"They're not human, but they want human women!"Okay, so that line doesn't appear on any of the posters for this movie, but it pretty well sums things up. The question is, however, why do they want human women? I'm not telling, but I'll let you in on a couple of things, one of which is that what we have here is another of those '50s movies in which the aliens are taking over the bodies of the locals. After Gloria Talbot marries Tom Tryon, she notices that he's not quite the same guy he was before they married. She eventually finds out that his appearance has been duplicated by one of the aliens who doesn't look at all like him.
Sound familiar? It was a common theme in '50s SF movies, including the better-known Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This movie is almost as good as that one, and if you haven't seen it, it's well worth a look. Tom Tryon starred, and he went on to have a successful career as a writer than as an actor, with novels like Harvest Home and The Other that sold a ton back when they were published. Now I suppose they qualify as forgotten books.
This post originally appeared on December 21, 2011.
8 comments:
Maybe she noticed he "wasn't the same guy she married" because she discovered he was gay? NTTAWWT, of course.
I first remember Tryon as Texas John Slaughter - talk about your forgotten TV shows! - "Texas John Slaughter made 'em do what they oughta, and if they didn't, they died."
As a kid I thought it was great but at this late date I don't remember a single detail of the shows.
Jeff
But you remember the show and the star, not to mention the theme. That's what matters.
More successful, it seems, as a writer, anyway. Only, if anything, the problem wasn't even remotely coded homosexuality, as I remember the film. Except perhaps in a very upper-class Athenian sense, where women were theoretically Merely For Breeding among the more clownish stereotypical sorts.
Even today, . . .
Loved Tom Tryon's novels--if it's the same one.
Definitely the same guy.
Yes Patti, it is the same one, though he used "Thomas" on the books.
Jeff
Gotta love a sci-fi B movie. I'll look for this one (hope it's streaming somewhere).
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