Somehow I never seem to miss a showing of Soylent Green on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Seeing how December was Joseph Cotten month (one of my many favorite actors of the past), and today was a Tuesday (you have to see the movie to understand), once again I couldn't resist -- as a matter of fact I'm watching it as I type this (47 minutes into the movie, where Charlton Heston is interrogating the beautiful Leigh Taylor-Young at the home of the suddenly-late Joseph Cotten).
A murder mystery and a sci-fi movie all rolled into one, directed by the man, Richard Fleischer, who brought Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Fantastic Voyage and a few other classics to the screen (and was the son of Disney's biggest animation competitor of the 1930s, Max Fleischer of the famous Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons). Plus Charlton Heston, Chuck Connors and Edward G. Robinson, and one of the greatest opening "montages" ever put to film (and parodied so effectively in a South Park episode, Helen Keller the Musical, a few years ago). What's not to like?
One of the covy of great, post-apocalyptic science fiction movie nightmares of my youth, fertile ground in the late 1960s and 1970s for a variety of films that included Omega Man, Planet of the Apes, and Logan's Run. Always remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day. Much better than Soylent Yellow or Soylent Red, it's new and improved. And we all know that Soylent Green is...well, you know. Gotta run -- the scoops are on their way!
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