The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) User Reviews

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[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 9 May 2020]

It's nearly fifty years ago in the small Italian village of San Stefano. Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda) cons money from tourists. His friend, pianist Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) lost the use of his right side and lives in a mansion with his nurse Julie Holden (Andrea King) and his secretary Hillary Cummins (Peter Lorre). Various people gather to fight over Ingram's fortune after his death.

The hand is mighty and this hand is a beast. I would like to have more of the hand earlier. There are some functional effects but I want more. That's the money shot better than the premise. As for the premise reveal, I like it but I don't like the comedic turn at the end. The movie needs to stay dark. As for the acting, there is no one better than Lorre at being creepy. He is the king of creeps. This is good.

Florid Florey At His Best

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 10 October 2012]

Apart from its title, its setting in the library and two or three incidents (the servants quitting, the hand being locked in the safe), the movie, "The Beast With Five Fingers" bears very little relationship to the Harvey story. If anything, the screenplay tells a more spine-chilling tale, and tells it more effectively. In fact, Peter Lorre contributes one of his most dramatically macabre portraits. He receives great support from Victor Francen's chilling study of an eccentric pianist. Some memorable bits from Pedro De Cordoba's surly innkeeper and David Hoffman's slimy lawyer also add to the atmosphere. On the other hand, after his promising opening scene, Robert Alda slips into the hackneyed emotions of a conventional hero. As for Andrea King, whilst she certainly makes an attractive heroine, her acting is not altogether convincing. And then there's J. Carroll Naish who seemingly can't make up his mind whether to play his role for chills or misplaced humor!

Fortunately, while he has obviously concentrated less on his players, director Florey has brought the film in with a fair amount of visual style. In fact, in at least two or three instances, Florey's direction is so compellingly inventive, it's impossible to take your eyes from the screen. McGann's masterly special effects are also compellingly realistic, while ever-reliable Max Steiner has contributed a music score as moodily atmospheric as his "Most Dangerous Game" or "King Kong".

More suspense than horror but a must-see for true fans of the genre.

[Wilbur-10 · 7/10 · 26 August 2000]

Classic early horror with Lorre in superb eye-popping form. Film is set in an Italian mansion where a wealthy pianist is close to death. When he passes away it turns out he has left everything in his will to his nurse, who incurs the wrath of the grasping relatives who have arrived. The bickering takes a sinister turn when the solicitor is strangled, seemingly by the severed hand of the dead pianist.

Lorre plays the deranged librarian whose sightings of the hand send him increasingly over the edge into madness. Despite the true horror potential of the storyline, the film tends to play more like a murder mystery. Much of the atmosphere is wasted by the air of light-heartedness, particularly the contrived slap-happy ending.

Misgivings aside, 'The Beast with Five Fingers' is still one of the genre making horrors, and while not in the same league as the heavyweight films of the 1930's like 'Frankenstein', 'The Invisible Man' or 'Mad Love', still rates serious attention.

Other severed hands featured in ' Dr Terror's House of Horrors, 'Evil Dead II', and Oliver Stone's 'The Hand'.

PETER LORRE, VICTOR FRANCEN & J. CARROL NAISH WERE GREAT!

[whpratt1 · 14 March 2003]

It is very easy to critize the plot or story line of this picture, however, Peter Lorre made this film into an all time great classic along with the great supporting skills of Victor Francen and J. Carrol Naish. Lorre made his own human hand into a monster with his great acting talents, telling us all that mental illness can cause many things to happen within our very souls. The piano music pounded in my ears throughout this picture and the black and white effect made it a great thriller. Police inspector J Carrol Naish gave a great final touch to the ending of this picture, he gave us all a BIG LAUGH!

Beware the crawling hand!

[guswhovian · 6/10 · 9 May 2020]

In a turn-of-the-century Italian village, a famed pianist (Victor Francen) with only one hand is killed. Murders soon begin occurring, and the occupants of the pianist's house believe his left-hand is committing them.

What starts out as an average Warner Brothers melodrama/murder mystery is made memorable by the use of the disembodied hand. Robert Alda and Andrea King are forgettable leads, and J. Carrol Naish is horrible as the police inspector. Peter Lorre gives the best performance, and his scenes where he confronts the hand are great. The special effects are excellent.

