Monster on the Campus

I saw this movie in the theater when I was 9 years old. 60 years later I still remember scenes from this movie and enjoy watching it now although mostly for nostalgic reason.

This Jack Arnold directed b-movie is tempered by ineffective monster makeup and dated man-to-ape transformation sequences. Arthur Franz is decent in the lead role as a professor who transforms into a monster whenever he accidentally or purposely comes in contact with a prehistoric fish that had been preserved with gamma rays. It's a bit of the Incredible Hulk, torn shirts and all. Joanna Moore is a spitfire as the professor's love interest. She predictably turns into the victim late in the movie, but she calls him out on his obsessive lab work as the story unfolds. The movie looks okay, but too much of it takes place in the professor's lab. The are some campus sets that are made up to look like the outdoors and they are more convincing than the real outdoor shots when the monster carries the damsel in distress in his arms up a hillside. Oh well, it's all very predictable and it's nothing that you haven't seen before. It seems long at just 76 minutes despite the best efforts of the cast's leading players.