The Brute Man

Plot synopsis:
The police investigate a string of murders committed by the Creeper (Rondo Hatton), a mysterious killer with a hideously disfigured face. The Creeper attacks and murders Professor Cushman (John Hamilton), a professor from the nearby Hampton University. Later that night, the killer approaches a woman named Joan Bemis (Janelle Johnson) in front of her home and identifies himself as Hal Moffet. Joan screams hysterically at the sight of him until he is driven to kill her. When police cars approach, the Creeper climbs the fire escape of a city tenement building to escape and enters the apartment of Helen Paige (Jane Adams), a blind pianist. Unable to see the Creeper's deformed face, Helen is not afraid of the intruder, even when he admits to fleeing. When police officers knock on her door, failing to identify themselves, Helen encourages him to hide in her bedroom, where he escapes through the window.
The next day, a general store delivery boy named Jimmy (Jack Parker) listens to a radio report about the Creeper's murders. The cantankerous store owner Mr. Haskins (Oscar O'Shea) arrives with a handwritten letter slipped under the door, requesting groceries be delivered to a nearby dock. Jimmy brings the groceries to the dock and leaves them at a door, where the Creeper takes them into his hideout. But, when Jimmy tries to spy on him through a window, the Creeper sneaks up on Jimmy and kills him. Meanwhile, at the police station, Captain M.J. Donelly (Donald MacBride) and Lieutenant Gates (Peter Whitney) receive complaints from the mayor's office about their failure to arrest the Creeper, but they deflect the blame. The two officers then get a call about the missing delivery boy and head to the dock to investigate.
The Creeper sneaks out and escapes while Donelly and Gates infiltrate his hideout and discover Jimmy's corpse. Donnelly also finds a newspaper clipping with a man named Hal Moffet and two of his friends, Clifford Scott (Tom Neal) and Virginia Rogers (Jan Wiley), during their college days. The police visit Clifford and Virginia, who are now married and wealthy. Clifford tells the officers during college, Hal was a handsome college football star who competed with Clifford for Virginia's affections. One day, while helping Hal prepare for a chemistry exam, a jealous Clifford deliberately gave him the wrong answers, resulting in Hal being asked by Professor Cushman to remain after class for extra work. While working on a chemistry experiment, Clifford walks by the window with Virginia to boast. Furious, Hal hurls a beaker to the ground, accidentally causing an explosion that disfigures his face. Donnelly speculates that Hal is the Creeper, and that he killed Professor Cushman and Joan because he holds them partially responsible for his accident.
Meanwhile, the Creeper goes to a pawn store to buy a brooch for Helen, and kills the pawnbroker (Charles Wagenheim) following a fight. He later brings the brooch to Helen, who he realizes for the first time is blind. Hal learns she needs $3,000 for surgery that would restore her eyesight. When Helen tries to touch his face, Hal angrily storms out. He then goes to the Scott residence and demands money from Clifford and Virginia, whom he blames for his disfigurement. Clifford draws a gun and shoots Hal twice in the stomach, but the weakened Hal manages to strangle Clifford to death before escaping with Virginia's jewels. He brings them to Helen, who is concerned about Hal's injuries, but he flees before she can learn he is shot.
Helen brings the jewels to an appraiser, who recognizes them as having recently been reported stolen. Donelly and Gates bring Helen into the station, where they inform her Hal is the Creeper and accuse her of harboring a murderer. Reluctantly, she agrees to help them capture him. The next day, the newspapers run stories about Helen cooperating with police, which infuriates Hal. Feeling betrayed, he sneaks back into her apartment and finds her playing the piano. Sneaking up from behind, Hal is about to strangle her when the police seize and arrest him. The film ends with Donelly and Gates assuring Helen she will get the operation she needs.

Tags: revenge, murder, flashback

Review:
In 1944 he was cast as The Hoxton Creeper in a Sherlock Holmes film, The Pearl of Death, and achieved brief stardom-or at least cult stardom-until his early death from a heart attack at age 52 in 1946 (he had suffered a milder heart attack the previous year as a direct result of his condition).In this, one of his last films, not only does Hatton get the starring role, he has a great deal of dialogue and proves that he could be a good actor when given the chance.
The photography is well-done-especially considering the budget (or lack thereof) and there are some nice angles and lighting, especially when Hatton is prowling around the city.Note: This film was actually made at Universal, who sold the rights to it to PRC shortly after it was completed (and Rondo Hatton died)..
