The Brute Man Reviews

After his appearance as "the Creeper" in the Sherlock Holmes mystery, THE PEARL OF DEATH (1944), Universal decided to make disfigured character actor Rondo Hatton the star of his own B-picture series. The first of these, HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946), was immediately followed by this film which turned out to be Hatton's last. THE BRUTE MAN tells the origin of the Creeper who was once Hal Moffat, a handsome and popular football star at Hampton College (played in flashback by Fred Coby). Horribly disfigured in a chemistry accident, Moffat becomes a mad killer and sets out to get revenge on all of those he holds responsible. A cult has popped up around the figure of Hatton about whom little is known. Rumored to have once been a respected journalist, the quiet and introverted Hatton was afflicted with acromegaly, a disease of the pituitary gland that causes the progressive enlargement of the bones in the hands, feet, and face. Grotesquely disfigured, he was forced to quit work as a reporter and wound up playing bit parts in movies, usually as a villainous henchman. Just as he began to achieve a bizarre sort of stardom, Hatton finally succumbed to the disease, dying before THE BRUTE MAN was released. Although Universal produced it, the studio declined to release the film for fear of being accused of exploiting Hatton and sold it to poverty-row studio PRC which had no such compunctions. While not a particularly good film, THE BRUTE MAN remains today--because of Rondo Hatton--a distinct Hollywood oddity.