Monster on the Campus *** (1958, Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Whit Bissell, Joanna Moore, Troy Donahue, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters) – Classic Movie Review 6270

This 1958 horror sci-fi shocker from director Jack Arnold, the maker of the 1957 classic The Incredible Shrinking Man, cannot perhaps attain the same excellent high standard of that one. But, even so, it is full of bizarre thrills and mutant men, fish and dragonflies, and still very entertaining. Students victims of the terror beast! Chills! and Thrills! are promised and to some extent delivered. It is billed as ‘Not Suitable for Children’! Kids would probably love it.

Horrific transformations befall all those who come into contact with a primitive African prehistoric fish that has been exposed to gamma rays. This fishy business is being probed in the lab by a kindly university research doctor, Professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz), who is infected by its blood and transmuted into an ape-like hominid, a bloodthirsty prehistoric man.

Also in the cast are Whit Bissell, Joanna Moore, Troy Donahue, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters, Helen Westcott, Phil Harvey, Ross Elliott, Alexander Lockwood, Richard H Cutting, Eddie Parker and Hank Petterson.

Franz plays Professor Donald Blake only. Stuntman Eddie Parker takes over and does every scene as the Monster once the makeup transformation scenes with Franz are over.

A Universal release running 76 minutes, it is written by David Duncan, shot in black and white by Russell Metty, produced by Joseph Gershenson, scored by William Lava, Hans J Salter and Frank Skinner, and designed by Alexander Golitzen.

Filming took place at Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles.

It was released in a double bill with Blood of the Vampire.

Jack Arnold (1916–1992) is also fondly remembered for It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Mouse That Roared (1959).

This same year, 1958, Golitzen was art director on Touch of Evil.

It is available on DVD in a box set with Tarantula, The Mole People, The Monolith Monsters and The Incredible Shrinking Man.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6270

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