The Brute Man (1946) on Netflix
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A disfigured man the police call the Creeper kills the people he blames for his ruined face. A blind pianist, Helen Paige, shelters him without seeing what frightens everyone else.
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- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb4.5/101,709 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Hal Moffat was a handsome college football star until an explosion during a chemistry experiment left his face disfigured. Now the police hunt a killer they call the Creeper, who murders the people he holds responsible, among them Professor Cushman of Hampton University. Captain M. J. Donelly and Lieutenant Gates face complaints from the mayor's office as the killings continue. After a woman named Joan Bemis screams at the sight of him, the Creeper escapes up a fire escape into the rooms of Helen Paige, a blind pianist who cannot see his face and does not fear him. She hides him from the officers knocking at her door, and he learns that she needs an operation to restore her eyesight.
Cast
- Fred Cobyas Young Hal Moffat
- Janelle Johnson Dolenzas Joan Bemis(Ja Nelle Johnson)
- Mary Ann Brickeras Dorothy Obringer(uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Carl Andersas Student(uncredited)
- Rodney Bellas Minor Role(uncredited)
- Pat Costelloas Car 22 Patrolman(uncredited)
- Alan Fosteras Jeweler(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Brute Man (1946)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Rondo Hatton died of acromegaly on February 2, 1946, about eight months before The Brute Man was first screened, making it his final film; Universal feared that releasing it so soon after his death would bring accusations that the studio was exploiting the illness that killed him.
- After its pending merger with International Pictures, Universal adopted a policy against releasing any more B movies and sold The Brute Man for $125,000 to the low-budget Producers Releasing Corporation, which put the film out with no mention of Universal in the publicity or credits.
- Jane Adams, who played the blind pianist Helen Paige, said Rondo Hatton's acromegaly was getting worse during filming and made acting hard for him: he struggled to remember his lines, keep focus and respond to other actors, and in one scene says "yes" while shaking his head "no".
- Rondo Hatton's look as the Creeper in The Brute Man inspired the villain Lothar in Dave Stevens' Rocketeer comic and its 1991 film adaptation, where seven-foot-tall Tiny Ron Taylor played him and make-up artist Rick Baker designed the face to resemble Hatton's Creeper.
- The Creeper's origin drew partly on Rondo Hatton's own life: before his disfigurement the character was a handsome college football hero, and Hatton had played football at the University of Florida before acromegaly, which causes abnormal bone growth from excess growth hormone.
- In 2002 the founders of The Classic Horror Film Board website created the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards for horror works in film, television and publishing; winners received statuettes with miniature busts of Hatton as the Creeper from House of Horrors and The Brute Man.
- Cinematographer Maury Gertsman gave The Brute Man a dark, diseased look to suit its disfigured serial killer and urban setting, using film noir elements such as shadowed lighting, unbalanced compositions and chiaroscuro contrasts between light and dark.
