Sunday, June 05, 2016

Book review - "Father of the Blob" by Jack H Harris (2015)

Harris gives some of his best stuff up the front, talking about making The Blob then goes into his life story. Much of it at first feels familiar to regular readers of movie bios - Russian Jewish immigrant ancestors, moving to the US, becoming interested in the film industry on the exhibition side. Harris had a spell as a child actor and served in the war, then going to work for his dad. The two men clashed, Harris went out on his own and made a success of it (for instance, distributing old Laurel and Hardy films). Harris decided to go into actual production at had a home run hit with The Blob.

After that the book becomes less predictable and more interesting. He makes/finances a series of films, of wildly varying quality - The 4D Man, Dinosaurus, The Unkissed Bride with Tommy Kirk, Dark Star with John Carpenter, Schlock with John Landis, Equinox with a bunch of unknowns, Prison Ship with Fred Olen Ray.

He earns a lot of money with his movies including a Danish sex film, his marriage breaks up, he lives in Malibu where his neighbours include Larry Hagman (who makes a Blob sequel) and Jon Peters (who he becomes friends with, and Barbra Streisand, leading to Eyes of Laura Mars), doesn't like The Blob remake.

It's a jaunty tale. A lot of the time you do wonder if he's telling the truth but it's an entertaining read.

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