Fantastic!

Excellent adaptation.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This was a B film made by Universal but sold to poverty row outfit PRC for distribution, and there are no big names here and no big budget, but it is very poignant for several reasons, which I will get into later.This is basically a 20th century Frankenstein story. Someone is going around murdering people with his bare hands - "The Creeper" as he is called by the newspapers and the police. The audience sees the murderer from the beginning, and none of the murders seem premeditated. It is initially a deformed man with monstrous strength apparently visiting people he knew before, and when they become afraid or try to scream or run, he kills them in anger. The police almost catch "The Creeper" after the second murder, but he climbs up a fire escape and into the apartment window of a girl playing a piano. The girl seems unafraid of him and when she asks him if he is in trouble followed by knocking on her door, she hides the man and tells the police that she has seen nor heard anything strange. However, the police never identified themselves, and later you can hear running, yelling, and shooting nearby. If The Creeper is in her apartment who exactly are the police shooting at? But I digress. The Creeper learns the girl is blind, cannot see his ugliness and is therefore friendly, plus she didn't know it was the police at the door, because they never said who they were. Like the Frankenstein monster, in a blind person The Creeper has found a friend.Meanwhile the police have connected the first two victims and go to visit two people who were connected to them 15 years before in college and who are now married and doing well for themselves. They tell a tale of a popular athlete, Hal Moffat, who was tutored in chemistry by the husband, but when Hal got a little too friendly with his girl - now his wife - the tutor gave the jock the wrong answers to questions for an oral exam the next day. As a result, Hal failed the oral test and was given a long complicated chemistry experiment to do as remedial makeup work. Always having a bad temper, and realizing he had been deliberately tricked, Hal threw the test tubes to the ground, but the liquid splashed on his face. In the hospital, the doctor told his friends that Hal's features would be deformed, and that even his glands, which effect how features are formed and how bones grow, would be effected.So we have a blind girl who needs money for an operation to restore her sight, a bitter homicidal man who knows that the couple who betrayed him years ago are doing well financially, and who also tends to take violent revenge on anybody who crosses him, and the police who now know who the murderer is, they just have no idea how and where he is living and what he looks like. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out. The poignant part of this is how art so imitated the life of the man who plays "The Creeper", Rondo Hatton. Mr. Hatton was also a popular athlete during high school who was injured by poison gas during his service in WWI. That chemical exposure later caused acromegaly, a slowly progressive deforming of bones in the head, hands and feet, and internal and external soft tissues caused by disease of the pituitary gland. The deformity, which was progressive, broke up his first marriage. He did, however, marry a second time. So it may be that the low rating is from people who do not like the fact that Universal, who had a contract with Mr. Hatton, used his deformity to exploit him in such roles. However, I think his performance was pretty good. After all, there is no time for real dramatic depth in these old B films. I'd recommend it as a well done modern horror film.

Bested by his love rival, handsome college footballer Hal Moffat (Fred Coby) loses his temper in the school science lab, causing an accident that costs him his looks and his sanity. Years later, Hal AKA 'The Creeper' (now played by Rondo Hatton) seeks revenge on his old college pals, who he blames for his condition.The Brute Man is the final film to star the unmistakable Rondo Hatton, whose disfiguring hormonal disorder (acromegaly) made him a natural for thriller and horror movies. Here he plays a very menacing figure of terror, killing not just his old friends but also the innocent who cross his path (including the mean-spirited murder of a grocery boy). Hatton also manages to make his character a little sympathetic, the hulking brute taking time out from breaking backs to befriend poor blind girl Helen Paige (Jane Adams), but once again shows his true colours after Helen tells of her unusual friend to the police.As '40s thrillers go, this isn't one of the best, the plot a little dreary at times, the direction unexceptional, but Hatton's presence will make it of interest to fans of classic Hollyweird, who will no doubt ask themselves whether the actor was exploited, or lucky to become a star against the odds.

This film was made by Universal Pictures as a part of their horror library. Universal refused to release it and then sold it to PRC. When I first started collecting movies in the 1980's this was a very difficult movie to find. I was always interested in the Universal horror catalogue and I desperately wanted to locate it. It certainly never aired on TV here and the video traders I was associated with had never seen it. Then Admit One, a small Canadian Company, issued it on VHS. I purchased it and it is still the copy I own today.The Creeper (Rondo Hatton) is a horribly disfigured man who is being hunted by the police. He lives in the shadows away from all curious eyes. His tale is then told in flashback that the Creeper was once a successful college student. During a science experiment, an explosion caused his disfigurement. Now he wishes to gain revenge against those he feels are responsible for his sorry state. His misery is abraded away by a chance meeting with a blind musician (Jane Adams). He allows himself this brief friendship, while at the same time, his inevitable demise is close at hand.The current IMDb rating (in the 3's) is very harsh. I suspect because this has played on MST3K and those films tend to get rated lower by their viewers. I remind MST3K viewers not to rate the actual movie. BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T VIEWED THE ACTUAL MOVIE. There is a place on IMDb where MST3K episodes can be rated. PLEASE GO THERE.

Rondo Hatton's final film has him once more playing a character called the Creeper. Hatton plays a disfigured man (surprise) who skulks around killing the people he feels disfigured him. He also kills anyone who gets in his way. On the run from the police the creeper meets a blind piano teacher who isn't afraid of him because she can't see him. Needing an operation to restore her sight the Creeper begins to steal things to get the money for the operation.Filmed at Universal, the story goes that the company balked when Hatton's disfiguring disease killed him before the film could be released and they sold it to PRC. I'd like to think that they sold it because the film wasn't good and the disease story makes them sound more "caring". Lets face it this film is a turkey. Its mostly Hatton stalking through the night for the first half while the police, played with less than all seriousness try to catch him. Its dull and makes you wonder if they removed ten minutes at the start. The second half with the blind girl is so incredibly soapy as to be laughable. Its a really dumb movie that is notable only for it being Hatton's final role.A side note: contrary to whats been posted on numerous web sites, the British H for horror certificate was not created for this film. The classification was in place for well over a decade before this film was released.