ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Please note the clever arrangement of the movies being discussed in today Featured Threads.

We start out with a movie that strickly for laughs — Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)
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Then we discuss a movie that is supposed to beserious (maybe . . . ) but which turned out to be hilariously funny (definitely!) — The Green Slime (1969 U.S./Japan)\]

And lastly we ponder the strange fact that John Argar actually managed to make Hand of Death (1961) a pretty good movie!

How the hell did THAT happen, eh?





Tell me that picture doesn't look like Ben Grimm from the Fantastic Four!
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Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959)

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Even non-Stooge fans will be mildly amused by this modest little sci-fi comedy — which, along with TV reruns of their feature shorts, resurrected the careers of the famous trio just when it seemed they would be put out to pasture.

Big budget science fiction films were out of fashion by 1959, so Columbia Pictures didn't invest much in this one about three knuckleheads who accidentally rocket themselves to Venus. Abbott & Costello had already done it 1953, even though the title of their film claims they go to Mars.

The Stoogemania version of Venus may lack the gorgeous women which Abbott & Costello's trip gave us, but it does have a talking unicorn, a surrealistic "future car", a giant fire-breathing tarantula, and three evil Venusian Stooge look-a-likes who follow the boys back to Earth. Directed by David Lowell Rich.

Comedy science fiction was an active sub-genre during the late 1950s/early 1960s. In addition to "Have Rocket, Will Travel", there was "The 30-Foot Bride from Candy Rock", "The Absent Minded Professor", "Visit to a Small Planet", "The Son of Flubber", "Invasion of the Star Creatures", "The Three Stooges in Orbit", and several others. ____________________________________________________________________

The Green Slime (1969 U.S./Japan)



There isn't a single Japanese actor in this big-budget Japanese-produced sci-fi drama, but the special effects are a dead give-away. A wandering asteroid (code named "Flora") is on a collision course with Earth. Richard Jaeckel and Robert Horton lead a team which places atomic bombs on the asteroid to blow it up.

They succeed, but they unwittingly bring back an alien fungus to their wheel-shaped space station. The fungus grows into man-sized monsters which multiply rapidly and overrun the space station.

Jaeckel and Horton are forced to set aside their romantic rivalry over Luciana Paluzzi ('Thunderball") while they battle the creatures. Blazing laser guns abound in a desperate battle with the unstoppable monsters!

The astronauts even have to don spacesuits and jet-packs for a battle on the space station's hull. All this in glorious color and wide screen. Directed by Kenji Fukasaku, who also gave us "Message from Space".

"The Green Slime" looks more like a clever satire of sci-fi movies than an ineptly made film. The potato-shaped monster suits are hysterical. The miniatures of the rockets are so tiny the camera can barely focus on them.

The dialogue sounds like perfect parodies of sci-fi's most treasured cliches. When the heroes' rocket tries to outrun an atomic blast, macho Robert Horton defies the G-forces by jumping up from his chair and pushing the throttle forward. "The Green Slime" is so full of scenes like this it, should be re-released as "National Lampoon's Space Adventure". And just wait until you hear the Jimmy Hendrix sound-alike title theme, a psychedelic rock tune. It was even released on 45 rpm! (That kinda like a CD, for those of you too young to remember.)

Rent this movie, call your friends, and mix up a batch of lime Jello as a snack. This is MST3K squared. ____________________________________________________________________

Hand of Death (1961)
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A not-bad, often-neglected little sci-fi tale starring John Agar ("Revenge of the Creature", "Brain from Planet Arous", plenty of others).

Scientist Agar's experiments turn him into a bloated, leather-faced monster who (still wearing his hat and trench coat) stalks the area, bringing death to anyone who touches him. The makeup is surprisingly good, very reminiscent of some of the monsters drawn by Jack Kirby for the old Marvel comics —


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— not to mention looking more than a little like Kirby's Ben Grimm, too


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Agar's physical appearance inspires as much viewer sympathy as it does frights — which is how the story is played. The leading lady is Paula Raymond, the lovely scientist who livened up the Museum of Natural History in "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" eight years earlier.

Director Gene Nelson's credits include "Kissin' Cousins" and "Harum Scarum" with Elvis Presley. Nelson also has co-starring roles in "Oklahoma!", "She's Working Her Way Through College", and others.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)