Review of Monster on the Campus

1958's "Monster on the Campus" inevitably became director Jack Arnold's least favorite among sterling competition at Universal: "It Came from Outer Space," "Creature from the Black Lagoon," "Revenge of the Creature," "Tarantula," and "The Incredible Shrinking Man." Musical director Joseph Gershenson wanted to move into producing and was only given this David Duncan script, Arnold willing to direct as a favor, some familiar cues recycled from old favorites like "House of Dracula," the opening credits unspooling with the same theme that kicked off "Tarantula" (shooting title "Monster in the Night"). Duncan had an interesting career of genre titles prior to full time television work, Lon Chaney's South American adventure "Jivaro," "The Monster That Challenged the World," "The Black Scorpion," "The Thing That Couldn't Die," "The Leech Woman," George Pal's "The Time Machine," and Stephen Boyd's "Fantastic Voyage." "Campus" looks like a rush job not up to the author's usual standards, incorporating a fish recently discovered to have rejected evolution, unchanged for millions of years, coupled with the ever popular excuse of radiation creating havoc. Robert Shayne had essayed a belligerent protagonist in 1953's "The Neanderthal Man," but here Arthur Franz delivers the genuinely sympathetic portrayal of Prof. Donald Blake of Dunsfield University (filming at Occidental College in Eagle Rock), very effective on a personal crusade to solve the mysteries of mankind's past, and happy recipient of a modern specimen of prehistoric coelacanth sent from Madagascar. What he does not know is that the living fossil was treated with gamma rays prior to shipping, first resulting in the transformation of a friendly German shepherd into a savage primitive wolf with long fangs, not a victim of rabies because he continues to drink water and never foams at the mouth. Dunsfield Dean Gilbert Howard (Alexander Lockwood) is also pleased about this new discovery, hoping it will lead to an increase in enrollment, his lovely daughter Madeline (Joanna Moore) conveniently engaged to Prof. Blake. With the poor dog locked in a cage overnight, Blake wants a sample of its saliva examined by nurse Molly Riordan (Helen Westcott), displaying her flirtatious side with the accommodating professor, who winds up cutting his hand on the sharp teeth of the dead fish, falls ill and must be driven home by Molly. She tries to call for help on his phone before screaming at something creeping up behind her, bringing in plodding police Lt. Mike Stevens (Judson Pratt) and Sgt. Eddie Daniels (Ross Elliott), who find the Blake residence wrecked, the owner disheveled, and the wide staring eyes of Molly's corpse hanging from a nearby tree by her own tangled hair. Madeline shows off her jealous side upon learning that such an attractive single nurse was found at her fiancee's home, and while the cops consider Blake a suspect in her death there are a multitude of fingerprints all over that are no match for the occupant's. The mystery deepens when the autopsy shows that the unfortunate girl literally died of fright with few signs of violence, while Blake's next discovery is that of an oversized dragonfly that he stabs while feeding on the coelacanth. Somehow, the blood dripping from the gaping wound finds its way into his ever present pipe, so that when he begins to puff away another spell comes over him that means doom for Sgt. Daniels, his acting bodyguard. With the presence of a primitive anthropoid defined by its footprints clearly on the loose, logic sadly flies out the window as Blake takes far too long to figure out who the obvious culprit must be, especially since he himself was the only person who came into contact with the irradiated blood of his prehistoric prize, both times awakening unconscious in tattered clothes. Unable to convince the skeptical Dr. Oliver Cole (Whit Bissell) of his investigative endeavors, costing a pretty penny from phoning Madagascar long distance, Blake decides to take uncharacteristically drastic measures to not only prove his theories but also condemn himself to harsh punishment. Arnold's style is hampered by the claustrophobic settings, rarely leaving the lab or office, until finally letting loose on the hilly mountainside where the monster (Eddie Parker) roams freely over the final reels, the same makeup design familiar from "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Tarantula." This may perhaps be the best performance from utility player Arthur Franz, previous inheritor of the Claude Rains part in "Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man," but frequently seen in other entries such as "Flight to Mars," "Invaders from Mars," "Back from the Dead," "The Flame Barrier," and "The Atomic Submarine."