The Green Slime (1968) starring Robert Horton, Luciana Paluzzi, Richard Jaeckel, Bud Widom, Ted Gunther
Astronauts unwittingly bring a green slime from an asteroid back to their space station. When exposed to blood, it grows into red-eyed tentacled monsters that quickly multiply and threaten to spread to Earth.
Review
- The bad news is, Earth is about to be destroyed by a giant meteor! Boo!
- A maverick commander leads the mission and destroys the asteroid! Yay!
- But they accidentally bring back a green slime from the destroyed asteroid. Boo!
- But it’s harmless! Yay!
- Then it’s not harmless. It feeds off electricity/energy, and grows into a silly-looking red-eyed, green-tentacled monster! Boo!
- And it multiplies whenever it bleeds! Another boo!
- And, there’s a romantic triangle between the commander, beautiful female doctor, and his former friend! Three boos so far …
- Lots of extras die loudly. Four! Four boos!
- There’s a huge fight, the enemies are destroyed, the lesser hero’s dead, and so the hero and the female doctor can get married! Since her original fiancee is dead …. So, yay, I guess.
The problem is …
A lot of people dislike The Green Slime because of the cheesy monsters. I don’t frankly. It’s a B-movie, and I’m not expecting a huge special effects budget. Nor do I dislike it because of the outdated hair styles & slang language. It was made in 1968, after all, and was trying to appeal to the audience of that time.
What I object to is the steady flow of cliches. The Earth military sending the hero, who’s about to leave the service, because he’s the only person for the job. Hero feuding with lesser hero over beautiful doctor. They’re former friends, whose breakup was the fault of the hero. The hero undercutting the lesser hero (in front of his fiancee) because he’s “not good enough”. Et cetera.
Editorial review of The Green Slime courtesy of Amazon.com
After a perilous mission to a huge asteroid, a crew returns to its space station, unaware a bit of ooze from the asteroid clings to a crewman’s uniform. The green goop grows – into murderous, tentacled monsters. And as station members fight to live, gunk from the monsters’ wounds turns into more monsters! That’s the story. Now enjoy as our heroes fight to preserve Earth and, unintentionally, our own senses of humor with a movie that Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called “one of the funniest made-in-Japan sci-fi monster movies ever.” Kinji Fukasaku, whose later work was championed by Quentin Tarantino, directs. The world would be a far more bleak and joyless place without marvels like The Green Slime.
Cast of characters
- Robert Horton (Dracula A.D. 1972) … Commander Jack Rankin
- Luciana Paluzzi … Dr. Lisa Benson
- Richard Jaeckel … Commander Vince Elliott
- Bud Widom … General Jonathan B. Thompson (as Bud Widham)
- Ted Gunther … Dr. Hans Halvorsen
- David Yorston … Lt. Curtis
- Robert Dunham (Godzilla vs. Megalon (1974)) … Capt. Martin
- Gary Randolf … Cordier
- Jack Morris … Lt. Morris, Rocket Pilot
- Eugene Vince … Technician
- Don Plante … Technician
- Linda Hardisty … Nurse
- Richard Hylland … Michaels (as Richard Highland)
- Kathy Horan … Nurse
- Ann Ault … Nurse
- Susan Skersick … Nurse
- Helen Kirkpatrick … Nurse
- Karl Bengs … Rocket Pilot (as Carl Bengs)
- Linda Miller (King Kong Escapes) … Nurse
- Strong Ilimaiti … Doctor
- Enver Altenbay … Technician
- Tom Scott … Lt. Scott, Rocket Pilot
- Patricia Elliott … Nurse
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