The Brute Man * (1946, Rondo Hatton, Tom Neal, Jane Adams, Jan Wiley, Peter Whitney, Donald MacBride) – Classic Movie Review 3752

The 1946 chiller The Brute Man stars disfigured horror icon Rondo Hatton (in his last film) as the Creeper, a murderer seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for his facial disfigurement in a lab accident.

‘His brain cried “Kill, kill, kill!”‘

Director Jean Yarbrough’s 1946 Universal Pictures chiller The Brute Man stars Rondo Hatton as the Creeper, a murderer seeking revenge against those he holds responsible for his facial disfigurement in a lab accident. This American horror thriller film is an unpleasant, poorly produced exploitation horror thriller movie, but it is of very considerable interest.

The disfigured star Rondo Hatton (in his last film) plays Hal Moffat, aka The Creeper, a paranoiac who kills those responsible for his accident, disfigured by chemicals during a laboratory accident in school, and then commits murders for the sake of blind pianist Helen Paige (Jane Adams), a sweet unsighted piano-playing teacher who cares for him. The plan is that he intends to raise money for her to have an operation to make her able to see again.

Tom Neal and Jan Wiley play Clifford Scott and Virginia Rogers Scott, the married pair of friends the Creeper blames for his deformities.

The remote shades of Frankenstein in the story only point up how feebly developed George Bricker and M Coates Webster’s screenplay is, though the idea in itself in the story by Dwight D Babcock is intriguing, using elements of previous films and details of Hatton’s life. The scenes between the Creeper and Helen Paige are similar in idea and dialogue to those between Frankenstein’s monster and the blind hermit in Bride of Frankenstein.

Babock started writing for Universal Pictures in 1943, working on horror films. The Brute Man is the last of nine films Babcock wrote for Universal before going to Columbia Pictures.

It is a prequel to the 1946 House of Horrors, in which Hatton plays the deformed madman The Creeper, who kills people by breaking their backs. The Brute Man explains how he became deformed and why he has a murderous personality. Hatton also played a disfigured killer called the Huxton Creeper in the 1944 Sherlock Holmes film The Pearl of Death, but House of Horrors and The Brute Man are unconnected.

Though the origin of The Creeper is partly based on details from Hatton’s life, Hatton’s real-life abnormalities stemmed not from an accident but from acromegaly, which causes abnormal bone growth due to excess growth hormone from the pituitary gland. After making this and before the film’s release, Hatton, who is the movie’s main point of interest, died aged 51 of a fatal heart attack resulting from the acromegaly disability from which he suffered.

Also in the cast are Tom Neal, Jan Wiley, Peter Whitney, Donald MacBride, Fred Coby, Janelle Johnson Dolenz, Charles Wagenheim, Cy Schindell, William Ruhl, Lorin Raker, Jack Parker, Oscar O’Shea, Frank O’Connor, Patrick McVey, Warren Jackson, John Hamilton, John Gallaudet, Joseph Crehan, Pat Costello, Peggy Converse, Tristram Coffin, Mary Ann Bricker, and James Nolan.

The Brute Man is directed by Jean Yarbrough, runs 60 minutes, is made by Universal Pictures, is released by Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) (1946) (US) and General Film Distributors (GFD) (1946) (UK), is written by George Bricker and M Coates Webster, based on the story by Dwight D Babcock, is shot in black and white by Maury Gertsman, is produced by Ben Pivar, and is designed by John B Goodman and Abraham Grossman. The film uses uncredited stock music, including by the film’s musical director, Hans J Salter.

When Universal Pictures merged with William Goetz’s International Pictures, studio bosses decided that B-pictures would no longer be produced, so this poorly made, short low-budget horror film became an embarrassment and was sold to lowly studio PRC for $125,000, and they distributed the film without mentioning Universal’s involvement in the publicity or credits.

It was released on October 1, 1946.

The Brute Man (1946, Rondo Hatton),

The cast are Rondo Hatton as Hal Moffat / The Creeper, Tom Neal as Clifford Scott, Jan Wiley as Virginia Rogers Scott, Jane Adams as Helen Paige, Donald MacBride as Police Captain M. J. Donelly, Peter Whitney as Police Lieutenant Gates, Fred Coby as Young Hal Moffat, Janelle Johnson Dolenz as Joan Bemis, Jack Parker as Jimmy, Oscar O’Shea as Mr. Haskins, Joseph Crehan as Police Commissioner Salisbury, John Hamilton as Professor Cushman, Charles Wagenheim, Cy Schindell, William Ruhl, Lorin Raker, Frank O’Connor, Patrick McVey, Warren Jackson, John Hamilton, John Gallaudet, Joseph Crehan, Pat Costello, Peggy Converse, Tristram Coffin, Mary Ann Bricker, and James Nolan.

Cult horror icon Rondo Hatton (April 22, 1894 – February 2, 1946).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3752

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