I Married A Monster from Outer Space (1958) 78m
Posted by Solomon on 7/23/2019, 11:54 am
This sci-fi movie has a great leading role for Gloria Talbott. She's the "I" in the title and the story revolves largely around her and her discovery that her husband (Tom Tryon) is a replacement, a body duplicate housing a monster from the Andromeda galaxy, 2.537 million light years from our beloved Earth. It looks like a monster to us but it's intelligent and male, the females having died off. It lacks emotions, but a few days of inhabiting even a duplicate begins to change that situation. Actually there's a fleet of space ships waiting to land if their pilot program works out. It doesn't, but their poignant predicament of a dying race plays off against the evident relief of the human beings who've won this battle. The special effects are very, very good. No CGI needed, none asked for. No Independence Day, this.
Gloria acquits herself with courage, coolness, and brains throughout her ordeal. In effect, she saves the human race! Give some credit also to man's best friend, several dogs, and to common folk armed with their Second Amendment pistols and rifles. They need to do their own defense because their police have been taken over, communications sealed and roads blocked. We see nary a state or federal man or woman in sight. We Americans can find a way even against monsters armed with ray guns that dissolve anything into a pile of random atoms.
Is this sci-fi noir? At least one reviewer says so: "Gene Fowler, Jr. directs the film as if it were a film noir where the usual gangsters and bank robbers have been replaced by humanoid aliens who don’t like dogs." https://moviesandmania.com/2018/10/13/i-married-a-monster-from-outer-space-review-movie-film-sci-fi-horror-1958-overview-cast-plot/
I read that the high priests of the noir cult actually consider "Them" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as film noirs. If so, why not this one?
The title doesn't reflect the intelligence and depth of this movie. It looks great in its 1.85:1 aspect ratio and sharp b/w images.
Re: I Married A Monster from Outer Space (1958) 78m
Posted by Don Malcolm on 7/24/2019, 3:48 pm, in reply to "Re: I Married A Monster from Outer Space (1958) 78m"
Noir, "woman in distress" category. The answer to the question "what happened to the woman in distress noir in the 1950s?" is answered by the cross-pollination of noir readymades into science fiction plots. It all fits in with the coarsening of noir elements that proceeds in the 50s as Hollywood looks for a way to express its terror and dismay not just about the Cold War and nuclear angst, but the repressive ethos dominating America during that decade.
Responses