Hatton suffered with the congenital disease acromegaly, which, as Webster's puts it, is "chronic hyperpituitarism marked by progressive enlargement of hands, feet and face." He lived to the age of 52, being felled by a heart attack shortly after making his last film, "The Brute Man," in 1946.
In it, Hatton plays a former college BMOC who became disfigured after a lab accident and who, years later, begins a murder spree against all his former pals and teachers that he blames for his current condition.
This is the final film for Rondo Hatton, who suffered from acromegaly, and was employed in Hollywood increasingly as his disease progressed, just as Hedy Lamarr was used as her beauty increased.
See "The Brute Man" and you will beware the murderous psychopath who disarms his victims by preying on feelings of sympathy.Rondo Hatton, better known for his role as the "Creeper" in the Sherlock Holmes movie, "The Pearl of Death," also plays the Creeper here  this time without Sherlock Holmes  but with such a depth of feeling that audiences more accustomed to hating and fearing monster-murderers may feel pity for the vengeance minded killer instead.Only in the movie "Freaks" has any actor exploited his unusual appearance to such telling effect.
Without makeup, Hatton plays very true to life as the hot tempered college football star Hal Moffett  maimed in a laboratory accident  who decides to take deadly revenge upon the friends he irrationally blames for his disfigurement.Even though the grotesque drifter's bloody scheme is terrifying, antihero Moffett never seems like a purely evil monster.
He is like a misguided adolescent driven mad by his misfortune and his own unyielding character, obsessive in the drive to heal his injured vanity by acts of desperation.As masterfully lensed under the direction of Jean Yarbrough, Hatton's performance is outstanding, even by comparison to other horror movie legends; Hal Moffett/The Creeper may possibly have been his greatest role.
Perhaps that is because "The Brute Man" seems contrived to exploit the commercial successes of "The Pearl of Death," "City Lights" and "Phantom of the Opera," from which it derives some of its main story elements (including the sentimental scenes with the blind girl and the theme of disfigurement and revenge).
For such a low budget movie and from PRC as well, The Brute Man is quite good.As a result of an experiment going wrong at university, Hal Moffat becomes disfigured and some years later, starts killing people.
He makes friends with a blind woman but nearly kills her after shopping him to the police and is arrested in her home after she set him up.The Brute Man is shot well in black and white and is certainly one of the better efforts from PRC.I've never heard of any of the cast in this, with Rondo Hatton in the title role.This is worth checking out.
1946's "The Brute Man" was a follow up to "House of Horrors," from the same producer (Ben Pivar) and director (Jean Yarbrough), plus the same star, Rondo Hatton, who filmed "The Spider Woman Strikes Back" in between (none were released until after his death in February 1946).
Hatton's own back story inspired much of the plot of this low grade thriller (his last film), actually a prequel to the far superior "House of Horrors," taking place before the events of the earlier film.
Hatton's performance consists of wandering the dark streets from one incident to the next, while the police investigation adds up to a game of 'pass the buck.' Jane Adams had just finished playing the hunchbacked nurse in "House of Dracula," and would end her brief career with 1949's Bowery Boys horror-comedy, "Master Minds." Jan Wiley, from "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" and "She-Wolf of London," was about to end her own brief career.
I'll admit there are better dramatic thrillers of the 1940s but this one deserves a better rating than it's getting.Rondo Hatton plays Hal Moffat AKA 'The Creeper' - he's well suited for this role.
First, before I begin, I would like to point out that this film may very well be the first Hollywood prequel, with THE BRUTE MAN being a prequel to HOUSE OF HORRORS(1945).
What makes THE BRUTE MAN so worthy of scorn is the tasteless way the film mirrors Hattons real life story.
To exploit his tragic real life story in a cheap horror film was in pretty bad taste.
Now, I understand Hatton was paid well for his role, but I wonder if he ever felt uncomfortable having his tragic real life story being exploited in a cheesy horror picture like this.Hatton died before this film was released.
Somewhat Sad. The Brute Man (1946)** (out of 4) Hal Moffat (Rondo Hatton) was once an up and coming doctor but he was brutally attacked and left as a deformed monster.
You can read up on his medical condition, which led him to look the way he did but basically Universal exploited his looks and threw him into a number of their horror films over the last two years of Hatton's life.
Hatton would end up dying before this film would be released and this would stand as his final picture.I must admit that I have a hard time watching his films simply because of knowing his true story and it's pretty sad seeing him exploited.
He certainly does a fine job here playing the victim as the studio obviously went for sympathy towards his character and threw in a subplot dealing with a blind woman, which seemed to be a wink back to the BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.As far as the film goes, it's pretty much a routine horror film but at just under a hour it's certainly entertaining enough for what it is..
