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 THE INVISIBLE MAN (which also featured Arthur Franz and Helen Wescott). 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).

One other Abbott & Costello related note: Eddie Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY.

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Another from 1953 and Based On a Bradbury Story!

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE-1953-In Arizona, writer Johnny Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend Ellen (Barbara Rush) think they see a meteor crash but it's not a meteor, it's an alien spaceship. Helicopter pilot Pete (Dave Willock) takes them to the crash site the next day. Johnny discovers the ship and is almost killed by an avalanche. No one believes him how-ever. He and Ellen have a brief encounter with a one eyed creature. Two telephone line workers Frank (Joe Sawyer) & George (Russell Johnson) get a weird noise on the wires and later encounter the creature. When they next meet Frank he seems hypnotized but it's actually an alien impersonating him. 

Later John catches alien clones of Frank and George stealing. After Ellen is kidnapped, Frank and the skeptical sheriff (Charles Drake) go to the desert where Frank meets an alluring alien version of his girl. Then he encounters an alien who tells him they are only repairing their ship and everyone will be ok if the humans don't interfere. The stupid sheriff who's sweet on Ellen wants to fight them. When he decides to attack. John goes to the mine to warn them. He's attacked by the Ellen clone. Snooping around he finds the alien base and meets a clone of himself. He convinces the aliens to let their captives go and they return to space. 

This eerie Sci-Fi classic (orig-inally shown in 3-D) was only the second full length feature directed by Jack Arnold and was adapted from a Ray Bradbury story by Harry Essex who in 1954 would team up again with Arnold to make THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON!

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Revenge in The Sunshine State

REVENGE OF THE CREATURE-1955-In the this first sequel to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Captain Lucas (Nestor Paiva) once again takes an expedition to the Amazon to try and find "The Gill Man". Two guys are looking to bring him/it back to the States. After one of the guys Joe Hayes (John Bromfield) is almost killed underwater, they use dynamite to stun the creature and take him back to an aquarium in Florida. Dr. Clete Ferguson (John Agar) goes to study it. At first The Gill Man is in a coma but when he comes out of it the trouble starts. He/It nearly takes Joe out again but he's held in check by a chain fastened to the bottom of  his tank-prison and put on display with barracudas and sharks. Ferguson meets Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson, in THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED the same year) who's doing her thesis on fish. While their romance booms, the two do reflex experiments on the the creature and he/it seems to take a shine to Helen who feels sorry for the monster. "I pity him sometimes. He's so alone". Eventually the scaly one, in a hormonal rage breaks out of the tank, kills Joe and terrorizes customers. He takes to the country looking for Helen. Locating her briefly he watches her undress and kills her dog. He stalks Helen and Ferguson while they're out dancing and invades the club kidnapping his beloved. He finds having a relationship with an oxygen breathing female a little difficult and when they both need air he falls prey to the Florida police. It looks like he's killed in a hail of bullets and drifts lifelessly away (but we know better). The two air breathing lovers are reunited.

REVENGE's plot of  "The Gill Man in civilization" isn't bad for a sequel especially since the original took place entirely in the jungle. There are some lapses in logic. The aquarium seems to handle the situation all wrong just asking for mayhem. And since the creature was plucked from his natural habitat and placed in a tank to be probed and prodded by "men of science" couldn't they have had a little more sympathy for the green guy? Ok, it was the Fifties....

It was nice to see original director Jack Arnold back for part 2 and this really help avoid some of the pitfalls sequels sometime have. His scenes of the creature prowling around at night are excellent.

Two men portray the creature in this film. Ricou Browning plays him underwater and Tom Hennesy played him on land. Both have cameo roles in the production. Of course Clint Eastwood has one small scene with Agar as a lab tech who can't find a mouse.

Jack Arnold directed both Agar and Paiva in TARANTULA the same year.

THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US would follow...

