House Of Horrors (1946)

An unstable struggling sculptor (Martin Kosleck) is on the verge of suicide when he saves a drowning man (Rondo Hatton). He takes the disfigured man into his home and uses him as a model for his next sculpture. What he doesn't know is that the man is The Creeper, a serial killer that breaks the spines of his victims. Directed by Jean Yarbrough, this is a pretty decent B Universal horror. I have to confess I feel uncomfortable watching Rondo Hatton in these horror roles because there's an implicit exploitation of the man because of his unfortunate features, the result of a disorder of the pituitary gland (acromegaly). Sadly, he died about two weeks before this picture was released from the disease. That aside, it's a solid horror yarn and well acted. I especially liked the always welcome Virginia Grey as a feisty, wisecracking art critic. Sadly, this being 1946, all that sass goes out the window when she trades it in for a wedding ring at the movie's end. Others in the cast: Bill Goodwin, Robert Lowery, Alan Napier (channeling Clifton Webb) and Joan Shawlee.