“The Green Slime” Theatrical Poster
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Cast: Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel, Luciana Paluzzi, Bud Widom, Ted Gunther, Robert Dunham, David Yorston, William Ross, Gary Randolf, Eugene Vince
Running Time: 90 min.
By Ian Whittle
The late Japanese New Wave director Fukasaku Kinji has a formidable reputation for his many Yakuza classics of the 1970s, his contributions to the Hollywood production Tora! Tora! Tora!, and his latter day masterpiece Battle Royale.
He also directed The Green Slime…MGM’s other sci-fi extravaganza for 1968 following Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. And I use the word “extravaganza” most sarcastically.
The pedigree of this film is rather intriguing. Ostensibly it is a follow-up to an Italian series of films distributed by MGM in the mid-60s concerning the space station Gamma I (these films being Wild, Wild Planet, War of the Planets, War between the Planets and, for a change of pace, Snow Devils) produced by Walter Manley. This film, co-produced with Japan’s Toei, and co-scripted by legendary Batman writer (and now acknowledged co-creator) Bill Finger, involves Gamma III. I can only assume Gamma II went the way of Plans 1 to 8 from Outer Space.
In a plot that in no-way resembles Alien, a deadly asteroid known as Flora (the least intimidating name in science fiction until the Planet Spot as seen on Superted) is detonated before it collides with the earth. A scientist finds a strange green organism, or Green Slime if you will, on the asteroid but the sample he collects is unleashed by hot-headed (not to mention dunder-headed) Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton, a long way from Wagon Train) when he destroys the container, causing The Green Slime to attach itself to a member of the crew. Once on-board Gamma III, the Green Slime (resembling soap-duds) transforms into a horde of cyclopean, and rather short, monsters that swarm all over the place making the most annoying shrieking sound – imagine a flock of seagulls stuck in a washing machine! Gack, we surrender!
Unusually for a co-production of this nature, there are no Japanese actors in speaking roles or even as identified extras. Besides Hollywood exports Horton, Richard Jaeckel (who would also appear in Toho’s Latitude Zero) and my favourite Bond Girl Luciana Paluzzi; the cast consists of pretty much the resident gaijn (Westerners) resident in Japanese cinema, many of them familiar vocally as English dubbers for films like Son of Godzilla and Destroy All Monsters – weirdly enough, many of them still sound dubbed. The closest thing to a Japanese guest star in this thing is Robert Dunham, who had prominent roles in Dogora the Space Monster and Godzilla vs Megalon; Linda Miller, the Fay Wray substitute in King Kong Escapes; and Cathy Horan of Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell can be glimpsed in the background, probably on firm instructions not to upstage Ms Paluzzi whilst she alternates making goo-goo eyes at Horton and/or Jaeckel. Neither deserve her: Horton’s character is a total bastard who causes all the devastation and Jaeckel comes across as a sulky teenager despite being well into his 40s and in charge of a space station. Their bitching at each other and eventual fisticuffs recall the fighting over a bouquet in a wedding special of a soap opera rather than any serious war drama. Dunham manages to upstage them simply by laying off the ham and looking serious.
Fukasaku allegedly intended this as an allegory of the Vietnam War, and if by that he meant an un-coordinated mess possibly made under the influence of various narcotics, then I guess he succeeded. Any tension and drama the film might have disappears in the wake of the bizarre go-go dancing, the wooden acting, the pathetic pint-sized monsters (which looked much more intimidating in a carefully composed still I saw as a child in Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, which made them look like giants), tinker-toy special fx and, ironically, the best change a Western distributor ever made to a Japanese movie: the addition of that totally awesome theme song.
Seriously, how can you not love a film that opens with lyrics like “Is it something in your head? Will you believe it when you’re dead? GREEN SLIMMMEEEE!!!! GREEN SLIIIIMMMMME!!!!!!”
Ian Whittle’s Rating: 4/10
MGM, Bill Finger, and Kinji Fukusaku. What could have gone wrong?
Generally Toei’s science fiction flicks are rather more juvenile looking than Toho’s, but even they were going down the kiddie show look at this time.
I had a lot of fun with this one. Guilty pleasure, I guess.