Monster on the Campus (1958)

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:

Crew or equipment visible: As the Professor injects himself with coelacanth plasma, the camera pushes in slowly on the reel-to-reel tape recorder. The cameraman's shadow can be seen briefly on its front panel.

Quotes:

Professor Donald Blake: Unless we learn to control the instincts we/ve inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed.
Madeline Howard: Why don't you learn to control your instincts and stop being so pessimistic?
Professor Donald Blake: You know, you're right, and when I look at you, the future's very bright.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Deadly Spawn (1983)

Well worth watching if you like scary fun

Although this film reportedly wasn't one of director Jack Arnold's favorites, I personally have enjoyed it very much through many viewings. The story is a Jekyll-Hyde variation, but it offers real suspense and some genuine scares from a director that knows how. The only (minor) disappointment is the creature's makeup (not seen 'til near the end), which unfortunately is revealed to us in a brightly-lit room; makeups like this are more effective when glimpsed fleetingly in the dark. That small quibble aside, this film offers lots of scary fun for those in the mood. (The same can be said of Arnold's earlier films for the same studio, "It Came From Outer Space" (1953) and "Tarantula" (1955).