best movie i've ever seen.

Absolutely Brilliant!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Monster on the Campus starts as biology teacher professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) takes shipment of a crate containing a preserved prehistoric coelacanth from Madagascar to study, while moving the fish Blake cuts his hand on one of it's sharp teeth & then plunges his hand into the muddy, blood stained water the specimen had been preserved in. Blake undergoes a transformation into a prehistoric man whom he has no control over, in this state Blake kills a woman & the police become involved. Blake returns to his normal state but soon realises that he is the killer & decides to prove his theories at an isolated cabin in the mountains but his worried fiancé Sylvia (Nancy Lockwood) turns up unexpectedly...Directed by Jack Arnold this silly 50's monster film doesn't have a whole going for it, sure it's relatively short as it clock's in at just under 77 minutes but I can't say I was particularly impressed with it. The main problem with Monster on the Campus is the basic plot which fails to convince & is hard to take seriously, even if we are to accept that blood from a dead fish can cause massive evolutionary regression in a matter of minutes it's harder to believe some of the coincidence's & daft happenings that mean Blake is infected a couple of times with the blood. Are we to believe a scientist would cut his hand on an ancient dead fish (he wasn't even wearing glove's) & then plunge his hand into dirty water while the wound is still open & not be concerned at all? Blake doesn't even have a medical kit in his laboratory. The sequence of events in which he becomes infected for the second time involving a Mosquito & a pipe is ridiculous. The character's are all really dumb & passive, the police are idiots & let Blake wander off on his own at the end while Sylvia is nothing more than your standard woman in peril that these films have to have. Blake is a pretty poor scientist too, instead of testing his theory on another Dog or Cat or something in a laboratory under controlled conditions with which he could prove his outlandish idea to other's he decides to infect himself again, remember the last two times he became the monster he killed people so what was he expecting the outcome of the experiment to be? Blake also knows the only reason he becomes the monster is when he is infected by the fish blood so why not just take more care not to be exposed to it? That way he will never turn into the monster again & live the rest of his life happily with Sylvia & maybe have a couple of kids with her, right?Monster on the Campus looks alright, it's all a bit bland & dull looking but I doubt the makers had much money to work with. The monster isn't seen until nearly the hour mark & when he does first make an appearance you can clearly see the mask doesn't join the actor's neck & looks pretty fake. Anytime there is a close-up on the monster it's pretty poor but the medium shots don't look too bad & what's with the big shoulder's? Not much ion the way of action or incident but a Ranger does get an axe in the face at the end & there's a minor car crash. There is also a giant Mosquito that looks like it's made of card.Partly filmed at Occidental College in Los Angeles & I wouldn't be surprised to discover the climax was shot at the infamous & much used Bronson Canyon. The acting is fairly wooden, no-one is going to win any awards.Monster on the Campus is a pretty forgettable black and white 50's monster film with a silly plot that goes too long without showing the monster & has one of the stupidest scientists in cinematic history who makes one bizarre illogical decision after another. There are better monster films out there.

This movie has some good performances and suspenseful sequences, alternating with unintentionally funny moments. There's something irresistibly humorous about the scene where earnest college professor Arthur Franz's lovely fiancée confides to her college president father, in what sounds like a genuine Southern accent, " I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I couldn't help overhearing him talking to Madagascar about a fish!" The scenes where the partially glimpsed monster stalks people are effectively done, especially the moment when a horrified couple discover the body of a victim hanging from a tree by her hair. The darkened campus at night as a place of potential terror is contrasted effectively with the opening daytime scenes of students strolling around. There are plenty of nicely done character roles such as the genial grounds-keeper, Helen Westcott as a nurse who has a thing for the Professor, and Judson Pratt as a worldly-wise police detective. Whit Bissell as a disbelieving colleague and the grumpy university president are also effective.Arthur Franz carries the movie as the dedicated scientist who can't get anyone to believe in his strange discoveries, or his theory about a prehistoric man being the killer the police are searching for. He plays his role so seriously that it risks becoming unintentionally humorous at times, especially the moment when he puffs on his pipe without realizing he's ingesting some pretty strange stuff that got into it by accident.This movie isn't too bad, taken all together. It's a bit dull in spots and could have used some more action of the monster, but there are compensations in the form of classic Fifties automobiles on display ,along with beautiful women wearing very becoming Fifties fashions. Good fun for fans of Fifties science fiction and those who enjoy a bit of camp humor.

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!"

Monster on the Campus, is as good a campy film from the 50s can be, but that is what makes them fun to watch to day, When you are 10 and ll yrs old in that era, this was big stuff back then and big entertainment; true the s/fx pale in comparison to today's, but the b/w films and the makeup and shocks, are still enjoyable today, and, at least for me, bring back fond childhood memories of a different time. Arthur Franz, Whit Bissell and others, plus Dir.Jack Arnold, are just a few who left us, these great old films; Arthur Franz, and esp.Whit Bissell are well known to us horror/sci-fi fans. Fans might also want to check out Arthur Franz (who passed away last year) in the original "Invaders from Mars" (he plays again a scientist) and 'Sniper" a suspense mystery and fans can see Whit Bissell in more films that I can name.