The Blob

I first remember watching the Blob on Saturday Mad theater as a kid... And even more that the movie, I remember, a week or two after it aired, Superhost, in answering fan mail, revealed the first little piece of secret movie magic I remember ever hearing about.... the way they created the Blob in the first place.

This isn't to say I don't remember the movie. Lets face it, in the annals of movie monsters, The Blob is one of the more memorable ones. Who couldn't fail to be impressed by a creature as abstract as a puddle of man-eating strawberry jam? From its first appearance in the movie, on the end of the old man's stick, when it seemingly defies gravity and flows UPWARD along the stick to engulf the poor man's hand, it impresses.

And more impressive still? Steve McQueen's performance as the lead hero, Steve Andrews. This was a low budget film, and the first leading role for the young McQueen. And even in this, he shines bright, casting a long shadow over his co-stars and elevating this movie from just another B-Movie, to a classic. There is a fantastic scene in the film, just a simple character establishing scene, which really demonstrates just how great McQueen is as an actor.

Steve and Jane have just left the office of Dr. Hallen under instructions to go and search for someone who knows the old man who they have brought with the Blob attached to his hand. But upon leaving, Steve is immediately challenged to a drag-race by the other local kids, who aren't going to let him go without racing....  So, Steve cleverly twists the race to his advantage, turning it into a *backwards* drag race.... But once he wins this, it attracts the attention of the local police. Just watch McQueen during this scene... as he hems and haws his way through a shady explanation of what he was up to. He manages to convey devilish mischief, embarrassment, coy charm, and impatience all at the same time. Watch his hands nervously playing with the steering wheel, as he tries to avoid getting himself or Jane arrested... or, apparently worse, having their parents called... This scene shows why he went on to multiple Oscar nominations.

By the way, McQueen ended up learning a stark financial lesson from this movie... when he went to make it, he was offered either $3000 dollars flat, or 10% of the gross, and he went for the flat $3000. Had he gone for the percentage, he would have made somewhere around $1.5 Million.

The technicolor helps set it apart as well. This was a standout film in a year of standout films. 1958 saw the release of such movies as;  Gigi, Vertigo, A Touch of Evil, South Pacific, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Night to Remember, and The Defiant Ones.... 1958 also saw the release of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, which helped to inspire Star Wars. And in science fiction and and horror films, there were a several classics released; Bell, Book, and Candle (a personal favorite), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Fly, The Crawling Eye, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, and perhaps above all the others, Hammer's first foray into horror, The Horror of Dracula.

The plot is straightforward. A meteor crashes into a small town in Pennsylvania. and from it emerges an amorphous monster that engulfs and absorbs any living thing is touches, growing ever larger and becoming a greater and greater threat. Steve and Jane know about it and try to warn the town, but since they are just teenagers, naturally, no one believes them. Eventually though, the truth becomes known, and its a race to discover exactly what does hurt the Blob before it devours the whole town... and maybe more.

The special effects are top notch, the acting is MORE than solid, the script is tight... Its hard to find a missed opportunity in this film... Well, except for that horrible theme song. Written by multiple Oscar-winning songwriter Burt Bacharach, 'Beware of the Blob' must have been written while he was incredibly drunk one weekend. My guess is he suffered an alcohol-induced amnesia while he was penning the thing, and most likely forgot about it in an hour or two, and The Blob's producer found the lyrics scrawled on a cocktail napkin he found stuck to the bottom of a lady's high heel shoe and kicked under the piano at some party.

Don't miss it.

World War Z

While its not really what I had intended to do with this blog, I'm going to talk a bit about a NEW horror movie... World War Z. And yes... there will be spoilers. If, like me, you read reviews AFTER you see the movie, this should not be an issue.

Its news to no one that zombies are the current golden child (albeit rotting and decayed child) of all the Horror Movie monsters... Vampires had their day in the... err.. moon, and for a brief while there back in the 80s, Werewolves had theirs too...  The popularity comes in cycles.

Anyone who knows me, knows that of all the movie monsters, its flesh eating zombies that get to me most. Its something about being eaten alive by mouths that weren't meant to kill prey swiftly... I'm not sure I can think of a more painful way to go that being torn apart by human teeth... I mean.... say what you will about a werewolf, but at least its fangs and claws are those of a predator and are meant for a swift kill. Sure, it will chow down on you, just like a zombie, but more likely than not, you'd be dead before it began.

So... World War Z, the movie, is something distinct from World War Z, the novel by Max Brooks. In general, the theme is the same, and there are some nice callouts to the novel, and in fact, Brook's other book, The Zombie Survival Guide. That being said, World War Z, the zombie movie, is something very distinct from every other zombie film out there.

The standard tropes of the Zombie film, repeated ad nauseum, in movie after movie, is that there is a zombie outbreak, and Lo!-and-Behold!, there are a rag-tag group of survivors holed up somewhere trying to survive the onslaught of the living dead... and typically the survivors fall victim to in-fighting and end up zombie-chow. The downbeat ending seems to be mandatory. We're told that the outbreak is world wide... but we never see it. And Governments seem to fall apart with astonishing quickness in these films too... Heck, in Diary of the Dead, from George Romero, the entire military command structure falls apart in less that 48 hours and gives way to marauding bands of soldiers who are courteous enough to steal all your supplies, but leave you your weapons, because.... uh... apparently that would be murder. And let you keep the videotape of them doing it... because....  ummm... yeah, I got nothing. George, no offense, but.... trying thinking things through a little more next time.

