Once again I have let the programing on TCM influence my feature called "Fantastic Photos From Fantasy Films" which is essentially a showcase of classic movie photos from my personal collection.
Today we have a gem from the 1968 American-Italian-Japanese space monster classic 'The Green Slime'. In the photo a couple of astronauts attempt to battle the monsters, who I kinda think look like pickles with tentacles. Anyway, as you may already know blasting these mean little gherkins creates even more of a problem because new monsters spawn from the blood of injured ones.
Here is part of an article I wrote about The Green Slime back in 2009 for Monster Island News:
... 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.
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