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The Blob
Directed by	Irvin Yeaworth
Produced by	Jack H. Harris
Written by	Story: Irving H. Millgate Screenplay: Kay Linaker Theodore Simonson
Starring	Steve McQueen Aneta Corsaut Earl Rowe Olin Howland
Music by	Ralph Carmichael Burt Bacharach
Cinematography	Thomas E. Spalding
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	September 12, 1958
Running time	86 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Blob is an independently made American science-fiction film from 1958 depicting a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. It is also an Anti-communist propaganda film, with the Blob representing Communism itself, with it being red and the fact that it can only be defeated with cold, which is a reference to the Cold War, though few have noticed. The film achieved instant success and today is recognized as a quintessential 1950s American sci-fi/horror film. It features the debut performances of Steve McQueen (credited as "Steven McQueen") and Aneta Corsaut. The film is also known for its tongue-in-cheek theme song, "Beware of the Blob" which was written by a pre-stardom Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Legacy 5 See also 6 External links

The Blob is an amorphous creature from another planet which lands on Earth encased in a meteor. Two teenagers, Steve Andrews (McQueen) and Jane Martin (Corsaut) take a car to try and find where the meteor has landed. Meanwhile, an elderly transient (Howland) has heard the meteor crash near his house. He goes outside and upon finding it pokes it with a stick. The rock breaks open and he finds a small mass of jelly-like substance inside. This "blob", which is actually a living creature, crawls up the stick and sticks to his hand. The man runs hysterically onto the road where he is almost hit by Steve's car. Steve attempts to help the man, but he begs to be taken to the doctor. So they drive him there and arrive just as Doctor Hallen is about to leave the office. He takes the old man in and anesthetizes him, but finds that the mass has grown larger. Finally, it dissolves the old man completely and rolls to the floor, where it also engulfs and eats the nurse and later, the doctor himself.

Steve and Jane return to the office to find the Blob and the doctor gone. He phones the local police, kindly Lt. Dave and cynical Sgt. Burt, and they come to the office where they find the back room a mess. They're convinced it was a robbery, which is backed by the housekeeper, who insists that Dr. Hallen is at a medical conference. Steve and Jane are returned home to their parents. Later, they sneak out and get Steve's friends out of the late-night "Spook Show" (Daughter of Horror) and try to convince them that the Blob is threatening the town. The Blob, in the meantime, has escaped the office and consumed a mechanic and later (off camera), the janitor in Mr. Andrew's grocery store and a bar full of people. The teenagers find it here, and it chases them into the freezer, but for some reason it doesn't follow them in after attempting to squeeze under the door. They then escape and set off the town's fire and air-raid alarms. The whole town gathers and demands to know what's going on. The police, who by this time believe Steve's story, try to get the townsfolk to return home. They then question Steve as to the Blob's whereabouts. The Blob is inside the Colonial Theater at this time, having eaten the man running the projector and also several people out of the audience. The rest run screaming out of the theater.

The Blob escapes the theater and follows Steve, Jane and her little brother into the local diner, which it engulfs. The kids, along with the owner and his wife, run into the cellar. The police try to kill the Blob by dropping a power line onto it. This fails, but sets the diner on fire instead. The people are trapped inside with no hope of escape, until Steve starts to quench the fire with a fire extinguisher. The Blob, which is trying to reach them in the cellar, recoils. Steve tells Lt. Dave that the Blob can't stand cold, and so, taking the fire extinguishers from the local high school, they attack the monster with carbon dioxide. Soon, the Blob is frozen solid, unable to move or engulf anyone. A military plane arrives and the Blob is shipped to the Arctic.

The film ends with the words "The End", which then morph into a question mark, suggesting that the Blob may return, which it does in the sequel, Beware! The Blob

• Steve McQueen as Steve Andrews
• Aneta Corsaut as Jane Martin
• Earl Rowe as Lt. Dave
• Olin Howland as Old man
• Elbert Smith as Henry Martin
• Hugh Graham as Mr. Andrews

The Blob was directed by Irvin Yeaworth, who had directed more than 400 films for motivational, educational, and religious purposes. Yeaworth was never particularly proud of this film.^{[citation needed]}

The Blob was filmed in and around Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The primary shooting took place at Valley Forge Studios, and several scenes were filmed in the towns of Chester Springs, Downingtown, Phoenixville and Royersford. (The setting is apparently Downingtown, Pennsylvania itself as the one policeman identifies his office as "Downingtown HQ" to "East Cornwall HQ" over the radio during his chess game.) It was filmed in color and widescreen.

Steve McQueen received only $3,000 for this film; he had turned down an offer for a smaller up-front sum with 10% of the profits because he didn't think the movie would make any money and he needed the money immediately to pay for food and rent; it ended up grossing $4 million.

• A comedy sequel was made in 1972, entitled Beware! The Blob, directed by Larry Hagman. In 1988, a remake was made, in which the Blob is rewritten as a secret government project gone wrong. In 2006, Paramount Pictures announced a second remake will be produced by Scott Rudin, slated for release in 2007; Carey Hayes and Chad Hayes, who penned the remake of House of Wax, have been hired to write the screenplay.

• Scenes from The Blob appear in the 1978 musical, Grease.

• R.L. Stine's Goosebumps franchise featured a series of stories titled Monster Blood, a green goo which acted very similar in ways to the Blob.

• Since 2000, the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania - one of the filming locations - has held an annual "Blob Fest." Activities include a re-enactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming from the town's Colonial Theatre, which has recently been restored.

• "Treehouse of Horror XVII", an episode of The Simpsons, contains a parody of The Blob, in which Homer Simpson eats the blob (he thought it was a green marshmallow from space) and turns into a large mass that consumes everything, including Dr. Phil.

• The movie was parodied in the videogame Zombies Ate My Neighbors where one of the many enemies encountered were a slimy being that could only be killed with the fire extenguisher like in the movie. This enemy could also shoot tiny slimeballs that would consume the neighbors which you had to save.

• On an episode of The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly references The Blob by commenting on a meteor shower, "I hope it's not The Blob", and further references it by following up "Steve McQueen's first movie, check it out.". (A common misconception - this is actually McQueen's first starring role in a movie.)

• In the Family Guy episode "Breaking out Is Hard to Do", While Chris Griffin is watching "The Blob" he tries to save a woman in the movie from it by running towards her in the TV, however he runs right into it and gets hit in the head.

• It has been selected by the Criterion Collection for preservation.

• Star Jelly

• The Blob (1958) at the Internet Movie Database
• Beware! The Blob (1972) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Blob (1988) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Blob Site - Location tour, trivia, Blobfest
• The Blob - A Hollywood Gothique Retrospective
• Criterion Collection essay by Bruce Kawin
• The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA - An historic, non-profit theatre and location in The Blob
• Books and movies about Blob-like creatures. (German)/(English)