Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Monster on the Campus Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 22, 2021

Jack Arnold was one of Universal's most reliable and dependable contract directors during the Fifties, helming such genre classics as It Came from Outer Space (1953), Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Monster on the Campus (1958) is definitely one of Arnold's weaker films of this period. Apparently, he agreed to direct it more out of his loyalty to the studio than any passion he had for the material. The movie takes place at Dunsfield University, a fictional California college, where paleontology professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) is conducting research on various evolutionary species. Blake is excited to learn that a coelacanth, a 19th-century fish, has arrived from Madagascar. Blake's lab assistant and student Jimmy Flanders (Troy Donahue) volunteers to help carry it out of a van. When the melting ice starts to drip, Samson, Jimmy's German Shepherd, laps it up. Samson suddenly becomes excited and bites Jimmy. He also attacks Donald and his fiancée, Madeline Howard (Joanna Moore). Donald covers Samson with a white sheet and locks him up in a cage for further observation and testing. Samson quickly grows fangs the length of a saber-tooth tiger. This dispels any notion that Samson was simply suffering from rabies. But a day later, the fangs are gone and Samson seems to be back to normal. Donald is scheduled to chaperone a dance with Madeline but is running late at the lab. Molly Riordan (Helen Westcott), the campus nurse to Dr. Oliver Cole (Whit Bissell), comes over to pick up a saliva test of the dog from Donald. She clearly has romantic urges. Donald finds her attractive but tries his best to resist. He isn't paying enough attention to the coelacanth, which he slides into the walk-in freezer. Donald slices his hand against the fish's teeth. He doesn't have a first-aid kit in his lab but Molly has one in her car. Molly drives Donald to his house so she can call Dr. Cole. An intruder enters and attacks Molly. When she doesn't hear from Donald, a concerned Madeline drives over to his house where she finds his place messed up. Donald awakens after being unconscious and Madeline screams when she sees someone hanging from a tree.

Arnold wasn't at all enthusiastic about screenwriter David Duncan's script and it's easy to see why. The screenplay is filled with plot holes and errors in logic. For example, why doesn't Molly call Dr. Cole from the professor's lab and take Donald to a hospital? The movie purports to be about evolution in reverse and man regressing to a primordial stage. How the film pulls that off is unconvincing. I don't want to reveal who transforms into a neanderthal but there's at least one additional character who I thought should have underwent a metamorphosis into an ape-man. The film's makeup and practical effects aren't among Universal's best of this era. A dragonfly lands on the coelacanth and the fish's plasma turns it into a two-foot Meganeura that looks like a mechanical fly. Also, it's all too conspicuous that the actor posing as the neanderthal is wearing a mask.

Universal greatly mislead Fifties audiences with the movie's title and some deceiving taglines like "Co-ed beauty captive of man-monster!" and "Students victims of terror-beast!" This isn't a film depicting a killer ape tormenting co-eds or college students. Universal tried to cater to the teen market but failed its intended demographic since young actors Troy Donahue and Nancy Walters (who plays Donahue's girlfriend) are given such limited screen time.

Monster on the Campus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Monster on the Campus arrives on US Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. Scream offers the film in two aspect ratios: 1.85:1 and 1.33:1. Each are 1080p transfers encoded at an average video bitrate of 36000 kbps. Koch Media's 2019 BD-50 release in Germany also offers the viewer the option of watching the film in either full or widescreen. Koch and Scream appear to source the same 2K restoration. The image is very clear but it seems much grain has been wiped away. There are some very small tears and minor blemishes. Blacks are deep and solid (see Screenshot #s 4, 13, and 20.) Cinematographer Russell Metty did a commendable job of filming. You'll notice the noirish shadows he captured.

Screenshots 1-10 = 1.85:1 Version
Screenshots 11-20 = 1.33:1 Version

Scream provides twelve scene selections for the 77-minute feature.

Monster on the Campus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream supplies a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1566 kbps, 24-bit) on both the 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 versions. Spoken words are audible and comprehensible. There wasn't an original score written for the film. Producer Joseph Gershenson, who also served as music supervisor at Universal, took preexisting material from the studio library and inserted them on to the sound track. The compilation score fits the mood of each scene rather well. Melodramatic music is rather boisterous for the action scenes. The "softer" scenes are scored with light strings and flute. Some music from Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon is heard in this picture, too.

Optional English SDH display in a yellow font. They deliver a complete and accurate transcription of the dialogue and f/x. I only spotted one typo.

Monster on the Campus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary by Author Dana M. Reemes - Reemes is the author of the 1988 book, Directed by Jack Arnold, which the publisher McFarland & Co. reissued in paperback in 2012. Reemes explains on this feature-length track how he first became interested in Arnold's work. He wrote his Master's thesis on Arnold at San Francisco State and spent time interviewing him as well as watching a pristine 35mm private copy of the filmmaker's debut, With These Hands (1950). Reemes analyzes only certain scenes as his comments aren't often screen specific. He covers the major players and crew members, too. He also discusses the relationship between creatures and humans in several of Arnold's movies. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Audio Commentary by Professor of Film Studies/Author Mark Jancovich - Jancovich is the author of Rational Fears: American Horror in the 1950s and is a fan of Jack Arnold's. His commentary can be categorized as multifaceted. He examines Monster on the Campus on thematic, ideological, and scientific levels. While his content points are fascinating and well-founded, his audio lecture doesn't seem scripted. As a result, the track is littered with filler words: "ahs" and especially "ums." He may have prepared for the track with lots of notes but the vocalized pauses interrupt the flow of information. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:47, upconverted to 1080i) - Universal-International's original trailer for Monster on the Campus. It hasn't been restored and is presented in full frame.

• Still Gallery (3:16, 1080i) - a slide show comprising forty-two images from the publicity campaign for Monster on the Campus. The first nineteen show black-and-white stills culled from Universal's vault. The next nineteen display US/foreign poster sheets and lobby cards (all in color). This is followed by three pages from a "Showman's Manual" and a newspaper advert.

Monster on the Campus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Monster on the Campus is a standard "B" picture from the Fifties that's only second- or third-tier Jack Arnold. It does have camp qualities that make its charm enduring, however. A lot of its flaws can't really be attributed to Arnold's direction, which is fine. David Duncan's screenplay presents a lot of interesting ideas about evolution in reverse but they're lacking in both logic and execution. I do RECOMMEND the film and this disc from Scream Factory. The transfer suffers from filtering, though it remains very watchable. The two commentary tracks deliver solid nuggets about the movie and Arnold's career.