Rondo Returns

  (wikipedia)

THE BRUTE MAN-1946-When a string of brutal murders credited to "The Creeper" hit town, a police chief (Donald McBride) and his Lieutenant (Peter Whitney) suspect a guy named Hal Moffat whose face was disfigured in a college chemistry experiment. He's out for revenge on the people he blames for his predicament especially classmates Clifford Scott (Tom Neal; in DETOUR the year before) and his wife Virginia (Jan Wiley). While killing and stalking potential victims Hal (the unforgettable Rondo Hatton in his last movie) meets Helen (Jane Adams), a blind piano teacher and they kind of bond. 

Helen needs money for an eye operation so Hal goes to Scott and demands money. Scott shoots Hal but he kills Scott and takes Virginia's jewels and gives them to Helen. When she has them appraised she learns all about her mysterious benefactor. She helps trap him and he's arrested. The movie actually ends on a comic note. 

This was originally a Universal Pictures production which was suppose to introduce Rondo Hatton as their new horror star (“the monster without make-up”) but Hatton died before the movie was released. Though the studio made no bones about their plan to exploit Hatton's looks while he was alive, it seems after his death they were a little more than embarrassed by presenting an actor with a real physical condition (acromegaly) as a guy who was a monster and his character in the film had once been “normal” before an explosion.

 Cutting their loses, controversy and questionable taste, Universal sold the film to Monogram who released it on a double bill. Work horse director Jean Yarbrough had already worked with Rondo Hatton earlier in the year in HOUSE OF HORRORS and made SHE-WOLF OF LONDON and three other features in 1946. Fred Colby plays Hal before "the accident" and Tris Coffin, Pat Costello and John Hamilton have un-billed roles. 

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