World War Z actually avoids most of these cliches, and as a result, creates something new. We see the outbreak of the plague... and how it spreads so quickly (ever wonder how slow moving zombies managed to get so numerous in so short a time? Me too...). We see what, exactly, happens in the government in the face of sudden catastrophe (President is dead? VP is missing? Joint Chiefs and key members of Congress now out biting the neighbors? No problem.... ). We see methods of zombie defense that I've always wondered why I'd never seen before. (Like... hey... maybe if you pad and armor your forearm, you can shove it into a zombie's mouth like you would an attack dog, and while its busy trying to chew through it, you can shoot it in the head!).

But even more so, it SHOWS us the world being overrun... we don't just hear about it in a line of dialogue that passes by and is easy to miss. It SHOWS us the measures that the governments of the world and the United Nations are taking to combat this new, universal threat.

Oh sure... we get some lip service paid to that sort of research in, say, Romero's Day of the Dead... but you never really get the feeling the people are all that serious about it. Again, its more about that internal conflict than it is about reality.

We follow a UN Investigator named Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) who is coerced into escorting a genius virologist out into the zombie infested world in order to find 'patient zero', the first recorded infection, in order to try and find a cure, or a way to combat the spread of the zombie virus. Unfortunately, gung-ho scientist lasts about 30 seconds once they touch ground, accidentally shooting himself in the face when trying to flee the attacking zombies. Not everyone is meant for field work.

This leaves Lane alone, a non-scientist, to complete the mission. And this brings up one of the absolute SMARTEST aspects of this film. It brings an essential tool to the arsenal of those combating the undead hordes.... OBSERVATION.

Thats right... what ultimately saves the day, is simply PAYING ATTENTION.

Its not massive weapons and pitched battles (although there are plenty of those in the movie) that proves critical, its something that is far too commonly overlooked in movies of this kind.

Many of the scenes are extremely tense, and up there with the very best zombie films... The scene onboard the plane is nailbiting...The scenes in the WHO research facility, where they are trying to sneak past the zombified staff is edge of your seat stuff.

The end of the film leaves us with something that doesn't exist in other zombie movies; a chance to fight back against it. No, its not a cure. But its a step toward reclaiming the world from the undead.

People looking for a traditional zombie movie may be disappointed. There is surprisingly little blood, and no guts... gore takes a backseat to fear in this one. As it should be in my opinion.

Back to the FLICKS!

Saturday afternoons meant only one thing when I was a child: Monster Movies.

They were a HUGE part of my life growing up, so much so that I seem to remember being in kindergarten and the teachers were going around the room asking us what we were thankful for. When it came around to me, sitting 3 spaces from the end of our alphabetically arranged seating chart, I cheerfully answered "Monster Movies!" the response evoked a certain controversy in this group of Post-Preschoolers, some of whom thought I was being flippant (or they would have had they been aware of the word 'flippant' at age 5.) On the other hand,the next two people in the class echoed my response, and the teachers backed our answers against the tiny mob. It genuinely WAS something I was thankful for.

I feel no shame in declaring Cleveland to be THE home of the horror movie host, given the sheer number that we have had over the years, and their longevity. From one of the great pioneers, Ghoulardi, we can trace a path through Big Chuck and Houlihan, and later still Big Chuck and Li'l John, through The Ghoul, Superhost, Son of the Ghoul..... all of them remarkably long lasting, even as the era of the horror host faded, they remained with strong and faithful audiences.

As the opening credits of Saturday Mad Theater would roll, in occasionally snowy glory (the was a UHF channel in the days before cable), they would declare "Superhost brings you: Saturday Afternoon!" And it was true. We'd start out at noon, with shorts by the Three Stooges, or Laurel & Hardy, or the Little Rascals... then at 1 PM was Saturday Mad Theater 1, followed by Saturday Mad Theater 2, which introduced me to my lifelong love of monsters, horror and science fiction. (as a side note, this was usually followed up by reruns of Kung Fu, The Wild Wild West, the original Star Trek, Space 1999, and then ANOTHER monster movie at 8 or 9 PM. I could  (and often DID) spend entire days, sitting in front of the TV without changing the channel... a feat no other channel has really managed to duplicate since). Scattered through out there were childish, jokey skits (personal favorites were The Moronic Woman, a parody of The Bionic Woman, and of course Supe's early music video for 'Convoy'.) It was bliss.

Through Saturday Mad Theater, I was introduced to Godzilla, Gamera, Rodan, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the Blob. I discovered Hammer Horror on Mad Theater, and a hero in Cushing's Van Helsing. I learned about director styles without realizing it, and by age 12, I could distinguish the styles of Roger Corman, Jimmy Sangster, Ishiro Honda, William Castle, and others simply by watching a clip.

And that's what this blog is going to be all about... all those great movies, all those magic memories. I hope to present movie reviews, maybe a synopsis or two (or three), maybe some insight, and hopefully a little humor too... I might not be able to host a movie show, but by god, I can sure TALK about 'em!

And its dedicated with affection and respect to: Marty Sullivan, Ron Sweed, Ernie Anderson, Chuck Schadowski, John Rinadli, and Bob Wells. Thanks for a great childhood guys.

And to Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Vincent Price. For obvious reasons.

And now...  as Supes would say: Back to the Flicks!