Remastered GREEN SLIME Coming To DVD From Warner Archives

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Sources: Dread Central / Warner Archives

During my decade long career of writing about sci fi and horror movies there were always two DVD releases that fans have constantly hounded me about. One was "War of the Gargantuas", which thankfully Sony (Classic Media)released in 2008, and the other was "The Green Slime", which had surprisingly remained a no-show, that is, until now.

Warner Bros has finally seen the light and decided to give all the B movie junkies out there what they want. The film will be released through the studios "Warner Archives" service, which is similar to Amazon's "On Demand", where in the DVD won't be produced until someone orders it.

In other words, there aren't copies of "The Green Slime" sitting on a shelf somewhere, when you order it, Warner Bros presses a copy and ships it out to you. It's kinda the studio's way of saving money by not producing DVDs that are just going to sit on store shelves.

However, unlike the Amazon.com service, these DVDs will not just be DVD-R copy of some old print of the film that Warner Bros found laying around someplace. This is a brand-new, remastered, print of "The Green Slime" presented in it's original widescreen (16x9 2.35 scope) format.

From what I hear, the copy is as "pristine" as it can get.

Fans can pre-order their copy of "The Green Slime" from Warner Archives before it's official October 24th release date for only $24.99 - HERE

Here is the info:

Green Slime, The (DVD, Remastered)
Made To Order DVD

Studio: Warner Bros.
Screen Aspect: 16 X 9 LETTERBOX
Run Time: 99 minutes
Packaging Type: Amaray Case
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Synopsis:

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.

See Also: The 100 Greatest Monsters From Movies And Television #91 - #100 / The Los Angeles Comic & Sci Fi Con Prepares To Get Invaded By The Green Slime / The Green Slime (1968)(Toei / MGM)

Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot Coming To DVD Exclusively Through Amazon

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Sources: TV Shows on DVD / Avery Guerra



MGM is about to release the long-awaited Japanese television series "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot" on DVD exclusively through Amazon.com

The seven DVD set will include the entire run of the series, which has been high on Japanese monster movie fans lists for over a decade.

The exact date of this release has not yet been disclosed, but fans will be able to preorder it very soon (see link above).

The series, called "Giant Robo" in Japan was produced by Toei Company Ltd., and aired on NET (now TV Asahi) from October 11, 1967 to April 1, 1968, with a total of 26 episodes. The English dubbed version of the series was produced by American International Television as "Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot".

The entire series was first broadcast in the United States in 1969 by American International Television, and became quite popular in syndication over the next several years, particularly from 1971-74 when it reached its peak in distribution. The series was still in active syndication through the early 1980s. In 1970, several episodes were edited together to create the movie Voyage Into Space, which has now reached cult film status.

The series was astonishingly violent by American standards of children's programming in the 1960s (in its home country of Japan, though, it was no more violent than any other tokusatsu airing at the time). Gunplay are staples of every episode of the series, and the series' two child leads - Johnny Sokko and Mari Hanson (Mari Hanamura in the Japanese version; a 9-year-old girl introduced in the seventh episode who speaks 39 languages and is a crack shot with a firearm) were frequently seen shooting along with the rest of the Unicorn agents. In one episode, Johnny and Mari are captured and tied to trees by Gargoyle, and are within seconds of being executed by firing squad, when Unicorn agents rescue them. Oddly enough, though practically every Japanese anime exported to the United States during that period was edited due to violent content, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot seemed to have escaped close scrutiny in that regard, and what editing was done on the show seemed to have been more for the purposes of squeezing in another commercial or two rather than in the interest of curbing the show's violence.

Plot:

The Earth is under invasion by a terrorist group called Big Fire (Gargoyle in the US version), an illuminati style organization led by the alien Emperor Guillotine, who spends almost the entire series in a multicolored space ship hidden at the bottom of one of the Earth's oceans (presumably the Pacific) whence he issues his orders to the members of Gargoyle (frequently referred to in the series as "The Gargoyle Gang").

