The Blob (1958)
Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., Russell S. Doughten Jr.

Film Review

Cheap teen exploitations movies of the 1950s are not what you would expect to find receiving fulsome praise (or even moderate, grudging praise) on any self-respecting film review website, but there's one such film that it would be a crime to disregard - Irvin Yeaworth's enjoyably silly The Blob.  The presence of Steve McQueen in his first leading role gives this low budget bag of cheap thrills a legitimacy it wouldn't otherwise deserve, and this at least partly explains its reputation as a cult classic.  Clearly no one was put off by McQueen's risible attempt to pass himself off as a teenager (he was 27 at the time and looks at least 30), but what made the film an instant hit was not its titular monster, a quivering lump of raspberry flavoured jelly that would have difficulty frightening a mouse, but its infectious title song, which somehow nullifies one's natural aversion to cheapo trash such as this and rather makes you enjoy it.

Written by Mack David and Burt Bacharach, and sung by Bernie Knee, the song rapidly became a hit record and this helped the cheesy dollop of low-grade schlock that originated it to progress at lightning speed from out-of-town drive-ins attended by mostly wooing teenagers to respectable theatres across the whole of America.  "Beware of the blob!  It creeps / And leaps and glides and slides / Across the floor..."  The lyrics are as terrible as the film but somehow they get under the skin and take you over - it's like being absorbed by the monstrous jelly itself.  Like the alien monster it depicts so unconvincingly, the film just seems to keep on growing, and is now apparently so well-regarded that Criterion, that standard-bearer of movie excellence, has seen fit to release it as part of its prestige range of DVDs.

It's probably worth stating here, just in case there is any doubt to the contrary, that The Blob is not and was never intended to be a great piece of cinema.  Assertions that it is a sci-fi masterpiece or the most cogent allegory of the Cold War are hyperbole of the most misguided and mischievous kind.  From the outset, the film was low-budget ephemera intended to make a quick buck from the "teen horror" craze that flared up in the mid-1950s.  Independently produced, it had a budget of around 100 thousand dollars (miniscule compared with your average Hollywood B-movie) and featured not a single known actor - the casting of Steve McQueen (here credited as Steven McQueen) was entirely fortuitous.  The film was directed with no obvious flair by Irvin Yeaworth, a former radio producer who devoted the bulk of his career to making educational and religious films.

The script is poor, but no worse than any other film of its ilk for the time and there are a few decent gags along the way (although much of the humour falls flat).  Whilst the acting is generally mediocre most of the characters (stock archetypes) just about ring true.  McQueen's main virtue is that he anchors the film in reality, but his age is against him and few are likely to be impressed by his attempts to pass himself off as a teenager by mangling his lines in what is too obviously an imitation of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).  It's not the most auspicious start to a film career - McQueen ends up looking dim and gormless, albeit in an endearingly goofy sort of way.

Predictably, the special effects are cheap and used sparingly, but in some scenes they are surprisingly effective, particularly the shots of the oozing red slime forcing its way under doors and through ventilator grills.  What sets the film apart from others of its kind is its sumptuous colour palette, although this has the unfortunate effect of drawing attention to the film's main weaknesses - its hideously static mise-en-scène, the generally wooden acting and a badly realised denouement.  The critics had a field day lambasting the film when it emerged from the cosy shadows of the drive-in, but audiences gave it a very different verdict.  The Blob was a huge success and it raked in over four million dollars.  It helped to make Steve McQueen a worldwide star and inspired Larry Hagman (of Dallas fame) to direct an even more dreadful sequel, Beware! The Blob (1972).  It wasn't until 1988 that The Blob was honoured with its first remake, by Chuck Russell, and the film is due to get the full CGI makeover with Simon West's The Blob (2016), starring Samuel L. Jackson.  It looks as if the over-inflated, man-eating jelly is part of our culture, whether we like it or not.  Served with custard, it's probably delicious.

Film Synopsis

Teenagers from a small town in Pennsylvania in the late 1950s, Steve Andrews and Jane Martin are courting one hot summer's evening when they see a shooting star.  When the meteorite lands nearby it is discovered by an old man who is foolish enough to touch its slimy contents when it breaks open.  Steve and Jane take the old man, now visibly in pain with what looks like a huge blister on his hand, to Dr Hallen's surgery.  Within no time, the old man has turned into a red gelatinous lifeform that promptly makes a meal of Dr Hallen and his nurse.  Witnessing Hallen's horrific death, Steve rushes off to inform the police, but they, believing it to be a teenage prank, take no action.  As Steve tries to alert the unsuspecting community to the danger coming its way, the murderous blob continues devouring people, growing bigger and hungrier as it does so...