Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Brilliant and touching

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yes, the character in this film is played by Rondo Hatton and his name is Hal Moffat who is known as The Creeper and the title of the film is The Brute Man! If I had to guess, I would say there is perhaps another film named The Creeper released about this time; otherwise, why name the film The Brute Man? He is never referred to as the brute man at any point during the duration of the film. I saw this film on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I would think that it is probably one of the older films that they have riffed over the years. It was not as bad as a lot of other films they did, just a very uneven tone in it and I think it would have played out better had they not made the creeper, the brute man such a killer in the film. Or if they had simply not tried to illicit sympathy for him it would have helped.The story has a man going through the city killing people. He is dubbed The Creeper and there is a huge manhunt going on for this person as he kills a woman and an intrepid delivery boy who would have probably been better off minding his own business or simply tipping off the police rather than overly long staring through a window. This disfigured killer though has a sweet spot for a blind woman as she does not fear him because of his looks. Still, the creeper will not stop his plans for revenge even for love! Heck, he even kills a shopkeeper for the blind girl.This made for a rather good episode of MST3K it also featured a short preceding the film about the chicken of tomorrow that is also rather funny. I preferred the shorts like it to the serials that they did in earlier episodes, mainly because you never got any resolution! The police in this film are rather goofy, the brute man actually being dubbed the creeper in the film and other things make this film full of good riffs and it does not hurt that this film was not horrible or boring too.This film does have its moments as it is interesting watching the creeper getting revenge and at the same time trying to woo the lady, but as I said it makes the film uneven. Like they were trying to go for horror and then added drama and then threw in a dash of light comedy and then tried to mix it all up! There are also a lot of scenes of the creeper simply trying to climb a fire escape, I can think of three times easy! So if you like revenge, if you like brute men who are known by creeper and you like watching people climb fire escapes this is the film for you! Also, how did the creeper get over being shot twice at point blank range?

While it's by no means a classic of any kind, THE BRUTE MAN nonetheless rates a look- primarily because of its star, Rondo Hatton. Soft spoken and intelligent, he gives an understated performance that, in its own limited way, rivals that of Charlie Chaplin in CITY LIGHTS. I cite the Chaplin movie only because of the similarity in the storyline: both deal with men who fall for blind women (both of whom need "an operation" to restore their sight) and fear that, once able to see, the women will reject them (Chaplin because he's down and out, Hatton because he's "disfigured"). The direction as well as the supporting performances are something less than stellar (this is the guy who gave us the motionless picture SHE-WOLF OF London, one of the biggest cheats to come down the pike since MARK OF THE VAMPIRE), but Hatton as "The Creeper" comes across as somewhat sympathetic- especially when the blind girl attempts to touch his face: he turns away abruptly, and one can't help but factor his action(s) into his Real World experiences.

Earlier on during this Halloween Horror challenge, I had watched HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) which was basically a precursor to this one – similarly dealing with a hulking criminal with a penchant for back-breaking dubbed "The Creeper" (actually first seen in the Sherlock Holmes mystery THE PEARL OF DEATH [1944]!). In this case, we are given the character's tragic back-story – though it actually does a disservice to actor Rondo Hatton (deformed in real life by acromegaly) by making his condition self-inflicted and rendering him homicidal into the bargain! Anyway, though it shares many a credit with the subsequent film, this one (which proved to be Hatton's last) was actually made by the Poverty Row company PRC. Running a brief 59 minutes, it is simply a succession of incidents showing The Creeper either taking revenge on his former colleagues at college (including an ex-girlfriend and a romantic rival – played by DETOUR [1945]'s Tom Neal) or else killing others who happen to get in his way. To give some measure of sympathy to the titular figure, we also get a subplot in which he is sheltered by a blind pianist (shades of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN [1935] and THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK [1941]): eventually, though, she allows herself to be used as bait in a trap set for him by the Police (with flustered Donald MacBride at their head!). In itself, then, the film is watchable as an example of low-budget horror from this vintage but in no way a classic.

Following a silhouette of Hatton (or someone made to look like him) walking stiffly, like the blind Frankenstein's monster, an alarm is sent out to police cars to catch The Creeper, who has killed a professor. The Creeper then kills a woman who doesn't recognize him, and a delivery boy who is none too bright. On the run, he chances upon a blind woman who treats him kindly, and whom he feels inclined to be kind to as well (shades of both the blind man from Frankenstein and perhaps City Lights).A flashback reveals the Creeper's weak motivation for the murders, perhaps better explained by his presumed insanity/brain damage.Not a great movie, and definitely inferior to the two other Creeper movies, even though it had the same writer and director as House of Horrors. Yarborough directed several other horror movies, The Creeper (1948) (unrelated to this Creeper) The Devil Bat (1940) starring Bela Lugosi, Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967), King of the Zombies (1941), the Bowery Bows horror/comedy Master Minds (1949), and She-Wolf of London (1946). He also directed several episodes of The Addams Family!It is sad the way Hatton's look was exploited, in a way even the cast of Freaks was not.