FORGOTTEN FILM: I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (1958)

Forgotten Films: I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958)

This is the 57th in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films

I like a good invasion film and some bad ones also. I remember seeing John Carradine in INVISIBLE INVADERS when I was eight. Bad, bad film so I only saw it twice in the theaters. But somehow I had always missed this week’s title, one of the good invasion films.

I know one of the reasons was that I frequently got it confused with Jacques Tourneur’s retelling of JANE EYRE, the fabulous I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE. I know they have nothing to do with each other and their only connection is women marrying strange men and the fact that Tom Tryon acted like a zombie for much of this film.

So I sat down expecting to remember this film and found that I had never seen it. Classic story line – man on way home from bachelor party runs over mannequin in the road. Stops to check it out, gets absorbed by funky smoke and is never the same. New wife is suspicious and paranoid (with good reason!) and tries to find out what is going on. The aliens know she is on to them but they cannot seem to just kill her. (I guess that would have made it a relatively short film). Besides, they want to mate with human women (Shades of HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP!). Unfortunately alien biology has not yet cracked that DNA. They can smoke and talk like humans but seem unable to reproduce or drink alcohol (which makes the local bartender suspicious since these guys were all regular lushes before).

Decent story, cheap effects, wonderful histrionics! Gloria Talbott worked for many years in Hollywood and is pretty good as Marge, the title character. She gets to wear lots of tight fitting clothes and ugly sleepwear. Tom Tryon had done some film and a lot of TV prior to this one. He later went on to star in THE CARDINAL for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe. He later wrote some fairly decent horror novels (THE OTHER and HARVEST HOME). He did the producing and writing for THE OTHER which certainly would be one of my Forgotten Films if I had a copy to watch again.

This one holds up relatively well and is not that long (77 or 78 minutes depending on who you consult). The aliens are a little cheesy looking but better than many other films. I had a good time with this one. I just checked Amazon and eBay. On Amazon you can stream the film for under $3. If you want to own it on a disc, the price is significantly higher. Only 3 DVD’s on eBay running from the $40 range to $100. I did not realize this was so pricey. You might check Netflix and see if it is available there. (It is!) Or, like me. You can be a used one from your local Blockbuster for $4.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.