"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" gets a pleasant enough rehash in this entertaining schlock picture. It stars actor turned author Tom Tryon ("The Cardinal") as Bill Farrell, a newlywed insurance agent who's the first of many small town citizens to have their bodies taken over by aliens. His wife Marge (Gloria Talbott, "The Cyclops") notices that he and other locals have begun to act strangely. Marge soon wonders if there is anybody in the town that she can trust.The aliens are treated with a fairly even hand. They're never portrayed as out and out monsters (invasion doesn't really seem to be their goal), but they still have no compunction about killing. The movie, produced & directed by low budget genre specialist Gene Fowler, Jr. ("I Was a Teenage Werewolf") is certainly not without substance, exploring some of the same themes - like paranoia, and the appearance / imitation of humanity - as "Body Snatchers" did so well two years previously. It's also not without its cheesy charms, as could be expected. The special effects may look awfully crude to some modern viewers, but they're damn entertaining to watch, and the monsters in their natural guise thankfully don't look quite like anything else that this viewer has seen in this genre.The supporting cast features a couple of familiar faces, like Ty Hardin ('Bronco'), Ken Lynch ("Anatomy of a Murder"), John Eldredge ("High Sierra"), James Anderson ("To Kill a Mockingbird"), and boxer turned actor Maxie Rosenbloom ("The Boogie Man Will Get You"). The actors all do a decent enough job, with the very pretty and appealing Talbott making for a compelling heroine. You can't help but feel bad for her, and you do root for her.The idea of "what it means to be human" is common enough in this sort of entertainment, and that also comes into play. The movie has a reasonably fun action climax and an effective forward pace.Seven out of 10.

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.

If I had seen the little-known actors Gloria Talbott and Tom Tryon in a movie titled "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" in 1958, I very likely would not have gone to see it because of the title. However, to ignore this movie is cheating oneself, since it's a dark, creepy, and altogether enjoyable sci-fi about an alien invasion.Bill Ferrell (Tryon) is out drinking before his wedding day, and is overcome by a mysterious dark cloud. Now controlled by aliens, he marries Marge (Talbott) and is determined to populate the earth with alien babies. There's something wrong with the aliens though, and they can't breed with earth women. Soon many of the town's men are also controlled by the aliens, and Marge can't call, telegraph, or even leave town with the dreadful news. Eventually the local doctor (Ken Lynch) has the bright idea to recruit "real human men" among new dads at the local maternity ward, and the aliens are defeated in a pitched battle outside of town.This film has an abundance of wonderful vignettes: a local B-girl tries to pick up one of the aliens; a gangster (James Anderson) is lurking around the Ferrell's house and is eliminated by alien-controlled policemen; an alien-controlled man dies when he is given oxygen by paramedics after an accident; a local bartender punches Bill Ferrell on the jaw repeatedly with no effect; and of course the human men overcome the aliens in the climactic battle in a forest.The special effects are truly good for 1958, and Tryon--who usually had the acting range of a statue--is very convincing. I think Talbott gave the performance of her career, as the woman who is trapped with aliens and has no way out. This film was also the high water mark for character actor Alan Dexter, who convincingly plays a sinister alien. Highly recommended, despite the title.

I had always been interested in this modest sci-fi effort whose legendary catchpenny title has turned into a cult. The film is one of several made during this time revolving around an alien takeover theme (the most famous example, obviously, being Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS [1956]); its plot, then, is in the same 'paranoid' vein – and, while the end result isn't exactly comparable, it's nonetheless effective when taken on its own terms.The aliens – shown only intermittently throughout (exposed for what they are, for instance, during thunderstorms!) – are pleasingly weird creations: needless to say, their scenes provide the requisite chills (particularly a gratuitous encounter between one of them, wearing a raincoat and seen staring blankly at a shop window[!], and a bar floozie). While generally undercast, Tom Tryon and Gloria Talbott (from Edgar G. Ulmer's delightfully wacky DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL [1957]) handle the tension which slowly builds between their characters adequately enough, and also featured is Peter Baldwin (later of LA DONNA DEL LAGO aka THE POSSESSED [1965], which I've recently watched and been impressed by) as a police officer. Predictably, when the heroine realizes her husband's true nature and turns to the authorities for help, they've already been 'replaced'; interestingly, the 'old' bodies are kept in the spaceship attached to a machine – which, when switched off, kills the aliens instantly (another way to dispose of them is by severing a tube in their 'make-up', after which they're reduced to blobs of oozing goo)! Having watched this soon after THE CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS (1962), it bears a strikingly similar ploy by which the monsters intend to mate with humans in order to keep their dying race alive! Though they try to explain the reason behind their mission, the aliens are still depicted as essentially villainous – so that their ultimate decimation (amusingly, at the hands of a bunch of prospective fathers rallied from a hospital maternity ward!) is inevitable. For the record, the film (ostensibly projected in a Widescreen ratio of 1.78:1) appeared stretched to full-frame in the DivX copy I acquired – which was then fixed by switching my TV viewing mode to the 16:9 format