It was directed by: Kinji Fukasaku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinji_Fukasaku Though shot in Japan--it felt like some Italian attempts at sci-fi.
The Green Slime was actually sort of a loose continuation of an Italian movie series called Gamma One, from the same producers. Back in 2012, TCM did a marathon that included three of the four Gamma One films (in reverse order!) and The Green Slime all in the same day. We discussed them in this thread from post #177-208. The Italian films were really quite awful, with cheap, sloppy special effects. TGS wasn't a great film, but it's a vast improvement over its antecedents.
I like that they had different ships--and the blaster design was pretty good. I think folks in Japan still animate laser fire--instead of thin energy beams that are easy to do in CGI.
February (a bit late -- I missed a showing of Around the World in 80 Days overnight): The theme this month is "31 Days of Oscar," which means there aren't a lot of genre films this month, given traditional Academy biases. And they seem to be running the features in a certain order -- see if you can spot it from the list. FRI 2/3 8:00 PM: The Birds ('63) SAT 2/4 10:00 PM: Bride of Frankenstein ('35) TUE 2/7 6:00 PM: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ('32): The good one! WED 2/8 4:00 PM: Forbidden Planet ('56) SAT 2/11 12:45 PM: A Guy Named Joe ('43): WWII angel fantasy with Spencer Tracy. 11:45 PM: Harvey ('50) SUN 2/12 11:45 PM: I Married a Witch ('42) MON 2/13 10:15 PM: Jaws ('75) WED 2/15 9:00 AM: Logan's Run ('75) FRI 2/17 8:45 AM: A Midsummer Night's Dream ('35) 11:15 AM: Mighty Joe Young ('49) SUN 2/19 4:00 PM: Oh, God! ('77) TUE 2/21 12:45 AM: Poltergeist ('82) THU 2/23 12:45 PM: Scrooge ('70): With Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guinness. Help me, Jacob Marley, you're my only hope! SUN 2/26 3:45 PM: Them! ('54) MON 2/27 2:15 PM: The Time Machine ('60) TUE 2/28 7:30 AM: Topper Returns ('41) Obviously, "31 Days of Oscar" will continue into the first three days of March. Odd that they'd put it in February.
Hmm, quite a few of those I'd like to watch, and depending on my work schedule, I might actually be able to.
Sorry I'm late for March... FRI 3/3 10:00 PM: Young Frankenstein ('74) SUN 3/5 2:15 AM: Belladonna of Sadness ('73): Originally Kanashimi no Belladonna, an avant-garde erotic anime film about witchcraft and revenge, with very static animation (mosty panning over still artwork). Caution: apparently it features graphic sexual content and rape. 3:48 AM: A Look at the World of "Soylent Green" ('73): Behind-the-scenes short about the film, even though TCM isn't showing the film anywhere near it. 4:00 AM: Fantastic Planet ('73): The acclaimed animated sci-fi film from French director Rene Laloux. THU 3/9 2:30 AM: Doctor Faustus ('68): Richard Burton and Liz Taylor do Faust, directed by Burton. 1:30 PM: The Cockeyed Miracle ('46): Father-and-son ghost comedy with Frank Morgan and Keenan Wynn. SUN 3/12 6:00 PM: King Solomon's Mines ('50) SAT 3/18 6:15 PM: Five Million Years to Earth ('68): AKA Quatermass and the Pit. 10: 15 PM: Seven Days in May ('64): The Rod Serling-scripted near-future cautionary tale about a US government coup. MON 3/20 7:15 AM: The Seventh Victim ('43): Val Lewton satanism thriller. 8:00 PM: Psycho ('60) TUE 3/21 4:00 AM: Westworld ('73): The original Michael Crichton film with Yul Brynner. 5:30 AM: 2001: A Space Odyssey ('68) 8:00 AM: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ('32): The good one. 9:45 AM: The Invisible Man ('33) 1:00 PM: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ('82): Videotaped stage production of the Sondheim musical, with Angela Lansbury reprising her Broadway role and George Hearn doing a mediocre job in the title role (replacing Len Cariou from the original cast). WED 3/22 4:15 PM: Little Shop of Horrors ('60) 5:45 PM: The Birds ('63) THU 3/23-SAT 3/25: A 34-hour monster movie marathon. I'll break it down by day for clarity: THU 3/23 8:00 PM: Gojira ('54): The Japanese original. 