WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: I Married a Monster from Outer Space 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.519 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:16.680 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:19.960 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House Cinema, 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.600 we're going to be talking about the nineteen fifty eight 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.880 sci fi horror movie I Married a Monster from Outer Space, 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.680 directed by longtime Hollywood film editor Gene Fowler Junior, starring 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.920 Gloria Talbot and Tom Tryan spoiler warning. As always, I 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:38.559 figure we should put that right at the top. If 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.840 you're new to this show. We always end up talking 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:45.720 about the plot in some pretty extreme detail. So if 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.560 you want to go into this movie unspoiled, go check 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.000 it out. Now. I know it's a few decades late 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.120 now on that, but you know you still have the 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:54.880 chance if you want to pause here and go watch 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.400 the movie. I don't know where the best place to 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:01.600 start is, but maybe with the title I Married a 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.679 Monster from Outer Space that the wordiness of the title 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:07.840 really catches up with you when you're like typing it 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:11.640 a lot in the notes. It's one of those fifties 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:17.360 movies with an overly descriptive title, and yet unlike a 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:19.840 lot of these movies with really wordy titles. It's not 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.400 misleading like It Conquered the World. This one is wordy, 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.800 but as a plot summary, it's right on the money. 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.680 Yeah, this is exactly how it goes down. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.280 Yeah. So the story is about a young woman named 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.480 Marge who begins to suspect that her very hunky new 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.880 husband Bill may actually be an alien in disguise, and 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.720 he is. This was a new movie for me. I 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:46.640 just saw it for the first time over the weekend. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.160 I watched it with Rachel, and I was really pleasantly surprised. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:54.160 I kind of picked it because, for one thing, because 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.760 of the funny title, and also because you know, I'd 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.280 read some people online saying it was worth a look. 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.440 I thought it was actually really good. There are definitely 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.480 some dated and goofy elements, and I'm excited to talk 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:08.840 about those as well. One of the funniest parts of 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.519 it being that you can literally never tell what time 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.359 it's supposed to be in the movie, because it's obviously 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.760 the middle of the night. Characters are asleep and they 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.360 get up out of bed and leave the house, but 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:23.200 it's shot in broad daylight. But the movie really does 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.520 hit hard on multiple levels. I think it's got a 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:30.679 quite strong script with pretty tight plotting that is smart 0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.400 and interesting in several ways that we can talk about 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.760 as we go on. I think has really good central performances, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.959 especially by Gloria Talbot and Tom Tryan. It has some 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.239 fantastic for the time visual effects. I'm thinking particularly of 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:50.400 the blooming smoke which steals men's souls. And I really 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:52.519 like the creature suits that we see as well. The 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.800 heads are somehow a combination of the Darth Vader helmet 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.239 with a cypress root. Paul It's kind of radiation suit 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:03.600 meets a vascular plant. So this all comes together and 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.520 makes for I think a really effective little film. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.080 Absolutely, Yeah, I Married a Monster from Outer Space is 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.720 really solid. My first exposure to this movie, as with 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:18.120 a lot of classic B movies, came via nineteen eighty 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.600 two's It Came from Hollywood, which, well, if you're not 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.520 familiar with it, it was a clip field celebration of 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:29.840 classic Hollywood weirdness and some classic Hollywood awfulness with mild 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:34.200 riffing and some comedic skits by Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.960 Cheech and Chong and then Gilda Radner they're all to 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.200 varying degrees very funny. No, not all the humors as 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.000 aged super well, but a lot of it is still 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.920 pretty solid, I do. 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:47.920 As far as the riffing goes, I don't think you 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.080 can do much better than we just sprayed for brains 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:51.800 last week. 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.480 Yeah, there's some good riffing in here, pre msd riffing. 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.320 But there were some clips from I Married a Monster 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.080 from Outer Space in it came from Hollywood, and the 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.320 monsters like really resonating. You're being bombarded with all these 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.920 different space monsters during these segments of this film. But 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.920 there was something about these that really stood out, this 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.880 kind of something about the sublime melding of black and 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.760 white photographic effects, solid costume work really had that kind 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:25.599 of classic Outer limits vibe to the creatures and so 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.760 much later on. I don't even remember when exactly I 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.679 did seek it out and I watched it in full, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.200 but it was it wasn't as dedicated to viewing as 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.000 I gave it this week. So I remember watching it, 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.520 digging the effects and being like, oh, yeah, these effects 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:42.680 are really good, maybe laughing at some of the outdated elements, 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.800 but this time around, yeah, I thought the special effects 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.160 absolutely held up, but I was even more impressed with 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.440 everything else, particularly the lead performances and its thoughtful sci 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:58.160 fi treatment of distance and alienation within a married relationship. 