The Blob - Criterion Collection

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What would the average sensible American do if he encountered a pulsing ball of protoplasm from outer space? That's right: he'd poke it with a stick. Thus begins the endearingly earnest and silly tale of The Blob. Young Steve McQueen takes on his first leading role as, um, Steve, a spunky teenager with plenty of heart. Steve sees the blob kill the local doc, but darn it, none of the town's adults will believe him! Yup, it's up to the teens to save the day! Steve and his trusty girlfriend Jane break their curfews(!) and head off into the night to find the Blob and warn the town. The Blob is a completely enjoyable watch from start to finish, offering the triple pleasures of 1950s morals, gee-whiz acting, and a whole lotta extras running around and screaming. The special effects, though primitive, certainly get the job done, and it is still a treat to watch the Blob ooze its way to its next meal. You may notice that the theme song is surprisingly bouncy for a horror flick ("Beware of the Blob! It creeps, and leaps, and glides and slides across the floor"). It was written by Hal David and a fresh young composer by the name of Burt Bacharach. --Ali Davis

Description

"Beware of the Blob!" One of the great cult classics, The Blob melds '50s schlock sci-fi and teen delinquency pics even as it transcends these genres with strong performances and ingenious special effects. Made outside of Hollywood by a maverick film distributor, a crew experienced in religious and educational shorts, and a collection of theatrical talent from Philadelphia and New York, The Blob helped launch the careers of superstud Steve McQueen and composer Burt Bacharach.

Customer Reviews:

Oozing out of my boyhood memory comes the BLOB!.......2007-07-18

Well, oozing out of my boyhood memory comes the rememberance of this old film. Boy how it use to give me nightmares back in the early 1960's whenever I saw it. Compared to the 1988 remake, this is very toned down in terms of the horror element. Suspense wise, this film carries well, if you've never seen it. Careful though, kids 8 or under might get the same nightmares I got as a boy having not forgotten my own childhood.

The film was made by a group of people who never made a motion picture film before and they did a pretty good job with the whole thing. This was the first film to launch Steve McQueen's career as an actor and the opening song was the first commercial song written by the famed Burt Bacharach, whose career greatly took off after writing the opening theme song. The actors were hardly paid anything for this work. Word of mouth however and the opening theme song helped sell this picture at the box office into the horror classic it became.

Most camera shots were one time takes for the most part and yet the whole thing comes together quite well in the editing room. The lighting, location and set work is very well done. The blob, being nothing more than colored red silicon, made in a bucket, that pulsates on a rubber balloon, is a very convincing performer as the star of the film. The color quality of this Criterion Collection is just crisp as all can be. The whole thing looks like the day it was first released: Astounding quality.

Obviously, you can't take this premise of the Blob seriously. Jack Harris, in his audio commentary, looks back laughing; saying he can't believe they made this film. However, the scene pacing has a unique ambiance of "creepiness" to it. You just never know when the blob will appear and have a human being as a meal, if you've never seen the movie before. There is no real gore element in this film like there was in the 1988 remake. Its the pacing of the film and suspense formula that makes it "fun" to watch, if you can call having a feeling of total sick uneasiness, as you watch this film "fun"? I suppose you'd get the same feeling having a good round with the 72 hour flu bug in your life, but it all works. It worked even more when I was a boy seeing it for the first time.

The idea that something, which can consume organic flesh; can't be burned up, is a bit contrived however. Flesh has the chemical structure of CHNO, the same structure as plastic. Man learned to make plastic back in the 1940's by studying the chemical structure of organic flesh. Both burn when exposed to high fire or heat; regardless. So why the blob responds to cold, but not fire or electricity, which destroys flesh, makes no scientific sense in terms of God's Universe and its laws as we know it. However this thing comes from outer space and anything is possible if it comes from outer space, right? How the blob converts organic flesh into a meaty, gooey, crawling intelligence is something I think only the film makers can explain, not a scientist. (chuckling) In short, in terms of scientific law with what is known about life on this planet; you can't freeze something without also being able to burn it, but you learn they can't burn or electricute this thing, only adding to the suspense value toward the end, begging the questions; "How will they destroy it?". But that is what makes the thing so campy.

