Review of Beware! The Blob

The Blob from 1958 is back, courtesy of pipe-layer Godfrey Cambridge who collected the killer substance at the North Pole and brought it back home to have it examined (he's the Blob's fourth victim, following a housefly, a kitten and his unsuspecting wife). Actor Larry Hagman, who had previously directed a few episodes from TV shows, makes his feature directorial debut here--it was also his last such effort for the movies (for which we can probably be thankful). One suspects Hagman might have taken on this low-budget, low-brow project just to get his directing resume kick-started, yet he shows absolutely no talent for the job. The Blob looks better dripping down from the roof of a car than it does bobbling up to a farmhouse or sitting dead still in the middle of the road. Hagman tries keeping the scenario light, with joshing segues to overzealous scout master Dick Van Patten and a naked guy on the run after the Blob invaded his bathroom. Still, the cast of familiar character actors looks mighty embarrassed, and there's nothing very clever about the dialogue, the plot or the finale. * from ****