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The Blob

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This article is about the 1958 film. For the 1988 remake, see The Blob (1988 film). For other uses, see Blob (disambiguation).

The Blob
Theatrical release poster
Directed byIrvin Yeaworth
Written byKay Linaker
Theodore Simonson
Story byIrving H. Millgate
Produced byJack H. Harris
StarringSteven McQueen
Aneta Corsaut
Earl Rowe
Olin Howland
CinematographyThomas E. Spalding
Edited byAlfred Hillmann
Music byRalph Carmichael
Burt Bacharach
Production
companies
Fairview Productions
Tonylyn Productions
Valley Forge Films
Distributed byParamount Pictures
(original, 1958)
Sony Pictures Television
(current)
Release date
  • September 12, 1958 (1958-09-12) (U.S.)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$110,000[1]
Box office$4,000,000[1]

The Blob is a 1958 American science fiction horror film directed by Irvin Yeaworth, and written by Kay Linaker and Theodore Simonson. The film stars Steven McQueen (in his starring feature film debut, as Steve Andrews) and Aneta Corsaut and co-stars Earl Rowe and Olin Howland. The Blob was distributed by Paramount Pictures as a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

The storyline concerns a growing, corrosive, alien amoeboidal entity that crashes to Earth from outer space inside a meteorite. It devours and dissolves citizens in the small communities of Phoenixville and Downingtown, Pennsylvania, growing larger, redder, and more aggressive each time it does so, eventually becoming larger than a building.

Plot

In a small rural Pennsylvania town in July 1957, teenager Steve Andrews (Steven McQueen) and his girlfriend, Jane Martin (Aneta Corsaut), kiss at a lovers' lane when they see a meteorite crash beyond the next hill; Steve decides to look for it. An old man (Olin Howland) living nearby finds it first. When he pokes the meteorite with a stick, it breaks open, and a small jelly-like globule inside attaches itself to his hand. In pain and unable to scrape or shake it loose, the old man runs onto the road, where he is nearly struck by Steve's car; Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen (Stephen Chase).

Doctor Hallen anesthetizes the man and sends Steve and Jane back to locate the impact site and gather information. Hallen decides he must amputate the man's arm since it is being consumed. Before he can, the Blob completely consumes the old man, then Hallen's nurse Kate, and finally the doctor himself, growing redder and larger with each victim consumed. Steve and Jane return in time for Steve to witness the doctor trying to get out the window with the creature covering him. They leave and go to the police station and return with Lieutenant Dave (Earl Rowe) and Sergeant Bert (John Benson). There is no sign, however, of the creature or its victims, and the sceptical Bert dismisses Steve's story as a teenage prank. Steve and Jane are taken home by their parents, but they later sneak out.

In the meantime, the creature consumes a mechanic at a repair shop. At the Colonial Theater during a midnight screening of Daughter of Horror, Steve recruits Tony (Robert Fields) and some of his friends to warn people about the creature. When Steve notices that his father's grocery store is unlocked, he and Jane go inside to check why. The janitor is nowhere to be seen. The couple is quickly cornered by the creature and they seek refuge in the walk-in freezer. The creature oozes in under the door but quickly retreats. Steve and Jane gather their friends and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The responding townspeople and police still refuse to believe them. Meanwhile, the creature enters the Colonial Theater and engulfs the projectionist before oozing into the auditorium. Steve is finally vindicated when screaming people flee the theater in blind panic.

Jane, her kid brother Danny, and Steve become trapped in a diner, along with the manager and a waitress, as the creature, enormous from the people it has consumed, engulfs the diner. Dave has a connection made from his police radio to the diner's telephone upstairs, telling those in the diner to get into the cellar before the police bring down a live power line onto the creature.

