THE BLOB

THE BLOB (1958). Director: Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.

An old man (Olin Howlin/Howland) finds a piece of meteor that has fallen near his cabin and discovers it is filled with a flesh-eating substance that quickly begins engulfing his arm. He is picked up off the roadway by two "teens:" Steve (Steve McQueen of The Towering Inferno); and his kind of drippy date, Jane (Aneta Corsaut of The Toolbox Murders), who initially thinks he's just a masher. Alerted to the danger represented by the blob, they try to warn the police and the town as the creature floats through suburbia and finally enters a movie theater during its midnight matinee. The Blob isn't well-directed and isn't the fright classic it could have been, but it has enough creepy moments and tense sequences, such as a bit with a meat locker and the climax in a diner completely covered by the blob, to make an effective enough monster movie. The two leads offer more than competent performances, although you might not have guessed that major stardom was in the cards for McQueen. The Blob itself seems to be brought to life in certain sequences with stop-motion, and its a neat touch how it often transforms into a kind of slithering tongue or powerful club. Slow-paced for the most part, this is a Teen Thriller decked out in widescreen and TechniColor. A crazy scene has a doctor persistently asking Steve what's wrong with the old man's arm instead of simply taking off the jacket the arm is wrapped in and seeing for himself. This was remade thirty years later but it was not that big an improvement. Followed by Beware! The Blob. This was undoubtedly inspired by The Creeping Unknown even as it influenced Caltiki, the Immortal Monster. Yeaworth also directed 4D Man; he made few films. For more on this and other monster movies see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.

Verdict: Not bad, but not nearly as much fun as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. ***.