Showing posts with label Tom Neal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Neal. Show all posts
In this unofficial sequel to House of Horrors, the Creeper (Rondo Hatton) is back creeping about and periodically snapping people's spines. This time the character is given a name, Hal Moffet, and back story. Moffet was a cocky college football hero whose face was disfigured in a chemistry explosion [Hatton's disfigurement was due to acromegaly due to exposure to poison gas during WW1]. Unlike House of Horrors, which has a few interesting characters and flavorful performances, The Brute Man is comparatively dull and slow-paced. Aside from Hatton, who is fine if limited in the role of the Creeper [Fred Coby actually plays Moffet as a college student], the main character is Jane (Helen Paige), a blind piano teacher who hides Moffet and is befriended by him in turn. Tom Neal is one of Hal's old classmates, and Jan Wiley [Secret Agent X-9], in an especially weak performance, plays Neal's wife. Donald MacBride is the police inspector on the case. Hatton's Creeper character, or at least a variation thereof, also appeared in the modern-day Sherlock Holmes film The Pearl of Death.
Verdict: Not the best of the Creeper. **.
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| Andy (Mickey Rooney) on a dispirited burro |
An old flame calls Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) for help when she and her husband fear they'll lose their ranch over water rights. The judge takes the entire family with him to the west, and they sort of just move into this couple's ranch, make themselves at home, and raid the refrigerator as if they own the place. Marian Hardy (Cecelia Parker) falls for a rugged cowboy and widower named Ray (Gordon Jones of The Green Hornet), while his young daughter, "Jake" (Virginia Weidler), develops a crush on Andy (Mickey Rooney). Weidler and Rooney give the most memorable performances, but the others in the cast are swell, as Andy would put it. Fay Holden as Mrs. Hardy can't quite disguise her veddy proper British roots. Ralph Morgan [The Monster and the Ape] and Nana Bryant [Possessed] are the ranchers, and Tom Neal has a small role as a traffic violator in Judge Hardy's courtroom. An unusual aspect of this Hardy feature is that there are no beautiful starlets for Andy to play around and neck with.
Verdict: Pleasant time-waster: **1/2.