The Green Slime (1968)

 

 

The Green Slime in an interesting film in that there are two versions of the film.  The first one, and the one I saw, is the 90 minute American version.  The second version is the Japanese language version that runs just 77 minutes.  The difference is the Japanese version eliminates the love triangle of the three leads.  Those three leads would be Robert Horton, who was mostly known for starring in TV's Wagon Train, as Commander Jack Rankin, the leader of Space Station Gamma. Richard Jaeckel (Starman, The Dirty Dozen, and Sometimes a Great Notion for which he was nominated for an Oscar) is Vince Elliot the second in command and someone Rankin shares a past with.  That past you may wonder is that of Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball and Muscle Beach Party) who portrays Dr. Lisa Benson creating a love triangle as she is also stationed at Space Station Gamma.

 

  

Rankin is sent to Gamma to destroy an asteroid named 8 Flora that is large enough, if allowed to collide with Earth, it would be capable of destroying the planet.  While the two Commanders are able to work together there is still the underlying issue of the two men in love with the same woman.  This is the sub-plot the Japanese version removes.  Rankin, along with Elliot and some other astronauts land a shuttle onto 8 Flora and set bombs that once detonated will destroy the asteroid and the mission is a success.  However, while on 8 Flora they come in contact with a weird jelly like amoeba creature that tries to suck the energy out of their shuttle.  When the astronauts board the shuttle to return to the space station they are unaware a small portion of the creature is on one of their spacesuits.  Back at the space station the creature kills an officer.  They discover the officer was electrocuted to death and the tentacled creature, now much larger, is not only weird looking, but deadly as well.  Making matters even worse is that with every drop of blood it spills when it is injured the creature spawns another monster.

 

 

 

Now these monsters, the slime creatures, are comical looking.  Short bodies (so as to fit the kids who are playing the creatures into the costumes) with long red tipped tentacles and one huge red eye in the middle of their head.  Now it is up to the two commanders and the rest of the crew to stop these creatures and not allow them to get back to Earth.  Some interesting facts about the film is that the screenplay was written by Bill Finger better known as the man who created The Batman.  The Green Slime is also the film featured in the never aired pilot for Mystery Science Theater 3000.  While the film was disliked by critics and movie goers alike, I kind of enjoyed it.  I mean it's not great but instead of the monsters ruining the film for me (which was the general consensus at the time) they at least gave me a chuckle and whenever they are on screen I couldn't help but pay more attention to it.  And last but not least I wanted to mention the theme song.  Green Slime written by Sherry Gaden and arranged by Richard Delvy is one of the best hippie dance grooves ever to appear in film.  If for no other reason you have to search this one out just for the theme song.  We throw everything into the film-o-meter to get a grade on this one and we come up with 3 cousins of The Blob out of five.  Better than I had hoped for.