Monster on the Campus

Last updated
Monster on the Campus
Monsteronthecampus.jpg
Theatrical release poster
by Reynold Brown
Directed by Jack Arnold
Written by David Duncan
Produced byJoseph Gershenson
Starring Arthur Franz
Joanna Cook Moore
Nancy Walters
Troy Donahue
Whit Bissell
Cinematography Russell Metty
Edited by Ted J. Kent
Distributed by Universal-International
Release dates
  • December 17, 1958 (1958-12-17)(United States)

  • May 1, 1959 (1959-05-01)(Finland)
Running time
77 min
LanguageEnglish

Monster on the Campus (a.k.a. Monster in the Night [1] and Stranger on the Campus) is a 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film from Universal-International, produced by Joseph Gershenson, directed by Jack Arnold, from a script by David Duncan, [2] [3] that stars Arthur Franz, Joanna Cook Moore, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue, and Whit Bissell. The film was theatrically released as a double feature with the British horror film Blood of the Vampire .

Contents

The film's storyline tells of a university science professor who accidentally comes into contact with the irradiated blood of a coelacanth, which causes him to "regress" to being a primitive caveman.

Plot

Dr. Donald Blake, a science professor at Dunsford University, receives a coelacanth. A student, Jimmy, asks Blake if the fish is really a million years old. Blake replies, "It's the species that's old. No change in millions of years. See, the coelacanth is a living fossil, immune to the forces of evolution". Blake teaches his students that man is the only creature that can decide whether to evolve or devolve and that "unless we learn to control the instincts we've inherited from our ape-like ancestors, the race is doomed."

Inside the lab, Blake scratches himself on the teeth of the partially-thawed coelacanth, accidentally sticking his bloody hand into the water-filled container which held the fish. Molly Riordan, the assistant to Dr. Cole Oliver, is with Blake and offers him a ride home. Blake says he does not feel well and passes out when they get to Molly's car.

A person or persons unknown attacks Molly at Blake's home. Madeline Howard, Blake's fiancée and daughter of Dr. Gilbert Howard, president of the university, arrives and finds the home in shambles and Blake moaning on the ground. Madeline calls the police after seeing the corpse of Molly hanging by her hair in a tree.

Detective Lt. Mike Stevens and Detective Sgt. Eddie Daniels find a "deformed" handprint on a window and Blake's tie clasp in Molly's dead hand. They take Blake downtown when he admits that he cannot remember anything after getting into Molly's car.

Concluding that someone holding a grudge is trying to implicate Blake in Molly's murder, Stevens releases him. He assigns Daniels as Blake's bodyguard and tells Blake that Molly's autopsy showed she died of fright.

In his lab, Blake shoos away a dragonfly that lands on the coelacanth. The dragonfly later returns, now two feet in length. Blake and Jimmy try to catch the giant insect with a net when it lands on the coelacanth again. Blake stabs the dragonfly. While examining its body, he does not notice its blood has dripped into his pipe. Lighting up and smoking, he immediately feels ill. As the dragonfly shrinks back to its standard size, a large, hairy hand reaches out and squashes the insect. Then Blake's lab is trashed, and Jimmy's visiting girlfriend is killed. The police find huge footprints near her body and conclude they are from the same source.

Blake learns that the coelacanth has blood plasma preserved by gamma rays. If it gets into the bloodstream of an animal or person, it causes them to revert to a more primitive state temporarily. He realizes that he might have received a dose of the irradiated plasma. If so, then Blake has been reverting to a troglodyte with large hands, feet, dark skin, heavy body hair, and prominent brow ridges.

He decides to take some days off at Dr. Howard's remote cabin. Blake plans to learn whether he is the beast. He rigs the cabin with cameras on trip wires and injects himself with coelacanth plasma. His caveman self wrecks the room, trips the camera's wires, and is photographed. He grabs an axe and leaves.

While driving to the cabin, Madeline runs off the road and crashes when the caveman appears in her headlights. A local forest ranger arrives and calls the Dunsford police for help. The caveman carries the unconscious Madeline into the forest, with the ranger in pursuit.

Waking up, Madeline struggles with the beast. The ranger shoots the caveman when she breaks free. The caveman then kills the ranger with his axe and collapses. Blake, once again himself, returns to the cabin and develops a photo, showing it to Madeline.

