The Blob (1958)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.

Writers:

Kay Linaker (writer)
Irvine Millgate (story)

Release Date:

12 September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Beware of the Blob! It creeps, and leaps, and glides and slides across the floor.

Plot:

An alien lifeform consumes everything in its path as it grows and grows.

Plot Keywords:

Blob | Alien | Doctor | Police | Meteorite

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Steve McQueen	...	Steve Andrews (as Steven McQueen)
Aneta Corsaut	...	Jane Martin
Earl Rowe	...	Lt. Dave
Olin Howland	...	Old man (as Olin Howlin)
Alden 'Stephen' Chase	...	Dr. T. Hallen (as Steven Chase)
John Benson	...	Sgt. Jim Bert
George Karas	...	Officer Ritchie
Lee Paton	...	Kate, the nurse (as Lee Payton)
Elbert Smith	...	Henry Martin
Hugh Graham	...	Mr. Andrews
Vincent Barbi	...	George (cafe owner) (as Vince Barbi)
Audrey Metcalf	...	Elizabeth Martin
Jasper Deeter	...	Civil Defense volunteer
Tom Ogden
Elinor Hammer	...	Mrs. Porter

Also Known As:

The Glob (USA) (working title)
The Glob That Girdled the Globe (USA) (working title)
The Meteorite Monster (USA) (working title)
The Molten Meteorite (USA) (working title)
The Night of the Creeping Dead (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

86 min | USA:82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | UK:12 (re-rating) | Italy:T | Australia:M (alternate rating) | Australia:PG (original rating) | Canada:PG | Finland:K-16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Fairview Productions

Trivia:

The Colonial Theatre sequence shows a poster for a film titled "The Vampire and the Robot". Although this was one of the proposed U.S. titles for Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952), the movie is a phoney. It is a doctored poster for Forbidden Planet (1956)

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When a shot from outside the diner shows the blob climbing onto it, the diner is clearly only a photograph, as you can see the blob make a clear shadow on the diner, the sky, and the street.

Quotes:

Steve Andrews: Dave! Doc Hallen's been killed!
Lieutenant Dave: Doc Hallen? What happened?
Steve Andrews: It's over at his place, you've gotta come now!
Lieutenant Dave: Now wait a minute Steve, tell us what happened.
Steve Andrews: I'm trying to tell you, now this thing has killed the Doc.
Sgt. Jim Bert: Well what was it? Out with it, kid!
Steve Andrews: Well it's kind of a... kind of a mass, it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Lieutenant Dave: Come on, Steve, make sense.
Steve Andrews: I know, I know, look Dave, you gotta see this thing to believe what I'm telling you.
Sgt. Jim Bert: Maybe this thing you saw was a... monster?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crash Bandicoot (1996) (VG)

Soundtrack:

THE BLOB

Nostalgia Heaven!

This movie is of almost generation-defining importance to some of us born in the early post-war years in that (and especially if you were born between 1946 and 1953 and loved spending Saturday afternoons at your neighborhood movie house) you almost certainly saw it. And the memory of seeing it has probably stayed with you. It's style is the stuff of a brief and somehow gloriously exciting moment in our growing up days.

It had a modern, space-age storyboard for the audiences of it's time. The set was any town with a supermarket and a movie theater that would be packed for a Friday midnight show. It has hot rods and rebellious youth, but in the 'why can't they let us have fun' way rather than the disturbed, histrionic rebel-without-a-cause way. All characters were identifiable to us - teens, parents, the old man, the doctor, the nurse, the mechanic, the boy, the puppy, even the cops - were sympathetic to us. We could relate to them all

It had a singularly horrifying monster. It's first victim is heard moaning 'it hurts.....it hurts' and we were convinced and frightened. The menace grows continually throughout the story. There are intense periods of suspense, colourful effects, a fabulous lead in McQueen, and moments of humour, both intended and not. It even had an almost over-the-top sad part to make the more sensitive of us feel like crying.

I saw it in summer, age 9 or so, double billed with 'I Married A Monster From Outer Space', and was so thrilled by the experience of this particular double feature that I went back a couple more times before it left. Everyone I knew saw it. Everyone I knew loved it.