Big Monster On Campus

 

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS-1958-Prof. Donald Blake (Arthur Franz), a college paleontologist receives a dead fish (coelacanth). A student Jimmy (Troy Donohue) doesn't see when his dog drinks some water the fish is in and grows fangs and goes mad. A cut on the doctor's hand and some of the fish water turns him into an ugly caveman killer who promptly kills Nurse Riordan (Helen Wescott) who tries to help him. When the dead nurse is found hanging from a tree and Donald can't remember anything he becomes the number 1 suspect of the investigating police Lt. (Judson Pratt) but eventually he's cleared. 

Later a dragon fly nibbles on the fish and turns into a prehistoric fly. Don kills it but some of its blood drips into his pipe which he smokes and turns prehistoric again, killing a police guard (Ross Elliot). Once again Donald awakens, barefooted with no memory of what happened. Prof. Howard (Alexander Lockwood) and Dr. Cole (Whit Bissell) think he's overworked. Don comes to realize that he might be the killer so he takes a leave of absence in the mountains. Jimmy and his girlfriend spill the beans about the giant dragonfly. Don's girlfriend Madeline (Joanna Moore) decides to visit him while Don is setting up an experiment to prove to himself that he is/isn't the monster. He has a camera and tape recorder set up to document his transformation, which happens. He gets a hold of an ax just in time to terrorize Madeline, who crashes her car. He carries her through the forest but she escapes. 

Don transforms back to human and meets Madeline at his cabin. They check out a picture that was taken and there's the monster wearing Don's loud lumberjack like shirt to which Madeline can only say “Donald, he's wearing your clothes...”! In the finale, Don turns himself back into the killer cave monster so the authorities can shoot him down. They do and of course he turns back into his human form in a long transformation scene. 

Eddie Parker played the actual monster. He played Mr. Hyde earlier in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953). If the Hyde mask in that film looks similar to the caveman monster in this film, it's because Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan created both!

This low-budget wonder with some unintentionally funny scenes is kind of saved by the direction of the great Jack Arnold who'd already made several classic science fiction and horror films: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953), THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) and its sequel, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) to name a few.

Screenwriter David Duncan wrote several other low-budget horror films (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE LEECH WOMAN and others).

Other Abbott & Costello related notes: Arthur Franz and Helen Weston both co-starred in A & C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN. Eddie Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY.

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The Original Invaders

 

 (imdb)

INVADERS FROM MARS-1953-Little David (Jimmy Hunt) who's interested in astronomy sees a UFO land near his house at night. When his scientist dad (Leif Erickson) goes to investigate, he disappears. David's mom (Hillary Brooke) calls the police. Two cops investigate (one is Douglas Kennedy) and seem to fall into a hole made in the sand. Later dad shows up, now a cold, mean zombie with a strange wound on the back of his head. After dad hits David, the cops show up also zombified. Later David sees his young neighbor fall in one of the sand holes. She comes back mesmerized and sets her house on fire. David goes to the chief of police (Bert Freed) but he's already been taken over and has Sgt. Finley (Walter Sande) put him in detention. Finley calls in Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter, who retired from acting after this) to examine David. She seems concerned. Mom comes to get David but it's obvious she's now “one of them”. Fortunately, Dr. Blake rescues him and takes him to see Dr. Kelston (Arthur Franz), an astronomer who believes David saw Martian invaders. Kelston contacts Col. Fielding (Morris Ankrum) and Capt. Roth (Milburn Stone). The taken over people start sabotaging things. When Pat & David are captured, we finally see the aliens, tall green guys with bulging eyes who obey a weird golden head (Luce Potter) who speaks telepathically. 

I won't reveal the “shock ending” although everyone probably knows it already! Also with (mostly all uncredited) William Phipps, Fay Baker, Peter Brocco, Richard Deacon, John Eldredge, Tod Karns, Robert Shayne, Frank Wilcox and Lock Martin. 

This science fiction film released by 20^th Century-Fox was filmed in SuperCineColor, a three-color process invented in 1948 but only used till around 1954. Despite a fairly low budget, director John Cameron Menzies uses unusual camera angles and almost surreal set pieces.

 (imdb)

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Bud and Lou and Me and You

 

 

 (wikipedia)

ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN-1951-Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) and Lou Francis (Lou Costello), new graduates of the Dugan Detective School, take on the case of Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz; in THE SNIPER the next year)), a boxer accused of killing his manager. Nelson goes to his girlfriend Helen's (Nancy Guild; CAGLIOSTRO (1949)) house where her uncle, Dr. Gray (Gavin Muir) is working on the invisibility formula originally invented by John Griffin. Gray won't inject Tommy with the formula because it will drive him crazy. When no one is looking Tommy injects himself. Lou sees him fade away but no one believes him. Detective Roberts (William Frawley; just starting TV's "I Love Lucy") thinks Lou is crazy and takes him to a psychiatrist but Lou makes him fall asleep. Later they help Tommy clear his name. Lou becomes Louie the Looper, a boxer and challenges Rocky Hanlon (John Day), the boxer owned by gangster Morgan (Sheldon Leonard; also in the team's HIT THE ICE (1943)) who sends his moll Boots (Adele Jurgens; later in Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955)) to set Lou up for a dive. Lou fights Hanlon with invisible Tommy helping him. Lou has some trouble when Tommy is knock unconscious. Syd Saylor, Bobby Barber, Milt Bronson and Herb Vigran have bit roles. 

Good sfx with a comical if kind of weird ending. One of 9 Abbott & Costello movies directed by Charles Lamont, who also started doing The Ma & Pa Kettle series around this time. The comedy duo made COMIN' 'ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (also directed by Lamont) the same year.

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Actually There's No Party..

THE WILD PARTY-1956-Anthony Quinn stars in this grim melodrama the same year he played Quasimodo in the French production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Here he plays Ton Kuphen, a loony ex-football player-loser reduced to petty crime. His pals include fruity con-man Gage (Jay Robinson), broke jazz pianist Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff who narrates) and Honey (Kathryn Grant), Tom's spacey semi-innocent girlfriend. They terrorize a society couple, a Navy lieutenant (Arthur Franz) and his rich fiancee (Carol Ohmart, later Vincent Price's wife on HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL)) who Kuphen becomes obsessed with. The four "beats" talk annoying jive in this lurid and racy (I guess for the time) drama with a disappointing finale. Paul Stewart and Barbara Nichols appear in one scene together and Nestor Paiva has a small role.

The jazz score is by Buddy Bregman and Barney Kessell. Maynard Ferguson and Bud Shank appear in an un-credited on-screen band. Director Harry Horner had made RED PLANET MARS and BEWARE, MY LOVELY and was also production designer on many films.

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