Monster on the Campus (1958)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I really don't know what to make of this film - it's an odd but kinda okay to watch. The movie isn't quite as fun as I expected it be but it wasn't all that bad either. Just a so-so film I guess.What got to me was when Prof. Donald Blake first got his hand in the prehistoric fish's mouth, the hand was bleeding badly and he didn't dress the wound, instead he wanted to move the fish tank and his hand slipped into the dirty fish water then he started sucking on the wound with the dirty fish water. WTF? Not what I would expect from a professor at all. But it was funny.The creature the professor became is kinda cheesy looking but that's what made it fun. The story is average. There is one scene which surprised me a bit - when the forest ranger got it with the axe - that was unexpected! Overall, it's not bad - just not one of the better Universal sci-fi horror films I seen.5/10

"Monster on the Campus" was one of Jack Arnold's horror flicks for Universal that incorporated biology. In this case, a college professor (Arthur Franz) accidentally gets infected with the blood of a coelacanth -- how many movies even mention coelacanths? -- that was preserved with gamma rays, and the guy de-evolves into a murderous anthropoid.Yes, that's how sci-fi/horror flicks were in the '50s: a little radiation screwed everything up! Of course, no need to dwell on that. Just sit back and watch the vicious hominid do his stuff. True, the strings are occasionally visible and the overall plot is improbable, but the point is to have fun, which is impossible not to do. Really cool.And yes, my summary is a reference to the "Simpsons" character Troy McClure, who of course was named after Troy Donahue.

Professor Blake has a new toy. It seems that his university has just purchased a coelacanthe--a primordial fish species that was discovered to still be alive in the 20th century. Unfortunately for the Doc, he doesn't realize that the fish was preserved using Gamma rays!! This combination causes the fish to have horrible properties--if anyone touches the blood of this dead creature, they, too, become primordial--and dangerous! First, a dog licks the water that the fish came in when it arrived on campus. Because there was blood in it, the dog became vicious and its teeth elongated--almost like sabre-teeth. Later, the professor scrapes his hand on the teeth of this dead fish and he becomes....well, we really don't see exactly what he becomes until later in the film--but we do know he's mean and looks a bit like Lancelot the Missing Link.Oddly, while this professor is supposed to be super-smart, it took him a long time to figure out what was happening. You see, after becoming a monkey-man, he would later turn back to himself--with no memory of his bestial transformation. Later, when he did seem to understand what was happening, he actually deliberately injected himself to see if it was true--without really providing much in the way of safety of others. Sure, he went to a lonely mountain cabin to conduct this experiment, but sure enough, someone was nearby and ready to be killed. And, by the way, the killing was a dandy (pretty cool stuff) but sadly the makeup job wasn't. The monster we'd been waiting so long to actually see consisted of a cheap rubber mask and rubber gloves and lots of hair. It was very disappointing and showed that the budget for makeup must have been about $9.99--which is sad because the basic story idea and much of the acting was actually very good. Oddly, while the mask was cheap and crappy, the transformation process at the very end of the film was excellent--who'd have figured?Overall, a decent story idea as far as 50s horror films go. It's very creative and unusual. It's just too bad the creature looked so stupid and the professor behaved, well, like an idiot on multiple occasions.By the way, in a clever bit of writing, the Professor makes a phone call to a "Dr. Moreau" who lives on an island. This is obviously a reference to the H.G. Wells story about a crazy doctor who dabbles in making primitive creates very human-like (and vice-versa).

This slightly lesser-known Jack Arnold sci-fi/horror film is really a treat to watch, again and again. Arthur Franz plays a college professor whose blood is accidentally contaminated by the blood of a coelacanth. The accident periodically transforms Franz into a primitive, rampaging beast, who simply wants to kill...and kill. The coelacanth also has interesting effects on an ordinary dragonfly and a formerly docile German Shepherd.Good and very original story, tons of action, and some good acting really lift this movie. The always under-appreciated Franz is very good, with fine support from student Troy Donahue and skeptical doctor Whit Bissell. The monster suit and makeup are a little shaky, but the film really benefits from Arnold's sure direction. Pretty brutal hatchet attack toward the end, though.Best exchange: Professor (Franz): "Jimmy, did you know your dog was a throwback?" Jimmy (Donahue): "Throwback? He's a German Shepherd!"