Cast: Robert Walker Jr., Gwynne Gilford, Richard Stahl, Richard Webb, Godfrey Cambridge, Marlene Clark, Carol Lynley, Gerrit Graham, Burgess Meredith, Dick Van Patton, Cindy Williams
Director: Larry Hagman
U.S. Distribution: Jack H. Harris Enterprises, Inc.
U.S. Release Date: 1972
Running Time: 1:27
MPAA Rating: PG
Yes, there is a Son of Blob and not only that!? It is "The Movie That J.R. Shot!"
Larry Hagman's weekend project paid the rent for Burgess Meredith, Dick Van Patton and Cindy Williams for maybe a month or two. Before Meredith's knockout performances in the Rocky films, before Van Patton and Williams starred in TV's "Eight Is Enough" and "Laverne & Shirley", even before disco - there was Son of the Blob (as it was originally titled).
Until only recently, I truly did not believe this film even existed. Why is that I have been able to watch the 1950s cult classic The Blob maybe 25 times on television and never saw or even heard about the other Blob for more than 25 years after its release? The answer lies within this sorry sequel which must have been an embarrassment of sorts to many who were involved.
It is notable that the second Blob was actually the directorial debut of the man who would be J.R. Ewing on the long-running television hit "Dallas". However unheralded, it is worth at least the cost of a video rental for fans of Hagman (who also appears) or the other featured players who went on to much bigger and better things. It falls mostly flat in just about every attempt at re-creating the campy fun of the first film, except when a very bloated blob is sent oozing through a crowded bowling alley. Actually, this just makes me want to go back and watch the theater scene in the original again.
© 2001, Delton Perrodin