I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

Marge Bradley Farrell: Your race has no women, it can't have children. It will die out.
Bill Farrell: Eventually we'll have children with you.
Marge Bradley Farrell: What kind of children?
Bill Farrell: Our kind.

Sometimes you get a movie title that just stands out as being different and its even rarer that they turn out to be a pretty good movie.  It was particularly popular among the drive-in’s (you remember those don’t you?) when it was released but ended up taking a back seat to some of the colour features of the day such as The Blob (1958) with Steve McQueen, but nevertheless it was received well.  I like the movie posters from the 40’s and 50’s as they were often quite dramatic especially those from what we would call “Film Noir”.  But here we have a DVD cover that is quite similar in a way to the movie poster which is just plain great.

The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tarantula, It Came from Outer Space, Forbidden Planet, Destination Moon and others from the 50’s sci-fi era often take themselves quite seriously and don’t have the usual comedic fling as you would expect today from such movies.  Also its important to note that in some of these the idea of space travel was unknown as man had not even landed on the moon so some scientific assumptions had to be made like spacecraft shapes in particular for Destination Moon.  Naturally the special effects in many of these 50’s movies are obviously sub-par compared to today but the imagination helps with that and can give the ability to overlook some things.

In the film, Marge (Gloria Talbott) is getting married to her perfect man Bill (Tom Tryon) but just before the wedding something strange happens to him and this becomes evident on their wedding night.  As Marge tries to find a logical reason for the change she gradually realises that more men within her hometown are starting to act a little odd as well.  Who can be trusted?  What is happening to the men?  As she digs deeper a terrifying discovery is made, Bill is not who he says he is!

Gloria Talbott does a great job in portraying her character and Tom Tryon is also good especially when you try to think in his character’s shoes.  How would you act if you were inhabiting an alien’s body in their world?  Can you act how you would from your world or do you somehow try to learn from the creatures you are invading?  Again, like many movies of this era, the message behind the scenes has a lot to do with the communist threat (invaders from certain countries who desire to squash parts of the human experience – feelings, love, faith etc) which just shows the fear that the public were feeling at that time.  

Sadly, as with many of these releases, you can’t always find the DVD’s in the stores no doubt due to an assumed low sales volume, so one must either search on eBay (where I got this Australian release) or for overseas copes (usually USA or the UK).  It appears to be the same as the “Warner Archive” release in America which is just a barebones release with scene selection and the option of English Subtitles but naturally has the Australian rating (odd being a MA 15+ as there is nothing which really warrants that) and barcode.  

The image is in the 1:85:1 aspect ratio so it will fill up those widescreen TV’s, and the quality is really quite good apart from about 5-10 minutes’ worth which appears more damaged than the rest of the film but that aside it looks great for its age and the standard mono sound is adequate as well with the voices being clear and easy to understand.  

Overall, I thought this was quite an enjoyable movie.  Sure it’s not a blockbuster but it’s a solid film that does better than many of similar subjects even today.  The idea is great, though perhaps borrowed from “Invader of the Body Snatchers” that was released just two years before, but it has attacked that idea from a different more personal angle.  It’s a great movie that was well worth the $10 I paid for it and let’s be honest, it would have to be a decent movie with a title like that!  I would recommend the movie particularly for fans of 50’s sci-fi (I’m in this camp!) or for those worried wives who are looking for a source of comfort when their husbands start acting a little weird ☺

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