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Boss

BOSS NIGGER-1975-Two black bounty hunters Boss (Fred Williamson also the screenwriter) and Amos (D'Urville Martin) who hunt only white people become sheriff and deputy of a town and basically harass all the white people and give the mayor (RG Armstrong) a hard time. Later Williamson is kidnapped and tortured by Jed Clayton (William Smith) but Amos and Clara Mae (Carmen Haywood) rescue him. A doctor (Don “Red" Barry) patches him up. Later after Clayton kills Clara the townspeople help fight off Clayton's gang and Boss kills Clayton but he seems to be killed at the end (I think...??) 

Despite being directed by the great Jack Arnold (as noted previously he was doing lots of TV shows around this time), BN seems to tread a thin line between drama and parody. Many critics seem to think it's a set up. I personally think it's a disaster and the filmmakers had no idea where they were suppose to take the film.

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Metaluna

THIS ISLAND EARTH-1955-In this Technicolor science fiction classic Dr. Cal Beacham (Rex Reason; in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US the next year) is saved from a jet crash by a mysterious beam. Later after receiving some weird directions he and his assistant Joe (Robert Nicols) build a communications device which puts them in touch with the high forehead alien Exeter (Jeff Morrow; also in THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US the next year) who wants Beacham for his “special group”. The doc takes a pilot-less plane to a meeting Exeter has set up. He meets the alien who explains that his home planet of Metaluna needs uranium in their war against their enemies called The Zagons. 

Exeter has gathered scientists from over the world to help solve the problem but it's obvious he has an ulterior motive. Beacham meets Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue; in CULT OF THE COBRA the same year) who he has met before but she doesn't seem to remember him. He also meets Dr. Carlson (Russell Johnson) and Exeter's sinister assistant Brak (Lance Fuller) who wants to put the trio under a “transformer” to control them. They try to escape but are attacked by a death ray and Carlson is killed. Beacham and Ruth almost get away by plane but a beam brings them back. They go to Metaluna which is under attack by The Zagons. There they meet Exeter's boss The Monitor (Douglas Spencer; Scotty in THE THING) and encounter the famed Metaluna mutants. Metaluna's real mission is also revealed. They want to relocate to Earth and subjugate the human race but when The Monitor tries to put Beacham and Ruth in the Thought Transference Chamber to make them mindless slaves Exeter rebels and helps them escape being wounded in the process by a mutant. Metaluna is destroyed and after a quick appearance by another mutant who stowed away on their ship, Beacham and Ruth are returned to Earth. Exeter stays on board as the damaged ship crashes into the ocean. 

The same year as THIS ISLAND EARTH was made producer William Alland (the reporter trying to figure what “Rosebud” meant in CITIZEN KANE) also served the same capacity on THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE and TARANTULA. ISLAND seems a bigger type of production with a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, nice SFX and of course the famed Metaluna Mutant (made somewhat more well known than it should have been in the pages of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND). For me it was always a little disappointing. 

The acting is ok but the story isn't that engaging. It's based on three short novels by Raymond F. Jones, a prolific science fiction short story writer at the time. Director Joseph Newman started out doing short subjects and eventually feature films like 711 OCEAN DRIVE and THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLATS. Science fiction was not a subject he was familiar with and Universal was unhappy with some of his scenes. They brought in Jack Arnold (who worked with producer Alland frequently) to re-shoot the Metaluna scenes. A sequel was planned but never made. ISLAND also features Richard Deacon, Olan Soule and Coleman Francis in uncredited roles. 

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Williamson/Arnold

BLACK EYE-1974-A former cop named Stone (Fred Williamson) who was kicked off the force for killing a pusher after his sister died from an overdose, gets involved in the search for the cane of a dead old actor (it kind of looks like the one in THE WOLFMAN). After a hooker is killed his ex-boss (Richard X Slattery) puts him on the case. Meanwhile his kind of girlfriend Cynthia (Teresa Graves; also in THAT MAN BOLT with Williamson) is having an affair with a female fashion designer (Rosemary Forsyth). While helping a father (Richard Anderson) rescue his daughter from Jesus freaks, a search leads to porno flicks and drug dealing. Stone (who frequently eats while talking) is usually hostile to whites (good or bad) and is actually res-ponsible for the death of an old man (Cyril Delevanti). It all has to do with heroin hidden in the cane and using old actors as drug mules! 

