House of Horrors

source: House of Horrors

House of Horrors (1946) ** (out of 4) Silly horror flick from Universal has artist Marcel De Lange (Martin Kosleck) growing tired of the negative reviews from critics so he goes to kill himself but before he can do so he pulls a drowning man out of the river. This man gives the artist his inspiration for his masterpiece but what he doesn't know is that the man he saved is the notorious serial killer known as The Creeper (Rondo Hatton). Soon the critic is sending The Creeper out to kill those who insult his work. I've said it before but I've always found it rather troublesome and unsettling that Universal would use the tragic accident surrounding Hatton and turn it into some freak show exploitation. Thankfully the exploitation here isn't nearly as high as some of the others films he was in but there's very little to recommend here outside of the performances. Many would argue that these later day Universal films became way too childish but I'm somewhat certain a child wrote the dialogue in this film because it's downright horrid and the absolute worst I've ever heard from a Universal picture. The opening bit with the artist giving a "deep" talk to his cat about hunting mice and hunting clients was downright hilariously bad. This is followed up with an even dumber sequence where a possible client brings over a famous art critic who then tears into the artist. For starters, why on Earth would a famous art critic waste his time going with a nobody to see the art of a nobody? Also, would such an educated man use the childish name-calling that this guy does? The screenplay not only features horrible dialogue but we get several plot goofs including one where a suspect says he couldn't have killed one of the critics. The cop then agrees because the artist was in a bar with fellow artists when they got word that the critic was murdered at two am. This goes against the previous scene where it's said that the critics body wasn't discovered under 11am. Yarbrough's direction is hard to spot as there's not an inch of energy to be found and everything just comes off rather lazy. Both Hatton and Kosleck are good in their roles as is Robert Lowery and Virginia Grey as a artist and critic and then we get a good turn by Bill Goodwin as the cop investigating the crimes. HOUSE OF HORRORS was somewhat done again years later by Vincent Price in THEATRE OF BLOOD and that's certainly the film to see.

More than "the creeper" himself ,the real monster is Marcel (a sculptor with a French name meaning "from the angel"!)Martin Kosleck is actually the stand out with his piercing eyes,his banal look and his aspiration for glory ;at the beginning he seems a nice guy feeding his pet cat and coming to a man's rescue.But further acquaintance shows this :he gradually goes nuts and the statue becomes a transparent metaphor for the monster he is creating (a Frankensteinesque relationship,which the ending confirms). This is also a fierce attack on art critics "who judge works but do not know they are judged by them "(Jean Cocteau),a subject which "theatre of blood" will resume in the seventies.

Rondo Hatton as the Creeper in a story that was repeated so often that it's lost all its power (assuming it had any). Sculptor on the outs with critics rescues a drowning man (hatton) who just happens to be a mad killer. He sends the killer off to kill the critics, but suspicion falls on another artist. Its a lousy movie that seems more like a parody of itself. Sure it's nice to see Hatton, and while he pretty much played the same role in everything, this is probably his weakest attempt at it. It was so bad I shut it off half way in. Avoid this one

I'm talking about the famous cliché of trying to open the door but the doorknob gets stuck and the female lead cannot escape from the villain. This time it happened when the great Rondo tried to capture her! This isn't the generic monster-chasing the heroine. In fact, there's an interesting plot that deals with a mad sculptor gone evil because his work isn't "understood". So he is aided by the infamous Creeper who almost died in the previous film. The acting is solid and the fact that most of the situations center around The Creeper, demonstrate it that exploitation towards "strange" looking people has happened since "Freaks". Now, in the 40's it was considered as something "entertaining", "freak circus entertaining". Today it would be considered as something against good behaviors or something like that. Rondo delivers a fine performance and I truly enjoyed his evil lurking and walking. For example, the way we see his shadow slowly moving was creepy. The Direction is fine and classy. The low point of the movie happens when the events get kind of dull and hard to believe. Some corny dialogs and situations make it less entertaining and affect the suspense factor. Nevertheless, this is an interesting Universalesque feature that if not considered as a monster feature, it has all the characteristics to make us believe that Rondo was the main reason to watch this movie. The ending was very good. I liked how the bullet cracked the window and reached Rondo. Well, you have to watch it to believe it.