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.960 Yeah, I would agree with all of that. Now, I 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.720 did want to talk about the movie's title a little 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:07.240 bit more, because it is not just wordy or overly descriptive. 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.640 It's actually an example of a recurring format. It's kind 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:17.000 of a meme title style, this confessional title that starts 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.160 with the word I. Other examples being things like I 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.200 was a shoplifter or I was a teenage werewolf, which 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.279 is actually was by the same director as today's movie. 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.320 It was from the year before. So I got interested 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.279 in this and I was looking to see if anybody 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.239 had written about where this meme title format originally came from. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.640 And I found an interesting analysis in an article it's 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.840 actually about this film about I Married a Monster from 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:48.599 outer Space on Turner Classic Movies by Richard Harlan Smith, 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:54.440 and Smith explains as follows quote. Tabloid magazines enjoyed a 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.560 veritable golden age in the United States after the Second 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.160 World War, at a time when economic prosperity wetted. A 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:05.680 ravening national appetite for gossip, whether the subjects were unfortunate 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:10.960 nobody's or celebrity scandal magnets. Americans appreciated having the inside 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.520 scoop or the illusion thereof, particularly when spilled first person 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:21.000 singular within the pages of confidential whisper or the National Inquirer. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.920 In Hollywood, the movies began to reflect this voyeuristic bent 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.920 with brazenly confessional titles along the lines of I was 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:32.000 a criminal from nineteen forty five, I was a male 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.840 warbride nineteen forty nine, and I was a shoplifter nineteen fifty. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.680 So Smith is arguing here that it begins in nineteen 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.880 forties tabloids and gossip magazines. It's this phrasing that offers 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:50.000 a kind of lurid intimacy, like I'm going to tell 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.159 you a secret and it's going to be shocking. So 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.880 first it is a type of tabloid headline, and then 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.239 that format, or that sensibility at least, is brought over 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.120 into the marketing of films. So Smith goes on to 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.479 say that over time these I was a something films 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:14.200 tend to become more shocking and also more specific, and 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.760 they really start to focus on Weird Secrets about or 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.720 from within a marriage quote. In nineteen forty two, both 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.720 I Married an Angel and I Married a Witch posited 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:31.679 happy fantasy unions of humans and otherworldly creatures of uncommon beauty. 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.400 By the end of the decade, however, the mood had 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:38.680 darkened considerably, though their titles would be changed for theatrical release. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.560 I Married a Communist aka the woman on Peer thirteen 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.400 from nineteen forty nine. That's a film noir. And also 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.400 I Married a dead Man aka no Man of her 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:54.680 Own from nineteen fifty broached a connubial incompatibility of epic proportions, 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.760 a marital malaise that reached its apotheosis in nineteen fifty 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.480 eight with I Married a Monster from outer Space. 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.280 Yeah. Yeah, this whole legacy of I Married a blank film, 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.120 it's pretty fascinating. I did read that I Married a 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.240 Communist was the initial title for Peer thirteen, then the 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.400 kind of the woman from on Peer thirteen, and then the kind. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:13.840 Of backed off of it. 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.320 I guess audiences didn't like it as much, but but 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.800 in general, like you can definitely see the power of it. 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.840 You know, this this kind of the bait is that 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.040 there's a. You know, the will the would be filmgoer 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.280 is gonna have to contemplate the change and identity within 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:32.280 the confines of a married relationship. Uh, in a kind 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:35.560 of promisingly evocative way. So like that sweet loving person 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.520 that I married, Oops, they're actually a dracula, They're actually 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.640 a franket, stuff, and so forth. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.760 Yeah, you can see why it's a successful pitch. It 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.640 packages a lot into a few words. It Uh, it 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.760 implies automatically relationship stakes and drama, human drama. Like you 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.240 can see how there I married a blank always seems 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:01.959 to imply surprise of some kind, which implies deception, which 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.120 you know, is something that the characters are going to 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.760 have to work through. So that's guaranteed drama on the 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:10.880 front end. And then also, of course I'm married a whatever. 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.479 Even if it's not going to be explicit, it implies 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.120 that there will be something about sex, you know, it 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.560 just like conjures the idea of sexual union into the mind. 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.240 Well yeah, like even sexual secrets will be discovered. 