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So much of the film collecting hobby has to do with nostalgia. I started at age 12 and really loved getting the cutdowns put out by Americom, Atlas, Castle, Columbia, Disney and most of all, Ken Films. I didn't have a sound projector at that time and had not yet discovered that there were distributors overseas who were also releasing films. I thought it might be fun to revisit those silent digests that figured so prominently in my childhood, starting with the Republic Pictures cutdown of the 1958 Jack H. Harris production of The Blob. Republic's releases (along with UA-8) were later taken over by Ken Films, however Ken never changed the cover art and they kept Republic's name on the box.
200 foot version:
After their homemade “The Blob” title, Republic uses the “Starring Steven McQueen” credit from the feature. We then have a full screen graphic that allows them to pick up the action an hour into the film.
The problem with this title card is that the names of the characters are actually Jane and Steve.
The first shot we see is the Blob oozing under the door of a market’s refrigerated meat locker. Steve and Jane are scared, however the Blob reverses direction. They cautiously open the door and seeing no sign of the monster, they run out of the store. “They escape, but meanwhile at a theatre nearby….”
The audience at the Colonial movie theatre is enjoying Daughter of Horror. The projectionist is about to perform a changeover when the Blob comes through the vent and engulfs him. The reel runs out and so does the audience when the Blob makes its way through the projection ports. The Blob (having grown much bigger) is now out on the street.
Jane’s kid brother Danny runs out and shoots his toy gun at the gelatinous creature. Since that has very little effect, he wisely throws the gun at it and runs into a nearby diner. Steve and Jane follow him in. Soon they are trapped inside along with the owner and a waitress, as the Blob is now big enough to cover the entire diner. Talking to the police on the phone, Steve is told “We’re going to try to electrocute the monster!!”. They take shelter in the basement.
The police shoot an overhead power line that lands on the Blob, but the current has no affect. It does start a fire in the basement, so the owner uses a CO₂ fire extinguisher. Steve notices that the Blob backs away, observing ”That cold spray stops the Blob!!”.
Steve relays this info to the police, and soon both firemen and high school kids are spraying the Blob, ultimately freezing it. Everyone from the diner is able to escape. The police lieutenant tells Steve “It’s dead. We’re safe now.” Cut to the Blob being air dropped in the Arctic (not explained by the digest). We finish with “The End” turning into a question mark.
This is a decently edited 200 footer. We don’t get to see the beginning parts of the film, but you can’t have everything in 8 minutes (at 24fps). The memorable scenes are all here. I’ve seen a few prints of this title and unfortunately they all seem to have poor contrast and are slightly soft.
50 foot version:
This shorter edit starts off the same way as its bigger brother: Title, explanatory graphic, meat locker, movie theater. Right after the Blob exits the theater, we cut to firemen and students arriving with fire extinguishers and spraying the creature.
Steve’s and Jane’s parents come rushing up as the couple exits the diner. Republic then interestingly uses the “It’s dead. We’re safe now.” subtitle here as if it’s being spoken by the parents as opposed to the police lieutenant saying it in the longer version. Not a bad little “headline” edition.
Adding sound:
I’ve striped many of these silents and added sync sound. The Blob is a fairly straight forward audio edit. The beginning titles and that explanatory graphic kindly allow for the use of 25 seconds of the catchy title song by Burt Bacharach & Mack David. The scenes aren’t badly chopped up, and two sequences (the Blob pouring out of the movie theatre and then trapping people in the diner, the discovery of the usefulness of CO₂ extinguishers) have no cuts at all which makes it easier to sync up. Near the end, over a shot of the Blob being frozen, I added the lieutenant’s audio where he explains the Air Force’s Arctic plans for the creature, which now clarifies that final shot.
The Blob is an enjoyable cutdown and well worth the $5.95 I paid for it at the time!
200 foot version:
After their homemade “The Blob” title, Republic uses the “Starring Steven McQueen” credit from the feature. We then have a full screen graphic that allows them to pick up the action an hour into the film.
The problem with this title card is that the names of the characters are actually Jane and Steve.
The first shot we see is the Blob oozing under the door of a market’s refrigerated meat locker. Steve and Jane are scared, however the Blob reverses direction. They cautiously open the door and seeing no sign of the monster, they run out of the store. “They escape, but meanwhile at a theatre nearby….”
The audience at the Colonial movie theatre is enjoying Daughter of Horror. The projectionist is about to perform a changeover when the Blob comes through the vent and engulfs him. The reel runs out and so does the audience when the Blob makes its way through the projection ports. The Blob (having grown much bigger) is now out on the street.
Jane’s kid brother Danny runs out and shoots his toy gun at the gelatinous creature. Since that has very little effect, he wisely throws the gun at it and runs into a nearby diner. Steve and Jane follow him in. Soon they are trapped inside along with the owner and a waitress, as the Blob is now big enough to cover the entire diner. Talking to the police on the phone, Steve is told “We’re going to try to electrocute the monster!!”. They take shelter in the basement.
The police shoot an overhead power line that lands on the Blob, but the current has no affect. It does start a fire in the basement, so the owner uses a CO₂ fire extinguisher. Steve notices that the Blob backs away, observing ”That cold spray stops the Blob!!”.
Steve relays this info to the police, and soon both firemen and high school kids are spraying the Blob, ultimately freezing it. Everyone from the diner is able to escape. The police lieutenant tells Steve “It’s dead. We’re safe now.” Cut to the Blob being air dropped in the Arctic (not explained by the digest). We finish with “The End” turning into a question mark.
This is a decently edited 200 footer. We don’t get to see the beginning parts of the film, but you can’t have everything in 8 minutes (at 24fps). The memorable scenes are all here. I’ve seen a few prints of this title and unfortunately they all seem to have poor contrast and are slightly soft.
50 foot version:
This shorter edit starts off the same way as its bigger brother: Title, explanatory graphic, meat locker, movie theater. Right after the Blob exits the theater, we cut to firemen and students arriving with fire extinguishers and spraying the creature.
Steve’s and Jane’s parents come rushing up as the couple exits the diner. Republic then interestingly uses the “It’s dead. We’re safe now.” subtitle here as if it’s being spoken by the parents as opposed to the police lieutenant saying it in the longer version. Not a bad little “headline” edition.
Adding sound:
I’ve striped many of these silents and added sync sound. The Blob is a fairly straight forward audio edit. The beginning titles and that explanatory graphic kindly allow for the use of 25 seconds of the catchy title song by Burt Bacharach & Mack David. The scenes aren’t badly chopped up, and two sequences (the Blob pouring out of the movie theatre and then trapping people in the diner, the discovery of the usefulness of CO₂ extinguishers) have no cuts at all which makes it easier to sync up. Near the end, over a shot of the Blob being frozen, I added the lieutenant’s audio where he explains the Air Force’s Arctic plans for the creature, which now clarifies that final shot.
The Blob is an enjoyable cutdown and well worth the $5.95 I paid for it at the time!
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