Universal Studios wasn't making that many horror films by the mid 1940's and that's due to the fact that audiences tastes were starting to change but they were always keeping their eye open on the next popular character and they thought they could make some money from "The Creeper" but it just wasn't meant to be. Story starts with the starving sculptor Marcel De Lange (Martin Kosleck) who after receiving nothing but scathing attacks by art critics decides to attempt suicide but while at the river he finds a disfigured man near death and takes him back to his studio. *****SPOILER ALERT***** Marcel nurses and befriends this brutish man (Rondo Hatton) in exchange that he sits for a sculpture to be made of his head but it doesn't take long for Marcel to discover that his model is actually "The Creeper" who's hobby is snapping the spines of women. Marcel also convinces him to kill the critics who have been so vicious in their critique and tells him that they are the reason that they have no money for food. Lt. Larry Brooks (Bill Goodwin) at first thinks the murders might have been committed by painter Steven Morrow (Robert Lowery) but his girlfriend (and another art critic) Joan Medford (Virginia Grey) knows this isn't true but her snooping leads to Marcel and the realization that he's harboring a murderer. This film is directed by Jean Yarbrough who was a good and active director and while this won't exactly go down in the books as a huge success he did make a film that has become a cult favorite. There are many things to point out that don't make much sense but two stand out for me and the first would be the inappropriate title. Most of the film takes place in the studio and while I think this also serves as Marcel's living quarters it's definitely not a house. Marcel and The Creeper sit around hungry nibbling on old bread and potatoes and I thought...why doesn't The Creeper take the money from his victims? Is that beneath him in terms of morals? Marcel couldn't even feed his cat! Grey plays her character as forever chipper and annoyingly wisecracking but while she gloats about her job by the end of the film she's ready to give it up and get married. The film ends with The Creeper getting shot but his death is not announced and Goodwin shouts "Let's get this man to a hospital". It's obvious that Yarbrough and others at Universal wanted to keep this character available for sequels but only one was made (The Brute Man) because Hatton who suffered from the disease Acromegaly died shortly afterward. Hatton disliked intensely being exploited by the studios in this manner but he was a remarkable presence on film and in his own way made an indelible mark in cinema.

House of Horrors is a creepy little shocker film that is quite well done. Interestingly it's working title was "The Sinister Shadow" before it was released. House Of Horrors was another Ben Pivar production and Ben could put this kind of horror film out in his sleep.Director Jean Yarbrough cut his teeth directing these kind of B thrillers and he went on to have a very successful career in television. I always considered Rondo Hatton to be sort of a walking prop. He's a bit more animated in this story then usual but here he's not so much the monster as he is the real monsters tool. Virginia Grey wasn't one of Universal's Screen Queens". She was loaned out for "House" from M-G-M. She's very good as the spirited reporter trying to get the story.Robert Lowery was a handsome and talented leading man but you could aways tell when he was really into his role or just picking up a paycheck.The dependable Alan Napier has a turn as an egotistical and sarcastic art critic. He so good in the role that the audience cheers when he gets his. Martin Kosleck was, as my dad used to say,the poor man's Peter Lorre He could play sinister capably enough but he was a bit too subdued to play out and out crazy. In this story he is the real monster, however, creeping around in the shadows and letting Rondo do his dirty work.This is one of Koslecks biggest roles and his weaselly Marcel De Lange is one of his best characterizations Its a shame that Rondo Hatton passed on just as his star was beginning to rise in the horror film Pantheon so to speak. Whether or not he could have lasted as a horror star nobody can say. The second horror cycle was beginning to dry out in 1946 so he could have slid back into obscurity had he lived.The American Horror Film Board presents the Rondo Award every year to deserving horror films and actors since 2002. Film fans vote on the recipients. So Rondo Hatton has achieved some degree of movie immortality.

