Film 7/52: The Green Slime (1968)

We've been singing The Green Slime theme song around The Slaughtered Lamb since first considering this as our 'G' entry in the 52 Pick-Up (if you've got an Amazon Echo, ask Alexa to play "The Green Slime"). That may have been one of the reasons why Vonna ultimately decided she could sit this one out, so I was left to face the green slime all on my own.

I had a vague awareness that the film was a Japanese co-production, but I wasn't aware that it featured no Japanese actors in the cast! It does have the hallmarks of my favorite Japanese sci-fi films of the era, including cool (if not convincingly filmed) miniature ships and sets, and rubber men-in-suit monsters. Years later, director Kinji Fukasaku would go on to direct the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (which I have yet to see), and his final film was the very influential adaptation of the novel Battle Royale.

The Green Slime setup is this — an asteroid (Flora) is on a collision course with Earth, and the only way to prevent total disaster is to send a burnt-out astronaut with an attitude up to Space Station Gamma 3 to lead the effort to blow it up. Sounds pretty straightforward, until we learn that Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton) has some history with current Gamma 3 commander Chris Elliott (a young Richard Jaeckel), who is now engaged to Jack's old flame, Lisa (Italian starlet Luciana Paluzzi). Rankin leads a team to the asteroid, where as they plant explosives they encounter a bubbling green slime. The science officer wants to take some of this newly discovered life-form back with them (is this beginning to sound familiar?), but Rankin refuses to allow it. Of course, a few drops of GS do make it back to the station, and before you know it, the green slime has multiplied and grown into man-sized red-eyed, tentacled monsters. They proceed to sneak around the ship, consuming power and electrocuting the crew right, left and sideways. From that point on, it's a fun if somewhat silly monster romp as they try and evade the GS, set the station to self-destruct, and of course, escape before it blows. 

One of the cinematic forefathers of Alien, that fact actually makes it somewhat more interesting as it gives you plenty to think about while waiting for the GS to appear.

There was one thing I was kind of expecting that didn't happen — I was sure the film would end with a final question-mark title card, perhaps even showing a drop of the green slime having made it on to the ships on their way back to Earth. Just think — that could have set up a very cool sequel, in which giant-sized Green Slimes(?) stomped on miniature Earth cities, Kaiju-style! 

While not the most entertaining selection of the series thus far (it could have done with a Luciana Paluzzi scene like that depicted on the poster), but I'm glad to have finally experienced it in all its widescreen HD glory.