Very Cool!!!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Wow what a title, "I Married a Monster from Outer Space"! But as with other reviewers, I must agree that this movie really isn't nearly as bad as its title. It has many elements which will remind you of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - aliens take over the local people of small-town rural America, but you wouldn't know it because they take human forms. In this case, the aliens seem to like newly wed couples, and they are working on a way to successfully breed with humans to populate Earth with their species. For some reason, they completely ignore the local bar floozies who try to bed with them... hmmm... Of course, one astute young housewife realizes that not all is right in her marriage and in Morrisville, and she investigates. Don't let the title fool you into thinking it's an Ed Wood-style disaster because it isn't. It's definitely worth watching.

The complications of a most very unusual marriage..a young bride is unknowingly betrothed to a man whose body is host to an alien from another constellation. The alien race needs women to procreate their species or face extinction due to the fact that their sun which destroyed their planet.Solid sci-fi from director Gene Fowler, Jr(I Was a Teenage Werewolf)stars Gloria Talbott as Marge, recently married to Bill Farrell(Tom Tryon), noticing that he's not acting the same before their blessed union. In fact, she discovers, to her horror, that Bill has been taken over by an alien who has invaded his body. Attempting to tell others becomes difficult because many local men in town themselves have become victims as well. Can Marge find anybody to help her? Is Bill lost to the alien forever? Will the aliens succeed in their mission to impregnate females for procreation purposes? Essentially a sci-fi melodrama, I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE is far more mature, intelligent, and literate than the hokey title would suggest, especially well acted by it's competent cast, particularly Talbott who so desperately wants to communicate what she knows regarding the alien threat, yet getting her message out becomes a trial. Talbott conveys to us, impressively I think, the burden such a knowledge has on her character. Meticulously paced, perhaps too leisurely for some;almost like an extended Twilight Zone episode. I'm afraid serious sci-fi fans may be put off by the title(..which I adore by the way;thanks to the title, it remained on my "to see" list until Turner Classics recently showed it)and miss out on a really good movie. I'm attracted to the "body snatching" science fiction very popular during this time, and I think I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE is a classic example of the quality pictures that derived from the canon. Taking the material seriously, Fowler Jr directs the film(..as well as the cast's acting)with a minimalist approach.What was most fascinating to me was seeing Bill's alien(..he and his drinking buddies, also taken over)attempting to coexist(..adapt)to human society, discovering what it was to feel, to love. The aliens subdue the humans, forming a gaseous cloud over the bodies, placing the hosts in their ship while they move about taking their positions in life. Another development is their friction with animals(..particularly canines)who can tell they are not us. Really cool is how canines actually help us where bullets from guns can not. A nice little trick which informs the viewer that certain characters are under alien control is the imprint of the creature's faces overlapping the humans during lightning flashes in thunderstorms.

It's always cool to run across a picture as absurdly titled as "I Married a Monster From Outer Space", and even better when the picture turns out to be a whole lot better than the expectation it created. This wouldn't necessarily be everyone's cup of tea, but for schlock sci-fi movie fans of the era, this one has a nice balance of primitive alien horror effects and a story that that provides food for thought even after it's over.One of the things I noticed though as the picture progressed, there wasn't any thought of continuity in the way the aliens took over their human hosts. When Bill Farrell (Tom Tryon) is confronted by the alien early in the picture, the black cloud (nice touch) that envelops him leaves him collapsed up against his car. Later, when Bill's drinking buddy Sam is attacked, the black cloud makes the human disappear but leaves his clothes. Finally, when the beat cop becomes victim number three, he disappears altogether! I don't know about you, but I like to see my monster continuity maintained.There were a couple of other things that fascinated me as well - like how did alien Bill know where to drive for his honeymoon destination? - wife Marge (Gloria Talbott) was asleep for half the trip! Speaking of Marge, what do you think might have possessed her to walk up to Bill right after seeing him emit the black cloud and have the exchange with the alien and the space ship? I don't think I would have been that curious to investigate if I had just seen something like that.But here's some really curious points to ponder. When the aliens took over the human bodies, they developed an aversion to alcohol; now there's an interesting subtext. Also, when the police aliens confronted the man from the bar stalking Marge, they rejected taking his body because he was a 'criminal type'! That has to say something about how discriminating they were, don't you think?Coming as it did during the Cold War era, "I Married a Monster From Outer Space" has been offered as another example of anti-Communist propaganda. I don't know, I think it's a real stretch to go for that analysis, even with the us vs. them, human vs. alien plot elements. You can decide later on that score, but first enjoy the movie.

Maligned by many for its title, but recognised by most as a movie whose depth, entertainment value and chilling moments certainly belie the triteness of the title. Personally, I think it's a great title; it's like the teenagers from the 'I was a teenage…' movies have grown up and are ready for marriage only to discover that there are even greater threats than werewolves and patchwork monsters to contend with. Basically, male shape – shifting aliens whose females died out subsequent to a planetary catastrophe have infiltrated a small American town by assuming the appearances and to some extent the characters of local young men with a view to eventually altering female DNA to allow them to bare their offspring. The story focuses for the most part on the plight of newlywed Marge Farrell (Gloria Talbott) whose husband Bill (Tom Tryon) is abducted by aliens of the eve of their wedding and replaced by one of them who initially seems like a perfect copy but whose true nature is gradually revealed as Marge's fears and paranoia deepen in a clever commentary on how well we really know people. But there's a lot more to it than that; you really need to check it out to see how good it is. Gloria Talbott is great as Marge; her deepening crises as she proceeds through feelings of confusion, doubt, fear, acceptance and, ultimately, recognition of her role in the survival of the 'human' species (be it under threat from aliens or communists depending on your perspective) are all expertly conveyed and seem to improve with subsequent viewings. Tom Tyron is OK as Bill and does manage to express a kind of detachment that suits the 'not quite there' nature of the character. Gene Fowler's direction is fine, except for the day for night work which is unpardonably bad, and John Fulton's special effects are great for the time and include such highlights as laser beams and really disgusting melting effects for the eerily glowing aliens. And what about those aliens! For my money they are simply the best aliens of the 1950s… big, ugly, and glowing yet trying to get to grips with the complexities of being human! Stephen King when describing the aliens faces called them 'runnelled and knotted and warty', elsewhere they've simply been described as 'rhubarb like', although one critic dismissed them as 'risible' (perhaps he was watching the 'pompous ass' cut of the film; I'm sure that critics see a different version of these movies than the rest of us!) and they are all of these things and more, depending on how you look at them.Some of the themes are interesting even today. Modern day ufologists for example will be very familiar with alien abduction accounts and the notion of emotionless extraterrestrials attempting to cross breed with humans, a fairly unusual perspective in the 1950s which from the UFO viewpoint was dominated by the contactee movement. The viewer may also find themselves experiencing mixed feelings towards the aliens. You can easily understand why they want to keep their species going and can to some extent sympathise with their confusion over human emotions but it's hard to reconcile those feelings with the ruthlessness with which they attempt to achieve their goals. Having said that, I had no qualms about them killing the sleazy bar fly who was stalking Marge but did feel some pity when the hooker got zapped!Whatever way you decide to view this movie, it is, in my opinion, an absolute gem and fully deserving of 'classic' status. For some reason it doesn't appear to be available on DVD in the UK, so I am having to rely on my battered and worn old VHS copy taped years ago when the TV channels here still had the balls to show mad old movies but, if you do get the chance to check it out I'm sure you'll agree that this is 1950s American sci fi at its absolute best!