''The Creeper'' is a 1948 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by

Jean Yarbrough Jean Yarbrough (August 22, 1901 – August 2, 1975) was an American film director. Biography Jean Yarbrough was born in Marianna, Arkansas on August 22, 1901. He attended the University of the South located in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1922 ...

. The film stars

Onslow Stevens Onslow Stevens (born Onslow Ford Stevenson; March 29, 1902 – January 5, 1977) was an American stage, television and film actor. Early years Born in Los Angeles, California, Stevens was the son of British-born character actor Houseley Ste ...

who plays a mad doctor whose serum turns a man into a catlike killer.

Plot

Two scientists on an expedition to the West Indies discover a serum which changes humans into cats, or. at least, to catlike killers. One believes they should continue with their experiments and the other does not, which disagreement costs him his life. Several deaths occur before the first scientist is halted in his mad plans.

Cast

Production

Between 1947 and 1951, Hollywood studios made almost no horror films with ''The Creeper'' being the lone exception. It was developed under the working title ''The Cat Man'' and was in production from the beginning of March 1948 to the middle of the month.

Release

''The Creeper'' was distributed theatrically by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. in September 1948. According to a March 1949 ''

Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' article, radio writer Joseph Ruscoll sued Edward Small for using the title of Ruscoll's radio show, ''The Creeper'' for the film. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum.

Reception

In a contemporary review, Dorothy Masters of ''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'' described ''The Creeper'' as an effort "wasted in every phase, including story, performance and general production ... To further the bafflement, perfectly innocent people are given sinister mien. Three murders and a couple of near-misses don't improve the tale."

References

Sources

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External links

''The Creeper''
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

''The Creeper''
at Film Fanatic 1948 films 1948 horror films American science fiction horror films 20th Century Fox films American independent films Mad scientist films American black-and-white films Films directed by Jean Yarbrough 1940s American films {{1940s-horror-film-stub