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. ***.

PAPILLON

Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen

PAPILLON (1973). Director: Franklin J. Schaffner.

Henri Charriere (Steve McQueen), a safecracker known as Papillon (Butterfly) due to a tattoo on his chest, is convicted of murdering a pimp (a crime he insists he did not commit) and sent to a French penal colony. He becomes friends with counterfeiter Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman) and the two start planning an escape. After several false starts and others joining the team, they manage to get out -- but their trials and tribulations are by no means over. Papillon, if I recall correctly, was a very big hit and a feel-good movie about the indominability of the human spirit. It is also very much a Hollywood movie that often tries to stay on a "light" level despite the grimness of the proceedings. At first McQueen just seems to be walking through his role -- and Hoffman hardly ever seems anything other than Dustin Hoffman in a prison skit -- but with the aid of effective make up he is more impressive in the later scenes. Papillon has to be taken with a grain of salt, as Charriere's memoirs, upon which the film is based, were later determined to be largely fictional; he was never on Devil's Island for instance. McQueen was forty-three when he did this picture, four years older than Charriere was when he made his final escape, although the actor is made up to look like a senior citizen and emotes that way as well; this is not only highly-fictionalized but on occasion plays like a parody. Victor Jory [Cat-Women of the Moon] plays an old Indian chief who wants his own tattoo; Anthony Zerbe is the leader of a colony of lepers; Bill Mumy ["It's A Good Life"] is a young convict who essentially commits suicide; Don Gordon [The Final Conflict], Woodrow Parfrey and Robert Deman are all other convicts who get involved in the big escape one way or another; they are all good. But Papillon, which holds the attention and has a few harrowing moments without ever being really riveting, gets its power not from the performances but from Fred J. Koenekamp's cinematography and Jerry Goldsmith's typically effective musical score.

 Verdict: Not any kind of masterpiece but Papillon's exhaustive efforts to gain his freedom eventually pull you along. ***.

NEVER LOVE A STRANGER

NEVER LOVE A STRANGER (1958). Director: Robert Stevens.

Now where have you heard this before? In the 1920's two friends grow up on the wrong side of the tracks, with one becoming a criminal and the other a prosecutor, until their paths cross violently once again. This story was old when co-producer Harold Robbins wrote his bestseller, "Never Love a Stranger" in the fifties, and there's nothing new or original in the film version. Frankie Kane (John Drew Barrymore) is an orphan raised by Catholics who doesn't realize he's actually Jewish, like his buddy Martin (Steve McQueen). Frank becomes "gray and bitter before his time," as the tiresome narrator tells us, but we're not shown what makes him so. In any case, he becomes a career criminal and Martin an assistant D.A. Whatever its flaws, Never Love a Stranger is watchable for no other reason than the cast. Barrymore [High School Confidential] proves that talent runs in his famous family with an excellent performance as the protagonist, and Steve McQueen [The Towering Inferno] is also admirable as his old buddy turned nemesis. Lita Milan and Robert Bray are also notable as Frankie's girlfriend and a mob boss whom he eventually supplants. John Drew Barrymore [aka John Barrymore, Jr.] was the son of John Barrymore, and the father of Drew Barrymore and John Blyth Barrymore, both actors. John Drew Barrymore's erratic behavior prevented him from building on his early promise, as he had the looks and talent to have a more than satisfactory career. Another adaptation of a Harold Robbins potboiler was The Carpetbaggers.

Verdict: Passable melodrama with some very good performances. **1/2.

THE TOWERING INFERNO

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974). Director: John Guillermin. Action scenes directed by producer Irwin Allen.

Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox each had rights to two separate novels with the same theme: "The Tower" and "The Glass Inferno" both had to do with massive fires in high-rise buildings. The two studios cooperated on one film combining aspects of both stories, thus The Towering Inferno. During an inaugural party in the penthouse of the world's tallest building in San Francisco, a fire breaks out and gets worse and worse as firemen try to cope with the disaster. People are trapped in the Promenade room as other horrible incidents occur on the floors below. As some individuals try to make their way down to the ground far below, the others at the party enact a desperate scheme to save themselves and put out the fire at the same time. Everything is hampered and things made worse by the fact that against the architect's orders a man named Simmons (Richard Chamberlain), the builder's son-in-law, saved money by ignoring the fire codes and safety procedures.

Watching Inferno today with memories of 9/11 in your head makes for a distinctly uncomfortable experience. That being said, Allen has put together a suspenseful and often terrifying movie that grips you for its full length and never lets go. Among the more gut-wrenching scenes are the one where a group tries to get past a shattered, swinging metal staircase, and the horrifying business in the scenic elevator, during which Jennifer Jones' character plunges to a grotesque death. There are a very few moments of pathos in the movie, but most of it is tension and terror. Paul Newman is fine as the architect, an ordinary man, who watches his dream project collapsing and tries to save lives, although Steve McQueen is unemotional throughout as the fire chief. William Holden is the builder, Faye Dunaway is Newman's lover, Fred Astaire is an aging con man, Robert Vaughn is a senator, and Susan Blakely is Holden's daughter, and all are fine. John Williams' score helps sustain the tension. O. J. Simpson is also in the movie,, but that's a disaster of a different kind. Guillermin also directed The Whole Truth and the first terrible remake of King Kong.

Verdict: Not exactly a pleasant experience but certainly well done. ***1/2.