The members of Gargoyle, as it turns out, are an ambitious but somewhat incompetent bunch who appear to have a fairly high mortality rate due either to Unicorn actions or Guillotine's own fits of anger. Their wardrobe is an interesting collection of what appears to be an assortment of castoffs from Soviet officers, wartime Wehrmacht personnel, Central American guerillas, and the designers of Italian sunglasses. In addition, at least one Gargoyle member is always seen with a beatnik beard. Most of Gargoyle's members wear berets adorned with a skull on the front. All members of Gargoyle have an explosive device implanted within their bodies that can be detonated in the event they are captured, though this seems to be used only rarely.

Guillotine himself has a large blue head with tentacles extending from the bottom of the head; not unlike Cthulhu. He wears a long robe, and carries a staff with a white orb at its furthest end. Like his head, the rest of his body is blue. He is capable of growing to an enormous height, though this is only seen once in the series; specifically, it is only seen in the last installment, where he himself actually fights, and loses to, the Flying Robot.

Guillotine leaves day-to-day matters in the hands of various commanders; principally Spider (a human who is eventually killed by a spray of acid), Doctor Botanus (Doctor Over in the Japanese series; a silver-skinned alien capable of teleportation), Fangar (Red Cobra in the Japanese series, and also alternatively referred to as Dangor the Executioner in the US series - a bizarre alien with a pegleg and crutch, a greatly enlarged forehead, protruding upper teeth, and a costume that looks like a traditional striped prison outfit in front and a red velvet jumpsuit in back), Harlequin (Black Dia in the Japanese version, who has a fascination with the suits of playing cards), and The Golden Knight (Mr Gold in the Japanese series; a gold colored armoured knight).

The group captures scientists to create an army of giant monsters to rampage the Earth. But fate stumbles on a little boy named Daisaku Kusama (Johnny Sokko in the US) and a young man named Jūrō Minami (Jerry Mano in the US), the latter is secretly Member U3 of the top-secret peacekeeping organization, Unicorn. Daisaku and Jūrō are shipwrecked on an island after the ocean liner they were on was attacked by a giant sea monster called Dracolon, and are captured by members of Big Fire. When trying to escape, they end up in an elevator that leads down to a huge construction complex where a giant robot is being built. Pharaoh-like in appearance in that the design of his head resembles the headdresses worn by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, this nearly indestructible humanoid robot is being built by captive scientist Dr. Lucius Guardian, who decides to give the two escapees its control device, a miniature transmitter built into a wristwatch. The robot can only be controlled by the first voice recorded in his electronic brain; however, he first needs to be charged up by atomic energy. Dr. Guardian helps Daisaku and Jūrō escape, only to be shot to death, but not before he set an atomic bomb that destroyed the base, the resulting explosion activates the giant robot, which moves to Daisaku's every command. As the controller of the robot (heretofore known as "Giant Robo," or just "Giant Robot" in the US), Daisaku is invited by Jūrō and his chief Azuma to join Unicorn as its 7th member, U7. As U7, Daisaku fights the evil forces of Big Fire with the help of U3/Jūrō and Giant Robo.

Konga (1961)(MGM)

Written By: Ken Hulsey

I think that I may have just watched the worst monster movie of all time, the 1961 UK monster mess called "Konga".

Now, I know that is a really a bold statement, because there are a lot of very bad monster movies out there. You may ask, "Hey Ken, what about "Reptilicus", or "The Giant Claw" or even "Robot Monster", those were all pretty bad?" True, those all are terrible monster movies, but I can say one thing about all of those films, at least they were interesting, and at least sometimes, unintentionally funny. "Konga", on the other hand, is neither of those things.

In the case of "Konga" the advertising art and images (pictured above and below) are actually more exciting to look at than the actual movie, and also very misleading.

To look at the movies poster, or publicity stills, you would be lead to believe that "Konga" is nothing more than the UK's answer to "King Kong". You would also probably assume that like "Kong", the giant ape in the movie was in love the buxom blond in the images and that he runs amok to get to her in the typical "Beauty and the Beast" scenario played out over-and-over again in countless monster movies. You would obviously think that, and you would be dead wrong.

