Director: Jean Yarbrough
Writers: George Bricker, Dwight V. Babcock
Stars: Robert Lowery, Virginia Grey, Bill Goodwin
Run Time: 1 Hour, 5 Minutes
Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2SAx989
Synopsis
Marcel DeLange is a sculptor. All he has is bread and cheese to eat, and he can’t even afford to feed his cat. His customer comes in and brings an art critic with him for advice. The critic says the sculpture is “pure unadulterated tripe with an overtone of lunacy.” He’s extremely rude. DeLange chases them off with his bread knife, of course with no sale. DeLange smashes his own statue in frustration and goes out for a walk to clear his head.
He sees a man trying to climb out of the river, and he goes to help him. It’s “The perfect Neanderthal man,” according to DeLange. He takes the man home and feeds him. The man asks if DeLange knows who he is. DeLange doesn’t care, he just wants him to pose for a statue. The man agrees to stay on and pose for the statue.
After the first session, the tall man goes outside and follows a woman down the street. He strangles her and snaps her spine.
The inspector investigating the case immediately thinks of a link to one of the Creeper’s murders. They never found the Creeper’s body.
The next morning, DeLange reads the paper to the man, complaining about that critic’s bad article about him. The big man doesn’t like how the critic treated DeLange, who wishes he could tear the critic apart. The man goes to see Mr. Harmon, one of the most pretentious critics ever. Harmon is busy arguing with Joan, an art reporter who thinks he’s way too harsh on young artists. As soon as she leaves, the big man goes into Harmon’s office and kills him.
Detective Brooks goes to see Steve Morrow, a painter who was the target of Harmon’s most recent review. Joan comes in and gives Steve an alibi, so it couldn’t have been him.
Meanwhile, DeLange reads the paper, and he knows what happened. Joan comes to see DeLange, and Joan peeks at the in-process statue of the creeper while DeLange is in the other room. The big man watches her do it. Steve doesn’t like DeLange, and he tells Joan about it. He thinks DeLange is crazy.
Detective Brooks goes to see Mr. Ormiston, another critic, who agrees to be bait in a trap for Morrow. He writes a review that really slams Morrow. He compares Morrow “to that well-known madman, DeLange.” This time, DeLange words things to obviously give the wink-wink-nudge-nudge to the big man.
Morrow goes to confront Ormiston, and they argue. Morrow grabs him by the neck, and the detectives come in and nab him in the act. While the police are in the very next room talking to Morrow, the Creeper stalks into the kitchen and kills Ormiston.
Joan comes back to talk to DeLange some more, and asks about his new sculpture. She peeks at his drawing of the Creeper, and she steals the drawing while the Creeper sees her do it. The newspaper editors figure out what’s going on, because the Creeper was well-known from his first murder, but Joan has already left.
The Creeper goes to Morrow’s house and encounters Stella the model, who has nothing to do with any of this, but she doesn’t put up much of a struggle. He had intended to kill Joan, but couldn’t tell the women apart. Detective Brooks comes by and finds the body. Meanwhile, DeLange explains the whole thing to Joan, knowing she’ll soon be dead.
DeLange explains that he’ll let the police grab the Creeper, but the Creeper hears this and turns on him, folding him up like a blanket. The Creeper then destroys the statue and comes after Joan. Steve and Detective Brooks shoot the Creeper. Joan explains that she had no idea the sketch she stole was the Creeper.
Commentary
Rondo Hatton has been described as a “monster without makeup.” He does have a very distinctive look, but he died shortly after this film. DeLange looks thoroughly insane, and plays it well. Detective Brooks is a fairly generic protagonist, but he’s likeable enough to get by.
There’s nothing especially new about the film, but it was actually one of the more entertaining Universal films we’ve seen recently. I definitely liked it.