Rewatch. 3/5

"In my mind there is no doubt the hand is walking around."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 15 November 2015]

I just happened to watch this film back to back (or is it hand to hand?) with Peter Lorre's earlier classic "Mad Love" from 1935. Both feature severed hands contributing to the madness of the principal player, though in the case of this picture, there is more of a psychological angle at work in explaining the psychosis of Lorre's character Hilary Cummins. For even though Hilary can 'see' the disembodied hand at work and even attempts to subdue it, the real confrontation takes place only in his own mind.

The story is built around the greed of family members who expect the reading of a will to go their way following the death of wealthy, wheelchair bound pianist (Victor Francen) with only one good hand. When the will provides only for the frustrated pianist's nurse (Andrea King) as sole heir, it sets in motion a devious plot by the dead man's brother-in-law and his son to have the will vacated and replaced with an earlier one in which they stood to inherit the bulk of the Ingram estate.

The picture borrows from mystery plots of the era by introducing a secret lever in a bookcase revealing a hidden safe, as the disembodied hand seemingly makes a victim of the younger Arlington (John Alvin) heir. Had the idea not been used a thousand times before, the filmmakers might have used the old lights out trick along the way to promote further mayhem.

With an understated but effective performance in the early going, Peter Lorre builds upon his character to deliver an elegantly crazed conclusion to the story as he tries locking the rampant hand away in a desk, and unsuccessful at that, actually tries nailing it in place! Considering the era, the crawling hand effect is particularly notable. Had I seen this as a kid it would have impacted me on the same level as "House on Haunted Hill", which is to say it creeped me out for some time.

As I mentioned earlier, this was the second of two films I caught the other day on Turner Classics featuring Peter Lorre in stories about disembodied hands. The theme for the evening was 'rogue body parts', something I might not have considered left to my own imagination. Given the subject matter, I'd have to say that both flicks amounted to the best use of my time, hands down.

Lorre at his best!

[funkyfry · 7/10 · 3 October 2002]

Solid gothic melodrama featuring a killer hand -- or is it only killing in the mind of Hilary (Lorre)? Robert Alda is good as a not very straight leading man (he makes his first appearance selling "new antiques" to gullible tourists) and King is adquate as his lover with a secret connection to Hilary. Interestingly, this connection/conspiracy remains a mystery to the police and her lover when the film ends. Siodmak has crafted both an excellent psycho-drama in gothic style, and also a perfect vehicle for Lorre's exquisite theatrics.

Seriously creepy "B" Horror film

[nomoons11 · 7/10 · 15 December 2012]

Anything Peter Lorre did I get on board for so when I had a chance to see this one...I jumped.

A partially paralyzed concert pianist sits in his Italian castle all day and plays morose piano tunes whilst his nurse and weird astronomer friend sit idly by. He's a really creepy guy who's a bit off kilter but decides he's of enough sound mind to get his house mates and his 1 outside friend to sign off on his will. The nurse is emotionally exhausted having to take care of this guy so she decides to leave the house. Before this can happen the Pianist falls down the staircase and dies. After this comes the "whodunnit" part of the film and with this....it's where the real creepiness starts.

Right off when you start this you'll recognize that this isn't a first rate production. By the actors alone you can see this but with the story they weave it really enhances the atmosphere that it's not on "A" list horror film. The real standout is Peter Lorre. He's heads and tails above any actor in this...and it shows. This guy made a real niche for himself playing these weird off-center type of guys. It was his looks, demeanor and personality all rolled into one that him the legend he is.

Sit back on a dark night and watch this creepy little gem from the Warner lot. It's a "B" winner from any day and time.

Old Fashioned SCARY Movie...

[sagg928 · 8/10 · 12 November 2005]

This is one of the scariest movies I ever saw. It really plays with your mind. I admit that I first saw this movie as a kid int the back seat of my parent's car at the drive-in, and FOR YEARS, I was very afraid of the hand coming out from under sofas, beds and anywhere dark.

It connects with something deep in the subconscious as the hand is the part of the body that does all things and in this movie it is a power all unto itself.

The black and white film makes this movie a perfect expression of the subconscious, fearful and malevolent. Definitely one that I hope would eventually make it to DVD, and one to own if you're into the classics of this genre.

