ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

One of the finest classic sf monsters created. Always enjoyed this film & reboot from the 80s.

Surprised that the B has not been remade more often than it has.

[Bud Brewster]

If I was a filmmaker and did a remake of "The Blob" in which the gelatinous alien turned out to be intelligent (and therefore even more dangerous), would fans of the original think I was making an unwanted change in the classic?

That's always a danger with these remakes. Changes are tricky things to attempt.

What I'd do is have the Blob demonstrate cunning (like hiding when it was being pursued), or using a strategy (like selecting it's victims to give itself a tactical advantage -- don't eat the private, eat the captain), and even dividing itself into two or more sections to trick the humans when they think they have it contained somewhere.

One portion of the Blob pretends to be captured inside an enclosure . . . while the other section attacks from behind!

What do you think?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

That would work well, lots of drama could be worked out for your ideas.

I also think his name should be Bob; Bob the Blob.

[orzel-w]

[ralfy]

Nice movie, from the effects to the '50s cars and clothes. I don't know why, but I keep remembering the part where several characters used the police radio (I think) to play chess.

[Bud Brewster]

Yep, one of the deputies had a chess game going with somebody in another location, perhaps a deputy in a nearby town. Nice character touch in this movie that certainly exceeded its modest budget in ever way.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

One of the best from EC WEIRD SCIENCE 3D!!!
This was done in '56. Could it have been an influence?

[Eadie]

One of my aunts is from Canada. She told me that in the original short story the blob was actually an alien's bubble gum that had been thrown out of a passing space ship.

I don't know if that is true or if she made it up or if she's remembering wrongly about a different story and confusing it with The Blob.

Wikipedia was no help in verifying or debunking this and IMDb only says that the original idea was by Irvine H. Millgate.

[Bud Brewster]

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This much beloved movie has 36 trivia items on IMDB. Here's the ones I liked the best.

Enjoy!
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~ The actual Blob, a mixture of red dye and silicone, has never dried out and is still kept in the original five-gallon pail in which it was shipped to the production company in 1958 from Union Carbide.

It was put on display over the years as a part of the annual Blobfest, held over a three-day period each summer in Phoenixville, PA, which provided a number of the shooting locales for the film.

In addition to displaying the Blob and miniatures used in the shooting, the event features a reenactment of the famous scene in which panicked theatergoers rush to exit the town's still-functioning Colonial Theater, as well as several showings of the film.





Not from me: I find it both amazing and delightful that this low-budget movie, now almost 60 years old, is still providing enjoyment to so many people.

~ Steve McQueen was offered $2,500 or 10% of the profits. He took the $2,500 because the film wasn't expected to make much. It ended up grossing over $4 million. According to producer Jack H. Harris when being interviewed by film historian Tom Weaver, the film ultimately grossed $40 million.

Not from me: I suppose Steve didn't really miss that $4,000,000 he would have made . . . especially after getting $14,000,000 for Towering Inferno in 1974.





~ The strange movie being shown in the theater was not a phony created for this film. It was an actual movie originally released as Dementia (1955). The scenes shown are from the re-cut version titled "Daughter of Horror", which had narration added. The voice doing the narration is that of Ed McMahon.

Not from me: "And heeeeere's Blobby!"

~ Steve McQueen had the poster of this film on his bedroom wall at the time of his death.

Not from me: Didn't I read somewhere that Mr. McQueen was embarrassed about being in this movie? Hmmm . . . guess not.

~ The title song "The Blob" was co-written by Burt Bacharach and is on his album "Look of Love:The Burt Bacharach Collection." Paramount tapped Bacharach and Mack David (brother of Bacharach's usual writing partner, Hal David) to come up with a non-threatening theme that would prevent the faint of heart from going into nostril-flaring terror during the opening credits.

Together they came up with "The Blob," a goofy musical creature that is one part "Temptation" to two parts "Tequila." Session singer Bernie Knee does the champagne-cork-popping honors by pulling his finger out of his cheek seven times.

Only Ralph Carmichael's score received a screen credit, giving credence to the notion that the song was a last-minute addition. The Five Blobs turned out to be a phantom group that consisted of Bacharach, a bunch of musicians for hire and Nee, who tracked his voice five times to achieve that Boris Karloff-esque quality.

Not from me: Enjoy the song on YouTube while you continue to read these gems of Hollywood lore!


___________________ The Blob Theme Song


_________


~ In an attempt to profit from Steve McQueen's success in The Towering Inferno (1974), this film was re-released in various countries during the mid-'70s, falsely promoted as an Irwin Allen-style new disaster movie.

Not from me: I can just see the redone poster, based on the gimmick used on the posters for Towering Infero!





~ After the Blob had consumed the old man, the doctor tells his nurse to dump some "trichloracetic acid" on the it. That is a weak acid used to treat genital warts.

