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Many years ago, I saw a black & white sci-fi film probably from the '50s or '60s.

The aliens landed in the U.S. West (of course!) and took over human bodies. Close to the film's beginning, one of the male aliens accidentally tore off the arm of his human host. A female member of the alien team scolded him for not realising that human bodies are fragile and subject to damage.

Hoping to find out film's title. Appreciate any help!

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    Hi, welcome to the site. To clarify, was the alien already in the body of the human host when he ripped the arm off (effectively ripping off his own arm)? Or was he still in his own alien body when he did that? And can you describe what the aliens looked like in their own bodies?
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 5, 2023 at 19:37

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Is this The Cape Canaveral Monsters (1960)...?

When a couple are killed in an auto accident their bodies are immediately inhabited by extraterrestrial beings. Taking refuge in an underground cave, the aliens attempt to sabotage the U. S. space program.

This is a black & white film. Right at the beginning, two aliens appear on a beach on Earth, looking for "suitable bodies." At this point, they have no physical form and are depicted as a couple of tennis ball-sized balls of energy.

Unaware of the aliens' presence, a man and woman are relaxing on the beach, then pack up to leave in their car. The aliens float into their car unseen and enter their bodies while the car is in motion. The car crashes, killing both of the human hosts the aliens are now in possession of. The aliens retain full control of the bodies, but the man's left arm was completely severed in the crash. They leave the car on foot, and the one in the female body takes the severed arm with her, saying she'll sew it back on later.

This all occurs within the first three minutes of the film. About six minutes deeper into the runtime (hours later in the story), the alien in the male body has his left arm torn off again by guard dogs, while sneaking around at Cape Canaveral. After that, the alien in the female body concludes that they'll need to replace the missing arm with a living one.

I didn't see a part where she scolded him about human bodies being fragile. She does speak to him with disdain at times though, and vice versa.

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  • Thank you so much! Words can barely express how thrilled I am to know this after many years. While ambitious 14 y/os are forming the next millionaire rock bank, my buddies John, Mike and I were content to spend our afternoons watching B-films on t.v. I'm going to get a DVD copy and watch it again to see if it still elicits two weeks of nightmares.
    – AliensRUs
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 17:57
  • @AliensRUs - If this answer is correct, please consider marking it as accepted, which you can do by clicking on the check mark beneath the voting buttons. It's this site's way of formally indicating that a query has been solved to the querent's satisfaction.
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 18:04

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