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.280 Yeah, Like even in this picture, which again is fifty 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.880 eight very much a bedroom door closed picture, still the 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.720 idea of sex and the idea of human reproduction is 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.440 very much an important part of the film. It just 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.319 is alluded to, you know, at times, you know, very 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.680 very chastily, very clinically in some regards. It's happening in 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:46.880 the background, but is absolutely essential to the plot. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.080 I agree this movie is not very explicit in any way. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.720 I mean, certainly not visually explicit, but the sexual and 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.319 reproductive themes of it are definitely central and one of 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:03.079 the strongest elements. Actually. Yeah, So this film I Married 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:06.600 a Monster from Outer Space was originally released as part 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.720 of a double feature with The Blob. Could you have 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:11.800 guessed the weird pairing, isn't it? 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.680 It's a great pairing, though. Imagine getting to see two 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.200 classics like this back to back. I mean, assuming you 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.760 were there to actually watch the film and not make out. 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:21.880 Some people were there to watch the film though. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.440 I Married a Monster was originally supposed to be the 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.960 A film, with The Blob running second, but reactions from 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.679 test audiences made Paramount decide to flip the bill, so 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.640 I Married became the b title. If you ask me, 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.160 I've seen them both, I would argue that I Married 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.240 a Monster from Outer Space is the better of the 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.800 two movies, at least in terms of writing and acting 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:48.440 in cinematography. No slam in the Blob, but I think 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.360 this is the stronger film. But reports from the time 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:54.960 are that the Blob won out because it was in color. 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.760 It's hard to beat colored. This is what the teenagers 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.360 wanted at the time. Even if you have a lot 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.400 of other stuff going for you, if you're in black 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.000 and white, it's just hard to compete. 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.280 Yeah, yeah, the Blob is pretty brilliant in color. And yeah, 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.560 the Blob is an Alzheimer Steve McQueen star jelly. That 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.280 great title sequence with the Bert Backerac theme song, you know, 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.800 it establishes that there's a party that's about to happen. 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.040 So for the driving especially, that makes sense. But I'd 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.800 agree that I Married a Monster Is is a far 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.400 more contemplative work with effects that I think stand up 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:27.840 even better. I don't know, it's kind of hard to 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.719 compare because we're used to the Blob. The Blob has 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.720 kind of like a bigger pop culture shadow. But yeah, 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:40.560 the effects in this film are terrific, and at the 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:42.800 very least are in their own way, on par with 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:43.199 the Blog. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.560 In this movie, they're terrific, but they're more modest. I 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.679 mean The Blob is an effects centric film, and this 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:57.600 is not. This is a tense, frightening, little relationship drama 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:03.840 with you know, aliens and alien special effects woven in. Yeah. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.160 So if you've seen a bunch of other sci fi 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.079 horror movies from the drive in era, you will probably 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.120 not be very surprised by the core plot or premise 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.920 of the movie. I would say this one actually makes 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.800 use of two different alien invasion premises that were popular 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.880 at the time that you'll find in other films. So 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:27.720 maybe we should talk about both of them and how 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.120 they kind of work into the themes of this movie, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.520 and how they work into themes of other movies, and 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.120 then how they work in differently in this one. So 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.360 one of these plot types is the aliens in human 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:44.360 skin plot. The premise is that the alien invasion is covert, 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.880 not over, so it's not a flying saucer attacking Washington. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.960 It's you know, the aliens are blending in with us. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.360 They're trying to seize power by blending in with human 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:57.400 society and pretending to be us or acting through us. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.000 And this can take several forms. Sometimes these movies have 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:05.200 a kind of puppeteering premise where aliens take control of 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:09.280 human bodies directly, either through technology like a mind control 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.040 ray or by taking up residents inside us as some 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.400 kind of parasite. I think of the brain eaters. You know, 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.400 we've done plenty of movies like this. And then the 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:24.000 other major version is body duplication or body snatching, where 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.599 aliens copy the appearance of an earthling but remain themselves 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:29.479 on the inside. 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.000 And these are both. These are these are great choices 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:37.040 to make, especially with a scrappier B movie budget, right, 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.400 because you can if you can afford monster effects that 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.360 look pretty good, great, you can use them, but you 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.520 can use them sparingly. And if you've got actors who 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.880 are even just halfway decent at their job, you're gonna 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.480 be able to lean on those performances more and not 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.000 have to worry about what kind of you know, plaster 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:55.680 goop is attached to their faces. 