Steve McQueen in a teen movie!

Steve McQueen had to go through some tribulations before he became a big Hollywood star, having to make such indignities The Blob, airing tonight at 8:00 PM ET on TCM.

You probably know the basic plot. A "meteorite" crashes on a farm just outside a small, middle-American town that could be Anywhere, USA. The farmer goes outside to examine, and gets attacked by what looks like a bunch of cherry pie filling -- the "Blob" of the title. Steve McQueen and his girlfriend find the poor farmer, and take him to the local doctor. What they don't know is that the Blob is a malicious presence, which proceeds to jump from the farmer to the doctor, killing the doctor, and then leaving the doctor's office to wreak havoc on the whole town.

The movie is more fun than good, although it should be said that the fun is here to be had in spades. The movie is full of the tropes that appeared in teen movies of the era: fast cars; teens who are better than the authorities think they are, but can't get the authorities to believe them; and people going on 30 playing high school kids. When Steve McQueen made this movie, he was 27, and the actress playing his girlfriend (Aneta Corsaut, in one of her only movie appearances; she went on to do tons of TV work) was 24.