Blob, The

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The Blob
Credits
Title:	The Blob
Directed by:	Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.
Written by:	Theodore Simonson; Kay Linaker; Irvine H. Millgate
Produced by:	Russell S. Doughten, Jr. Jack H. Harris
Music by:	Ralph Carmichael
Cinematography:	Thomas Spalding
Edited by:	Alfred Hillmann
Production
Distributed by:	Paramount Pictures Fairview Productions Tonylyn Productions, Inc.
Released:	September 12th, 1958
Rating:	Approved
Running time:	82 min.
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Budget:	$240,000
Gross:	Unknown
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The Blob is an American science fiction film that includes elements of horror and comedy. It was directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr., with some directing assists by Russell S. Doughten, Jr. and produced by Paramount Pictures and Fairview Productions. The story treatment was developed by Irvine H. Millgate and the screenplay was written by Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker (under the pen name Kate Phillips). It was released theatrically in the United States on September 12th, 1958.

The movie stars Steve McQueen as Steve Andrews, a seventeen-year-old from Anytown, Pennsylvania who is one of many to shudder in fear at the presence of a giant pink glob of alien snot that consumes everything in it's path. The film also stars Aneta Corsaut as Steve's girlfriend Jane Martin, Earl Rowe as Lieutenant Dave, Steven Chase as Doctor T. Hallen and John Benson as Sergeant Jim Bert.

Plot

The film takes place during one long night in a small rural Pennsylvania town in July, 1957. Teenager Steve Andrews and his girlfriend Jane Martin are kissing on a lovers' lane when they see a meteorite crash beyond the next hill. Steve decides to look for it. An old man living nearby finds it first. When he pokes the meteorite with a stick, it breaks open, and the small jelly-like blob inside attaches itself to his hand. In pain and unable to scrape or shake it loose, the old man runs onto the road, where he is nearly struck by Steve's car. Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen.

Doctor Hallen is about to leave for a medical conference, but anesthetizes the man and sends Steve and Jane back to the impact site to gather information. Hallen decides he must amputate the man's arm since it is being consumed by the growing Blob. Before he can, however, the Blob completely consumes the old man, then Hallen's nurse, and finally the doctor himself, all the while increasing in size.

Steve and Jane return to the office in time for Steve to witness the doctor's death. They go to the police station and return to the house with Lieutenant Dave and Sergeant Bert. However, there is no sign of the creature or its victims, and Bert dismisses Steve's story as a teenage prank. Steve and Jane are taken home by their parents, but they later sneak out.

In the meantime, the Blob consumes a mechanic at a repair store. The Blob grows in size every time it consumes something. At the Colonial Theater, which is showing a midnight screening of Daughter of Horror, Steve recruits Tony and some of his friends to warn people about the menace. When Steve notices that his father's grocery store is unlocked, he and Jane go inside. The janitor is nowhere to be seen. Then the couple are cornered by the Blob; they seek refuge in the walk-in icebox. The Blob oozes in under the door but retreats. Steve and Jane gather their friends and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The townspeople and police still refuse to believe Steve. Meanwhile, the Blob enters the Colonial Theater and engulfs the projectionist before oozing into the auditorium consuming an unknown number of people. Steve is finally vindicated when screaming people flee from the theater.

Jane's young brother, Danny, fires at the Blob with his cap gun before running into the nearby diner. Jane, Danny, and Steve become trapped in a neighboring diner, along with the manager,and a waitress. The Blob–now an enormous red mass from the people it consumed–engulfs the diner. Dave has a connection made from his police radio to the diner's phone, telling those in the diner to get into the cellar before they try to bring a live power line down onto the Blob.

When it sounds quiet over the phone line, Bert shoots the wire, it falls onto the Blob, but the Blob is unaffected and the diner is set ablaze. The manager uses a CO2 fire extinguisher on the fire. Steve notices that it also causes the Blob to recoil, then remembers that the creature also retreated from the freezer. Shouting in hopes of being picked on the open phone line, Steve manages to tell Dave about the Blob's vulnerability to cold. Jane's father, Mr. Martin (Elbert Smith), knows there are twenty such extinguishers at the school, and leads Steve's friends to the high school to retrieve them. Returning, the brigade of extinguisher-armed students and police first drive the Blob away from the diner, then freeze it, saving Steve, Jane and the others.