The sad life and sad career of Rondo Hatton concluded with this film, The Brute
Hatton plays a man who at one time looked like Fred Coby, a promising All
Like the Frankenstein monster, in a blind person The Creeper has found a friend.Meanwhile the police have connected the first two victims and go to visit two people who were connected to them 15 years before in college and who are now married and doing well for themselves.
In the hospital, the doctor told his friends that Hal's features would be deformed, and that even his glands, which effect how features are formed and how bones grow, would be effected.So we have a blind girl who needs money for an operation to restore her sight, a bitter homicidal man who knows that the couple who betrayed him years ago are doing well financially, and who also tends to take violent revenge on anybody who crosses him, and the police who now know who the murderer is, they just have no idea how and where he is living and what he looks like.
The poignant part of this is how art so imitated the life of the man who plays "The Creeper", Rondo Hatton.
So it may be that the low rating is from people who do not like the fact that Universal, who had a contract with Mr. Hatton, used his deformity to exploit him in such roles.
I purchased it and it is still the copy I own today.The Creeper (Rondo Hatton) is a horribly disfigured man who is being hunted by the police.
Medically based partly on the fact that Hatton's glandular condition was caused by chemical exposure (as is his character here), the film then ventures beyond reality to make the disfigured man a murderer.
Featuring the capable Tom Neal, Donald MacBride in one of his usual fine cop performances, and other good casting, the film works as a movie.
Even though it's only an hour, it seems to plod along forever.In some ways, the story of a good-looking man becoming a misshapen monster is akin to Rondo's own real-life struggle with acromegaly, the disease which enlarged his hands, feet, and head.
In this flick Rondo Hatton plays the Creeper, a horribly disfigured serial killer.
There is a delightful scene starring a bitter, hate-filled old grocer who constantly berates his young delivery boy, who is obsessed with The Creeper's antics: "Creeper, creeper, creeper- you give me the creeps!" the old man yells.In a depressing sub-plot, Rondo falls for a blind girl and tries to get money for her eye operation, and this proves to be his undoing.
Rondo Hatton (who suffered from the disease Acromegaly) allowed himself to be exploited by Universal Pictures near the end of his life for some horror-themed movies.
Here in his final film he plays the deformed murderer named "The Creeper" for the last time, who is on the prowl and hunted down by the police.
Before I begin talking about BRUTE MAN, there's some important information you should know about the star of the film, Rondo Hatton.
Years later, Hal AKA 'The Creeper' (now played by Rondo Hatton) seeks revenge on his old college pals, who he blames for his condition.The Brute Man is the final film to star the unmistakable Rondo Hatton, whose disfiguring hormonal disorder (acromegaly) made him a natural for thriller and horror movies.
Hatton also manages to make his character a little sympathetic, the hulking brute taking time out from breaking backs to befriend poor blind girl Helen Paige (Jane Adams), but once again shows his true colours after Helen tells of her unusual friend to the police.As '40s thrillers go, this isn't one of the best, the plot a little dreary at times, the direction unexceptional, but Hatton's presence will make it of interest to fans of classic Hollyweird, who will no doubt ask themselves whether the actor was exploited, or lucky to become a star against the odds..
In this case, we are given the character's tragic back-story – though it actually does a disservice to actor Rondo Hatton (deformed in real life by acromegaly) by making his condition self-inflicted and rendering him homicidal into the bargain!
Running a brief 59 minutes, it is simply a succession of incidents showing The Creeper either taking revenge on his former colleagues at college (including an ex-girlfriend and a romantic rival – played by DETOUR [1945]'s Tom Neal) or else killing others who happen to get in his way.
The story is about a disfigured man (Rondo Hatton) who blames two old friends (Tom Neal, Jan Wiley) for an accident that caused him to look the way he does.
Following a silhouette of Hatton (or someone made to look like him) walking stiffly, like the blind Frankenstein's monster, an alarm is sent out to police cars to catch The Creeper, who has killed a professor.
"The Brute Man" and the more or less simultaneously produced "House of Horror" both star Rondo Hatton and only got released after his death at the age of 51.
Allegedly the good people at Universal Studios became so ashamed and remorseful about exploiting Hatton's looks and condition that they decided to sell the rights of "The Brute Man" to an inferior yet more unscrupulous production company.
Jean Yarbrough's The Brute Man. remembered as the final film to star horror icon and all-round tragic figure Rondo Hatton, has a backstory infinitely more interesting than the movie itself.