When the power line is felled, it discharges a massive electrical current into the creature which is unaffected but the diner is set ablaze. When the diner manager uses a carbon dioxide extinguisher on the fire, Steve notices that the creature recoils. Steve remembers that it also retreated from the freezer, telling Jane "That's why it didn't come in the ice box after us. It can't stand cold!" Shouting in hopes of being picked up on the open phone line, Steve yells to Dave about the creature's vulnerability to cold. The firemen have a limited supply of CO2 fire extinguishers. Jane's father, high school principal Henry Martin (Elbert Smith), leads Steve's friends to break into the school to retrieve all its CO2 extinguishers. On their return, a brigade of fire extinguisher-armed students, firemen and police first drive the creature away from the diner freeing all trapped there, then surround and freeze the creature.

Dave requests authorities send an Air Force heavy-lift cargo aircraft to transport the creature to the Arctic. Dave says that while the creature is not dead, at least it will be stopped. To this, Steve replies, "Yeah, as long as the Arctic stays cold". The film ends with parachutes bearing the creature on a pallet down to an Arctic ice field with the superimposed words "The End" morphing into a question mark.

Cast

  • Steven McQueen as Steve Andrews
  • Aneta Corseaut as Jane Martin
  • Earl Rowe as Lt. Dave
  • Olin Howlin as Old Man [Note 1]
  • Stephen Chase as Dr. T. Hallen
  • John Benson as Sgt. Jim Bert
  • George Karas as Officer Ritchie
  • Lee Payton as Kate, nurse
  • Elbert Smith as Henry Martin
  • Hugh Graham as Mr. Andrews
  • Vince Barbi as George, cafe owner
  • Audrey Metcalf as Elizabeth Martin
  • Jasper Deeter as Civil defense volunteer
  • Tom Ogden as Fire Chief
  • Elinor Hammer as Mrs. Porter
  • Pamela Curran as Smooching teenager
  • Ralph Roseman as Blob victim working on car
  • Charlie Overdorff
  • David Matcalf as Drunk at door
  • Josh Randolf as Teenager
  • George Gerbereck
  • Julie Cousins as Sally, Waitress
  • Keith Almoney as Danny Martin
  • Eugene Sabel
The teenagers
  • Robert Fields as Tony Gressette
  • James Bonnett as "Mooch" Miller
  • Anthony Franke as Al
  • Molly Ann Bourne
  • Diane Tabben

Production

The film was Jack Harris' first production.[2] The film, reportedly inspired by a discovery of star jelly in Pennsylvania in 1950, was originally titled The Molten Meteor until producers overheard screenwriter Kay Linaker refer to the film's monster as "the blob".[3] Other sources give a different account, saying that the film went through a number of title changes (the monster was called "the mass" in the shooting script) before the makers settled on The Glob. After hearing that cartoonist Walt Kelly had used The Glob as a title for his Pogo children's book, they mistakenly believed that they could no longer use that title, so they changed it to The Blob.[4][Note 2] Though the budget was set at $120,000 it ended up costing only $110,000.[1]

The film was only the second feature film directed by Irvin Yeaworth. Filmed in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, principal photography took place at Valley Forge Studios.[2] Several scenes were filmed in the towns of Chester Springs, Downingtown, Phoenixville, and Royersford, including the basement of a local restaurant which is today named Downingtown Diner. For the diner scene, a photograph of the building was put on a gyroscopically operated table onto which cameras had been mounted. The table was shaken and the Blob rolled off. When the film negative was printed in reverse, it appeared to be oozing over the building.[Note 3] The Blob was filmed in color and in widescreen.