10:00 PM: King Kong ('33) FRI 3/24 Midnight: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56) 1:30 AM: The Thing from Another World ('51) 3:15 AM: The X from Outer Space ('67): Reeeeaaaallllly bad kaiju film. 5:00 AM: 20 Million Miles to Earth ('57): Harryhausen monster from Venus! 6:45 AM: Nosferatu ('22) 8:45 AM: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ('20) 10:30 AM: The Wolf Man ('41) Noon: Cat People ('42) 1:30 PM: Horror of Dracula ('58): First Hammer Dracula, an odd inclusion amid several Universal Monsters films. 3:15 PM: Frankenstein ('31) 4:45 PM: The Mummy ('32) 6:15 PM: The Gorgon ('64): Ah, here's another Hammer film, with Cushing and Lee. 8:00 PM: The Wizard of Oz ('39) 10:00 PM: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ('03) SAT 3/25 1:30 AM: A Clockwork Orange ('71) 4:00 AM: Soylent Green ('73): Just 20 days after the documentary short about it... SUN 3/26 Midnight: The Haunting ('63) 2:00 AM: Hausu ('77): Japanese horror classic. WED 3/29 4:00 AM: King Solomon's Mines again.
Thanks as usual. Although nothing by Richard Matheson? Harrumph. By coincidence, our local high school is staging "Little Shop of Horrors" this weekend, and, yes, I have tickets. I'll have to check out the 1960 original, too, which I don't think I've seen in decades . . ..
I haven't seen Fantastic Planet in 20-25+ years. It used to be a staple on USA Network's amazing Night Flight back in the day. Looking back on it I'm not sure if they ever actually had the rights for all the things they used to show but it was great fare for an awkward teen to waste his weekends on. Decent mix this month of the familar, the rare and the strange.
Believe it or not, I saw Fantastic Planet on a double feature with Logan's Run back in the seventies. An odd thought: When they finally get around to remaking Logan's Run, are modern audiences going to think it's a Wolverine movie?
Or Iron Man's sidekick Happy Logan? Uh--I should quit trying now. 4:00 AM: Fantastic Planet ('73): The acclaimed animated sci-fi film from French director Rene Laloux. Howabout this TCM? Have the cool movies on early--and save the routine romance films for late night... Who are these people?
It's French so weird is par for the course. It's worth a rewatch if one is in the right mood. The basic theme I took from it is "knowledge is power". I'll leave it at that.
To be fair, Fantastic Planet is of specialized appeal--and only to a small segment of TCM's audience. It's not exactly Casablanca or All About Eve.
Now, I did commit to watching it last night. I remember a Starlog photo where the Oms had these fighting beasts strapped to them--but I remember seeing figures in some sort of armor in one photo. I don't remember that from the film...
Is there much R rated level content in Fantastic Planet? I noticed that since they show them unedited, they tend to show a lot of the more adult stuff late at night.
Good point. It's been ages, but I seem to remember some cartoon nudity and, yeah, TCM tends to run uncut movies with nudity in the wee hours of the morning.
I remember sitting there slack jawed when I tuned to the station and saw the start of the "Taarna" sequence for "Heavy Metal". I thought to myself, "This will be 'butchered' or 'pixelated' beyond belief." Imagine my surprise when the titular heroine opened her robe for her "cleansing" ritual. "Oy! You can see her 'cotton wool'!" I had no idea TCM would show the film uncensored.
That's TCM's thing. They always show movies uncut and unaltered. (Well, excepting things like Godzilla films re-edited and dubbed for US release. But they usually show foreign films in their original language.)