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.600 Yeah, and of course you get instant tension and drama 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.600 from the idea of someone pretending to be something they're not. 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:04.319 Yeah, it absolutely works. 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.080 So a lot of these body snatching movies from the 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.960 fifties are now interpreted. I was actually wondering about this. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.480 I should have looked it up before we recorded how 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:17.840 often it was interpreted this way at the time, but 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:22.600 at least retrospectively, they're now interpreted as Cold war paranoia, 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:28.840 you know, consciously or unconsciously expressing fears about communist infiltration, 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.040 Like they look just like your neighbors and your coworkers, 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.760 but secretly they are Red spies. You know, they're subversives 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:40.080 trying to destroy your way of life. I have seen 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.720 a few comments online that seem to casually lump I 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.480 married a monster from outer space in with those other 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.960 movies like, oh, it is another cold war political paranoia 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.080 body snatching movie, you know, assuming it's about fears of 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.440 secret political infiltration. I really don't agree with that reading. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.120 I think the themes of identity and mistrust raised by 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.400 the body snatching plot here are actually in service of 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:14.840 a different constellation of ideas, mostly related to sex and gender. 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:21.000 Actually that and actually I'll come back to this in 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.640 a second, but the same ideas are raised by the 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.880 second main familiar sci fi premise this movie uses, which 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.040 is the reproductive conspiracy. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:35.360 Yeah, yeah, I agree that this film seems mostly concerned 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:40.960 with relationships and distance in those relationships, and there are 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:45.560 various ways you can interpret that. I've noticed some online 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:49.240 re examining this film in terms of closeted nineteen fifty 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.720 sexual identity and orientation, and I can see where those 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.480 connections can be strongly made with a lot of it, 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.520 I think, hinging on what we now know about star 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:02.320 Tom Tryan's closet homosexuality, at least as far as his 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.040 public persona was concerned as first an actor and then 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:05.560 as a writer. 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.240 I would be interested to read about that. I would say, 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.440 I don't know at the surface level if I see 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.880 that kind of content intended within the film itself, but 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.280 maybe I don't know. Yeah, yeah, but anyway, So the 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.560 other thing that is, like a common type of fifties 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.440 sci fi horror movie plot that appears here is the 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:32.040 reproductive conspiracy. So the idea is space aliens have lost 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:36.120 the ability to reproduce sexually on their own. Often these 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.680 plots are because one of the sexes has been wiped 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.840 out by a catastrophe, so they decide they need to 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.360 mate with humans in order to continue their line. We 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:50.320 have covered several movies like this before, though always sillier 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:54.200 versions like Ship of Monsters from nineteen sixty. Actually one 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.320 of my favorite movies we've ever done on the show. 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.840 Yeah, love, and I can't believe you're arguing that it's 0:16:58.880 --> 0:16:59.480 not serious. 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:05.680 Well, yeah, it's It's seriousness is masked by the heart 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.600 of a clown. There's that one. And then also Devil 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:12.440 Girl from Mars, which is less overtly silly than Ship 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:14.359 of Monsters, but is still pretty silly. 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.440 Yeah, it has a certain amount of cant to it. 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.840 Yeah. I would say that the reproductive plot in I 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.720 Married a Monster from Outer Space feels significantly more serious 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:27.720 and frightening than it does in those two movies, which 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.720 is partly due to just approach, you know, differences in 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.320 the writing like those movies are sillier, but also because 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.439 of the swap to gender dynamics, like in those movies 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:41.480 women from space need earth Men, which is usually played 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.639 for comedy in the movies. In I Married a Monster 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.240 from Outer Space, men from space are trying to have 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:52.400 offspring with Earth women, which that premise tends to create 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.760 a darker and more threatening tone. And I think I 0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.240 think also in an interesting way, indirectly racist theme of 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.200 sexual autonomy and reproductive rights for women. I don't want 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.520 to overstate that element or overstate the feminist credentials of 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.040 this film. Because it is a drive in movie from 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.760 nineteen fifty eight, You're not going to get explicit discussion 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.000 of stuff like that on screen, but it does, I think, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.720 raise those ideas in an interesting and provocative way. And 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:25.200 I think one cool power of speculative genres like science 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.680 fiction and horror is that within them you can sometimes 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:33.080 raise questions by implication and analogy which might not be 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.720 given a fair hearing by the same audience if you 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:37.040 just brought them up directly. 