Also, how the blob can dissolve flesh, but has a heck of a time getting through a door or thin glass pane window is beyond me. It can go under a door however. You'd think all that massive weight, made out of dissolved human bodies, would have no trouble getting through anything. What a line backer this thing would make on a football field! No one would mess with it! (lol) Can't imagine what it would look like in a football uniform, unless it was consumming opposing team members while wearing their uniforms along the way, but maybe that will be in the next remake, since its been 20 years since the 1988 remake was done.

Just think what can be done with computer graphics these days, if this premise was approached again? Could be an even worse gross out than the 1988 remake. They no doubt could show us a whole young man dissolve on screen while watching the blob ooze through every orifice of the young man's body as it strips the body down like an onion one layer at a time right before our eyes! We no doubt could even watch it moving through the man's GItract as the flesh is stripped away on screen. Ich! I think that is what many were hoping more for with the 1988 remake.

You can certainly see this potential with computer generated graphics viewing the movie "Hollow Man" starring Kevin Bacon; where the gorilla that appears and disappears off the operating table, as the "invisibility serum" takes hold, disappears one layered system at a time with its body. Just add on the blob to that special effect and you've got the effect, while making the whole thing look way too real.

Also, since the blob can dissolve flesh, which has the chemical structure of CHNO, why can't it dissolve wood, which has a similar CHNO formulation at the molecular level, especially when it comes in contact with the old diner's structure at the end of the movie? This at least was addressed in the 1988 remake when the first young guy gets it. Oh God, I'm being too sensible aren't I?

Well, the fact is, when you are a little boy, being scared to death by this film, you don't think of such things and there in lies the charm of this old horror classic in my view. I say all of this so you don't take this film too seriously, but simply have fun with its suspense value, which is very well done and for that reason alone deserves 5 stars.

Suspense wise with the story, you also can't help but feel the helplessness of the young teenage kids trying to warn the town, while no one listens; as more and more people become blob fodder, not to mention the feeling of helplessness the authorities have toward the end, when the blob traps the stars in a small diner, ready to disolve them for dinner, with no one knowing how to stop it. Makes you wonder whose the dinner and whose the diner in the end? (lol) It also makes you wonder if they had that gag in mind with the final sequence of the movie, which wasn't mentioned in the commentaries. Oh well.

Anyway, the two commentaries are only all too excellent that come with this collection. One audio has Jack Harris & Bruce Eder on it. Both men are extremely articulate in their command of the English language and reveal much about the movie, as well as horror film genre in general back when the movie was made. Both have magnificent voices as you listen to them talk about all of this. The way they present their knowledge should be a standard used by everyone who does a DVD commentary in my opinion: Very informative and very enjoyable. The second audio commentary done by Director Irvin S. Yeoworth Jr. and actor Robert Fields is equally well done and worth listening to, as you watch this old horror film from the 50's.

Bonapotit!

Clever psychological tricks keep the blob alive in your nightmares.......2007-07-17

The Blob is one of the great scifi horror classics of the 50's, and in color too. I saw this in the theaters when I was about 5, and was so scared, I had to hide under the seats. That may seem laughable now, but imagine this... You go to a theater to watch a horror movie. In that movie the cast is in a theater watching a horror movie when the blob attacks the theater. The director uses these clever psychological tactics to magnify the horror without being too graphic.

Absorbing Performance.......2007-01-10

While Steve McQueen and the other human actors seem to be honing their acting skills, the Blob itself gives an absorbing performance. In addition to the monster's performance, the story is what makes this 1958 production an essential addition to any collection of science fiction movies. Like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers before it, The Blob deals with the idea of dormant alien life drifting through space, just waiting for a chance encounter with an unsuspecting planet. Hey, it could happen. It may have already happened.

