THE DEVIL'S HAND, a very cheap movie from the early sixties, represents an early phase of trash cinema, part of a series of "Satansploitation" or "Cultsploitation" movies. I managed to watch this movie as part of a Mill Creek 50 movie boxed set ("Chilling Classics"), so I can only assume that it is probably available online for free. Anyone wanting to just check this out should google it.
In this rendition of devil-worship themed movies, we meet Rick Turner (Robert Alda) and his steady sweetie, Donna Trent (Ariadna Welter). Things are going well for the couple in their almost sexless relationship until Rick starts having visions of a blonde woman who dances around and beckons him. Soon after, Rick discovers a doll that looks exactly like the blonde woman sitting in the front window of a doll shop. It turns out that the doll shop is actually a front for the evil cult of the devil-god Gamba, and in back, there's a ceremony room complete with a mechanical chandelier loaded with both fake and real knives. The blonde woman is Bianca Milan (Linda Christian), a bona-fide witch who can project herself into dreams and hypnotize people from a distance.
The Gamba Cult is adept at voodoo doll use and hypnotism, both of which they are reasonably good at using to control others. Unfortunately, they have a major weakness in the security area, because a news reporter and his chum, both of whom don't even bother dressing like proper Satanists, are able to attend regular ceremonies. Only the clumsiness of the news reporter, a man who takes many notes and drops them accidentally, keeps the cult from total media exposure.
Anyway, the plot is pretty predictable, Rick gets to have some fun with bad girl Bianca, and eventually the cult is punished via incineration (ooo...the irony...) and Rick escapes with Donna. It's a drive-in movie with a feel-good ending, and that's all there is to it.
THE DEVIL'S HAND isn't too bad a movie if you're into this sort of thing, but the casual movie-goer probably won't get much out of it. At least it can be seen very, very cheaply.
In this rendition of devil-worship themed movies, we meet Rick Turner (Robert Alda) and his steady sweetie, Donna Trent (Ariadna Welter). Things are going well for the couple in their almost sexless relationship until Rick starts having visions of a blonde woman who dances around and beckons him. Soon after, Rick discovers a doll that looks exactly like the blonde woman sitting in the front window of a doll shop. It turns out that the doll shop is actually a front for the evil cult of the devil-god Gamba, and in back, there's a ceremony room complete with a mechanical chandelier loaded with both fake and real knives. The blonde woman is Bianca Milan (Linda Christian), a bona-fide witch who can project herself into dreams and hypnotize people from a distance.
The Gamba Cult is adept at voodoo doll use and hypnotism, both of which they are reasonably good at using to control others. Unfortunately, they have a major weakness in the security area, because a news reporter and his chum, both of whom don't even bother dressing like proper Satanists, are able to attend regular ceremonies. Only the clumsiness of the news reporter, a man who takes many notes and drops them accidentally, keeps the cult from total media exposure.
Anyway, the plot is pretty predictable, Rick gets to have some fun with bad girl Bianca, and eventually the cult is punished via incineration (ooo...the irony...) and Rick escapes with Donna. It's a drive-in movie with a feel-good ending, and that's all there is to it.
THE DEVIL'S HAND isn't too bad a movie if you're into this sort of thing, but the casual movie-goer probably won't get much out of it. At least it can be seen very, very cheaply.