Lt. Stevens, Detective Sgt. Powell and Dr. Howard arrive at the cabin. Blake tells them that he not only knows who the murderer is, but where to find him. Out in the woods, he explains to Howard what his experiment proved and injects himself with coelacanth plasma. Again transformed into the caveman, he chases Howard, forcing the two detectives to shoot him. As the beast lies dying, he slowly transforms back into Blake.

Cast

Production

Production took place between April and May 1958. [1] The on-campus scenes of Dunsford University were filmed at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. [4]

The working title of the film was Monster in the Night. Although Universal music director Joseph Gershenson had received executive producer credit on some films of the 1940s, Monster on the Campus marked the first film for which he received sole credit as producer. [5] This was the film debut of Nancy Walters. Arthur Franz only played Prof. Donald Blake. Once the makeup transformation scenes were over, stuntman Eddie Parker did every scene as the monster. [6]

Science fiction film critic Bill Warren writes that director Jack Arnold said in an interview with Cinefastastique magazine (Vol.4 No.2, 1975) that the film was shot in 12 days, and that Arnold told Photon magazine (No.26, 1975), "I didn't really hate it, but I didn't think it was up to the standards of the other films that I have done". [7]

Reception

Monster on the Campus had a wide international release. Its U.S. premiere was in Bismarck, North Dakota on 17 December 1958, followed by Finland on 1 May 1959, West Germany on 22 January 1960, France on 27 January 1960, and Mexico on 3 March 1960. The film was also released in the UK, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Soviet Union, Argentina, and Brazil. [8] In the UK, it was given an "X" certificate by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), which meant at the time that the film could not be exhibited to people under age 16. [9] [10] In 2016, BBFC reclassified the DVD of Monster on the Campus. It now has a PG rating. [11]

According to Warren, there were few reviews of Monster on the Campus when it first came out because it was the "bottom half of a double-bill with the more colorful Blood of the Vampire ". He quotes a few contemporary reviews. It was called "'a pretty fair shocker'" in Daily Variety. Jack Moffitt, in The Hollywood Reporter, said the film emphasized the "'human rather than the monstrous side of this modern 'Dr. Jekyll' story". The Monthly Film Reporter, however, called it "'depressing,'" even though it had been "'tailored for the horror market.'" [7]

BoxOffice magazine in its issue of 19 January 1959 showed positive reviews from most of the publications listed in its "Review Digest". BoxOffice, Film Daily, and The Hollywood Reporter all rated it as "very good"; Harrison's Report and Variety rated it "good"; Parents' Magazine gave it a "fair" rating; and the New York Daily News had not reviewed the film. [12]

The reviewing division of the Catholic News Service evaluated Monster on the Campus in 1958 for its "artistic merit and moral suitability". This resulted in The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) giving the film a rating of "A-III," which meant it was suitable for adults, although USCCB cautioned that it contained "stylized violence with some intense menace". [13]

Many of the more recent reviews have centered on the monster/caveman/ape-man makeup. Warren writes, "The mask is unconvincing, with tiny shell-like teeth and a built-in scowl; it resembles similar Universal-International over-the-head masks of the period, as seen in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Tarantula and other outings". [7] Bryan Senn notes that keeping the monster off-camera until near the end of the film is a good idea, as it adds a "bit of build-up and mystery", but doing so "only makes the rubbery mask and hirsute padded shoulders (making him look like a simian linebacker) that much more disappointing when finally revealed". [14]

But reviews have noted more than just makeup. Phil Hardy writes that "cinematographer [Russel] Metty and special effects man [Clifford] Stine make the most of the ape-man's path of destruction through the campus but the script lacks any sparkle". [15] Senn calls the film "visually flat, with the 'action' taking place in labs, offices and cabins, and with exteriors consisting of one back-lot hillside". [14] And Warren says that the film is "hampered by trivial locations and drab sets. The film has no arresting images. The best [Arnold] can come up with is a swift glance the ape-man gives a mirror before smashing it and one shot of a woman dangling by her hair from a tree". In summary, he calls the film "routine, unimaginative and foolish ... Jack Arnold's worst science fiction film". [7]

But not every reviewer disliked Monster on the Campus. Critic Ken Hanke wrote that "part of the charm of this little movie is that the monster is so hokey. No, it's not classic horror, but it's a good bit of fun". He gave the film a score of 4.5 out of 5 stars. [16]

Popularity with the public is harder to judge. The film holds a 5.8/10 from 1,111 votes on the Internet Movie Database [17] and a low 22% from 270 viewers at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. [18]

