The Green Slime (1969)

Sorry, this movie sucks

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Astronauts head off to blast asteroid Flora on course to destroy the Earth. After the successful mission, they return to space station UNSC Gamma 3 with a stowaway. It starts as a small green blob but it quickly grows into a tentacled creature with a hunger for and the ability to discharge power. The creature's blood grow into new creatures as the station gets over-run with them.This is a Japanese production with western actors. There are no big names among the actors and the production is strictly Japanese monster movie. The miniature models are toy-like. There is a fun campy joy about the Japanese sets, slightly threatening monsters, and its 50s sci-fi motif. Don't take it too seriously.

Just refamiliarized myself with the Japanese/American coproduction "The Green Slime" (1969), which I had not seen in many years. In this one, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, space station he-men Robert Horton and Richard Jaeckel, along with a few others, rocket off to an asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth and blow it to smithereens, but unfortunately, they also bring back to the space station traces of the titular slime. The slime somehow makes it through the decontamination process and quickly morphs into two-legged, one-eyed monsters that squeak and suck energy and electrocute with their flailing tentacles. The two men sure do have their hands full, when not bickering with each other and trying to impress redheaded hotty doctor Lucianna Paluzzi, who looks very fetching indeed. (Could this redheaded female head doctor have possibly been the inspiration for the Beverly Crusher character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?) Though deemed quite justifiably a camp classic today, the film yet has many fine aspects to commend itself to the viewer. It is as fun as can be, and the FX range from the hokey to the surprisingly effective. I love that shot of the flaming space station as it falls to Earth at the end; GREAT FX there! And although "The Blob" usually gets the award for the monster movie with the best theme song, the psychedelic number that plays during "The Green Slime"'s opening credits is at least as good, if not better. All in all, most entertaining, and the print that TCM showed recently was absolutely pristine looking and gorgeous to look at....

"Tora, Tora, Tora" director Kinji Fukasaku's "The Green Slime" isn't as atrocious a sci-fi-horror chiller as I had been led to believe. Of course, my chief complaints are the campy special effects, particularly the inflatable-looking space station held aloft by two wires, its rickety doors, and ultimately the worst, the monsters that strut around the station with a pair of twirling tentacles spewing electrical sparks. Predictably, these half-pint monsters are green, scale-ridden, and equipped with one large eye like a cyclops. Now that I think about it, they resemble Minions with tentacles swirling above their heads, and those sputtering, live-wire electric cables can whip a man to death and electrocute them. These goofy critters reproduce with licentiousness of rabbits, and they feed ravenously on power. As villainous creatures, they look hilarious. Reportedly, Japanese school children wore these costumes. On the other hand, their arsenal of electric energy makes them impressive as does their excessive numbers. Unlike most idiotic monsters that try to kill the heroes, these monsters can kill, do kill, and come close to taking out the star. Before the humans outsmart these creatures, they exercise an irrefutable advantage over mankind. Boiled down to basics, the first third of "The Green Slime" concerns an "Armageddon" encounter with an enormous asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton of "Apache War Smoke") is dispatched to take command of a team to destroy the asteroid. They land on the asteroid and set explosive charges, and then leave. One of their landing party has picked up a wad of green slime on his uniform. They blast the asteroid to smithereens and eliminate it as a threat to Earth. Once they are back aboard space station Gamma III, the landing party shed their uniforms to have them decontaminated. During the routine decontamination process, the green slime swells to life. When the system overloads, the technician checks on it and fear sets in when he sees the monster. A general quarters alarm sounds, and Rankin and Space Station Commander Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel of "The Dirty Dozen") rush to the spot. Chief science officer Dr. Hans Halvorsen (Ted Gunther of "The Cop Hater"), briefs Rankin and Elliot about the abilities of these green things. First, they feed on energy and gravitate toward power sources. Second, they reproduce in great numbers. Third, shooting a laser at them will kill them, but it will also result in spores flying forth to grow. Fourth, these critters scorch their victims, covering them with burn wounds, if they don't kill them. Fifth, they constitute a veritable army that is extremely lethal. Commander Rankin, Space Station Commander Elliot, and chief medical supervisor Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi of "Thunderball") must contend with their formidable but funny monsters. During the second third of "The Green Slime," they reduce power as much as they can and try to lure the monsters into a storage room and away from the injured personnel so they can be evacuated to safety. Eventually, by the last third of "The Green Slime," Rankin realizes that there is no escape from these creatures. They are reproduced to the extent that they cover the exterior of the space station. Rankin informs his superiors that based on the alien's lethal attributes that have no alternative than to abandon the space station and blow it up. Naturally, Space Station Commander Elliot refuses to believe that they must sacrifice the station.Fukasaku sets up the story well enough and then the action wanes during the second thirty minutes before it generates momentum in the last half-hour. The cinematography changes drastically for the better during the last thirty minutes with Fukasaku adopting Dutch Tilt angle to heighten the suspense. Robert Hort0n acts like he took the shenanigans of these creatures seriously, and the rivalry between Rankin and Commander Elliot offers a breath of soap opera reality. As it turns out, Dr. Benson and Rankin have had a history, and Benson has been romantically engaged with Elliot. What Benson fails to admit to herself is that she still loves Rankin despite having announced her impending marriage to Elliot. Unfortunately, the valiant Elliot doesn't survive, while Rankin and Benson do. Despite the phony special effects, "The Green Slime" isn't the dreck that you've heard it was.

Okay, I get the "It's so awful it's good" reviews. Personally I think it's just so awful that it is truly awful. I paid $0.25 to see it on the Bainbridge, Maryland Naval Base in 1970. I wanted my money back - but I didn't ask. The only scene I remember is the space ship going through 'space' right to left. The flame shooting out of the rocket's exhaust has so little pressure that it is going straight up out and flickering! Must have been a Bunsen burner being used as the rocket motor. Except the flame smoked and the smoke rose and hit the top of the box the rocket was mounted in and then curled down the sides of the box. The whole thing was such a waste - except that spaceship in the box has stayed with me for over 40 years.