MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS (1958)

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS (1958)

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

(Horror, Thriller, Sci-Fi) [PG]

Note: This movie was never given an MPAA rating. If it came out today I am guessing this would be rated PG. 

Why don't you learn to control your instincts and stop being so pessimistic?

In this one a biology professor imports a prehistoric fish that had been exposed to gamma rays for preservation. A dog drinks melted ice the fish was in and displays violent behavior as well as growing longer canines. The professor is perplexed along with his assistant and girlfriend Madeline. One day moving the fish the professor's hand is cut by its teeth and he suddenly starts exhibiting erratic behavior and even changes into a werewolf-like creature terrorizing and even killing the University campus employees. The professor never recalls what’s happened. Can they solve this problem before the creature kills again?

First off this movie is far better than I was expecting. I watch a lot of cheese as you probably know if you read these reviews, but this one is actually pretty outstanding.  Done by Universal this movie has transformation sequences very similar to the original WEREWOLF films, but the make-up and effects are slightly less impressive overall. 

Where this movie succeeds is in the casting. I wasn’t super impressed with Joanne Moore’s (who plays Madeline) effort in this one, but every male we see on-screen pretty much crushes it. This doesn’t mean Moore wasn’t a solid actress, you don’t get to be in 90 movies unless you can act, especially back then. Arthur Franz is a fantastic lead actor and you can see why this dude was in over 150 film and TV projects. His character is a bit gruff and even full-blown sexist in this but as usual in the ’50s his girlfriend is more than happy to put up with him. Even if he was kidding lines like, “Ah, the human female in the perfect state - helpless and silent” will get you a punch right in the wide world of sports in most situations. Helen Westcott (who plays Nurse Molly) is decent in this, but her role is pretty small. She gets maybe 4 minutes of screen time. 

This movie is also strong in the creativity area. It’s got a crazy-looking prehistoric fish even though it’s dead. It’s got a giant flying dragonfly, then this werewolf-like creature, it’s pretty fun in that sense. 

Where this movie feels just like a ton of nonsense by today’s standards is the consistent messaging and references to evolution, a theory that has been debunked for quite some time now due to the fact that it has up to 7 fatal flaws (some claim even more). 3 fatal flaws are typically enough to dismiss a scientific theory as being credible. The other scientific references are actually at least partially accurate including the idea that gamma rays can preserve things.  Gamma rays can be emitted from radioactive forms of the element cobalt (Cobalt 60) or of the element cesium (Cesium 137). We also have the dialog overall which I wish was slightly better. I don’t think anyone would know what you are talking about if they asked you things like “Is your dog a throwback”. 

None of this really damages my view of the movie, the performances are still good and the story is very interesting with only a slight dead spot in the middle of the film where not a lot is going on.  I would definitely watch this again, so for me, it’s going to land in the 5 out of 7 range. It’s not quite a 6, but it’s more entertaining than just “pretty solid”.
 

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