This low-grade Universal chiller has just been announced as an upcoming DVD release but, intended as part of a collection of similar movies that I already had in my possession, I decided to acquire it from other channels rather than wait for that legitimate release. Which is just as well, since the end result was not anything particularly special (if decently atmospheric at that): for starters, the plot is pretty weak – even though in a way it anticipates the Vincent Price vehicle THEATRE OF BLOOD (1973)…albeit without any of that film's campy gusto. What we have here, in fact, is a penniless sculptor (Martin Kosleck) – whom we even see sharing his measly plate of cheese with his pet cat! – who, upon finding himself on the receiving end of art critic Alan Napier's vitriolic pen one time too many, decides to end it all by hurling himself into the nearby river. However, while contemplating just that action, he is anticipated by Rondo Hatton's escaped killer dubbed "The Creeper" and, naturally enough, saves the poor guy's life with the intention of having the latter do all the dirty work for him in gratitude! Although it is supposedly set in the art circles of New York, all we really see at work is Kosleck and commercial painter Robert Lowery (who keeps painting the same statuesque blonde girl Joan Shawlee over and over in banal poses – how is that for art?) who, conveniently enough, is engaged to a rival art critic (Virginia Grey) of Napier's! Before long, the latter is discovered with his spine broken and Lowery is suspected; but then investigating detective Bill Goodwin gets the bright idea of engaging another critic to publish a scathing review of Lowery's work (I did not know that publicity sketches got reviewed!!) so as to gauge how violent his reaction is going to be! In the meantime, Kosleck deludes himself into thinking that he is creating his masterpiece by sculpting Hatton's uniquely craggy – and recognizable – visage which, needless to say, attracts the attention of the constantly visiting Grey (we are led to believe that she lacks material for her weekly column)…much to the chagrin of both artist and model. Bafflingly, although The Creeper is fully aware of how Grey looks (thanks to her aforementioned haunting of Kosleck's flea-bitten pad), he bumps off Shawlee – who had by then become Goodwin's girl! – in Lowery's apartment and, overhearing Kosleck talking to (you guessed it) Grey about his intention to dump him as the fall guy for the police, sends the slow-witted giant off his deep end…even down to destroying his own now-completed stony image. Curiously enough, although this was Hatton's penultimate film, his name in the credits is preceded by the epithet "introducing"!

One of many 60-minute B-movie horrors that Universal churned out in the 1940's, House of Horrors remains one of the most fondly remembered due to the hulking presence of Rondo Hatton. Originally a journalist and apparently a handsome man, he developed acromegaly which began to disfigure him in adulthood. He started getting extra work and bit-parts as faceless thugs until he appeared as 'The Creeper' in the Sherlock Holmes film The Pearl of Death (1944). Universal planned a series of films starring Hatton as The Creeper, but after this and it's sequel The Brute Man (1946), he sadly died of a heart attack brought on by his disease. He was far from a good actor - he does little but grunt and talk in child-like speech - but his presence is undeniable, and probably saves House of Horrors from obscurity. Living alone in his rotting studio, sculptor Marcel De Lange (Martin Kosleck) is on the verge of selling his best work to a high-rolling collector. Unfortunately, the potential purchaser brings along notorious art critic F. Holmes Harmon (Alan Napier), who dismisses Marcel's work as a travesty, causing the sale to fall through. Penniless and on the verge of suicide, he spots a body wash ashore one night. The body is that of the Creeper, a known serial killer with the face of "the perfect Neanderthal," (as Marcel dubs him), so Marcel brings him home and nurses him back to health. Fascinating with his appearance, Marcel begins to sculpt the Creeper and exploit his blood-lust by setting him up to murder his enemies. At just 65 minutes, House of Horrors, also known as Murder Mansion and Joan Medford is Missing, doesn't demand much at all. This is a formulaic genre picture that manages to squeeze an extraordinary amount into it's slender running time, and remains suitably entertaining throughout. Kosleck, for all his ham-fisting, manages to inject a tragic quality into his character, at first humble and optimistic, and later hateful and blood-thirsty. But it's Hando that steals the film - his Creeper snaps a woman's spine just for screaming in a scene that more than hints at rape (a big no-no in the 40's). Though there's no background or personality given to the character, that lurch-like appearance more than compensates. A forgettable genre film that is certainly worth an hour of your time. www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Maybe it was because my expectations were low, but saw this on "Svenghoulie's" show and enjoyed it as an old black and white creepy movie from the late 1940s just as a Saturday night sort of thing. Not great but had some especially bright spots and a pretty decent cast and storyline, and kept you wondering what the outcome would be right up to the end. I kept expecting the story to fall apart at some point as it usually does in the ones shown on this show, but it kept continuing to be fairly engaging and had some cultural references to the art world that kept it fun to watch. I liked the portrayal of art critics and the art theme, and fun to see the actor who played "Big Jim Champion" on "Circus Boy" in a lead role, along with the monster dude who was an interesting character and had an interesting life story outside of the movie. All in all, fun to watch if you like old movies from the '40s and just want to see something not too deep or demanding that might remind you of a past era you find yourself able to get lost in.