| 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. 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 |
| Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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. The film originally earned a GP rating from the MPAA, though it is now unrated.
Contents |
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 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 Scout Master (Dick Van Patten), a farm-full of chickens, and a bar full of people (off camera).
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, establishing its vulnerability to cold as in the original film (though the characters, also as in the 1958 original, do not immediately make the connection).
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. The movie ends with a cliffhanger, not knowing if the Blob is stopped, as it is about to engulf the local sheriff.
Filming occurred 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.
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).
This is the only feature film directed by Larry 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, 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.
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.