Dave requests an Air Force heavy-lift cargo plane to transport the Blob to the Arctic, where it is parachuted to the ice as the film ends with a question mark.

Cast

Actor	Role
Steve McQueen	Steve Andrews
Aneta Corsaut	Jane Martin
Earl Rowe	Lieutenant Dave
Olin Howland	Old man
Stephen Chase	Doctor T. Hallen
John Benson	Sergeant Jim Bert
George Karas	Officer Ritchie
Lee Payton	Kate, the nurse
Elbert Smith	Henry Martin
Hugh Graham	Mister Andrews
Vincent Barbi	George, Café owner
Audrey Metcalf	Elizabeth Martin
Jasper Deeter	Civil Defense volunteer
Elinor Hammer	Mrs. Porter
Pamela Curran	Kissing teenager
Julie Couins	Sally, waitress
Keith Almoney	Danny Martin
Robert Fields	Tony Gressette
James Bonnet	"Mooch" Miller
Anthony Franke	Al
Molly Ann Bourne	Teenager
Diane Tabben	Teenager
Russ Conway	Boy running out of theater
Howard Fishlove	Man running out of theater
Jack H. Harris	Man running out of theater

Production & Release

• Production on The Blob began in July, 1957, which is when the film takes place. Principal photography concluded in August, 1957. The movie was shot on location in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.
• The Blob was re-released theatrically in 1964 by Allied Artists Pictures.
• The Blob was remade in 1988 by writer/director Chuck Russell.
• The Blob was screened at the International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival on October 25th, 2008.

Cast & Crew

• Producer Russell S. Doughten, Jr. is credited as Russell Doughten in this film.
• Screenwriter Kay Linaker is credited as Kate Phillips in this film.
• Director of photography Thomas E. Spalding is credited as Thomas Spalding in this film.
• Actor Steve McQueen is credited as Steven McQueen in this film.
• Actress Aneta Corsaut is credited as Aneta Corseaut in this film.
• Actor Stephen Chase is credited as Steven Chase in this film.
• Actor Vincent Barbi is credited as Vince Barbi in this film.
• Actor Russ Conway is uncredited for his participation in this film.
• Actor Howard Fishlove is uncredited for his participation in this film.
• Producer Jack H. Harris makes a cameo appearance in the movie as a man running out of a movie theater. He is uncredited in the movie in this capacity.
• This is the only known film work for editor Alfred Hillmann.

Notes & Trivia

• This film has also been referred to by the working title The Glob.

Taglines

The following taglines for the film has appeared on various posters and other promotional material.

• "The indestructible creature! Bloated with the blood of its victims!".

• "It crawls... It creeps... It eats you alive!"

• "Indescribable... indestructible... insatiable."

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

Recommendations

1950s Sci-Fi

20 Million Miles to Earth Amazing Colossal Man, The Attack of the 50 Foot Woman Attack of the Crab Monsters Attack of the Giant Leeches Brain from Planet Arous, The Deadly Mantis, The Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Forbidden Planet Invasion of the Body Snatchers It Came from Beneath the Sea It Came from Outer Space Monster That Challenged the World, The Not of This Earth War of the Worlds War of the Satellites

See also

• Pennsylvania
• Slime monsters

External Links

The Blob at IMDB The Blob at TV Guide The Blob at The Terror Trap The Blob at Themoviedb.org

The Blob at the Horror House The Blob at Rotten Tomatoes The Blob at Popcorn Pictures The Blob at The Video Vacuum

References

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The Blob RUN... DON'T WALK... and check out these other flicks in the Blob film series! category. Original Series The Blob • Beware! The Blob Remakes The Blob Characters Steve Andrews • Jane Martin • Tony Gressette • Mooch Miller • Brian Flagg • Meg Penny • Paul Taylor • Herb Geller • Fran Hewitt • Reverend Meeker