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R.I.P. ‘The Blob’ Producer Jack H. Harris Has Died at 98
The story of Jack H. Harris‘ career is nothing if not a true Hollywood success story. In his early days, Harris worked as an usher in a movie theater, and he eventually climbed his way up the proverbial ladder and formed a publicity and distribution company. From there, Harris went one step further and decided to produce films of his own, and he had a smash hit success right out of the gate with the 1958 classic The Blob. Made on a budget of just over $100,000, the picture grossed $4 million at the box office; just like that, Harris was a player in Hollywood.
He subsequently went on to produce a handful of genre films between 1958 and 1991, including 4D Man, Dinosaurs!, Master of Horror, Equinox, and John Carpenter’s Dark Star. Harris returned to the Blob franchise he helped launch by executive producing Beware! The Blob, the 1972 sequel to the original. He also produced director Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of The Blob.
Harris, who has a story credit on Beware! The Blob and also wrote/directed 1966’s Unkissed Bride, penned a book about his career in 2015. Fittingly, it was titled Father of the Blob.
Jack H. Harris’ status as a Hollywood legend was cemented when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame back in February of 2014.
The legendary producer died today in his home. He was 98.
“She’s mine, and I’m hers.”
The prison movie is a cornerstone of the cinematic landscape. Often adjacent to horror, there’s something inherently horrific about a building full of “convicts” jockeying for power. Criminal masterminds and the wrongfully convicted alike become pawns in a dehumanizing system and struggle to stay alive in the restrictive environment. Claire Denis pushes this genre to its outer limits with sci-fi and horror elements comparing incarceration to the prison of the human body. Her 2018 film High Life follows a group of prisoners turned astronauts who struggle to retain their humanity after the world has cast them out.
When we first meet Monte (Robert Pattinson), he’s raising a toddler on an isolated space station in the galaxy’s outer reaches. His daughter Willow was conceived through assault by fellow inmate Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche) as a part of her mission to reproduce in space. As Denis unpacks the story of this troubled crew, they slowly realize they have been discarded and forgotten. Some find freedom to enact their violent agendas while others try to retain a semblance of normalcy in the extreme environment. Essentially guinea pigs, Monte and his crewmates hurtle through space and grope for a reason to keep existing.
The Lady Killers continue Killer Moms Month with Claire Denis’ beautifully complex film. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall chart the mysteries of the cosmos in their quest to understand the glacial plot. They’ll chat about screaming babies, space gardens, black holes and spaghetti along with heavier themes like reproduction and bodily autonomy. Why is Dr. Dibbs so obsessed with pregnancy? Why doesn’t Monte partake of the sex box? Does Mia Goth actually have a big booty and what really happened on that spaceship filled with dogs? They’ll approach the black hole and try to withstand spaghettification while zeroing in on the unpleasant themes of this exceptional film.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
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