StarGazer77 Some reviewers who knock this 50's SCI FI do not see it what it really is: A journey thru a fantasy world pure escapism! NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. But just to enjoy and escape from the REAL problems of today's world. It's NOT trying to teach a new branch of evolution or spew scientific facts galore, just an IMAGINARY story to entertain one on a journey thru a IMAGINARY WORLD!!! SO PLEASE CRITICS..JUST ENJOY IT FOR WHAT IT IS DO NOT READ INTO IT WHAT IT IS NOT!!

dougdoepke A college professor obtains an ancient life-form whose fluids soon turn deadly.Looks like Universal just couldn't give up their werewolf franchise. So they reworked it, replacing full moons with prehistoric "coelacanth" fluid. Seems the stuff turns modern creatures into vicious prehistoric counterparts. So a sophisticated modern guy like Prof. Blake (Franz) turns into a hairy, monstrous hominid, and Hollywood 1958 scares drive-in kids the way necking teens hoped.You gotta give actor Franz credit. He treats the drive-in material like it was Ben Hur. There's not a hint of camp in the sometimes campy material. But then it's got not only studio backing, but ace sci-fi director Jack Arnold ( e.g. The Incredible Shrinking Man {1957}) at the helm. So the camera never falters even when the cardboard monsters do. (Please, couldn't they have re-worked that awful dragonfly.) Thus, the results suggest eye-level Hollywood professionalism at its most challenged. All in all, it looks like the studio was aiming for respectable sci-fi on the order of Arnold's previous It Came From Outer Space (1953). In my view, Universal only half succeeds, no thanks to the generally poor special effects. Anyway, give actor Franz a combat Oscar for pressing on fearlessly under adverse circumstances. And give director Arnold a Lifetime Achievement Award for excelling in a genre generally bypassed by snooty media critics.(If memory serves, the coelacanth talked about in the movie was a "missing link" first discovered in the 1930's. Its fish-like body crucially contained fleshy fins, indicating it could move about on land, thus confirming scientific hypothesis that life evolved from the sea.)

MARIO GAUCI To begin with, I had missed out on this one a couple of times on Italian TV in the past – so I was glad to finally get around to watching it for the first time via the Universal DVD as part of their "Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection" set.While a lesser effort overall coming from Arnold, this slow-starting, then thought-provoking film references several well-worn horror formulas – particularly of the Wolf Man/Jekyll & Hyde variety (with the prehistoric amphibian element, presumably, a nod to the director's own earlier Universal success CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON [1954]!) – and even takes care to include an anti-Nuclear message. Despite being lensed by renowned cinematographer Russell Metty, the film's look isn't especially interesting – nor is the monster one of the most memorable creations of the sci-fi era (though it's received a fair degree of exposure in the various books on the genre I own, frankly, the monster looks better in stills than it does on film).The catchpenny title suggests a teen-oriented venture, but the only such character to get a considerable amount of screen-time is heart-throb Troy Donahue. In fact, protagonist Arthur Franz' role here is perhaps the most substantial of its type that he played – doing well enough as both the obsessed scientist and the 'throwback anthropoid' he inadvertently turns into (especially effective in the scene where it dawns on him that he's the monster everyone's looking for). His girlfriend, played by Joanna Moore, is slightly above average as vintage sci-fi leading ladies go – while solid support is provided by Judson Pratt as the heavy-set police detective and the ubiquitous Whit Bissell as a conservative medic.An interesting point regarding the metamorphosis is that it only happens after exposure to the blood of an extinct fish that had been subjected to radiation – which rather makes the situations behind his subsequent 'regressions' not a little contrived! The climax can't resist having the monster run off with the leading lady a' la the Gill Man from the "Black Lagoon" films; besides, the final transformation (which Franz does in order to prove his point – clearly in direct imitation of the Jekyll/Hyde prototype – that a Neanderthal man is responsible for the killing spree which has gripped the campus and the surrounding area) does feel, perhaps, like one too many trips to the well…and it's further marred by the heroine idiotically remarking at one point that the monster is wearing Franz' clothes!! I've yet to watch German émigré director E.A. Dupont's solitary horror effort on similar lines, THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (1953); that said, the intermittent presence in MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS of mutant animals (namely, a vicious dog and a giant dragonfly) also reminded me of the fact that it's high time I reacquaint myself with the likes of THE FLY (1958) and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959) – the former is supposed to be re-issued by Fox around Halloween as part of a Box Set (along with its two inferior sequels), while the latter is available on a bare-bones but affordable DVD (incidentally, also from Fox). By the way, I'm now left with only THE SPACE CHILDREN (1958) to catch up with from Arnold's numerous genre outings...

seaview29 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.