The Blob

***

I look at The Blob (1958) a lot like I Was a Teenage Werewolf in that it serves as a modest drive-in quickie that gets teenagers involved in an apocalyptic small town plot while adults somewhat question their credibility. There's distrust in the kids by one of the deputies who thinks they might be trying to undermine him with crazy talk of monsters on the loose absorbing locals. Old school sci-fi plot goes the gooey-monster-set-free-from-meteorite route with up-and-coming Steve McQueen as young hero appealing to the sheriff and citizenry is front and center as Michael Landon was in Werewolf. The gelatinous moving goo that gobbles up folks looks wonderfully silly as a threat. I fondly remember an episode of the cartoon, The Muppet Babies, when "Nanny's Blob" is on the rampage as green-and-white striped socks in loafers walk through streets in the small town of kid Kermit, Piggy, and friends' imagination. The cartoon always used to include references to cult films so The Blob was introduced to me as a kid through it.

Getting youth involved in a plot where lives are on the line is an obvious ploy to attract an audience catered to a teenage demographic craving inclusion. No matter how tacky or wacky the plot might be, bringing teenagers into the fold assures a profit potential. McQueen attached to this film, as Landon was to his drive-in classic, continues to give The Blob a cult curiosity that remains.

That it takes a teenager to help stop a danger to the world through his realization that cold hurts it was just good business. Give that demographic some love and they'll come back for more.

This film isn't the most exciting or riveting, but I liked it's decision to carry the plot during a night and into the morning. Despite law enforcement not taking the teens altogether seriously, with us knowing full well McQueen's truthful, earns them some brownie points. Drag racing and necking in their convertibles give adults some pause but besides attending spooky shows and sneaking out windows, the teens are well behaved and not unruly. There's no serious teen angst or existential crisis emerging in the plot of these kids trying to alert everybody of a gteat danger in their midst. It is McQueen and his gang doing what they can to help save the folks.

Memorable scenes include a theater invasion of the blob as moviegoers flee in panic, the blob growing on the arm of an elderly gentleman, and the ineffective use of acid and shotgun by the town doc and nurse on the blob. If anything the film has gotten a lot of mileage out of how the megastar of Bullitt was once in a little sci-fi movie. Its human nature to have a look-see.
----
The Blob has been a Saturday morning sci-fi mainstay for me over the years. Typically Turner Classics will put it on occasionally, for which I find it Saturday morning. This go-around I thought I was watching the 80s version, which, quite frankly, I find superior, but Direct TV had screwed up with the '58 version showing instead. No worries because I digest it (pun intended) with little difficulty. You will notice that it's status as a classic is debated, but I'm fond of it, warts and all. It might get the label of cheesy, and certainly it's dated (not necessarily a bad thing as far as I'm concerned), but there are those of us that nonetheless embrace it with an open heart just the same.