Horst_In_Translation Review of The Hands of Orlac

The Hands of Orlac (1924)

Solid ideas and ending, but not enough all in all

[4/10 · 3 December 2015]

"Orlacs Hände" or "Orlac's Hands" is a black-and-white silent film from over 90 years ago. It was directed by Robert Wiene, the man behind the famous Caligari movie. In its original version, the film ran roughly 90 minutes, but the new version I saw has over 110 minutes, probably because of less frames per second. Anyway, Conrad Veidt is one of Germany's most known silent film actors, so he certainly can carry a film like this. His most known role is probably in "Casablanca". In my opinion, the idea was nice in here. A piano player has a terrible accident and loses both his hands. A surgeon gives him a new pair, but these are from a convicted and executed murderer. By now, you probably know that this is a mystery/horror film. The ending just takes it to another level. Yes it was fairly absurd that somebody else got the killer's head and now this was some meat puzzle story, but at least something interesting happened. This thrill near the end, however, is not enough to sit through almost 2 hours of this film. I am generally not the biggest silent film fan, so my opinion may be biased, but i found it a boring watch for the most part. This film did not get me interested in silent movies. Not recommended.