One Hand Clapping

[telegonus · 7/10 · 6 October 2002]

This one could have been a minor classic but got butchered by the studio in the editing room. Since the script is mediocre, and the actors, aside from Peter Lorre, not at their best, the movie is quite a letdown, but for two things: excellent special effects of a disembodied hand running around and committing mayhem; and Peter Lorre's bulging eyed performance as a deranged bookworm-astrologer with a, well, disembodied hand fixation. Director Robert Florey tries his best with the material, but fails to create the right pace and feeling for the film. Since Florey and Lorre were both highly gifted men, this is all the more frustrating, as there are flashes of real brilliance in the film for all that is wrong with it. All this goes to show that a good horror movie, like any other kind, has to be built from the ground up. I sense that Florey was so intrigued by the idea of a horror based on a the image of a severed hand that he forgot to make the rest of the movie work. This won't do. Frankenstein isn't just about its set pieces,--the lightning storm, the murders, the burning windmill--it's a story rooted in a time, a place and a community, that concerns credible characters behaving in ways that make sense (even if one doesn't subscribe to their values or care for their motivations). Dracula, similarly, has a certain sweep, beginning in the remote Carpathians of central Europe, then moving to England, as we get a sense of how Dracula stalks his prey, the way he treats people, and why. The Beast With Five Fingers strains credibility from the outset, then goes swiftly downhill. One waits for the big scenes, which do not disappoint, but the story overall is poorly developed, and there's no one to care for or identify with. The movie is an interesting experiment, and worth watching once, yet never lives up to its promise, and is a terrible waste of its brilliant star, who's in very good form throughout.

Allusion or reality?

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 29 October 2004]

In a gloomy 1900s mansion in Italy a famed pianist(Victor Francen)lives with his devoted nurse(Andrea King) and his faithful secretary(Peter Lorre). The wheelchair bound pianist is only able to use one hand to play. An antique dealer(Robert Alda)adapts a piece of music to be played with one hand to dull the musician's bitterness. Francen dies after a rolling tumble down a staircase leaving his fortune to his nurse. A couple of upset relatives arrive protesting the will; but this moves to the back burner when murder and attempted murder is committed by the dead pianist's severed hand. Plus the hand likes to play the piano which adds to the terror. Lorre nails the hand in a box; and even throws it in a fire after confrontations with the disembodied member. Local Commissario Castanio(J. Carrol Naish)investigates this creepy mystery. Lorre is outstanding in a passive demented way. His wrestling with the severed hand is hilarious. Max Steiner is responsible for the haunting score. Great black and white from Warner Brothers.

Vintege horror at its very best

[chris_gaskin123 · 10/10 · 14 November 2005]

The Beast with Five Fngers has to be one of the best classic horrors ever made, along with The Haunting (1963).

A pianist is killed, possibly murdered after he falls down the stairs in his creepy mansion. After his death, strange things start happening including the piano playing on its own accord and the strange behaviour of the secretary. Then murders start to take place and these turn out to be the work of the pianist's severed hand, which haunts the mansion.

With creepy music by Max Steinor, a howling wind and windows slamming open and shut, all these things make this movie very scary.

The excellent cast includes a creepy performance by Peter Lorre (Mad Love, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Robert Alda, Andrea King and J Carrol Naish (The Monster Maker).

This is a must for all horror fans. Excellent and scary.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

The eyes no longer have it...

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 4 March 2013]

The Beast with Five Fingers is directed by Robert Florey and jointly written by Curt Siodmak and William Fryer Harvey. It stars Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. Carrol Naish, Charles Dingle, John Alvin and David Haffman. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Wesley Anderson.

Francis Ingram (Francen) is a well regarded pianist who after suffering a stroke leaves him paralysed on one side, chooses to live at an isolated manor in rural Italy. After he calls family and carers together for the reading of his will, tragedy strikes and something sinister begins to stalk the manor house...

Wonderfully weird, a blend of guignol, noir, expressionism and cheese, The Beast with Five Fingers delivers rich rewards for those not expecting a horror masterpiece.

Following the classic "old dark house" formula, plot basically sees the characters introduced, their means and motives deliberately grey, tragedy strikes and then the titular beast of the title comes into play. Cue characters getting bumped off, some shouting, some eerie scenes and then the mystery solved. All of which is set to the backdrop of a typical mansion of many rooms and doors, an imposing staircase and of course a grand piano. Florey stitches it together neatly, Anderson provides some striking photography that embraces shadows and deals in odd angles, while Lorre does yet another film stealing performance involving twitchy weasel like mania.

