Tucson Post: News about Tucson, Arizona

The Blob [DVD]

Screenplay : Theodore Simonson and Kate Phillips (from an original idea by Irving H. Millgate)

MPAA Rating : NR

Year of Release : 1958

Stars : Steve McQueen (Steve Andrews), Aneta Corsaut (Jane Martin), Earl Rowe (Lieutenant Dave), Olin Howlin (Old Man), Steven Chase (Dr. T. Hallen), John Benson (Sergeant Jim Bert), George Karas (Officer Ritchie), Lee Payton (Kate, the Nurse)

During the Cold War 1950s, American cinema goers found cathartic release from the growing fear of the nuclear arms race in watching the U.S. being bombarded on-screen by threats generated by either atomic radiation run amok or invasions from outer space, from body snatchers, to atomic men, to giant ants, to the 50-ft. Woman. Yet, none of these creatures were as simplisticly freaky as the oozing mass of gelatinous matter from outer space in The Blob.

Like most '50s sci-fi movies, The Blob takes place in small town America. But, one major difference is that the main characters are not scientists, policemen, politicians, doctors, or Army generals. Rather, the main characters are all teenagers (although most of the actors who played them had left their teenage years a decade earlier), which is most likely a response to the then-popularity of teen pics and juvenile delinquent films, most notably Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The Blob plays on the teenage fantasy scenario that the teens know what's happening, but the stubborn adults in town (especially the police) don't take them seriously until it is almost too late. If they'd only listen to the kids...

The central character is Steve Andrews, played by soon-to-become action star Steve McQueen (billed as "Steven") in his first starring role. While on a date with his girlfriend, Jane (Aneta Corsaut), Steve sees a meteor fall to earth nearby. The meteor, which cracks open to reveal a tiny, clear Blob, is discovered by an old man living in a shack in the woods (Olin Howlin). The old man makes the dubious mistake of allowing the Blob to touch him, where it immediately engulfs his hand and begins to consume his flesh, growing larger in the process and turning red with his blood.

Steve and Julie take the old man to the local doctor (Steven Chase), but it is of no use because the Blob consumes not only the old man, but also the doctor and his nurse (Lee Payton), despite attempts to kill it by throwing acid on it and blasting it with a shotgun. Growing ever larger and redder, the Blob begins to move silently through town in the night, oozing its way into a movie theater, a grocery store, and a diner, sending people running and screaming into the street. Meanwhile, Steve, Jane, and several other teenagers try to convince the skeptical police of what is going on.

Made on a miniscule budget completely outside the Hollywood studio system by first-time feature director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr., whose only previous film experience was an extensive career making 16-mm short religious films, The Blob is one of the prototypical '50s drive-in movies. It doesn't demand much of its audience, and it delivers about what one would expect. The movie is creative, but not too creative. It never pushes any boundaries or attempts to transcend its limited material. Today it can be read as pure camp, but it's hard to tell whether it was meant to be taken seriously when first released in 1958.

Some of the dialogue is terribly hokey and clumsy in a gee-whiz '50s kind of way, but the actors are game and they deliver their lines with passion and intensity. Most of the actors who played the teenagers were recruited from New York and the Philadelphia theater scene; only the supporting adult roles were filled by familiar character actors. (However, it should be mentioned that the movie does include one of the worst, most gratingly bad performances by a child actor in film history, and the movie's biggest letdown is that this kid never gets consumed by the Blob.)

The effectiveness of the Blob itself tends to vary from scene to scene. It is actually more menacing when it is small because it has a more acute sense of agency--it moves quickly and seems to go after people, especially when it races up a stick and onto the old man's hand. Once it gets larger, the Blob becomes bloated and slow, and its consumption of humans feels more like an afterthought, as if they simply got in its way.

The Blob was created by a number of special effects tricks, some of which are more effective than others. In some scenes, the effect was created with a modified weather balloon, in other scenes it was shot in miniature using colored silicone, and when it was required to be larger than people, it was simply a cardboard cut-out or a matte painting. Many of the effects are obviously fake, but considering the budget, they are really quite inventive.

For fans of '50s science fiction, The Blob holds a special place in their hearts. It is not a complex allegory for communism like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), but neither is it a truly dreadful piece of junk like Robot Monster (1953) or Ed Wood's Bride of the Monster (1955). The Blob has not aged particularly well (Burt Bacharach's silly theme song, forced on the movie by Paramount executives, sounds particularly dated and out of place), but that's part of its charm. No one will mistake it for great filmmaking, but for 82 minutes it's good, campy fun.

©2000 James Kendrick