The Brute Man (1946)A facially deformed and mentally unhinged man wreaks his revenge on those who deformed him with a series of brutal murders. Director:Jean Yarbrough |
|
| 0Share... |
The Brute Man (1946)A facially deformed and mentally unhinged man wreaks his revenge on those who deformed him with a series of brutal murders. Director:Jean Yarbrough |
|
| 0Share... |
| Cast overview: | |||
|
|
Rondo Hatton | ... |
Hal Moffet AKA 'The Creeper'
|
|
|
Tom Neal | ... | |
|
|
Jan Wiley | ... | |
| Jane Adams | ... | ||
|
|
Donald MacBride | ... |
Police Captain M. J. Donelly
|
|
|
Peter Whitney | ... |
Police Lieutenant Gates
|
|
|
Fred Coby | ... |
Young Hal Moffet
|
|
|
Janelle Johnson Dolenz | ... |
Joan Bemis
(as Ja Nelle Johnson)
|
Hal Moffat who is taking wholesale revenge by murdering those he holds responsible for his predicament, is befriended by Helen Paige, a blind piano teacher, and he develops a warmth for her that leads him to add thievery and robbery - no big deal, he is out there anyway - to his murders so that she can be provided with the money for an operation. Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Earlier on during this Halloween Horror challenge, I had watched HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) which was basically a precursor to this one similarly dealing with a hulking criminal with a penchant for back-breaking dubbed "The Creeper" (actually first seen in the Sherlock Holmes mystery THE PEARL OF DEATH [1944]!). 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! Anyway, though it shares many a credit with the subsequent film, this one (which proved to be Hatton's last) was actually made by the Poverty Row company PRC. 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. To give some measure of sympathy to the titular figure, we also get a subplot in which he is sheltered by a blind pianist (shades of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN [1935] and THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK [1941]): eventually, though, she allows herself to be used as bait in a trap set for him by the Police (with flustered Donald MacBride at their head!). In itself, then, the film is watchable as an example of low-budget horror from this vintage but in no way a classic.