TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Wordiezett So much average

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

MartinHafer Professor Blake has a new toy. It seems that his university has just purchased a coelacanthe--a primordial fish species that was discovered to still be alive in the 20th century. Unfortunately for the Doc, he doesn't realize that the fish was preserved using Gamma rays!! This combination causes the fish to have horrible properties--if anyone touches the blood of this dead creature, they, too, become primordial--and dangerous! First, a dog licks the water that the fish came in when it arrived on campus. Because there was blood in it, the dog became vicious and its teeth elongated--almost like sabre-teeth. Later, the professor scrapes his hand on the teeth of this dead fish and he becomes....well, we really don't see exactly what he becomes until later in the film--but we do know he's mean and looks a bit like Lancelot the Missing Link.Oddly, while this professor is supposed to be super-smart, it took him a long time to figure out what was happening. You see, after becoming a monkey-man, he would later turn back to himself--with no memory of his bestial transformation. Later, when he did seem to understand what was happening, he actually deliberately injected himself to see if it was true--without really providing much in the way of safety of others. Sure, he went to a lonely mountain cabin to conduct this experiment, but sure enough, someone was nearby and ready to be killed. And, by the way, the killing was a dandy (pretty cool stuff) but sadly the makeup job wasn't. The monster we'd been waiting so long to actually see consisted of a cheap rubber mask and rubber gloves and lots of hair. It was very disappointing and showed that the budget for makeup must have been about $9.99--which is sad because the basic story idea and much of the acting was actually very good. Oddly, while the mask was cheap and crappy, the transformation process at the very end of the film was excellent--who'd have figured?Overall, a decent story idea as far as 50s horror films go. It's very creative and unusual. It's just too bad the creature looked so stupid and the professor behaved, well, like an idiot on multiple occasions.By the way, in a clever bit of writing, the Professor makes a phone call to a "Dr. Moreau" who lives on an island. This is obviously a reference to the H.G. Wells story about a crazy doctor who dabbles in making primitive creates very human-like (and vice-versa).

mlraymond 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.

Scarecrow-88 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.

Randy Scholl A previous commentator writes that: "The story is totally ludicrous and a feeble, shameless attempt to promote evolution. Only a leftist loony would believe this stuff."Just to set the record straight, the concept of "evolution" promoted by the film is a gross distortion of actual evolutionary theory, suggesting as it does that evolution involves some sort of mystical forces and that certain so-called "living fossils" contain some sort of substance which somehow counteracts these forces. None of this actually makes in any sense, however, in terms of the actual science. To sum up, evolutionary theory is perfectly valid science, and there's nothing particularly shameful about promoting it as science, contrary to what the above poster might think. OTOH, the movie's conception of what evolution actually means is just plain silly.