BEWARE!
THE BLOB (1972)Director: Larry Hagman
Image Entertainment
BEWARE!
THE BLOB (1972)Some 15 years after the beloved baby boomer cult classic, THE BLOB, actor Larry Hagman was somehow brought in to direct this silly sequel. Also known as SON OF BLOB, the film was re-released in the early 80s with the tagline, "The Film That J.R. Shot," empathizing Hagman's then incredible success on "Dallas." Well, about twenty years out of date, Image is still exploiting that tagline on the cover of this disc!
A geologist/technician played by Godfrey Cambridge(?) stores a frozen Blob specimen in his freezer (nice move). His wife (played by GANJA AND HESS's Marlene Clark) accidentally unleashes the red Jello and it quickly devours the couple's adorable kitten. Clark perishes as well, and then Cambridge, who sits on the blob while drinking beer and watching horror movies, becomes literally neck-high in goo.
A young girl (Gwynne Gilford) discovers Cambridge in near death, but when she brings her boyfriend (Robert Walker Jr.) to the scene, no evidence is left and nobody--including the police--believe her story about the Blob. After calming the traumatized girl by offering her an avocado sandwich, Walker soon witnesses the shapeless creature, as the whole town becomes terrorized.
The film is played for laughs, as it unwraps a series of vignettes concerning the Blob and his various victims; a barber (Shelley Berman) plunges a hippie's head into a sink unknowingly containing the Blob, a cop (an unbilled Sid Haig) is attacked from behind after being warned by some doped-up hippies, a bald, Turkish man runs in the street naked after the Blob enters his bathroom, etc. The film commences at a roller/ice skating rink and the cheap special effects (using a lot of reverse camera tricks) aren't too bad.
A lot of the film seems improvised and Hagman himself appears (along with Burgess Meredith) as a hobo who babbles about hippies. You'll also spot a pre-AMERICAN GRAFFITI Cindy Williams, Carol Lynley, Dick Van Patten (as a scout leader of all things) and Gerrit Graham (PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE) as a nut wearing an ape suit at a party.
Image's transfer is passable at best. The color and source material are adequate, but dark scenes are too dark, often drowning out detail completely (and this film takes place almost entirely at night). The mono sound fairs a little better, and this is probably the best presentation of this low budget film that we'll ever see, while still capturing the feel of late-night TV viewings in the days of old. The image is full frame, even though the original trailer I saw (which is not included on this disc) claims the film is "widescreen." This is probably false since everything looks framed correctly. (George R. Reis)