Some say that Universal distanced themselves out of sheer embarrassment of their exploitation of Hatton, an actor suffering from acromegaly who died before the film was even released.Reprising his most famous role for the third and final time (after the Sherlock Holmes story The Pearl of Death and Yarbrough's House of Horrors), Hatton's The Creeper is back on the loose in an unnamed city (probably New York), and seeking revenge on those who wronged him.
Without giving too much away, the Creeper was once a handsome football star, much like Hatton himself, before an accident disfigures him, and the police are on high alert when bodies start turning up with their backs broken.
In the film's attempt to inspire some sympathy for the killer, the Creeper falls in love with beautiful blind pianist Helen Paige (Jane Adams), the only person not be instantly repulsed by his appearance.As a slice of B-movie horror, The Brute Man is forgettable and formulaic, and with a run time of less than an hour, there's a remarkable lack of depth.
This cheap poverty-row movie would be forgotten today if not for the pathetic performance of Rondo Hatton, suffering from the bone-deforming disease of acromegaly.
While it's by no means a classic of any kind, THE BRUTE MAN nonetheless rates a look- primarily because of its star, Rondo Hatton.
The direction as well as the supporting performances are something less than stellar (this is the guy who gave us the motionless picture SHE-WOLF OF London, one of the biggest cheats to come down the pike since MARK OF THE VAMPIRE), but Hatton as "The Creeper" comes across as somewhat sympathetic- especially when the blind girl attempts to touch his face: he turns away abruptly, and one can't help but factor his action(s) into his Real World experiences..
The Brute Man. Solid chiller, capitalizing on the popularity of Rondo Hatton's creeper character made popular in the Sherlock Holmes classic, "The Pearl of Death", has The Creeper on the rampage breaking the backs of those he deems responsible for his facial abnormalities, which occurred when a college rival infuriates his temper (both were affectionate for a beauty in their same graduation class) causing a mishap in the chemistry lab.
This movie definitely has the look and feel of a Universal Studios release, with Hatton's involvement a major factor in its appeal to fans of classic horror.
Horribly disfigured in a lab accident, Hal Moffat (Rondo Hatton) seeks revenge against all those he blames for his condition.
It's difficult to discuss The Brute Man without discussing Rondo Hatton, but that's exactly what I want to do for a moment.
I've just got to give the movie an extra point based on Rondo.The Brute Man was featured in Episode #702 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Rondo Hatton is the Brute Man...aka the Creeper!.
Yes, the character in this film is played by Rondo Hatton and his name is Hal Moffat who is known as The Creeper and the title of the film is The Brute Man!
If I had to guess, I would say there is perhaps another film named The Creeper released about this time; otherwise, why name the film The Brute Man?
It was not as bad as a lot of other films they did, just a very uneven tone in it and I think it would have played out better had they not made the creeper, the brute man such a killer in the film.
The police in this film are rather goofy, the brute man actually being dubbed the creeper in the film and other things make this film full of good riffs and it does not hurt that this film was not horrible or boring too.This film does have its moments as it is interesting watching the creeper getting revenge and at the same time trying to woo the lady, but as I said it makes the film uneven.
So if you like revenge, if you like brute men who are known by creeper and you like watching people climb fire escapes this is the film for you!
It's Rondo Hatton, a man with a hideously disfigured face.
Rondo Hatton, aka the Creeper, is on a killing spree, and the baffled police can't find him, even though they know who he is.
Hatton, who usually said very little in films, has a surprising amount of dialog here, yet is actually extremely believable and that makes you want to like him even though he is a killer.
****SPOILERS**** Introduced as the notorious "Creeper" in the movie "House of Horrors" Rondo Hatton, due to popular demand, is back for an encore appearance in "The Brute Man".
That ended up leading to his tragic, in mixing the wrong chemicals after classes, accident that changed his handsome looks for the worst.Despite the "Creepers" brutal string of murders during the movie, where Scott was one of them, he's given a sympathetic side in falling for the blind piano player Hellen Paige, Jane Adams.
This has the movie take on a "City Lights" like story with the "Creeper" going on a new murder spree just for him to get the money that Hellen needs for an eye operation to restore her sight.
In fact the two films that established Hatton as the horror star that he was to become, "House of Horrors" & "The Brute Man", came out after his death making him a movie icon for generations of movies fans to come like the late rebellious and teen anti-hero actor James Dean.
Rondo Hatton's final film has him once more playing a character called the Creeper.
Needing an operation to restore her sight the Creeper begins to steal things to get the money for the operation.Filmed at Universal, the story goes that the company balked when Hatton's disfiguring disease killed him before the film could be released and they sold it to PRC.