Beware! The Blob

Beware! The Blob

Directed by Larry Hagman
Produced by Anthony Harris
Screenplay by Anthony Harris
Jack Woods
Story by Richard Clair
Jack H. Harris
Starring Robert Walker, Jr.
Carol Lynley
Godfrey Cambridge
Gwynne Gilford
Richard Stahl
Richard Webb
Marlene Clark
Gerrit Graham
J. J. Johnston
Danny Goldman
Music by Mort Garson
Cinematography Al Hamm
Edited by Tony de Zarraga
Production
company
Jack H. Harris Enterprises, Inc.
Distributed by Jack H. Harris Enterprises Inc.
Umbrella Entertainment
Release dates
  • June 21, 1972 (1972-06-21)
Running time
 91 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Beware! The Blob (alternately titled as Beware the Blob, Son of Blob, Son of the Blob or The Blob Returns) is a 1972 (copyrighted 1971) sequel to horror science-fiction film The Blob. The film was directed by Larry Hagman. The screenplay was penned by Anthony Harris and Jack Woods III, based on a story by Jack H. Harris and Richard Clair. The film originally earned a PG rating from the MPAA, though it is now unrated.[1]

Plot

Left off after the events of the first movie The Blob, an oil pipeline layer named Chester (Godfrey Cambridge) returns to his suburban Los Angeles home from the North Pole, bringing with him a small sample of a mysterious frozen substance uncovered by a bulldozer on a job site. Prior to taking the blob to a lab to be analyzed, he places the storage container with the substance in his freezer, but he and his wife (Marlene Clark) accidentally let it thaw, releasing "the Blob". It starts by eating a fly, then a kitten, Chester's wife, and then Chester himself (while he is watching a television broadcast of the film The Blob).

Lisa (Gwynne Gilford), a friend, walks in to see Chester being devoured by the Blob. She escapes, but cannot get anyone to believe her, not even her boyfriend Bobby (Robert Walker, Jr.). Meanwhile the rapidly growing creature quietly preys upon the town. Some of its victims include a police officer and two hippies (Cindy Williams and Randy Stonehill) in a storm drain, a barber (Shelley Berman) and his client, transients (played by director Hagman, Burgess Meredith and Del Close), a Scoutmaster (Dick Van Patten), a farm full of chickens, and a bar full of people.

At one point, Lisa and Bobby find themselves trapped in Bobby's truck with the creature attempting to find a way inside. In the panic, the truck's air conditioning is accidentally switched on and the Blob retreats because of its vulnerability to cold.

The now-massive blob then invades a bowling alley and a skating rink (consuming dozens more people in the process). It is finally stopped when Bobby activates the rink's ice mechanism, freezing it. While the frozen blob is being filmed by a television crew, one of the crew's bright lights is positioned on the ground, melting a small portion of it, which oozes toward the sheriff and envelopes his feet as he is speaking on camera.

Cast

Production

Filming took place during the summer of 1971, primarily in and around Diamond Bar, California and Pomona, California, both 30 miles east of Los Angeles. The ice skating rink scene was filmed at the Rollerdrome on Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California immediately prior to the building being torn down in August 1971 to make way for Tellefson Park. The party scene was filmed in a loft in Venice, California.

As in the original 1958 film, the Blob was largely portrayed by gallons of dyed red silicone. In this film, in certain scenes the Blob was alternately created from other materials including a large red plastic balloon, semi-transparent red plastic sheeting, and a large rotating red drum of hard silicone placed in front of the camera lens (referred to among fans as the "Blob-Cam" shot).

Larry Hagman had previously directed episodes of I Dream of Jeannie and The Good Life and went on to do the same for several episodes of Dallas and In the Heat of the Night (the only series he directed for that he never acted on). This would be his only feature film as a director. In an interview in Fangoria magazine, screenwriter Anthony Harris stated that a good portion of the filmed material was improvised on the set and that the script was ignored.

Dean Cundey, who would later go on to be a cinematographer on such films as Halloween, The Thing, the Back to the Future series and Jurassic Park, worked on Beware! The Blob as one of the three special effects technicians (alongside supervisor Tim Baar and Conrad Rothmann) responsible for creating the blob effects. Cundey was also the camera operator on second unit shots of the blob eating the fly, the kitten, etc.

Cast member Del Close later appeared in the 1988 remake of The Blob.

Release

In 1982, the film was re-issued with the tagline "The film that J.R. shot!" in an attempt to capitalize on the success of Hagman's television series and a twist on the meme "Who shot JR?" Dallas.

Home Media

As Son of Blob together with The Blob, the film was released on DVD by Umbrella Entertainment in September 2011. The DVD is compatible with all region codes.[2]

Reception

Film historians Kim R. Holston and Tom Winchester considered the film was: "Now viewed as a relic of mid- to late-hippiedom ... overall, there's some tension, and some nods to the predecessor."[3]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Goldman is often confused for similar-looking actor Bud Cort, who does not appear in the film.

Citations

  1. ↑ "Tivia: 'Beware! The Blob'." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: March 5, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Son of Blob". Umbrella Entertainment. Retrieved: May 28, 2013.
  3. ↑ Holston and Winchester 1997, p. 63.

Bibliography

  • Holston, Kim R. and Tom Winchester. Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Sequels, Series and Remakes: An Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1997. ISBN 978-0-7864-0155-0.

External links

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