Despite what you would be lead to believe, "Konga" and the lovely blond student actually never come into contact with each other in the film. Well, okay, she does see the big ape when he busts through the roof of a greenhouse to get at the evil scientist who created him, but the monster runs off with the guy, not the girl. Meanwhile she is left behind with her arm in mouth of a carnivorous plant, and oddly enough, we never learn if she continued to be plant food or made it out alive.

"Konga" really is science fiction, that is to say that there are so many far-fetched bits of pseudo-science being bantered about in the film that are just so far beyond belief for anyone to possibly swallow. Granted, anytime you watch a sci fi or monster movie, the viewer generally has to take some sort of a 'leap of faith' to believe that giant monsters could rise out of the sea, or that aliens could be living amongst us. This works if the movie is interesting, or action packed, but in a dud like this, the made up science stuff really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Okay lets try and sort all this out, and please try to keep the snoring and "WTF" comments till after I'm done.

A Doctor Charles Decker, played by Michael Gough (Yes, the guy who played Alfred in the "Batman" movies) has discovered a way to manipulate plant cells in such a way that they can cause Animals to grow to gigantic size. Decker uses a chimpanzee that he brought back with him from an expedition in Africa as his guinea pig, injecting him with his growth serum. Oddly enough when the primate begins to grow he also changes species, becoming a human-sized guerrilla.

Are you still following along?

While being a human sized ape, "Konga" does the doctor's dirty work, killing three of his rivals. Decker actually uses a flashlight to hypnotize the ape into becoming his pawn. This is actually the most interesting part of the movie.

Soon after "Konga" has removed all of Decker's competition from the picture, the loony scientist turns his attentions to the buxom blond, Sandra, played by Claire Gordon. Of,course this doesn't sit too well with his wife, played by Margo Johns, who decides to get her revenge by injecting "Konga" with a massive dose of plant extract causing the guerrilla to grow to 60 feet or more.

The now gigantic ape, crashes in on the scientist while he is trying to have his way with Sandra, and takes him on a walk through downtown London. While taking his stroll, "Konga" swipes at a few pedestrians, but doesn't manage to hurt anyone or do any property damage. All the while Decker is screaming, "Konga put me down!" from the apes right mitt.

Eventually the army shows up and confronts the giant ape in the shadow of Big Ben. Somehow the same army that held off the Nazis, found it hard to hit a 60-foot-tall guerrilla that was standing right in front of them with machine gun fire. "Konga" finally gets tired of being shot at, and hurls the screaming scientist at them.

This is when you think the giant ape may go nuts and start wrecking stuff......but he doesn't.

After what seems like an awfully long time, the British army manages to pump enough lead into "Konga" to cause him to finally fall down dead.

In a strange ending, to a strange film, "Konga's" corpse reverts back to a normal sized chimpanzee right next to the splattered body of his former owner.

I actually went and did a little research on the making of "Konga" and discovered a couple of interesting facts.

The film's producer, Herman Cohen, payed RKO $25,000 to use the name "King Kong" in the films advertising. This also aided in getting around the similar, "Konga" sounds like "Kong", name issues.

Cohen also bribed the Croydon police chief with a brand new TV, and the local residents with candy and flowers, so that he could film the ending of "Konga" in their neighborhood.

I don't know about you, but it would take a lot of M&M's and roses to get me to ignore machine gun fire at 2 in the morning.

Oh, and before I forget, if you are one of those people who subscribe to the belief that there are equal positive and negative forces at work in the universe, then you may find it interesting that "Gorgo", another giant monster film from the UK, which is actually one of the genre's better films, was also released in 1961. Therefore creating a cosmic balance in the universal flow of monster cinema.

The Green Slime (1968)(Toei / MGM)

Written By: Ken Hulsey

Since it's St. Patrick's Day, I decided it would be fun to review on of the meanest, and greenest, science fiction films of all-time. I am, of course, speaking of the joint Japanese and American production, "The Green Slime", a film that will forever stand as a testament of what these two proud countries can achieve together. WWII and this movie....that's about it. Pretty sad when you think about it.