Academic interest

Monster on the Campus has attracted a fair amount of academic interest. Prof. Cyndy Hendershot in 2001 wrote that the film examines "issues of conformity and individuality" through a "metaphor of monstrous transformation". Hendershot says that while Blake the professor represents conformity, his caveman self is a representation of individuality. But he cannot be conformist and individualistic at the same time. His employer, Dunsfield University, "conspires to stamp out individuality that does not follow the direction of the organization as a whole". That is, "while Monster on the Campus adopts the typical sf/horror plot of the mad scientist versus the blind authorities", the film "frames the issue specifically within the world of the organization man". According to Hendershot, a man such as Blake - driven from within toward individualism and not at all a good organization man who willingly submits to conformity imposed on him from the outside - cannot win. His personal goal of knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not that of the university, which seems more interested in the publicity that owning a rare coelacanth will bring. "But, if the film condemns the other-directed society as stifling scientific knowledge, it equally condemns Blake's rampant inner-directed man. It reveals, in fact, that the individual within is a beast". [19]

Also in 2001, Hendershot looked at Monster on the Campus as an exploration of a "wide variety of issues related to the emergence of teen culture in Fifties America". Specifically, her focus is on juvenile deliquency, which she says "provoked feelings of intense horror" in adults at the time. The Dunsfield Police, for example, "suspect the teenagers on campus of being guilty" of the murders of Molly and Daniels, yet the "true criminal is located at the heart of adult authority on campus". However, unlike many films in which young people are the villains, Monster on the Campus inverts things, so that "only the students emerge as having any clear moral sense about the horrors that are occurring on campus". In other words, "the kids in Monster on the Campus are fine; it's the adults that have to be watched, as they may transform into monsters at any moment". [20]

Prof. Patrick Gonder looks at the film in racial terms. He writes that Monster on the Campus was released just a few years after the 1954 US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In that light, he says, "the monster on the campus is the demonized black male student, threatening to contaminate the purity of white women and cause the reversal of white evolutionary potential. The Caveman is imaged as a racist caricature of the African American: bestial, violent and corrosive to the tenets of white society". However, Gonder goes on to point out that the "creature and the professor are one and the same: several times, Blake comments on how the beast is 'within' him". And at the end of the film Blake solves his problem: he "does not turn himself in but instead organizes his own lynch mob by purposefully (for the first time) transforming himself into the Caveman, thus forcing the police officers to shoot him". [21]

Home media

Monster on the Campus had its U.S. VHS release in 1994. [22] Universal Pictures released Monster on the Campus as part of a DVD boxed set called The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, which features four other Universal films: The Incredible Shrinking Man , The Mole People , The Monolith Monsters , and Tarantula . Shout Factory released the film on Blu-ray in a package including the trailer and subtitles on 25 June 2019. [23]

Monster on the Campus has been referenced in a number of other films and television programs. Among other examples, it was shown on Svengoolie in 1981 and 2013; scenes from it were used in the films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and American Grindhouse (2010); and it was mentioned in the Canadian comedy Ding et Dong le film (1990). [24]

In music, The Modern Airline, a neo-New Wave band from Brooklyn, New York, released a song titled "Monster on the Campus" in 2017. [25] [26]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Thing from Another World</i> 1951 US science fiction film by Christian Nyby

The Thing from Another World, sometimes referred to as just The Thing, is a 1951 American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, directed by Christian Nyby, produced by Edward Lasker for Howard Hawks' Winchester Pictures Corporation, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Cornthwaite, and Douglas Spencer. James Arness plays The Thing: He is difficult to recognize in costume and makeup due to both low lighting and other effects used to obscure his features. The Thing from Another World is based on the 1938 novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valentine Dyall</span> English actor (1908–1985)

Valentine Dyall was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series Appointment with Fear.

<i>Frankensteins Daughter</i> 1958 film by Richard E. Cunha

Frankenstein's Daughter is an independently made 1958 American black-and-white science fiction/horror film drama, produced by Marc Frederic and George Fowley, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, and Sally Todd. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and was released theatrically as a double feature with Missile to the Moon.

<i>Monster a Go-Go</i> 1965 film by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Monster a Go-Go! is a 1965 American science-fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis. The film is considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

<i>Attack of the Crab Monsters</i> 1957 film by Roger Corman

Attack of the Crab Monsters is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, and Russell Johnson. The film was distributed by Allied Artists as a double feature showing with Corman's Not of This Earth.

