Here we go again, another review of MST3K season one. This time it’s The Slime People.
But once again, it’s another Commando Cody episode first! In my last review, I wasn’t paying enough attention, the bad guys actually got away with the payroll money, and brought it back to their Moon Man Master. Commando Cody and his sidekick scientist track the evil henchmen by the airport, the plane they rented to drop an atomic bomb into an extinct volcano (to create more havoc) was done under assumed names (duh), but one of the airport people bummed some matches from one of the henchmen and forgot to return them. They were from a cafe the henchmen frequent near their hideout. Commando Cody and sidekick arrive at the cafe just before the henchmen do for some nice lunch, and another fistfight ensues. Cody loses, again. His sidekick scientist is kidnapped. That seems to happen a lot in this show…
Commando Cody’s sidekick waits for the right moment, then jumps out of the moving car the evil henchmen are driving and runs off into the desert scrub before they can catch them. Instead of pursuing him the short distance to his hiding spot, they give up and call for a replacement car, because they were seen getting away in the one they’re driving. They drive up into the mountains and park the “hot” car. Meanwhile, sidekick gets to a gas station and calls Cody and tells him what happened. Commando Cody dons his rocket suit, tweaks the nipples (you just have to see it) and flies off to catch the bad guys. Which he does fairly quickly. Then a gunfight starts up, with Commando Cody shooting the gun out of one of the henchmen’s hand—ouch! They run up to a cliff, one of the guys hides in a crack of rock, while the other “surrenders” to Cody. He stupidly falls for it, the hidden henchman throws a big rock at Cody and knocks him off the cliff! Yikes! That’s where the episode ends.
On to the show. The Slime People was filmed 90% in bad fog. You could hardly see what was happening most of the time. Basically, a pilot of a small plane is trying to land in LA, they tell him to divert, he flies through some rough air, and lands at the airstrip anyway. Nobody is around. An old scientist and his two beautiful daughters show up in a car a few minutes later and tell him that underground slime people have invaded LA and set up a barrier around the city. They are lowering the temperature to the dew point perpetually which is the only way they can survive above ground. For some reason.
They run across a couple more people, a TV station reporter (I think, it wasn’t quite clear), and a goat farmer who didn’t believe in the Slime People. Well, don’t you know, those are always the guys that get et up. And he was killed by the Slime People shortly after being found. They try to break through the barrier to get out (and let help get in), but can’t. The scientist tries to break it down with “chemicals”, and a harrowing trip to the wall commences. Slime People are everywhere, but our heroes manage to get away with the knowledge that “chemicals” don’t work on the wall. The scientist then realizes that sodium chloride will, because the pilot’s plane dropped real low when he “passed through” the barrier. So they round up all the salt they can and take it back to the barrier, but it’s not enough. They find the Slime People’s machine that is sustaining the barrier and destroy it, while fighting off tons of Slime People. When the barrier comes down, the temperature returns to normal, and the Slime People choke and die.
The Slime People were not slimy. That was the biggest twist to the movie. I sure didn’t see that one coming.