Monster on the Campus (1958)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Jack Arnold

Writer:

David Duncan (writer)

Release Date:

1 May 1959 (Finland)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Co-ed beauty captive of man-monster! Campus terror! Students victims of terror-beast!

Plot:

The blood of a primitive fish exposed to gamma rays causes a benign research professor to regress to an ape-like, bloodthirsty prehistoric hominid.

Plot Keywords:

Fish | Professor | Prehistoric | Gamma Rays | Neanderthal

Cast

Arthur Franz	...	Prof. Donald Blake
Joanna Moore	...	Madeline Howard
Judson Pratt	...	Lieutenant Mike Stevens
Nancy Walters	...	Sylvia Lockwood
Troy Donahue	...	Jimmy Flanders
Phil Harvey	...	Sergeant Powell
Helen Westcott	...	Nurse Molly Riordan
Alexander Lockwood	...	Professor Gilbert Howard
Whit Bissell	...	Dr. Oliver Cole
Ross Elliott	...	Sergeant Eddie Daniels

Also Known As:

Monster in the Night
Stranger on the Campus

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Occidental College -1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

Professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) has a collection of facial reconstructions depicting the ascent of man from the early hominids to modern man (or woman in this case, actress Joanna Moore). One of them is that of Piltdown Man, whose "discovery" in 1912 was exposed as a hoax in 1953, five years before the movie was released.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Just before sergeant Daniels encounters the monster, he is talking on a police phone box. He tells the person that he is at call box B-26. However, in very large letters, the box is identified as E-26.

Quotes:

Professor Donald Blake: Ah, the human female in the perfect state - helpless and silent.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Son of Svengoolie: Monster on the Campus (1958) (#1.80)" (1981)

Fun 50's Sci-Fi!

I've always enjoyed this film that turned out to be Jack Arnolds last horror film and I really do not understand why some people think this is awful. There are some flicks that you don't have to take seriously and all you have to do is sit back and have fun watching. Sure, its silly but most 50's sci-fi is. Why is this worse than others? The music that is used is from other Arnold films most notably "Tarantula" and I'm sure Universal used the same score for countless other movies. A lot of Arnold regulars pop up like Whit Bissell, Phil Harvey, Ross Elliott, Richard Cutting and of course Mr. Ziffel, Hank Patterson! Eddie Parker plays the monster here in make-up, not Arthur Franz and Parker was also in "Tarantula" in two roles. Both as lab assistance who die of that deforming disease. Troy Donahue in one of his early roles is Jimmy and he's especially wooden. But Arnold knows exactly how to tell a story no matter how silly and the scene with the giant dragonfly is fun, so is the whole movie.