I Married a Monster from Outer Space

Some of those sci-fi movies from the '50s linger in the memory because of the way they dramatize our most personal fears. "The Incredible Shrinking Man," for example, plays upon a man's fear of becoming weak and inadequate. "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" deals with a woman's fear of entering into a relationship which proves disappointing or even disturbing. (Some say the movie is a disguised account of a woman's marriage to a gay man.) I'm not sure I'd call the resulting movie a "classic," but its quiet, moody, and compassionate quality clearly puts it above most of the noisy, special-effects extravaganzas of today.

Gloria Talbot is both persuasive and appealing as the puzzled but faithful wife. (None of the shallow, comic-book character of Lara Croft here!) And the almost-too-good-to-be-true looks of the sexually-ambiguous Tom Tryon are put to effective use as the husband. As usual, the film's makers find an excuse to get his shirt off so we can get another look at that much-photographed torso. In this same scene, you'll also spot a bare-chested Ty Hungerford, just before he changed his name to "Ty Hardin" and became "Bronco" on the TV series. (And no, there's nothing sexually ambiguous about Ty.) Curiously, both men are included in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies." Hardin's flogging in a "Bronco" episode ranks 26th and Tryon's whipping in "The Cardinal" ranks 46th.