Twenty-eight-year-old Steve McQueen received $3,000 for his starring role. He turned down an offer for a smaller up-front fee in return for a 10% percent share of profits, thinking that the film would never make money; he needed his signing fee immediately to pay for food and rent. However, The Blob ended up a hit, grossing $4 million at the box office.[1]

The film's tongue-in-cheek title song, The Blob [Columbia 42150A], was written by Burt Bacharach and Mack David and became a nationwide hit in the U.S., peaking at number 33 on the Billboard chart on November 9, 1958.[5][6] The song was recorded by studio group the Five Blobs (actually singer Bernie Knee overdubbing himself). Though legend has it that the opening novelty song was composed by a young and unknown Burt Bacharach, along with Bacharach's famous songwriting partner, Hal David, David's brother Mack composed the lyrics and by that time Bacharach had already achieved some measure of success when the film was released.[7]

The background score for The Blob was composed by Ralph Carmichael, who, like Yeaworth, had worked on TV specials for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and supervised by the director's wife, Jean Yeaworth.[2] It was one of just a few film scores that Carmichael wrote. Carmichael also composed the original theme for the film, entitled "Violence" on the soundtrack album, which started the film on a serious and frightening note. It was against the director's wishes to replace the original theme song with that by Bacharach/David. However, because the latter encourages[by whom?] audiences to view The Blob as campy fun, it has contributed to the film's enduring popularity. Both Carmichael's score and Bacharach/David's song were released in 2008 by the Monstrous Movie Music soundtrack label.[7]

Release

Original trailer for The Blob.

Paramount acquired The Blob for $300,000 from Jack Harris and spent another $300,000 promoting it.[8] According to Tim Dirks, the film was one of a wave of "cheap teen movies" released for the drive-in market. They consisted of "exploitative, cheap fare created especially for [young people] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre."[9]

The Blob was distributed as a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

Harris bought the rights back from Paramount and Allied Artists Pictures Corporation re-issued the film as a double feature with his and Yeaworth's Dinosaurus! in 1964.[10]

Reception

When The Blob first premiered as the B film on a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space, it was quickly moved up to be the main feature. While audiences liked it, critics were not as kind. The review in The New York Times highlighted some of the problems and identified some positives, although Steve McQueen's debut was not one of them. Concentrating on director Irvin Yeaworth's work, "Unfortunately, his picture talks itself to death, even with the blob nibbling away at everybody in sight. And most of his trick effects, under the direction of Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., look pretty phony".[11]

The review continued with, "On the credit side, the camera very snugly frames the small town background — a store, a church spire, several homes and a theatre. The color is quite good (the blob rolls around in at least a dozen horrible-looking flavors, including raspberry). The acting is pretty terrible itself, there is not a single becomingly familiar face in the cast, headed by young Steven McQueen and Aneta Corseaut".[11]

Variety had a similar reaction, seeing McQueen as the star, gamely "giving the old college try" but that the "... star performers, however, are the De Luxe color camerawork of Thomas Spalding and Barton Sloane’s special effects".[2]

In a discussion with biologist Richard Dawkins, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson stated that among all Hollywood aliens, which were usually disappointing, The Blob was his favorite from a scientific perspective.[12]

The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 66% approval rating based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 6.27/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In spite of its chortle-worthy premise and dated special effects, The Blob remains a prime example of how satisfying cheesy B-movie monster thrills can be".[13]

Home media

The Blob has been released as part of the Criterion Collection on three formats. First in 1988 on LaserDisc, then in 2000 on DVD, and in 2013 on Blu-ray. The film, together with Son of Blob, was released on DVD in Australia by Umbrella Entertainment in September 2011. The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as audio commentaries with Jack H. Harris, Bruce Eder, Irvin Yeaworth, and Robert Fields.[14] In November 2016, Umbrella released a 2-disc Blu-ray titled The Blob Collection, featuring the 1988 version of The Blob on disc one, and the 1958 version and Son of Blob on disc two. Disc two plays the Criterion Collection's opening identification, although the release was distributed by Umbrella Entertainment with no mention of Criterion on the disc sleeve.

Sequel

A campy sequel, Beware! The Blob, was made in 1972, directed by Larry Hagman. Home video releases used the tagline "The Movie That J.R. Shot", a play on "Who shot J.R.?", the famous catchphrase about the near-demise of the character Hagman played in the television series Dallas.

Remakes

In 1988, a remake with the same name was made and directed by Chuck Russell.