A stupid tacked on coda soils things a touch, and you really have to have a bent for this type of creaky chiller, but it is great fun and it "pointed" the way for other "beastly hand" tales that followed down the line. 7/10

Limp-wristed

[Anne_Sharp · 3/10 · 15 September 2000]

The hand itself is great, and the scenes of it running wild and free in the house are some of the best moments in classic horror. This does not however alter the fact that every second of this film in which the hand is offscreen is a painful, tiresome, dreary waste of time. If Robert Florey and Peter Lorre had been allowed to bag Curt Siodmak's dreadful script and use their own, as they unsuccessfully begged Warner Bros. to let them do, what might have been! As it is, one wishes Robert Alda, Andrea King, and the rest of the maddening crew would just follow Victor Francen's lead and die already, so we could just enjoy Peter Lorre cavorting with his wonderful pet hand.

Worthwhile (6.0-7.0/10.0)

[jplenton · 18 April 2001]

The Beast With Five Fingers predates any other ‘disembodied' hand film I've seen by a good twenty years. Such films include Dr. Terror's House Of Horror, The Hand, Evil Dead II, Severed Ties, and the two Addam's Family films and television series. This selection illustrates the gamut of horror film quality, from the delightful Evil Dead II to the atrocious Severed Ties. Happily, their precursor, The Beast With Five Fingers is ‘hands down' one of the better entries in this sub-genre.

The Beast… is set in an Italian village, home of the successful pianist, Francis Ingram, who resides in a sumptuous villa. Ingram is wheelchair bound as his entire right side is paralysed, and is forced to play piano using his single left hand. His style is suitably heavy and melancholic. He is a haunted figure, heavily reliant on his young nurse to the point of obsession, and fixated on his own death. Therefore, he summons his companions to dinner to witness the signing of his will. Amongst them is his personal secretary Hilary (Peter Lorre), a man with his own obsessions; astrology and the occult. It is not long before the Grim Reaper arrives as a belated dinner guest.

The film's most prominent actor is Peter Lorre. Lorre's career in horror fare has seen a slight regression over the years, though not as profound as some of his contemporaries such as Bela Lugosi and John Carradine. In the Thirties, Lorre starred in Fritz Lang's classic M and the rather good Mad Love. However, by the Sixties he was resigned to playing second fiddle to Vincent Price in horror-comedies The Comedy Of Terrors and The Raven. These two films are reasonable enough but eclipsed by his formative work. The Beast… makes a fitting mid-point between these two eras.

Lorre is an engaging actor, his childlike physique and strange manner always invoke some degree of viewer sympathy no matter how heinous his crimes (cf. M). J. Carrol Naish who plays the affable police inspector (yep, never heard of him before) is also notable but his more comedic moments do lessen the film's impact.

The special effects used to animate the hand are impressive for their time, although as the film is in b&w this helps mask its inadequacies somewhat. The rubber hand in Dr. Terror's House Of Horror is pitiable in comparison, and that was made twenty odd years later. The interplay between Lorre and the hand as he alternatively soothes and struggles with it are reminiscent of Ash's plight in Evil Dead II.

*spoliers*

The majority of the players seem primarily motivated by avarice. It is somewhat surprising then that the final bodycount is so low. A modern horror would have casually knocked off such ‘sinners' with glee. Perhaps, this highlights a rift between ‘vintage' and modern horror. The vintage film has a more human approach to its characters, although they do suffer in terms of danger and scares, they do not die. The usual modern approach is to emphasise the killings, the characters are just fodder for the killer's and the audience's whimsy. Of course this reasoning parallels the change in audience expectation and tolerance with time, and also what the changes the filmmakers could get away with in terms of censorship and ‘decency'.

Great score!

[Semih · 7/10 · 5 June 2000]

I enjoyed this film because you are never really sure if the beast is real or not. However, the highlight of the film for me is the fact that it has a great musical score composed by Max Steiner, and orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer.

Slow-moving but good story with great special effects

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 2 April 2017]

"The Beast With Five Fingers" is set in one of those cinematic Italian villages where everybody speaks English (except for the occasional "Signorina"), and for the first hour or so not much happens. But although the story is very slow-moving, it does keep the viewer wondering if this is a supernatural thriller or a psycho thriller. Other assets include Max Steiner's rich music score, great special effects (not just of the disembodied hand, but in one hallucinogenic sequence much earlier), and Peter Lorre's full-tilt performance. There are also two funny gags at the very end. **1/2 out of 4.

Another evil hand film starring Peter Lorre!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 6 November 2015]

A nasty old man, Francis Ingram dies. When it comes time to read his will, the two remaining family members arrive and automatically assume that the man's fortune is now theirs. They are a nasty pair and they're in for a nasty surprise when the will is read, as the fortune is left instead to his nurse. The pair plan on using a crooked attorney to contest the will but soon after they make this plan, folks start dying--and it looks as if the dead man, or perhaps the dead man's hand is doing the killing!

