Rondo Hatton Moves In to the "House of Horrors"- Tonight!

Tonight on MeTV-  we wind up our month of classics with the chilling tale of an artist driven to desperate acts to achieve artistic acclaim- using a frightening and powerful  figure as his pawn to take revenge! Learn the actual story of the actor who became known as the "Monster Without Make-Up"-in his most famous role as the terrifying “Creeper”- when we enter the "House of Horrors"!

The story opens when a nearly destitute artist sees his fortune turning the corner, when he finally  has a customer ready to buy one of his latest –uh- “unusual”-works of art! Unfortunately, his would- be patron brings along an acerbic art critic, whose disparaging remarks about the artist’s  “masterpiece” changes the man's mind – and puts the kibosh on his purchase! The artist ,Marcel, then wanders the streets , dejected, and contemplates doing himself in at the river- only to spot a half-drowned stranger in the waters! Still having a sense of decency in spite of his depression, he takes this odd individual back to his home to recover. This misshapen man with unusual frightening looks- which inspire Marcel- feels gratitude towards the artist, who is thinking this man with the bizarre features could be the subject of a new and amazing artistic creation! As things go along, Marcel discovers that his new "friend" has a questionable past- he just happens to be a sadistic serial killer! Knowing that the hulking brute feels he owes Marcel, the artist has no sense of fear, but conjures up a plan to use his new-found model as an instrument of revenge- setting him on the trail of those who have made the artist’s life miserable, who he feels have made it their mission to stifle his career!

Marcel works on a huge realistic depiction of his grateful model, and keeps him a secret from the world. One day, he is visited by a pretty newspaper reporter, who happens to have an artist boyfriend who shares his distaste for the nasty critic who cost Marcel his sale, who has printed derisive comments about him as well. There are worse things in store than just bad reviews-when, one by one, art critics start turning up dead. The reporter's boyfriend suddenly heads the list of possible suspects. Even more bad luck-when the reporter  finally sees what Marcel's latest project is- and starts doing her homework like any good reporter would- what she finds leads to HER heading to the top of a different list- Marcel’s hit list! Will the massive murdering model remove any threat of exposure by eliminating one more victim?

This 1946 film was actually the return of the "Creeper" character that Rondo first portrayed in the Sherlock Holmes film “Pearl of Death”. Universal had high hopes for the character, and  planned to have him the star in a series of films, but Rondo passed away before that could happen. We’ll give you an in-depth look at Rondo's real life story, thanks to research done by  film-maker Fred Olen Ray- we’ll introduce you to familiar faces in the cast- including one you'll  see right after our show on  "Super Sci Fi Saturday Night!" There's a lot of Sven segment fun, and speaking of works of art- we repeat the special feature showing how our striking Sven dungeon set was created and constructed by our own artist genius friends from the Acme Design Inc. company of Elgin, Il.

Also, after we originally recorded the biographical info about Rondo, we learned I was mispronouncing the disease that caused his disfigurement- acromegaly. My apologies, and we make a correction of this in our mail segment.  And, yes, Rondo is for whom the national horror genre awards, in his image, are named and designed- of which I’ve been the proud recipient of several, thanks to the votes of our kind fans.

Enter the “House of Horrors” on METV tonight at 8 pm eastern/pacific, 7 central,  or check for time and channel in your local listings- or at www.metv.com.  As always, MeTV hopes you’ll join the scores of Sven fans who will be live-Tweeting during the show on Twitter- using the hashtag #svengoolie. Our Chicago area viewers get to visit another house one more time- the “House of Frankenstein”- on WCIU at 11 am.

Many thanks go to everyone who attended and contributed to the “Bowling for Rhinos” event sponsored by the Lincoln Park Zoo branch of the AAZK. Once again, it was a fun and successful event, and your support for wild rhinos makes a big difference in the world of wildlife preservation.

A quick appearance update- I will be appearing at the C2E2 booth at the big wrestling convention “Starrcast” on Saturday, September 1^st ! I’ll be signing from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg Chicago. Come see me and a wide assortment of pro wrestlers and personalities -past and present!

Tonight- wrestle with a dangerous villain of vengeance in the “House of  Horrors”!