<i>Werewolf of London</i> 1935 film by Stuart Walker

Werewolf of London is a 1935 horror film directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull as the titular werewolf. The supporting cast includes Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, and Spring Byington. Jack Pierce, who is best known for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film Frankenstein, created the film's werewolf makeup. Produced by Universal Pictures, Werewolf of London was the first feature-length werewolf film.

<i>Blood of the Vampire</i> 1958 film

Blood of the Vampire is a 1958 British colour horror film directed by Henry Cass and starring Donald Wolfit, Barbara Shelley, and Vincent Ball. The film was produced by Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman for Tempean Films, from a screenplay by Jimmy Sangster.

<i>The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll</i> 1960 British film

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll is a 1960 British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Paul Massie as Dr. Jekyll, and co-stars Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff. The screenplay was written by Wolf Mankowitz, based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

<i>Sssssss</i> 1973 film by Bernard L. Kowalski

Sssssss is a 1973 American horror film starring Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict and Heather Menzies. It was directed by Bernard L. Kowalski and written by Hal Dresner and Daniel C. Striepeke, the latter of whom also produced the film. The make-up effects were created by John Chambers and Nick Marcellino. It received a nomination for the Best Science Fiction Film award of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1975.

<i>The Undying Monster</i> 1942 American mystery horror film by John Brahm

The Undying Monster, also known as The Hammond Mystery, is a 1942 American mystery horror film directed by John Brahm and written by Lillie Hayward and Michel Jacoby, based on Jessie Douglas Kerruish's 1922 novel of the same name. The film stars James Ellison, Heather Angel and John Howard, and focuses on a series of mysterious deaths within the wealthy Hammond family.

<i>The Astounding She-Monster</i> 1958 film

The Astounding She-Monster is a 1958 science fiction horror film starring Robert Clarke and directed, co-written and produced by Ronnie Ashcroft for Hollywood International Productions. The film focuses on a geologist, a gang which has kidnapped a rich heiress, and their encounter with a beautiful but deadly female alien who has crashed to Earth. In the UK, it was released as The Mysterious Invader. The film was released in American theaters on April 10, 1958 by American International Pictures on a double feature with Roger Corman's The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent.

<i>The Magnetic Monster</i> 1953 film by Herbert L. Strock, Curt Siodmak

The Magnetic Monster is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Ivan Tors and George Van Marter, directed by Curt Siodmak and (uncredited) Herbert L. Strock. The film stars Richard Carlson, King Donovan, and Jean Byron. Strother Martin appears briefly in one scene as an airliner co-pilot. The film was released by United Artists.

<i>Dr. Renaults Secret</i> 1942 film by Harry Lachman

Dr. Renault's Secret is a 1942 American horror mystery film. The story was written by William Bruckner and Robert Metzler. It is loosely based on the 1911 novel Balaoo by Gaston Leroux. The production was directed by Harry Lachman and is a B movie with both mad scientist and monster themes.

<i>The Unknown Terror</i> 1957 film by Charles Marquis Warren

The Unknown Terror is a 1957 widescreen American horror science fiction film directed by Charles Marquis Warren and starring John Howard, Mala Powers, Paul Richards and May Wynn. It was produced by Robert Stabler. The narrative follows a group of explorers who, while searching for a missing man, come across the "Cave of the Dead", filled with parasitic fungi and inhabited by foamy, fungus-covered monster men. The film was released theatrically in the US in August 1957 on a double bill with Back from the Dead.

<i>Curse of the Faceless Man</i> 1958 film

Curse of the Faceless Man is a 1958 independently made American low-budget black-and-white horror film, produced by Robert E. Kent, directed by Edward L. Cahn, that stars Richard Anderson, Elaine Edwards, Adele Mara, and Luis van Rooten. Science fiction writer Jerome Bixby wrote the screenplay. The film was theatrically released in the U.S. by United Artists as a double feature with It! The Terror from Beyond Space.

<i>Night of the Bloody Apes</i> (film) 1969 Mexican film

Night of the Bloody Apes is the title of the 1972 English language version of the 1969 Mexican horror film La Horripilante bestia humana, also known as Horror y sexo and as Gomar—The Human Gorilla. The film was directed by René Cardona and is a remake of his 1962 film Las Luchadoras contra el medico asesino, the first in a series of films blending elements of the lucha libre and horror genres.

