The Blob (1958) on Netflix
A meteorite crashes near a Pennsylvania town. Steve Andrews and Jane Martin find an old man with a jelly-like mass stuck to his hand, and the police call it a prank.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.3/1032,774 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
In July 1957, in a small Pennsylvania town, teenagers Steve Andrews and Jane Martin sit parked at a lovers' lane when a meteorite crashes beyond the next hill. Steve drives off to find it, but an old man named Barney gets there first: when he pokes the rock with a stick, it splits open and a jelly-like globule fastens onto his hand. Steve and Jane take him to Doctor Hallen, who numbs the man's arm and sends the pair back out to locate the impact site. Steve wants the police to take the substance seriously. He and Jane report it to Lieutenant Dave Barton and Sergeant Jim Bert, who search the office and find nothing, and Bert dismisses the account as a prank.
Cast
- Lee Paytonas Kate the Nurse
- Elbert Smithas Henry Martin
- Hugh Grahamas Mr. Andrews
- Audrey Metcalfas Elizabeth Martin
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Blob (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The computing term blob, for a big amorphous chunk of data, was invented by Jim Starkey at DEC, who described it as "the thing that ate Cincinnati, Cleveland, or whatever" from "the 1958 Steve McQueen movie", meaning The Blob.
- Steve McQueen was paid $3,000 for his starring role, turning down a smaller fee plus a 10% share of the profits because he thought the film would never make money and needed his signing fee at once for food and rent. The Blob grossed $4 million.
- For the diner scene a photograph of the building was laid on a gyroscopically operated table with the cameras mounted on it; the table was shaken so the Blob rolled off, and when the negative was printed in reverse the creature appeared to ooze over the building.
- Since 2000 the town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, one of the film's locations, has held an annual Blobfest, which includes a reenactment of the scene in which moviegoers run screaming out of the town's now-restored Colonial Theatre.
- The film nearly went out as The Glob: the monster was called "the mass" in the shooting script before the makers settled on that title, then heard that the cartoonist Walt Kelly had used The Glob for a Pogo children's book and wrongly believed they could not use it.
- The score was one of only a few that Carmichael wrote for film. His different opening music, a piece called "Violence" meant to start the film on a serious, frightening note, was replaced by the director with the novelty song "The Blob" to encourage audiences to view it as campy fun.
- The film was the first production of Jack Harris, a film distributor from Philadelphia, and was reportedly inspired by the discovery of star jelly in Pennsylvania in 1950.
