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THE BRUTE MAN (1946). Final film of Rondo Hatton, which reveals the origin of "The Creeper, a homicidal chap who breaks peoples spines. While this is certainly cheapjack and loaded with recycled Police/Football stadium footage and musical cues (mostly from the Sherlock Holmes series), it has its own charm and quite noir-ish in parts . In the style of life imitating art, the Creeper is born due to chemical exposure distorting his features as was Hatton being exposed to gas in WW1 causing acromegaly. Billed as "The Monster with No Makeup", it's pretty shameful how Universal exploited Rondo -this was released about a year after He passed and Universal , probably out of embarrassment sold the film to PRC, the most low budget studio in town.
Some ideas taken from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and CITY LIGHTS help move the story along with guest turns by Jane Adams (HOUSE OF DRACULA) and Tom Neal (BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT, DETOUR). ***
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