also trying to love? It's almost touching. Even though the classic paranoia sci-fi flick 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' is an obvious influence, the second half is where the two movies diverge. You can almost root for the body snatchers in 'I Married A Monster'.

The B cast never humiliate themselves, but none of them are particularly memorable either. Gene Fowler Jr. (longtime editor, sometime director) leads his actors through the paces in competent fashion. Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott don't cause too many sparks, but they're not really supposed to. Along with the actual subversion of humanity, this is also an allegory for how newlyweds can quickly grow apart and---okay, I'll say it---alienated. And although this movie is classified as horror/sci-fi, the American Film Institute saw fit to nominate it for their list of 400 great American love stories.

Filled with subtext and double-meanings (as so many overlooked B movies are), the flick accomplishes more by saying less. The F/X are about as dated and obvious as such things get, but they weren't perfect in other '50s genre films either. You might laugh at 'I Married A Monster', but you could do much worse for 78 minutes. This can't be said for half the modern movies out there, but you SHOULD look closer at this one.