50s sci fi film has become legendary due to a number of reasons: the title, the concept, a totally inappropriate jaunty theme song co-written by Burt Bacharach, Steve McQueen in the lead role, the creature (a big blob), the finale with the blob being dropped in the Arctic, the trailer for the film appearing in Grease, its Eisenhower era setting (complete with drive ins, hot rods, diners and the heroine’s bratty toy gun-toting kid brother who gets in peril at the end).Camp factor aside, this is an entirely decent movie: the basic idea is effective, McQueen is charismatic in the lead, the townsfolk-not-believing-the-teenagers angle works well (and helped the film perform well at the box office over the years), the story’s structure is solid (hillbilly dies, then doctor, climaxing with final attack); there is even a touch of Rebel without a Cause in a McQueen run-in with some hot rodders.
There are problems: McQueen aside the performances range from the mediocre to the poor (the leading lady is especially bland but the adults are not much better), the tone is inconsistent, and the handling could have been more inspired (for instance the final attack with the blob closing in on McQueen could have been really special). But the film, like the Blob itself, is hard to attack – you can shoot at it, poor petrol on it, but it only gets bigger.
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