I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and THE CREEPING UNKNOWN come to DVD for the first time. In 1956, Hammer Films produced the first in a series of four films based upon a successful British TV sci-fi series, QUATERMASS. In THE CREEPING UNKNOWN, Yank actor BRIAN DONLEVY portrays Dr. Bernard Quatermass, a driven scientist who has successfully launched Earth’s first manned rocket ship into outer space. Of three astronauts, only one survives, the fate of the others is a mystery. But the surviving spaceman brings back an Alien life form that has driven him mad and that is consuming his body as it grows. And grow it does…. into THE CREEPING UNKNOWN. Taught, sci-fi noir well crafted by director Val Guest. Donlevy stands out as the guerilla scientist bucking both government and police.

First starring role for MICHAEL LANDON was I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957). Don’t let the ludicrous title (drummed up by American International top executive Sam Z. Arkoff’s daughter) fool you, this is a good one. Tony Rivers (LANDON) is quick to anger and always spoiling for a fight. His unacceptable deportment leads his school principal in conjunction with a friendly cop (BARNEY PHILLIPS) to send him to a analyst who specializes in maladjusted teens. But Dr. Gordon (WHIT BISSELL) has his own secret agenda. He uses troubled teens in his experiments in regression. Here it is neither wolf bite nor full moon that transforms boy into beast. No, it is hypnosis employed to unlock the savage primitive nature deep inside all of us. Fortunately for the viewing audience, Tony’s feral instincts were near the surface… as close by as the chip on his shoulder. Soon Rockdale High teens turn up murdered and the hunt is on for the TEENAGE WEREWOLF. It’s great to see familiar character actors like Bissell, Phillips and Malcolm Atterbury (Tony’s dad) get a chance to shine. Landon is perfectly cast as the antihero all angst-ridden teens can identify with. It worked asI WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF was the biggest success of all the many AIP monster flicks of the 1950’s. Watch for GUY WILLIAMS (LOST IN SPACE) as a uniformed patrolman one year before he became a star in TV’s ZORRO.

And what is a college campus without a monster running amok? Okay, maybe not dull but certainly not as thrilling.  Dr. Donald Blake (ARTHUR FRANZ) is thrilled to import an unusual fish from Madagascar for his research. It is a coelacanth, a prehistoric critter thought to have been extinct since the Jurassic era. Unfortunately this particular specimen had been treated with radiation which somehow mutates its bodily fluids. When a German Shepard dog laps up bloody water melted from the ice that the big fish was packed in, it becomes a killer wolf. A dragonfly that lights upon the coelacanth, stings it, then grows to have a two-foot wingspan. Since the title of the film is MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS, you can figure out what happens to Don Blake when he cuts his hand on the teeth of the prehistoric fish. It happens again when he accidentally drips Jurassic juice into his pipe. The dire effects are short lived and after each murder Blake reverts to his professorial self unaware of his bestial behavior.  His pretty fiancee (JOANNA MOORE, mother of TATUM ONEAL) frets over Don’s erratic activities and gets mauled by a Neanderthal for her attentions. TROY DONAHUE (soon to become a movie heart-throb) plays Blake’s pet student and WHIT BISSELL (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF/FRANKENSTEIN) is the dubious medical doctor.  JACK ARNOLD (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) directs. STAN LEE, head honcho at Marvel Comics at the time (1958) must have been in the audience as it was not too long after that he “created” a Dr. Donald Blake who was transformed into another long-haired big guy, THE MIGHTY THOR.

In part of AC’s attempt to gain independence, all three of these thrillers are now available RIGHT NOW on the AC web store and will not be released thru Diamond.