In August 2009, it was revealed that musician-turned-director Rob Zombie was working on another remake,[15][16] but he later ceased working on this project.[17] In January 2015, Zombie was replaced by Simon West as director of the remake.[18] It was announced that the film would be produced by Richard Saperstein and Brian Witten,[18] together with the producer of the original, Jack H. Harris, as executive producer.[19]

Influence

The opening scene of the 1988 horror-comedy Killer Klowns from Outer Space closely parallels that of The Blob. In addition, both movies have a decent cop named Dave who does not believe the young people, and a crabby older cop who seems to have a grudge against young citizens.

The 1999, the John Lafia film Monster! included a theater scene apparently inspired by the one from The Blob.

The film Monsters vs. Aliens had characters based on classic 1950s movie monsters including B.O.B. (Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate), an amoeboid creature.

In the Hotel Transylvania franchise, one of Dracula's friends is a huge, indestructible green amoeboid creature called Blobby, who is able to absorb and regurgitate anything in his path.

In computing, a blob is a collection of binary data stored as a single entity. Blobs are typically images, audio or other multimedia objects, though sometimes executable code is stored as a blob. Blobs were originally just big amorphous chunks of data invented by Jim Starkey at DEC, who describes them as "the thing that ate Cincinnati, Cleveland, or whatever" from "the 1958 Steve McQueen movie",[20] referring to The Blob.

Legacy

Since 2000, the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, one of the filming locations, has held an annual "Blobfest". Activities include a re-enactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming from the town's Colonial Theatre, which has recently been restored.[21] Chef's Diner in Downingtown is also restored, and is open for business for photographs of the basement on weekday mornings only.

The Blob itself was made from silicone, with increasing amounts of red vegetable dye added as it "absorbed" people. In 1965, it was bought by film collector Wes Shank,[22] who has written a book about the making of The Blob.[23]

According to Jeff Sharlet in his book The Family, The Blob was "about the creeping horrors of communism" only defeated "by freezing it — the Cold War writ small and literal".[24] Rudy Nelson, one of the scriptwriters for the film, has denied many of Sharlet's assertions, saying "What on earth can Sharlet say about the movie that will fill 23 pages—especially when what he thinks he knows is all wrong"?[25]

In 1997, film historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester noted that the film was "Filmed in southeastern Pennsylvania at Valley Forge Studios, (and) this very famous piece of pop culture is a model of a decent movie on a small budget".[26]

The trailer for The Blob is seen during the drive-in scene in the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease.

The 2011 SpongeBob SquarePants episode The Krabby Patty that Ate Bikini Bottom is a direct parody of this movie (and its remake).

The poster for The Blob was briefly shown in Steven Spielberg's 2017 film The Post starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Olin Howland appeared in his last film role. He died the following year.
  2. ^ "During the production, crew members were invited to write any title they could imagine for the film. 'The one that used to get all the laughs when people repeated it,' recalled Harris, 'was THE GLOB THAT GIRDLED THE GLOBE. We had another one: ABSORBINE SENIOR. I liked that. And, THE NIGHT OF THE CREEPING DREAD. We were really serious about that one, because it was a ‘tuxedo’ title; THE GLOB THAT GIRDLED THE GLOBE was a ‘dumb’ title. I love one-word titles, having distributed many of them, so I said, ‘Let’s call it THE GLOB.’ Finally everybody agreed. We were applying for copyright, and somebody had done a little investigation and found there was a book called The Glob, by Walt Kelly, the cartoonist. I didn’t know any better then. Today, I know I could have called the picture THE GLOB, because you can’t copyright titles.'"[4]
  3. ^ The setting is apparently Downingtown, Pennsylvania itself as the one policeman identifies his department's office as "Downingtown HQ to East Cornwall HQ" over the two-way radio during his chess game, and the final scenes take place in a restaurant that is clearly labeled "Downingtown Diner".

