The BlobThe Blob

Release Date: September 12, 1958
Cast: Steve McQueen as Steve Andrews
Aneta Corsaut as Jane Martin
Length: color (WS)- 86 minutes
Budget: about $240,000
Director: Irwin Yeaworth
Cinematography: Thomas E. Spalding
Written by: Kay Linaker, Theodore Simonson
Music: Burt Bacharach, Ralph Carmichael
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Gross revenue: $4,000,000

Interesting Tidbits

The Blob is an independent film production and was shot in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The movie became a hit in drive-in theaters when Steve McQueen became well known in his TV series, Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Despite its limited budget, The Blob was filmed in color and in widescreen. There weren't too many science fiction films shot in widescreen in the 1950s.

This movie provided Steve McQueen with his first leading role. He was offered a percentage of the profits (10 percent) but refused because he didn't think it would do well at the box office. He instead was paid $3,000. The Blob went on to gross $4,000,000!

To get the impression of the blob overrunning the diner, special effects personnel placed a photograph of it on a gyroscopically-controlled table with cameras mounted. The table was shaken and the blob rolled off. When the film was run in reverse, it appeared that the blob was oozing all over the building.

The Plot

Teenager Steve Andrews (Steve McQueen) and his girl Jane Martin (Aneta Corsaut) are out parking and see a falling star. They drive out to try to find where the meteor landed. An old man (Olin Howland) has heard the meteor crash near his house. He finds the meteor and pokes it with a stick. The rock breaks open to reveal a small jelly-like blob inside. This Blob, a living creature, crawls up the stick and attaches itself to his hand. The man runs hysterically onto the road, where he is seen by Steve, who takes him to see the local doctor, Doctor Hallen.

They reach the clinic when Doctor Hallen is about to leave. Hallen anesthetizes the man and sends Steve back to the crash site to gather more information. Hallen decides he must amputate the man's arm which is being consumed by the Blob, calling in his nurse. However, the Blob completely consumes the old man. Now an amorphous creature, it eats the nurse and the doctor while increasing in size.

Steve and Jane return to the office and Steve witnesses the doctor's death. They go to the local police and return to the clinic with the kindly Lt. Dave and cynical Sgt. Burt. However, there is no sign of the creature or the doctor, and the police dismiss Steve's story. Steve and Jane are sent home with their fathers but sneak out and retrieve Steve's friends and successfully enlist their help warning the town.

In the meantime, the Blob has consumed a mechanic, the janitor in Mr. Andrew's grocery store, and a bar room of late-night drinkers. Investigating, Steve and Jane are confronted by the Blob in the grocery store and seek refuge in the walk-in refrigerator. The Blob starts to ooze in under the door but then retreats. Steve and Jane escape and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The whole town gathers and demands to know what is going on. As the townspeople and police angrily confront Steve, the Blob enters the Colonial Theater, engulfing and eating the projectionist before oozing into the cinema seating area.

The patrons run screaming out of the theater, alerting the assembled townspeople to the danger. The Blob leaves the theater, but Jane's little brother appears from the crowd to confront the Blob with his cap gun before running into the adjacent diner. Jane and Steve run in after him but become trapped along with the owner and a waitress.

The Blob – now an enormous mass – engulfs the diner and begins to ooze in through the windows while the occupants seek refuge in the cellar. The police try to kill the Blob by dropping a power line onto it, but this fails and only sets the diner ablaze. Defending themselves inside, the diner's owner uses a CO2 fire extinguisher attempting to put out the fire, which also causes the approaching Blob to recoil.

Steve remembers the Blob recoiled from the refrigerator, too, and tells Lt. Dave that the Blob cannot stand cold. Jane's father, Mr. Martin, takes Steve's friends to the high school to retrieve fire extinguishers which are used to freeze the Blob. Dave requests an Air Force jet to transport the Blob to the North Pole to keep it frozen. A military plane is shown dropping the Blob into an Arctic landscape. The film ends with the words "The End", which then morphs into a question mark, suggesting that the Blob may return.
Source: Wikipedia.com.