If you think way back to the late 1960s, it would make perfect sense that MGM would want to team up with the Toei company to produce a sci fi film. The Godzilla films were doing good business at the American box office and the Japanese had earned a reputation for producing excellent special effects on a shoe-string budget.

Indeed the production team for "The Green Slime" was a very mixed bag of characters from both sides of the Pacific. The film's director, Kinji Fukasaku, had never produced a science fiction film before and had gained a reputation in Japan for creating gangster films such as "The Yakuza Papers" series.

The film's script was penned by a team of American B movie writers including Charles Sinclair, who wrote the script for the movie based on the "Batman" TV series, Bill Finger, and Tom Rowe. However, Ivan Reiner was ultimately given credit for the work. The most notable name of this bunch is Finger, although his claim to fame didn't come from his screenplays. The writer has often been credited as the co-creator of the superhero, "Batman", along with Bob Kane, a fact that has sometimes fallen under dispute.

American B movie actors were brought over to Japan to play the lead characters in the film. The most notable of these were Robert Horton (Commander Jack Rankin) and Richard Jaeckel (Commander Vince Elliott). However, it was the films leading lady, Italian actress, Luciana Paluzzi, who was cast as Dr. Lisa Benson, that would have been best recognized by American audiences. The actress had starred as the assassin Fiona Volpe, in the James Bond film, "Thunderball" just three years prior.

The rest of the cast was filled by amateur actors from America, Turkey and Germany. The background actors were actual US Air Force personnel from Yokota Air Base, who had been recruited because they already had the 'military' look needed for scenes that were supposed to take place on an orbiting space station.

The hardest obstacle for the film makers was the language barrier. Translators for several different languages had to be brought in to interpret the directors instructions, leading to several instances of confusion on the set.

The films special effects were completed by Japan Special Effects Co. and Ekisu Productions under the direction of Akira Watanabe and his crew of ex-Toho employees. Their experience working with the famed Japanese special effects master, Eiji Tsuburaya, would come in handy in both designing the monster costumes and miniature sets used in the film.

Plot:

A group of astronauts set out to stop a giant asteroid on a collision course with the planet Earth. They land on the asteroid, plant explosive charges and destroy it. Afterwards they return to the staging area, a space station called Gamma 3 in orbit around the Earth. Unfortunately, a scientist from the mission has unwittingly carried a luminous-green substance on the leg of his spacesuit which quickly mutates into one-eyed, tentacled monsters with the ability to discharge lethal bolts of electricity. The Gamma 3 crew fend off the alien creatures with their laser-based weaponry, only to discover the creatures feed off the energy which, in turn, allows them to multiply rapidly, sprouting the new creatures from their blood. As the creatures overrun the station the crew continues to fight back against overwhelming odds.

"The Green Slime" was released in December of 1968 in Japan as "Gamma 3: Operation Outer Space" and marketed towards children. Initially the film was shown as part of Toei's seasonal kiddie matinée series, known as" Toei Chibiko Matsuri" (Toei Children's Festival) which also featured cartoons and shorts aimed at younger viewers. For this release Toei cut 13 minutes out of the feature, including the Horton-Paluzzi-Jaeckel love triangle subplot, which the studio deemed too adult and boring for children.

As expected "The Green Slime" opened in America in May of 1969 to a plethora of negative reviews. Most of these were very similar, in nature, to the reviews that Toho's Godzilla films had been receiving for over a decade. These less than stellar reviews, combined with the preconceived idea that the film was just another Japanese B monster movie, led to poor box office results.

The film, like most of the Japanese monster films that had proceeded it, did become a matinee hit with American youngsters. Children always seemed to love the elements in these films that were generally lost on an adult audience.

I, myself, was first introduced to this film as young man as an afternoon movie feature. The Japanese sci fi elements were obvious and appealing to me, due mostly to my love of all the Godzilla and Gamera films. True, the acting wasn't great, and the monsters were a bit hokey, but that's what you expect from a film like this. It isn't supposed to be taken seriously, its just supposed to be good clean fun, and it is.