the audience applauded

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

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

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Spoilers abound: I've only seen Monster On the Campus a couple of times, find it entertaining and competently made. It's a nostalgic trip to the old Universal back lot of what's now a half-century ago, thus a lot of the sets are familiar to film buffs of the Hollywood of an earlier time.Arthur Franz plays the title character well and without a whiff of condescension. He's a better actor than the material requires, gives his all. Whit Bissell, like Franz, was also an old hand, a veteran of science fiction pictures of the period. Both actors had played professor-scientist types before, and both were good at it.The actors in the film consist of familiar faces and a few familiar names, most notably soon to be teen heartthrob Troy Donahue. Joanna Moore is the leading lady and, like Franz, does nicely with what she's given to do. Overall, the movie is a solid professional job, as director Jack Arnold had made a number of films like it before.My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the movie cues the viewer how it's going to end on the last leg of the journey, when the professor spends what's supposed to be down time in a mountain cabin. There are shades of earlier Universal films in Monster On the Campus, whose main character is not unlike the Invisible Man; and his fate is rather similar to that of the Wolf Man, with a needle instead of an autumn moon, but no matter.Those old, easy to guess plot twists,--it's pretty easy to guess who's going to "get it" next--were, to me, reassuring, and I think they would be for most viewers. The absence of much in the way of surprise in the story doesn't really hurt the movie, a road well traveled by those most likely to want to watch a film with a title that, well, says it all.

Jack Arnold directed this inferior science fiction thriller that stars Arthur Franz as college professor Donald Blake, who, after foolishly coming in contact with a recently discovered carcass of a prehistoric fish, transforms into a murderous Pre-human monster that terrorizes the campus, bringing in the local police to investigate, though only Donald can solve the recurrent transformations; that is, if he ever wises up... Film may contain the dumbest scientist in film history, let's see: First he puts his bare hands in the filthy water containing the fish, cuts himself, then sucks on the infected wound! A transformed dog that drank the watery(and irradiated) blood apparently doesn't clue him in any sooner about the change; Later, he carelessly smokes from a pipe also contaminated with the radiated blood, and only puts things together after many deaths, never contacting the police or colleagues, but stubbornly going alone, which leads to more deaths! Oh boy, what an idiot!

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.

When infected by a coelacanth fish fossil's blood, the unfortunate victims revert back to their prehistoric ancestrial form with anyone it the path of these beings placed in certain mortal danger.Science professor, and proud voice of evolution, Donald Blake(Arthur Franz, stern voiced and serious, even when others deem him perhaps bonkers for insisting his unpopular theories)suffers two encounters with the fish's blood entering his body causing him to shift into a ferocious, unhinged half-ape hominid who murders those that he might consider a threat. A German Shepherd dog is our first victim after it drinks some of the bloody water that leaked from the truck carrying the fish to the science lab from it's past location of Madagascar..the dog attacks it's owner in a bloodthirsty rage. Second is when Donald accidentally gets the dead fish's teeth imprinted in his hand, causing infection when some of the coelacanth blood seeps into his bloodstream. After one female victim dies of fright, the police find hominid footprints and hand prints which guide them away from the true suspect..Donald Blake. When a dragonfly draws blood from the coelacanth, it grows to an enormous size, with two of Blake's students bearing witness to this freak of nature. Blood from the dragonfly, after Blake murders it on accident with a knife, drips into his pipe infecting the scientist once again. After he kills a policeman on duty watching after him, Blake will dedicate his time to finding the killer. When he grimly realizes who the murderer really is, Blake will have to come to terms with the horrible fact and get proof for this discovery. The scientific community, and world at large, must learn the truth..will he sacrifice himself for that truth? Joanna Cook Moore is Blake's dish Madeline, Alexander Lockwood is Blake's doubting, worried boss Professor Gilbert Howard(..and Madeline's father), Phil Harvey is Sergeant Powell on the case towards finding the peculiar murderer, and great character actor Whit Bissell as Blake's non-believing "rival" Dr. Oliver Cole. The film often shows how Cole and Professor Howard clash intellectually with Blake and his far-fetched theories regarding atomic radioactive gamma rays causing the coelacanth's plasma blood to revert whoever comes in contact with it to prehistoric origins..the whole idea that a hominid is committing the crimes they find absurd.I realize that the plot gives one the giggles, but Arnold somehow directs this straight and the cast perform in it admirably. Rubbish that is beneath Arnold's standards, but it's a testament to the great B-movie director that it comes off so entertaining. The ape disguise at the end might remind many monster fans of the future "Planet of the Apes" franchise.