Not from me: Okay, two thoughts on this item. (1) If the doctor had been better educated, he'd have known this, and (2) if I ever get treated for that unpleasant condition and the doctor says, "Bud, I'm afraid we're going to dump trichloracetic acid onto your family jewels," I'm just going to smiled and say, "Nice try, Doc, but I've seen The Blob too."

~ According to producer Jack H. Harris, there were at least two proposed television series based on this film. None had made it to the pilot stage. Harris jokingly suggested that The Blob could become a good guy and solve crimes.

Not from me: I'm going have to let this little gem just sit there and enjoy the limelight. And I'll be awake all night thinking about it!
_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I read the same thing, Bud, about Steve's view of TB.

He did not like doing the movie at all & threatened to walk off the production until his manager was able to reason with Steve.

Steve was also ready to bolt from The Great Escape but both Jim Garner & James Coburn were able to talk him out of leaving.

Steve went on to make a romantic comedy in the early 60s called The Honeymoon Machine.

He hated that more than TB.

I thought it was a fun picture myself.

[Bud Brewster]

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About that unfilmed attack on the bar that was wiped out completely by the Blob, I caught the line by the cops describing it today when I watched the TCM airing of this enjoyable movie.

I also noticed another quick scene later in the film that took place in a different bar. Two of the young people go into the bar to warn the patrons about the Blob, but the bartender just laughs and says, "Monsters? You must have been talkin' to that guy who cruised in here from 2nd Street. Man, I don't know what they're serving over there tonight, but it sure must be great stuff!"

So, some drunken patron from the first bar escaped and went to the second bar, but nobody believed him.

(Gee, I wonder if the Blob weaves and wobbles around after it gobbles up a bunch of drunks. Just a thought. )

While watching the movie, I also decided to find a copy of that poster we see briefly outside the theater when the young folks leave before the Blob attacks. I was lucky enough to find a good copy of it, although I don't know what the source is, since it's clearly not a screen shot like the one below.





I can't verify that all the details in the full-sized version are actually in the one that appears in the movie, so the one below might be a recreation by some clever fellow using Paint.net. (But I promise I didn't do it.)





Notice all the interesting details in the bottom half, like the fact this fictional movie stars Bela Lugosi, and the robot's name is Mark 1. And the stuff along the bottom indicates that this a Mexican production!

But wait a minute!

A close examination of the screen shot of the poster in the movie shows that none of the stuff below "Featuring ROBOT MARK 1" is visible!





Furthermore, all the Hispanic text has been been pasted over with two words, the second of which is "pictures". It's obviously a study logo, with the word "pictures" displayed with a dramatic perspective, and a hint of red splashed across the area between the top word and "pictures" beneath it.





Gentlemen, I submit that this is either a recreation of the poster used in the movie, or the studio masked out the text at the bottom when it was used in the film, for reasons we can only guess at.

The theater's red placard at the bottom doesn't seem to say "Coming Soon", so I don't know what it's supposed to say, but it could be covering up the "_____ Pictures" text at the bottom of the posters.

What do you guys think? (Come on folks, I can't be the only member of this board who loves a good mystery! )

If I find out any new information about this interesting prop from The Blob — like if it's real or a fake, and who owns it now (if it's real), I'll let you guys know.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Update! The words at the bottom of the poster — El festival de cine fantástico, Terror Y Sci-Fi — mean this when translated.

The Fantastic Film Festival, Terror And Sci-Fi

And this is their logo.





The Feratum Film Fest is defined by the site at the link in the name this way.

"Feratum drives quality Films and it aims to promote the filmmakers looking for new spaces for exhibition and broadcasting."

It took me a while to run down all this info, but I still don't have a clue as to why the jpeg I found of the poster used in The Blob would have this information pasted along the lower edge.

In short: I think the one I found is a fake, and somebody stuck that Feratum Film Fest info at the bottom as a joke.

But I'm still curious about the "____ Pictures" logo at the bottom of the poster. That, I think, was part of the original "prop" poster, and I'd like to know where the person who recreated the poster got his initial version.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Custer]

I suppose the similarity of that poster to a certain Forbidden Planet one is too obvious to be worth mentioning:



Amazing, indeed...

I like the idea of the Blob, or more formally Blobert, being able to split in two, as amoeba do tend to. Great possibilities!

[Bud Brewster]

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When I watched it yesterday on TCM, Steve McQueen had a line of dialog after the sheriff suggested dropping a bomb on the Blob.

"No! We can't do that, it would spread that thing all over the countryside!"

So apparently the screenwriters (Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker, under the name Kate Phillips) had in mind the idea that the alien could divide and then multiply. (Whether or not it could add and subtract was never discussed . . . )
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)