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 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Fun B Horror, but not Arnold's best

Jack Arnold's last sci-fi horror for Universal isn't as good or as much fun as most of his previous efforts (including the oft-overlooked "Tarantula") but it has its own virtues to recommend it. The story is a clone of "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" -- except that in this case, we have a college professor who keeps accidentally coming into contact with chemical agents which transform him into an aboriginal "throwback."

Not much killing, or action at all for that matter, and in retrospect the film's manner in general is too straight and serious for its flimsy materials. Not much sympathy or interest is generated before the film runs its course, but an audience may get a few laughs from some of the stilted dialogue and from the oversized "throwback" creatures that appear from time to time to terrorize unsuspecting coeds and jocks.

The female lead was written to have a very unappealing personality -- for one thing, when the scientist she supposedly loves is getting really interested in his work, she goes over his head to his boss (who "happens" to be her father) to have him investigated for insanity! Maybe he just wasn't paying enough attention to her.... anyway, I don't think many in the audience would have minded if she HAD gotten hers from the monster in the end....