I never watched this film until recently because I thought I'd already seen it. After all, Peter Lorre is in this film and "Mad Love"--and both films are about possessed hands that kill! Fortunately, the two movies sound very similar but are different enough that it's worth seeing both. However, unlike "Mad Love", "The Beast With Five Fingers" suffers late in the film because the ending goes on a bit long AND is a bit dumb. After all, when the identity of the killer is known, the person who realizes it TELLS the killer and then admits that they haven't told anyone!! Duh! Despite this, the effect of the crawling hand is cool and the film engaging.

Worth seeing for the acting

[mijleh · 6/10 · 3 May 2005]

The first ten or fifteen minutes of "The Beast with Five Fingers," while the Victor Francen character is still alive with both hands intact, I find the most interesting, with the exception of the crawling-hand scenes. In a room filled with fascinating faces and powerful character actors like Lorre and David Hoffman, Francen commands the most attention as the willful, moody Francis Ingram. His talent is made the most of in his short time on screen, unlike Peter Lorre's, which seems somewhat wasted in a part that could have made much better use of his depth. Nothing Robert Alda says ever rings with sincerity to these ears--he always sounds like a smarmy car salesman or a drugstore Lothario, and it stretches credulity that Andrea King would want to run away with him rather than stay with the rich, talented Ingram. One thing about this film that cracks me up is that Andrea King's character, Julie, must be the deafest personal care attendant on the planet. Ingram shouts for her on at least three different occasions and she doesn't appear (for plot reasons). When he's calling from his bedroom after waking from some sort of attack, and then rolling down the hall in his wheelchair still calling, you'd think that his nurse would hear his pitiful cries!

Most unique and unusual music in the movie.

[jbrouschsships · 10/10 · 20 June 2001]

This movie should be much appreciated by anyone who plays, knows, or likes classic piano music. The piano music played with one hand only is amazing, exciting and bewildering. It is obviously a soundtrack but I feel the actor, and later on, the hand, do a wonderful job making the viewer believe that they are playing this fast tempo and highly complicated piece of piano music, possibly a concerto. I this movie to be overall a really great horror film.

John Brousch

Peter Lorre is almost the whole show...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 2 September 2012]

... the rest of the show is J.Carrol Naish as the understated but determined Police Commissario Ovidio Castanio, and Victor Francen as Francis Ingram, a paralyzed concert pianist. Together they take a script that drags in spots and make it memorable with some great performances. The opening scene is rather misleading as it makes you think that this film is going to be about petty con man Conrad Ryler (Robert Alda) and the police official that recognizes but looks the other way at his somewhat crooked ways (J. Carroll Naish). It is not.

The story quickly moves to the estate of invalid pianist Francis Ingram, his body completely paralyzed save his left hand, being cared for by his nurse Julie (Andrea King). Francis is obviously in love with her, but realizes the two could never have a real relationship. However, this doesn't prevent him from being horribly jealous of her. He has an eccentric private secretary (Peter Lorre as Hilary) who doesn't seem to be doing any work at all for Francis, instead he spends all of his time studying astrology. This is OK with Francis as he is busy studying Julie. All of this Gothic atmosphere leads up to Francis accidentally falling down the stairs to his death, his greedy estranged relatives arriving from England, and their discovery that Francis has written his nephew out of the will and given everything to his nurse Julie. True to the form of the one percent, these greedy relatives are not good sports about this and threaten to break the will even if they have to accuse Julie of murder - and all with the help of Francis' own lawyer who drew up the will in the first place - for a cut of the estate of course. The piano, locked since Francis' death, is heard to play at night yet nobody is around and the next morning the lawyer is found strangled dead. Later the greedy nephew almost meets the same fate. Some investigation by the police finds that Francis' one good hand is missing from his body. Is Francis' disembodied hand going about wreaking vigilante justice on those that are wronging him after death? Of course not! After all, this isn't Universal Studios, this is Warner Brothers, and there is a reasonable explanation. I'll let you watch and find out what that is.

The last scene had me quite upset. Julie just signs over the estate to the greedy relatives and walks away from the whole thing, penniless. At least "the hand" could have done away with the two greedy relatives and let kind Julie keep what Francis intended her to have. I guess in the production code era, murder is wrong but greed is good.