It's pretty sub-standard but Jack Arnold though a busy TV director at the time managed to direct Williamson the next year in BOSS NIGGER.

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1950's Horror

TARANTULA-1955-This begins with a mutated guy in his pajamas dying in the desert. Later the corpse is examined by Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar) and the aloof professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) who says the cause of death was “agromeglia” but Hastings isn't buying it. Turns out the professor is experimenting with an isotope that can enlarge animals. When Deemer is attacked by another mutant his lab burns down and an experimental tarantula escapes. The mutant dies but not before injecting the professor with the isotope. Deemer's new intern “Stevie” Clayton (Mara Corday) winds up taking care of him when he starts to mutate. The giant arachnid dogs their trail but eventually starts eating cattle and people. Hastings, the sheriff (Nestor Paiva) and a newspaper publisher (Ross Elliot) can't fight it. When the spider knocks out phone lines and terrorizes Deemer and Stevie, Hastings uses dynamite but that fails to do any good. It's up to the Air Force (lead by Clint Eastwood) to get rid of it. Hank Patterson is a hotel clerk and Raymind Bailey is another scientist. 

Jack Arnold directed this fast paced low budget horror sci-fi story with great (for the time) special effects the same year as REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (also with Agar). 

REVENGE's screenwriter Martin Berkeley co-wrote TARANTULA but was soon after blacklisted. Lead actress Mara Corday (still alive at the time of this review) was in another Jack Arnold outing THE MAN FROM BITTER CREEK the same year. Leo G. Carroll's popular sit-com TOPPER ended the year he played the the deformed Prof. Deemer.  

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The Creature From The Black Lagoon

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON-1954-This “creature classic” from Universal-International (originally filmed in 3-D) takes place in the Upper Amazon (after a brief intro on how the world began) where the fossilized remains of an over sized claw are found. Two research-ers, David Reed (Richard Carlson), a se-rious level headed science guy and Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a crabby hard nose who's more concerned with financial success, head an expedition to check out the find. They bring along Reed's fiancee Kay (Julie Adams) too. Nestor Paiva is Lucas, the guy who steers their “barge”. Whit Bissell is Dr. Thompson, another victim, I mean researcher. Little do they suspect that the creature who's remains they are looking for is still alive and has killed two local native helpers. 

Their first dig doesn't turn out so good so Reed has a plan to visit the uncharted “Black Lagoon”. After only seeing a scaly claw for a few scenes, The Creature finally emerges when Reed and Williams go scuba diving. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature checks her out. On another scuba dive, the duo have a closer encounter with “the gill man” where Williams spears him. Later, after it's obvious his intentions lay with Kay, they use a native drug to capture him and put him in a bam-boo cage. That doesn't last long and he breaks out and does some plastic surgery on Thompson. When they try to leave the creature blocks their path. In their efforts to clear a path Williams is killed. Just when it looks like they'll escape the creature grabs Kay and takes her back to his pad, I mean cave. Before he can do in Reed the Gill Man dies in a hail of bullets...or does he? 

TCFTBL is one of the great monster movies of the 1950's. The creature itself deserves to be right up there with all the other “famous monsters” like Frankenstein & Dracula.

The year before this director Jack Arnold made another movie in 3-D the Sci-Fi themed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (also starring Carlson). Producer William Alland was a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. He played the reporter trying to find out the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE. He'd also produced IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and produced later Arnold efforts including the sequel THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE SPACE CHILDREN. Co-screenwriter Harry Essex had penned IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and later worked a lot in TV. In 1971 he made his own version of an undersea creature, the whacked out OCTO-MAN. Ricou Browning portrayed the creature underwater, while Ben Chapman was the creature on land. The same year as CREATURE star Carlson directed his own Sci-Fi movie RIDER TO THE STARS. There's a also a memorable musical score by the un-credited trio of Hans Salter, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini.

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