The Brute Man


The Brute Man is a 1946 American horror thriller film starring Rondo Hatton as the Creeper, a murderer seeking revenge against the people he holds responsible for the disfigurement of his face. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, the film features Tom Neal and Jan Wiley as a married pair of friends the Creeper blames for his deformities. Jane Adams also stars as a blind pianist for whom the Creeper tries to raise money for an operation to restore her vision. The film is a prequel to House of Horrors.
Universal Pictures produced the film near the end of their horror film period. As the result of its pending merger with International Pictures, Universal adopted a policy against releasing any more B movies, so they sold The Brute Man for $125,000 to the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation, which distributed the film without any mention of Universal's involvement in publicity or credits. Universal may have concluded that the exploitation of Hatton's deformity for the third time to be detrimental to its corporate image, but did not want to take a financial loss by simply shelving the film.
The film was released to home video in 1982. The Brute Man received generally negative reviews, drawing particular criticism for Hatton's poor performance. The film was featured in a 1996 episode of the movie-mocking comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Members of Mystery Science Theater later expressed discomfort in making fun of the film due to Hatton's illness.

Plot

The police investigate a string of murders committed by the Creeper, a mysterious killer with a hideously disfigured face. The Creeper attacks and murders Professor Cushman, a professor from the nearby Hampton University. Later that night, the killer approaches a woman named Joan Bemis 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, 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 listens to a radio report about the Creeper's murders. The cantankerous store owner Mr. Haskins 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 and Lieutenant Gates 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 and Virginia Rogers, 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 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.

Cast

  • 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

    Production

Writing

The screenplay for The Brute Man was written by George Bricker and M. Coates Webster based on a story by Dwight V. Babcock. An author of pulp fiction stories and novels, Babock started writing for Universal Pictures in 1943, where he worked primarily on horror films. The Brute Man marked the last of nine films Babcock wrote for Universal before he left for a job at Columbia Pictures. Bricker wrote several screenplays in a variety of genres, from horror films and mysteries to comedies, and worked primarily as a freelancer jumping from studio to studio. Babcock and Brister previously worked together on several low-budget horror films, including The Devil Bat, House of Dracula, Pillow of Death, She-Wolf of London and House of Horrors. Bricker and Webster both previously wrote the screenplays for Universal films featuring The Brute Man star Rondo Hatton: Bricker penned House of Horrors, and Webster wrote The Jungle Captive, the third in a series of films about an ape that transforms into a beautiful woman.
Image:Rondo hatton in the brute man.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Face shot of Rondo Hatton, balding and with an abnormally sized jaw.|The origin of the Creeper in The Brute Man is in part inspired by the real-life story of actor Rondo Hatton, who suffered from acromegaly.
The Brute Man is a quasi-prequel to House of Horrors, in which Hatton played a deformed madman named "the Creeper" who kills people by breaking their backs. In The Brute Man, Hatton also plays "the Creeper", while the story explains how he became deformed and why he has a murderous personality. Hatton also played a disfigured killer called the Huxton Creeper in The Pearl of Death, a 1944 Sherlock Holmes film, but neither House of Horrors nor The Brute Man have any connection to that film. In establishing a backstory explaining the Creeper's motives, The Brute Man's script seeks to humanize the character and elicit more sympathy for him than the Creeper's other films, in which he is generally portrayed as a two-dimensional murderer. The origin of the Creeper is based partially on autobiographical details from Hatton's real life. Before becoming disfigured by an accident, the Creeper was a handsome young college football hero. Hatton himself was also a football player at the University of Florida before experiencing the effects of acromegaly, a syndrome that causes abnormal bone growth due to excess growth hormone from the pituitary gland. In the film, the character is disfigured by chemicals during a laboratory accident in school. While Hatton's real-life abnormalities stemmed from acromegaly, it was often incorrectly stated by Universal publicity materials that they were the result of exposure to mustard gas attacks during Hatton's service in World War I.
The film's setting, which appears to be a major city, is never identified in The Brute Man, but it has been suggested to be Manhattan, since that is where House of Horrors took place. Commentators have noted similarities between The Brute Man and other films, including the Charlie Chaplin silent comedy City Lights, and the Universal horror film Bride of Frankenstein. City Lights, like The Brute Man, included a protagonist who falls in love with a blind girl and seeks money for an operation to restore her eyesight. Likewise, the scenes between the Creeper and Helen Paige share a similar premise and dialogue as the scenes between Frankenstein's monster and the blind hermit in Bride of Frankenstein. In both films, the protagonists are shunned by society based on their physical appearance, but find companionship in a blind loner who knows nothing about their deformities. In both instances, the protagonist is first drawn to their blind companions by music. The Creeper heard Helen playing the piano, while Frankenstein's monster heard the hermit playing the violin. Commentators have noted other similarities between the two films. For example, the Creeper smashes a mirror after looking at his misshapen face, much like the Monster lashes out at his reflection in a waterfall pool.