Lorre shines in a so-so film

[jwyoder · 5/10 · 19 October 2012]

"The Beast With Five Fingers" is a 1946 Gothic horror film set in a large villa near an Italian village. Soon after pianist Francis Ingram's death, a series of mysterious events haunt his friends and relatives as they fight for control over the estate. Ingram's piano suddenly plays music in the middle of the night. A mysterious light glows in Ingram's mausoleum. Ingram's attorney is choked to death. Evidence points to Ingram's disembodied hand as the culprit.

The standout performance in the film is by Peter Lorre, who plays a man driven to insanity. Lorre's character Hilary Cummins is the center of a big reveal roughly halfway through the movie that's wonderfully creepy and bizarre. "The Beast With Five Fingers" has the most energy and life whenever Lorre is at the center. The film lags, however, whenever it turns to the subplots of the the other characters. Lorre shines amidst all that flat, wooden acting.

My biggest issue with "The Beast With Five Fingers" occurs when the film abruptly ends and takes a jokey, humorous tone that undermines the suspense of the rest of the movie. One of the characters suddenly turns to the camera, addresses the audience and laughs at how unbelievable the events of the film are. I don't understand the point here – the quick explanation in the final reveal feels unearned and the unexpected break with the fourth wall feels bizarre.

Despite these issues, "The Beast With Five Fingers is worth seeing for Lorre's performance and its creepy, Gothic atmosphere.

A handy little thriller

[LCShackley · 8/10 · 7 January 2008]

Thanks to TCM for showing this film on a double-bill recently with Peter Lorre's earlier film MAD LOVE, which also involves a psycho and a piano player. It allowed me to savor Lorre's quite amazing talent for expressing character with his face and gestures.

I wonder why Robert Alda was billed over Peter Lorre, since this was only Alda's fourth film, and Lorre was already an established star. No matter how you cut it, Lorre's character is the focus of the plot, while Alda and the girl are just the necessary Hollywood window dressing. Just as MAD LOVE let us watch Lorre work out his obsession with a beautiful woman, BEAST shows him working out his obsession with ideas and arcane knowledge. The film's slick trick is to make us think we're watching a horror movie (severed hand, eerie mausoleum), when maybe it's not really one at all.

The score, using Bach's famous chaconne arranged for left hand, is inspired. The script, although weak in spots, contains a nice balance between light and dark material (except for the extremely lame "extra joke" at the end). Naish turns in another convincing ethnic performance, and the two greedy relatives are suitably slimy. The photography and special effects add extra doses of creepiness. Can you forget the scene with Lorre and the nail? P.S. As someone else has commented here, it was also fun to watch Robert Alda in a fairly extensive role, and see all the resemblances between him and his son. Voice, gesture, facial expressions...it's all there.

The beast in me

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 24 October 2007]

One can regret the final "explanation" .A great fantasy and horror film does not need any "explanation" ,particularly when they feature an actor as gifted as Peter Lorre.

Lorre is a so great an actor he can make you believe the hand does not really exist,it's him and only him who cannot control himself when madness really breaks out,just like M in Lang's magnum opus.The rest of the cast -with the exception of French Victor Francen who made films in America with Duvivier ("Tales of Manhattan" and Leisen "Hold back the dawn" )who really pulls it out as a wealthy disturbing greybeard in love with a truly beautiful girl (Andréa King deserves he name:she is gorgeous)- seems bland by comparison.

The film takes place in Italy ,which is not exactly the right place for a Gothic tale in a spooky mansion.The first place when Robert Alda sells an "ancient" jewel to naive tourists seems a bit out of place .

But no matter ,sit down,enjoy Lorre's sensational acting and get some scares....in the dark,of course.

Like this? Try these

Maurice Tourneur La Main Du Diable 1942

Jacques Tourneur Curse of the demon 1957

No Thrills Or Chills In This Horror Film

[ccthemovieman-1 · 3/10 · 7 July 2007]

Wow, I couldn't believe how overrated this film turned out to be.....really disappointing. How it gets such high marks with critics is puzzling. Maybe they favored it because one of the main characters was an astrologist and anything that's occult-like is going to get points with them.

Whatever. The fact remains this film commits the ultimate sin for a horror film: it's not scary! It's too talky and too boring, despite the presence of the usually- creepy Peter Lorre.

One positive note: the special-effects people did a fine job with the hand. For something done 60 years ago, this "effect" still looks pretty cool.

Nonetheless, a horror film should send a few chills your way, and this doesn't.