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.240 Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great point, and I 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.320 would agree that it is treated with I mean that 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:43.800 this is saying men, but it is treated with a 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.320 lot more seriousness than say nineteen sixty eight's Mars Needs 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.320 Women or sixty fives Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, in 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.440 which you have like bikini ladies brought into parade before 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:56.480 the Martian overlords so forth. 0:18:57.119 --> 0:18:59.159 I guess, yeah, there are some movies like that that 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.320 also just treat it for comedy. Sometimes that for some 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.560 reason feels just more in bad taste. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.200 Yea, we may have to come back to Frankenstein Meets 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.320 the Space Monster. Though there's a lot of as I 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.240 recall there's a lot of canned footage in there of 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:18.399 like planes and rockets and whatnot, but also some legitimately 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:19.360 goofy weirdness. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.600 Is that the one with the bald guy with the 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:23.320 pointy ears. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:28.840 Yeah, yeah, he's another one that I remember mostly from 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:30.040 it came from Hollywood. 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.119 Yeah, But anyway, I think maybe we can talk a 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.240 bit more about these themes when we get into the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:36.840 plot section later in the episode. 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.560 Yeah. Yeah, I'm just going to throw out here real quick. 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.320 We've been doing Weird House Cinema for a few years now. 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.359 You can find all those episodes in the audio archive 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.080 wherever you get your podcast. We cover movies from different decades. 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:51.760 This is our twenty third Weird House Cinema selection from 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.639 the nineteen fifties, and I often will look and see, well, 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:57.640 what did Michael Weldon have to say about this film 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:02.000 and psychotronic Encyclopedia film or it's companion book, and he 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.160 describes this one as quote an overlooked, well made science 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:10.520 fiction hit that should appeal especially to women. I mean, yes, 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:12.600 but I mean I think it would appeal to everybody. 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.040 It's it's a pretty solid film, all right, Joe, do 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:17.040 you have an elevator pitch. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:22.040 The title is already an elevator pitch. But yeah, the 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.800 other one is just what time is it? Totally unclear? 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:26.040 Yeah, yeah, is it day? 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:26.680 Is it night? 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.800 Sometimes there are there's some strong hints, like, well, they're 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:33.640 having a picnic outside surrounded by the people. It has 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:34.440 to be daytime. 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:37.880 The only business that's opened seems to be the bar, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:38.919 so I think it's night. 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.080 Yeah, you're wearing your nightgown. Must be night. Though the 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:47.159 nightgowns of the late nineteen fifties are not that now 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.760 it's harder for us to necessarily distinguish if this is 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.640 a nightgown or this is a dayware. So yeah, all right. 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.280 If you were interested in watching I Married a Monster 0:20:57.359 --> 0:21:01.760 from Outer Space, well, it is widely available. You can 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.840 stream it or buy it digitally in a number of places, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:07.280 and if you would like to get a little physical 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.119 media while, it's available on Blu Ray from Imprint as 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:12.639 well as Shout Factory. Shout Factory put out a double 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.520 feature set that also includes nineteen fifty five's Conquest of Space. 0:21:25.920 --> 0:21:28.960 All right, let's get into the folks behind this film, 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:32.600 starting with the director, who was also a producer on 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.040 this film. That's Gene Fowler Junior, who of nineteen seventeen 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.120 through nineteen ninety eight. I think we already alluded to 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.400 his past as an editor. He was actually an Academy 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.840 Award nominated film editor or would become one for nineteen 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.760 sixty four's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World. He 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.440 worked primarily as an editor of TV and film from 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.760 about thirty five through nineteen eighty five, but he also 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.560 directed a series of projects along the way, beginning with 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.080 the nineteen fifty two TV film China Smith, which spawned 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.720 a TV series of the same name, which he also directed, 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.560 and he followed that up with the nineteen fifty seven 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:12.040 trend setting hit I Was a Teenage Werewolf, starring a 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:13.280 young Michael Landon. 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.560 According to the Turner Classic Movies Retrospective by Richard Harlan 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.840 Smith I mentioned earlier, Fowler took the chance to helm 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.000 I Was a Teenage Werewolf because he wanted to try 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.919 his hand at directing, and then, based on the title, 0:22:28.920 --> 0:22:31.119 he assumed nobody was gonna see this movie and he 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:31.600 was wrong. 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.000 Yeah, yeah, And it was a hit. The film was 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:36.840 enough of a success, and it hit enough of a 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:39.240 nerve with the teen powered pop culture of the day. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.199 That it led to multiple mostly unrelated projects looking to 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:47.479 cash in on success, and then later It's cult following 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.880