cult film freak: STEVE MCQUEEN IN THE ORIGINAL LEGENDARY CLASSIC 'THE BLOB'

Steve McQueen in THE BLOB Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2

During the prelude of an eclectic and highly successful career, Steve McQueen, billed as Steven McQueen as a guy named Steve, has never played a character so untrusted, underrated or downright frustratingly unappreciated...

He knows what everyone, including his best girl, has strong, stubborn doubts about. And we're not only supposed to believe that the rugged-looking, world-weary McQueen is a teenager but that he'd actually get taunted, goaded and borderline bullied by bunch of small town car-jerks who look as if they'd follow him...

Steve McQueen aka Steven McQueen in THE BLOB

But soon enough the gang joins forces with McQueen and ingenue Aneta Corsaut as Jane, who discover the meteor that landed earlier was the cause of a very terrible thing, which otherwise inexperienced director Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. (produced by Jack H. Harris) pulls together very well. In fact, above and beyond the legendary concept, title and special effects is a story that takes time to build — just like the titular alien menace...

Since the first act has tons of dialogue, there are times when McQueen, years before becoming devoured in his signature cool persona that'd pull him through just about any picture, seems like he's rehearsing in an actor's workshop along with second-lead Earl Rowe as a friendly cop, trying to trust him...

Steve McQueen with Robert Fields in THE BLOB

Meanwhile, head gang member Robert Fields fits more in the "young punk" shoes since McQueen's not all that natural in the role... but through the pandemonium he does feel safe to be with, which, ironically, his "Janie Girl" doesn't entirely trust, screeching through most of the picture as THE BLOB finds effective ways of getting in and out of places...

And for more modern horror fans, this might be one of those dated movies that started something improved upon by better special effects: But the goopy stop-motion is still pretty neat, and there IS a truly nightmarish, eerie tingling in the bones when the smaller rudimentary blob grabs its first human victim (an old farmer) and won't let go...

The Blob in THE BLOB

Eventually enlarging to a massive size and famously emptying a frantic movie theater, the initial tempered cadence turns into a KING KONG like creature-feature, making THE BLOB significant in not just horror flicks but niche-tropes like body-count, paranoia, teens and children in danger, a cute dog in peril, and, like JAWS, it proves that if a menace is established well enough in its origin, anything is believable thereafter...

Especially ironic given the fact that most of THE BLOB is McQueen frantically trying to convince people that it's all actually for real — funny that it didn't all take place in THE TWILIGHT ZONE Maple Street where it'd feel right at home!