<i>The Daughter of Dr. Jekyll</i> 1957 film by Edgar George Ulmer

Daughter of Dr. Jekyll is a low-budget black-and-white 1957 American horror film produced by Jack Pollexfen, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and released by Allied Artists. The film is a variation on the 1886 gothic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. It stars Gloria Talbott, John Agar and Arthur Shields. In the film, Janet Smith learns that she is not only the daughter of the infamous Dr. Henry Jekyll, but is convinced by her guardian, Dr. Lomas, that she has inherited her father's transformative condition. Janet begins to believe that she turns into a monster after two local women are found horribly killed and nearly takes her own life because of it. However, all is not what it seems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beach Dickerson</span> American actor

Beach Dickerson was an American actor known for such films as The Trip and Crazy Mama.

<i>They/Them</i> (film) 2022 American film by John Logan

They/Them is a 2022 American slasher film written and directed by John Logan, in his feature directorial debut, and produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner. It stars Theo Germaine, Carrie Preston, Anna Chlumsky, Austin Crute, Quei Tann, Anna Lore, Cooper Koch, Monique Kim, Darwin del Fabro, Hayley Griffith, Boone Platt, Mark Ashworth, and Kevin Bacon, and follows a group of LGBTQ teens and a masked killer at a conversion camp.

<i>The Mean One</i> 2022 film by Steven LaMorte

The Mean One is a 2022 American Christmas black comedy slasher film directed by Steven LaMorte and written by Flip and Finn Kobler. The film serves as an unauthorized horror retelling of Dr. Seuss' 1957 children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and stars David Howard Thornton as the eponymous character, with Krystle Martin, Chase Mullins, John Bigham, Erik Baker, Flip Kobler, and Amy Schumacher in supporting roles. It follows a young woman as she attempts to defend her childhood town from a green-skinned creature who goes on a murderous rampage during the holiday season.

References

  1. 1 2 AFI staff (2013). "Monster on the Campus". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Los Angeles, California, USA: American Film Institute. OCLC   772904208 . Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  2. Doherty, Thomas (June 4, 2010). Teenagers and Teenpics: Juvenilization of American Movies (revised ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: Temple University Press. p. 245. ISBN   9781592137879. OCLC   780726393 . Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  3. "'Vampire' in Attack Today" Los Angeles Times 22 Oct 1958: B8.
  4. "Filming locations". Internet Movie Data Base.
  5. Monster on the Campus TCM Notes
  6. Internet Movie Database Trivia
  7. 1 2 3 4 Warren, Bill (2010). Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties: The 21st Century Edition. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. pp. 598–599. ISBN   9781476666181.
  8. "Release Information". Internet Movie Data Base.
  9. "BFFC rating". Original Movie Posters.[ dead link ]
  10. "History of Film Ratings". The BBC.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. "DVD rating". The British Board of Film Censors.[ dead link ]
  12. "Review Digest". BoxOffice Magazine. 19 January 1959.
  13. "Film Ratings". The US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archived from the original on 2015-04-10.
  14. 1 2 Senn, Bryan (2007). A Year of Fear: A Day-to-Day Guide to 366 Horror Films. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co. Inc. p. 220. ISBN   9780786431960.
  15. Hardy, Phil, ed. (1995). The Overlook Film Encyclopedia Science Fiction. Woodstock NY: The Overlook Press. p. 182. ISBN   0879516267.
  16. Hanke, Ken (4 September 2012). "Movie Review". The MountainXpress. Asheville NC.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. "Viewer Ratings". Internet Movie Data Base.
  18. Rotten Tomatoes
  19. Hendershot, Cyndy (2001). I Was a Cold War Monster: Horror Films, Eroticism, and the Cold War Imagination. Bowling Green OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 83–85. ISBN   0879728507.
  20. Hendershot, Cyndy. "Monster at the Soda Shop: Teenagers and Fifties Horror Movies". Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture. 10: 4–5. Archived from the original on 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
  21. Gonder, Patrick. "Race, Gender and Terror: The Primitive in 1950s Horror Films". The University of Colorado. Special Issue #40: Scared of the Dark: Race, Gender and the "Horror Film". Boulder CO.[ dead link ]
  22. "Miscellaneous Notes". Turner Classic Movies Data Base.[ dead link ]
  23. "Monster on the Campus". www.amazon.com. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  24. "Movie Connections". Internet Movie Data Base.
  25. "The Modern Airline home page". The Modern Airline.
  26. "Live on the Evan Funk Davies Show". Free Music Archive.

Bibliography