Don’t the goofy title fool you. This entertaining and tense little thriller from 1958 is a lot better than the title suggests.
Newly married Marge Farrell (Gloria Talbott) starts noticing something is wrong with her husband Bill (Tom Tryon). He’s acting cold, distant and even his beloved dogs notice something is up. Marge notices that Bill isn’t the only man in town acting strange. She follows Bill one night and finds him walking to a space ship where an alien leaves his Bill suit and enters the ship!
Marge confronts “Bill” who informs her that he is part of a race of aliens that have lost all the women and have come to Earth to mate with Earth women and save their species. Naturally Marge is horrified by the prospect of freaky alien babies. She tries to warn the town but finds most of the men have been replaced by aliens. Finally her doctor believes her story but is it too late?
Director Gene Fowler Jr.’s biggest movie hit was 1957’s cheesy I Was a Teenage Werewolf. I Married a Monster from Outer Space is vastly superior to that film. While it’s kind of rehashing of Invasion of the Body Snatchers Cold War paranoia it adds a whole sexual angst theme to the proceedings along with concerns about “the American family”. Marge wants a baby and her marriage was her dream come true until she finds out the aliens’ plot. The film is dark, shadowy, thrilling and entertaining despite that goofy title.
