Happy Thursday everyone! We're in the last week of Spooktober, the leaves are falling and it's crispy cold outside, and I've a few interesting things to talk about this week.
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I'm always slightly surprised how The Criterion Collection has a taste for schlock, whether for historical value or for a sense of fun. The Blog is a great example, an early release for them (it's numbered 91 and is on my shelf between Chasing Amy and Fiend Without A Face) that highlights how important the movie really is in the history of major B-movies and in many ways introducing audiences to a fresh-faced, absolutely-a-teen Steve McQueen. But also, noting that the movie is a lot of silly fun! This is an independent movie in many of the best ways, made outside of the Hollywood system with a crew that had mostly made religious shorts before and with a cast of East Coasters, many of whom had never been in a film before.
And goodness, those effects. Is it a lot of rear-projection? Absolutely. But does this larger-and-larger blob become legitimately menacing as the movie goes on? 100% There's a scene in a movie theater (and part of the charming menace of this movie is how the blob is contrasted, like above, against the clean-cut consumer whiteness of late '50s America in the movies) that is actually terrifying as the blob threatens and definitely kills at least a few people.
Hey look, Steve McQueen! Totally a teenager*!
The movie isn't perfect. The ending kind of grinds to a halt though it does have some fun with using ice machines to defeat the blob but it doesn't quite land. But I will always recommend it as something worth checking out for the fun and for a window into '50s B-movies.
And then you can do a fun compare-and-contrast with the 1988 version, which has a lot to recommend about it. The effects are absolutely amazing and gross (the body count here is way higher, so be warned) and it has one of the best and most underappreciated women in horror performances by Shawnee Smith, who has been in many things (like a long run on the Ted Danson sitcom Becker) but is simply fantastic here as someone who steps up and kicks absolute ass. Sorry, you also have to deal with Kevin Dillon.
The Blob (1958) is streaming on HBO Max, Criterion Channel, Crackle and Plex.
The Blob (1988) is streaming on Peacock.
*McQueen was born in 1930 and was nearly 28 when he made this movie.
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Now here's a TV series I only known from its remake. There were four seasons of the remake of Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh and initially Tom Hiddleston (more on that later) and airing on BBC. It's a quite fine, dark series that does indeed feel like the best of Nordic Noir. There was a nice visual touch that even though the spoken language of the series was English, all the on-screen language (computer screens, memos and so on) were Swedish. SO finding this collection of the first three episodes of the original, Swedish series was a nice surprise. Obviously in this case the spoken language is Swedish, but I assume it's just as dark as the BBC series. There's apparently 32 episodes in total so I'll swing into this and see if I liked it as much as the Branagh version.
That trailer is, let's be clear, kind of schlocky.
Wallander (BBC) is streaming on HBO Max, Hoopla and BritBox.
2 of the three season of Swedish Wallander are streaming on Hoopla.
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Short one this week so I'll just recommend that if you can go to the theater or have access to HBO Max then Dune is worth your time. It's a smart, well-acted adaptation that yes, is 2 1/2 hours long but earns that length for this first half of the first novel, of which we'll see the conclusion in 2023. It's quite good and worth your time if you're interested in deeply weird science fiction.
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