Beware! The Blob

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Beware! The Blob
Directed by Larry Hagman
Produced by Anthony Harris
Written by Story:
Richard Clair
Jack H. Harris
Screenplay:
Anthony Harris
Jack Woods
Starring Robert Walker, Jr.
Gwynne Gilford
Richard Stahl
Richard Webb
Marlene Clark
Gerrit Graham
J.J. Johnston
Danny Goldman
Godfrey Cambridge
Music by Mort Garson
Cinematography Al Hamm
Editing by Tony de Zarraga
Distributed by Jack H. Harris Enterprises Inc.
Release date(s) June 21, 1972 (USA)
Running time 91 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Preceded by The Blob
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Beware! The Blob (alternately titled as Beware the Blob, Son of Blob and Son of the Blob) is a 1972 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. Unrated; originally rated PG.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film begins when an oil pipeline layer named Chester (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. On the way to a lab to be analyzed, he places the storage container with the substance in his freezer, but he and his wife accidentally let it thaw on the kitchen countertop - which releases "the Blob" (the same "Blob" in the original 1958 film). It starts by eating a fly, then a kitten, Chester's wife, and then Chester himself. Lisa (Gilford) walks in on Chester in the process of being devoured by the Blob, and escapes, but cannot get anyone to believe her, not even her boyfriend Bobby (Walker). Meanwhile the rapidly-growing creature quietly preys upon the town: some of its victims include a cop and two hippies (Cindy Williams and Randy Stonehill) in a storm drain, a barber (Shelley Berman) and his client (in an unnerving scene), transients (played by director Hagman, and Burgess Meredith), a Scout Master (Dick Van Patten), a farm-full of chickens, a bar full of people (off camera), a hippie in a dune buggy (Gerrit Graham) and his girlfriend (Carol Lynley). The now-massive blob invades a bowling alley and a skating rink (consuming dozens more people in the process), and is finally stopped when Bobby activates the rink's ice mechanism, freezing it.

At the very end of the movie, while being filmed by a television crew, a lamp is knocked over, melting a small portion, implying the possibility of a continuation. However, the next "Blob" movie (released in 1988) was a loose remake of the original which did not follow on from this film.

[edit] Production

Filming was carried out in and around Diamond Bar, California and Pomona, California, both 30 miles east of Los Angeles. 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.

To date this is the only feature film to have been directed by Hagman. His other directorial credits include several television shows.

Dean Cundey, who would later go on to be a cinematographer on such films as Halloween, The Thing, 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 providing "the blob" and all of its antics. Cundey was also the camera operator on second unit shots of the blob eating the fly and the kitten, etc.

Co-star Del Close would also appear in the remake of The Blob in 1988.

[edit] 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 Dallas.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Blob
The original movies:
The Blob (1958) • Beware! The Blob (1972)
The new movie:
The Blob (1988)