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I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958)


Cast:

Tom Tryon is Bill Farrell
Gloria "I was in the classy Leech Woman" Talbott is Marge Bradley Farrell
Peter "How'd I direct the Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island?" Baldwin is Officer Frank Swanson
Robert Ivers is Harry Phillips
Chuck Wassil is Ted Hanks


What the IMDB says about the plot:

Aliens from Outer Space are slowly switching places with real humans -- one of the first being a young man about to get married. Slowly, his new wife realizes something is wrong, and her suspicions are confirmed when her husband's odd behaviour begins to show up in other townspeople.


Plot:

Bill Farrell leaves a bar after celebrating his last night of singularity before getting betrothed the next day. However, on the way home, he is captured by an alien.

Pardon me, but can you tell me what time it is?

For the last time, I'm not a glow in the dark Swamp Thing
The next day, Marge is waiting for Bill who's late. He does show up but is acting slightly off. He seems to be able to drive at night without headlights. However, at the hotel, Marge just puts these incidents away.


If only, I could find any of the pig faced aliens from that Twilight Zone episode..

The aliens keep capturing more guys.

1 year later, Marge wonders why she isn't full of vim, vigor, and a bun in her oven.


You want me to have a vacant look on my face, I don't understand what you're saying...
Doctor Wayne has checked her out and concludes she's fine. Later Marge gets a dog for Bill as anniversary gift. However, the dog doesn't like Bill who later chokes the canine.

Bill meets some of his other alien imposters. Aliens are still converting more men including the police.

Bill takes a walk. Marge follows him to the UFO. She immediately figures something is wrong. Running back to town, she gets taken to the chief of police, her godfather. He offers to help and convinces her not to alarm Bill. Guess what? The chief is an alien, too.

A number of aliens hang out at the bar.


That Mr. Spock is ruining it for the rest of us aliens...
Apparently, the aliens are waiting for their scientists to be able to breed with the females. The bartender isn't happy with the guys sitting around and not boozing it up like they used to do. He tries punching them but they are able to shrug past the blows.

At a picnic, one of Bill's friends falls into the lake. The paramedics try to revive him but oxygen is fatal to the aliens.

Chief tries to calm Marge down. She tries to call Washington, send a telegram to the FBI, and even tries to drive out of the valley. Nothing works, she's trapped.

Finally, she admits to Bill she knows he isn't Bill. He explains how his people left their planet but all their women died. The aliens didn't have any kind of emotions before impersonating as humans.

Later, Marge tells Dr. Wayne about the aliens. He agrees to help her and gathers a posse.

Bill demands to know who she got to believe her. The posse head into the woods looking for the UFO. They open fire on the aliens. Nothing seems to stop the aliens until the hunting dogs tear into them.

The posse reaches the UFO and finds the imprisoned men.


The world never understood why aliens want to kidnap the Kingsmen...
They start to disconnect the men which makes each of the alien imposters to disappear. The Chief reports the mission failed to the alien fleet and to head for another galaxy.

Alien Bill talks about emotions as human Bill is released. Alien Bill dissolves. Marge sees the real Bill. Everyone gets away from the UFO before it explodes. The alien fleet passes by Earth.


What I say:

The 1950s sci-fi movie is the simply unforgettable genre. The classic movies like Invaders From Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers are few and far between compared to bad ones like Killers From Space and laughable Plan 9 From Outer Space.

We all expected after the Star Wars effects from the late 1970s to the 1980s or the computer generated drowned movies of the 1990s. The 1950s had the cheaply made with the pie plate flying saucer, the conquering aliens, the futile last ditch effort to repel the aliens which just barely works. Even with those, they also had the incredible Ray Harryhausen stop-motion effects in Earth Vs the Flying Saucers.

Normally, directors don't get mentioned except when they've done something memorable. However, what movie could be much more memorable than Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla , Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory? If you guessed I Married a Monster From Outer Space, you have earned the sacred Second Degee Wisconsin Drinking Ninjapprentice. However, intellectual types love to turn their noses up at movies with such schlocky names.

We have the married couple where the wife starts to realize that there is something strange about her husband. For all but only a couple of scenes we don't have anything but the aliens inhabiting human-analogs. Just guys acting strange mainly they're no-longer party animals. It is nice to know men who don't drink must be invading extraterrestrials. Bill acts awfully cold and standoffish. Of course, him choking a puppy doesn't make him as heartwarming as ET.

Sci-fi movies can always have the hidden messages that can slip by. Invasion of the Body Snatchers always had the idea that the aliens represented the "Red Scare" of communism or McCarthyism. However, the fact that the aliens here possess men who become boring drones to their wives. Though, finding any other movie from the 50s with such a bleak portrayal of marriage would be rare.



3 1/2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"Mother, stop that dirge."
"Walls of Troy have fallen."
"The puppy's dead."
"I've just seen a monster."
"Funny thing, she doesn't look like a lush."
"I've devolped an allergy to alcohol."
"Does frightening women make you proud?"


Morals of the Story

Blood alcohol drinking limited was higher in the 1950s.
Bridegrooms can see in the dark.
Dogs can sense extraterrestrials.
Aliens don't love cocktails.
Aliens hate black cats.
Maternity ward waiting room is a recruiting station.


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