Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott are about to be married, but Tom is stopped by a nasty-looking alien while on the way back from his bachelor party (hey, at least the creature didn't pop out of a cake) and is sucked into a glowing black cloud! That makes him late for his wedding, but it's okay 'cause it's not really him anyhow, it's a space monster that just LOOKS like him, except when lightning flashes. Then he looks like the space monster again. Anyway, the monster has absorbed Tom's memories, except he doesn't know where his car's headlight switch is. Which matters not, since the space alien can see in the dark (although, later on, when we see inside the spaceship, the interior of the craft has floodlights all over it. Hmmmm).
As the months roll on, Gloria begins to fret over the fact that she and Tom have no children, and consults a doctor, who shows her an x-ray of her hip and explains that this clearly shows that she should have no trouble conceiving a child. Also, Tom has stopped drinking and sells insurance. So Gloria, suspicious, follows him to his spaceship.
Lets just skip to the chase: the aliens are taking over the menfolk and trying to impregnate women because all the women on their planet died. Well, no wonder, on a planet of non-drinking insurance salesmen - they must've been bored to death. The space guys, who have yet to figure out a way to actually impregnate earth gals ("Wait -- my WHAT goes WHERE?!?!?") forget to take over the town doctor, however, and Gloria convinces him of the reality of the situation. He then walks into the hospital's maternity ward and recruits the 10 guys he finds standing there pacing around in anticipation for their children to be born, deducing that since they've, um, managed to perform nature's little miracle of whoopie, they can't be space aliens. Only 10 guys? Must be a slow night in the maternity ward.
In the end, the dads-to-be and the doctor attack the ship with their German shepherds and battle the space aliens to the death.
All kidding aside, this movie's one of our favorites. It should be mandatory wedding-night viewing for all Balcony newlyweds.
Ms. Talbott is very sexy in a 1950ish, pointed brassiere, razor-thin eyebrows kind of way, and Mr. Tryon shows why he soon gave up acting to be a writer.
Million-dollar Dialog:
"I'll say one thing for humans: they may not be very bright and their bodies fall apart in a ridiculously short period of time, but they DO manage to enjoy themselves."
The best things about the movie are (a) its crisp black-and-white photography; it looks terrific, much better than most low budget films of the time; and (b) the special effects, which for once are actually special! The black clouds which envelope the men are suitably creepy, and the space aliens, despite the fact that they seem to have ping-pong balls in their mouths, are genuinely scary (they even glow in the dark!).
Paramount released a pedestrial DVD of this title way back when (and re-released it last year) but has licensed the title as part of the new Imprint line of Blu-rays from Australia (along with a pack of other Paramount films, including two other sci-fi classics, The War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide). The Blu-ray of this title is much better than the DVD, but no restoration has been done and the film could've used some - there is damage about half way in, and speckles throughout. For a low-budget shocker with a 10¢ title, though, we didn't expect an expensive upgrade, and the film basically looks fine and the sound just booms out of our speakers - very impressive. Audio commentary by Barry Forshaw and Kim Newman is terrific, not so much an in-depth, minute look at the film as a general overall conversation about the picture, its principals, and 1950s science fiction in general (I really wasn't prepared for a discussion of I Married a Monster from Outer Space vs. Robot Monster). They agree (and so do I) that this is a very good picture, though, one of the more memorable 1950s monster pictures. Other extras include the trailer and an extensive photo gallery with dozens of vintage stills.
We loved this release.