References

  1. ^ a b c d Weaver 2002, p. 91.
  2. ^ a b c d Gilb. (January 31, 1957). "Review: The Blob". Variety. p. 6. Retrieved March 11, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ Hevesi, Dennis. "Kate Phillips, actress who christened 'The Blob', is dead at 94." The New York Times, April 27, 2008.
  4. ^ a b Biodrowski, Steve. "Retrospective: The Blob." Cinefantastique, January 1989. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
  5. ^ "1958 Weekly Top-40". John Michaelson. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  6. ^ "'The Blob' Marks 50th Anniversary". NPR. October 10, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  7. ^ a b Thompson, Lang. "Articles: The Blob." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
  8. ^ "Par's 'Blob' No Slob; Science Fiction Itself: Cream From Peanuts". Variety. October 15, 1958. p. 3. Retrieved March 10, 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ Dirks, Tim. "Film History of the 1950s". Filmsite.org. American Movie Classics Company LLC. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  10. ^ The Blob at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  11. ^ a b Thompson, Harold. "Movie review: The Blob (1958); 'The Blob' slithers into Mayfair." The New York Times, November 7, 1958.
  12. ^ Neil deGrasse Tyson Videos (November 28, 2013). Richard Dawkins vs Neil deGrasse Tyson on Aliens!. Retrieved July 11, 2015 – via YouTube.
  13. ^ "The Blob (1958)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
  14. ^ "The Blob: Son of Blob." Umbrella Entertainment. Retrieved: May 28, 2013.
  15. ^ Fleming, Michael. "Rob Zombie to remake 'The Blob'" Variety, August 27, 2009.
  16. ^ "Horror Nights '09: Rob Zombie on 'The Blob' and making music." BloodyDisgusting, October 5, 2009.
  17. ^ "Rob Zombie: First Image From 'The Lords Of Salem' Movie." Archived April 10, 2011, at the Wayback Machine BlabberMouth, April 26, 2011.
  18. ^ a b Squires, John."Simon West boards Second remake of The Blob." Dread Central, January 22, 2015. Retrieved: July 7, 2015.
  19. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy. "Simon West To Helm ‘The Blob’ Remake; Goldcrest Selling At EFM – Berlin." Deadline Hollywood, January 22, 2015. Retrieved: July 7, 2015.
  20. ^ a b Starkey, James. "The true story of BLOBs". email. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2006.
  21. ^ Lidz, Franz. "Movies: The Blob". The New York Times, June 10, 2007. Retrieved: January 6, 2015.
  22. ^ "Wes Shank". Theblobbook.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
  23. ^ Shank 2009, p. 120.
  24. ^ Sharlet 2008, p. 181.
  25. ^ Judd, Orrin. "Does Anyone Else Find It Peculiar ..." BrothersJudd Blog, October 28, 2008. Retrieved: July 22, 2011.
  26. ^ Holston & Winchester 1997, p. 61.
  27. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  28. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  29. ^ Jeremy Armstrong (February 3, 2012). "Return of The Blob as slimey substance which inspired film invades Lake District". The Mirror UK. MGN Limited. Retrieved April 8, 2016.

Bibliography

  • Holston, Kim R.; Winchester, Tom (1997). Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Sequels, Series and Remakes: An Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-0155-0.
  • Magrì, Antonio (2009). Di Blob in Blob. Analisi di semiotica comparata. Cinema Tv e Linguaggio del corpo. Roome: Aracne editrice. ISBN 978-8-85482-711-0.
  • Shank, Wes (2009). From Silicone to the Silver Screen: Memoirs of the Blob (1958). Los Angeles. ISBN 978-0-57804-728-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Sharlet, Jeff (2008). The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06056-005-8.
  • Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies: Science Fiction Films of the Fifties, 21st Century Edition. 2009. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company,(First Editions Vol. 1, 1982, Vol. 2, 1986). ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
  • Weaver, Tom (2002). "Interview with Russ Doughten". Science Fiction Confidential: Interviews with 23 Monster Stars and Filmmakers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-78641-175-7.
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