As the song goes: "Beware of the Blob - it creeps and leaps and glides and slides...".......2007-01-02

In 1958, Paramount Pictures released THE BLOB, a modest sci-fi cinematic effort showcasing a struggling, up-and-coming actor named Steve McQueen in his first feature film starring role. THE BLOB - about a primal life form from outer space which comes to earth and begins to indiscriminately devour human flesh - made a killing at the box office and generated a 1972 sequel and a 1988 remake, as well as a Halloween parody by THE SIMPSONS. This movie is also known for its tongue-in-cheek theme song ("Beware of the Blob"), co-written by a pre-famous Burt Bacharach, which went on to become a top 40 hit.

The plot: Teenagers Steve Andrews (McQueen) and Jane Martin (Aneta Corsaut) are out on a date when they glimpse a falling star and attempt to pinpoint its location. Meanwhile, an elderly man comes upon the fallen meteor and pokes at it with a stick (never a sound move in first alien contacting), only to have the meteor break open and the semi-sentient, jelly-like substance within climb up and cling to his hand. The frantic numbnut runs around and is almost struck by Steve's car. Steve and Jane take the man to the hospital, where the jelly blob on the infected victim begins to grow further, eventually consuming its host. It then begins to treat the medical staff like a buffet; the blob inevitably gets out and begins snacking on every human in its path, ever growing larger and larger.

The townspeople are blissfully unaware of the goings-on, despite Steve's desperate attempts to warn them, until a blob assault in a movie theater finally clues in everyone. The town, naturally, falls into a panicked state as the frenzied citizenry mill around and the police strive to ineffectively battle the monstrosity. Finally, it's up to Steve to figure out how to vanquish the blob monster. Unfortunately, he figures it out before the annoying kid actor is eaten.

Absolutely, THE BLOB had its own share of shlock, but, within the confines of its B movie status and irregardless of the cheeky theme song, the cast and crew strived to tell a gripping sci-fi/horror story. The cheesy special effects don't hold up at all to modern day standards (the blob was created initially using a weather balloon and later with tinted silicone gel), and the blob, in today's age, certainly isn't about to realistically intimidate anyone, but there's still an element of nostalgic fun in watching the blob go oozing about its business and scaring the bejesus out of the film characters. The actors made the tale as credible as possible by playing it straight and serious. Kudos go to 27 year old Steve McQueen for convincingly playing a 19 year old. Apparently, McQueen wasn't well liked on the set (he was a prima donna and was in constant argument with the director), but he ended up turning in a charismatic leading man performance. He, evidently, was good enough here that it got him the lead in the television series WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.

THE BLOB, with its display of 1950s sensibilities so different from today's mores and values, is a time capsule film in which the audience could hearken back to a more innocent time. Back then, as predominantly portrayed in cinematic films, even the delinquents end up being kinda square and wholesome. Put side by side with today's standards, it looks pretty unrealistic today. Anyway, THE BLOB is worth investing about 80 minutes of your time. It tells a decent monster attack story, the special effects are so hokey they're fun, the song is bubbly, and McQueen is very good. But that kid is still annoying.

The Blob: 5 stars for the movie, 1 star for Criterion........2006-12-17

First of all, I want to say that 1958's The Blob is a landmark picture and a fantastically fun sci-fi/horror film. Steve McQueen is perfect in it, and it's quite possibly the best sci-fi cheese to come out of the 50s.

HOWEVER, I'm fed up with the Criterion Collection. What this company seems to intend to do is snatch up the rights to many, many great movies, "class" them up with minimal special features, and sell them at obscene prices. This edition of The Blob has ONE DISC, and the only special features are two commentaries. And we have to cough up $40 to have it.

There are no other options; If you want to own this masterpiece, you have to be able to fork up forty dollars to do so.

Criterion is trying to target great films that should be enjoyed by everyone to a wealthy group of people.

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