I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I'll tell you why so serious

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Gene Fowler Jr. directed this silly-sounding science fiction thriller that stars Tom Tryon as a young groom about to be married who is abducted by alien invaders and replaced with one of them, who is made to look just like him. This alien does go on to marry his bride(played by Gloria Talbott) who doesn't like or understand the suddenly cold and passionless change in her man. The aliens don't understand such things, but proceed to replace other people in town, leading to a dog chase finale to their spaceship. Not as silly as its title, with some good direction and alien costumes, but marred by its entirely derivative and predictable plot. Still, a title to remember.

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.

The competition of course is fiercer than the top spot on American Idol. But, in my warped view, I Married a Monster from Outer Space stacks up as the goofiest movie title from an era when goofy movie titles were thicker than scales on Godzilla's monster neck. Naturally, there was a reason for those goofy titles. They immediately signaled "teen movie", which usually meant a drive-in special where teens tended to congregate and waste their allowances. But then, kids at drive-ins didn't expect much from their movies, because (surprise, surprise) they were too busily engaged in their own hormonal development to catch up with more than bits and pieces.Okay, so I didn't see the movie all the way through until years later. But (surprise, surprise, again) it's a really good creepy movie that even adults like. And, I'm told, movie heavyweights catch up with the aliens and their body-snatched humans for all the symbolism they think they see, like "does a marriage ceremony turn all husbands into unromantic zombies". I guarantee no teen of the time saw anything on screen other than a good scary movie.Anyway, I liked Gloria Talbott then and still do, especially when she runs around in her low- cut nightgown, chest heaving. However, I think she made a really bad life choice running into Slapsie-Maxie's all night bar in that same gown since it sort of gives the male barflies wrong ideas. But then, she's not getting any romance at home because her hubby Tom Tryon is, shall we say-- not of this earth. No, instead he's been taken over by a creeping gas cloud that dissolves people for later reassembly in, you guessed it, a space ship. Talk about bad gas! On the other hand, I was really turned off by that scene where the popsicle monster gazes at the doll baby in the window because you know what he/she/it /whatever is thinking. I don't think sex ed' in highschool prepares you for what to do in case of a randy space creature.So, all in all, this is a good, even if slightly kinky, movie that manages to come up with some interesting ideas. Too bad I don't know what they paid dear Gloria, but whatever it was, she deserved a lot more. She's that good. But pity poor Tom Tryon. He had difficulty giving up his zombie act even in movies where he was supposed to be human. So, being the really smart guy he was, he put down the actor's part and picked up the writer's pen and became a best-selling author. Okay!— so maybe the bad gas was not that bad after all. Anyway, if you haven't caught up yet with this slice of 1950's nonsense, please do. It's even good enough to watch all the way through.

I wasn't overly thrilled with this paranoia thriller. The slow paced meandering storyline really never goes far and takes the whole movie to get there. Aliens, who cannot breath our atmosphere decide to take over small town America so they can find a way to breed our women. Unfortunately a whole three-quarters of the movie concerns Gloria Talbot learning that her husband, played by Tom Tryon, is an alien.The pace was too slow with too much time spent on the wife discovering that her husband is not the man she married. (in movie time it takes her over a year to discover the truth) By slow pace I don't mean a lack of action scenes, I mean that for one, the actors move unnaturally slow on screen. There are times when an actor will start a scene normally and abruptly slow in midstep as if reminded off camera to slow down. I also mean that the things that do happen lack substance for the most part, scenes of the alien demonstrating his superior strength by crushing a can or glass. The music is thankfully sparse since when they do play music it often contradicts the mood on screen... light upbeat music during tense, suspenseful moments confuses the mood. The motivation behind the invasion is kept from the audience for most of the movie, I think it was meant to be a shocking reveal and it probably was in the 50's but audiences now will be too jaded. The ending picks up a bit but it's rather late in the movie, by which point Tom Tryon's wooden acting, pouting facial expression, slow movements and slow dialog had worn me out.With no tension, no drama and little suspense I recommend skipping I Married a Monster from Outer Space and watching or rewatching any one of the better sci-fi films of the fifties.