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When making out in his convertible at the edge of town, teenagers Steve
(Steve McQueen) & Jane (Aneta Corsaut) see a meteorite go down on
earth, & Steve (who should seriously rethink his priorities) suddenly
wants to go check out the meteorite. However, arriving near the site of
impact, they find an old man (Olin Howlin), whose hand seems to be covered
by some slimey stuff. They bring the old man to local Doctor Hallen
(Stephen Chase), who examines him, depite having not the first clue what
that thing that now not only covers his arm but grows over his whole body
could be.
A short time later, Steve sees a weird, blob-like thing (hence the
name, Blob) devouring the doctor, & he knows his little village is in
terrible trouble.
However,when he tries to report to the police that a monster has eaten
up the doctor, not only does noone believe him, but they even call his
& Jane's fathers to come & fetch their crazy kids.
Of course, as soon as everyone else at their houses has gone to bed,
Steve & Jane sneak out & fetch their friends to warn everybody of
the monster (but of course noone will belikeve them) & to go
monterhuntiong themselves ... but Steve & HJane almost meet their ends
when they discover the Blob, by now grown to quite a size, & can only
escape him when hiding in a cooler (aha, you might think, the monster
doesn#t like cold ... & right you are).
Eventually, the kids come to the conclusion to create a huge turnoil in
town, to have everybody listening, eitzher they want it or not ... &
just by doing that, it seems, they convince sympathetic police Ltd Dave
(Earl Rowe). & it's about time too, since the Blob has started eating
up some patrons of the local movietheater & scared the heebejeebies
out of the rest of them (& can you blame them).
Somehow though, thanks to Jane's kid brother Danny, she & Steve
& Danny end up in the local diner, that is soon fully covered by the
Blob ... when Steve hs the idea that saves the day: CO2-filled fire
extinguishers (because of the cold, you see).
Soon all town uses fire extinguishers on the Blob, & they finally
freeze him but good, & the army takes him to the North Pole where he
stays frozen until the arctic itself starts melting ... good golly, I
think that is not too far away no more.
For some reason, probably for having started Steve McQueen's movie
career, The Blob has acquired something of a cult status. However,
compared with other contemporary monster pics, The Blob, despite
its original monster & colour photography, is a lesser effort in
monter cinema: the unquestioned celebration of smalltown values is just
too much to not be annoying, & Steve McQueen's fine method acting is
terribly ill at ease with the monster plot. Actually he & Aneta
Corsaut look more like a poor man's James Dean & Natalie Wood in a
small town restaging of Rebels wtihout a Cause with a monster
thrown in ... & if there's something Rebels without a Cause did
not need, it's a monster ! It's only when the monster attacks big time
that the film is really in its own element, unfortunately though, these
scenes are few & far between.
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