The Crawling Hand (1963) User Reviews

About what you'd expect from a crawling hand film!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 2 November 2008]

One of my guilty pleasures is watching 50s and 60s schlock horror films. So, when I found this DVD listed on Netflix, it seemed like a natural choice for me! Well, after having seen it, I can happily report that it was every bit as bad as I expected--meaning that it was fun to sit and laugh at the ineptness of this film.

The movie begins with hearing that the space program has once again lost contact with one of their ships returning from the moon. They assume the astronauts are dead but don't know why. Then, suddenly, one of the men appears on the view screen. Oddly, he now has eyes like a raccoon or Robert Downey and he is screaming about having an urge to kill. He begs the people on Earth to push the self-destruct button before the ship can return and so naturally they do(!).

Later, some horny teens are at the beach and bits and pieces of the ship are scattered about--including a human arm that naturally made it through the atmosphere. In such a case like this, what would you do? Yep,...take the arm home and stick it on a shelf!! And, since this is a low-budget horror film the arm comes to life and begins to kill--though how a disembodied arm can so easily find people (even though it's missing eyes and ears) is beyond me. And, when it fails to kill our dumb hero (the one who brought it home), he, too, becomes a raccoon-eyed maniac!

The film is dumb but what makes it worse is that again and again, scenes were not re-shot even though they had obvious mistakes. My favorite was when the hero woke up in the back of an ambulance. When he saw the corpse next to him, he screamed AND then the corpse blinked its eyes!! Also, this same lady was seen breathing at one point AFTER she died! So my recommendation is that if you like good film, keep looking. If you like schlock and could use a laugh, give this one a try.

Detached Hand Causes Mayhem; Can the Earth be Saved?

[mrb1980 · 2/10 · 19 May 2008]

Q: What do you get when you bring together this cast: Alan Hale, Jr. (Skipper from "Gilligan's Island"), Kent Taylor (1950s-60s "B" star who once worked with Mae West), Peter Breck (volatile actor from "The Big Valley"), Allison Hayes (title role in "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman"), Rod Lauren (wannabe teen idol from the early 1960s with almost no acting talent), Arline Judge (aging, washed-up actress from the 1930s and 1940s), and Richard Arlen (old, tired, and faded early 1930s leading man)? A: You get "The Crawling Hand", and what an enjoyable mess it is. Directed by 50s sci-fi veteran Herbert L. Strock, this movie will either leave you dumbstruck or rolling on the floor with laughter.

I've commented on "Disembodied Head Movies", so I'll write about this "Disembodied Hand Movie". Breck and Taylor are project managers for a "Space Operations" moon mission that goes bad when the astronaut gets very wacky and grows black makeup around his eyes. For safety reasons, Taylor has to blow up the spaceship and the astronaut, causing great anxiety to Arlen, who plays the head of "Space Operations". Breck spends the tense final moments of the mission yelling, throwing things, and smoking cigarettes. The explosion of the spacecraft results in the astronaut's disconnected hand landing on a California beach, where it is discovered by college student Lauren and his girlfriend (Sirry Steffen). I've always thought the hand looks pretty good, considering it has experienced a spacecraft explosion and fiery re-entry into the earth's atmosphere; it isn't even singed!

Lauren, being a naïve kid, takes the hand home instead of notifying authorities. In short order, the hand strangles Lauren's landlady (Judge, who has one of the funniest death scenes ever), and tries to strangle Lauren, transferring the hand's "strangler curse"—or whatever—to him. Breck and Taylor arrive in town, and spend the rest of the film battling the local Sheriff (Hale) while Lauren periodically goes crazy. The hand meets its ultimate demise in a salvage yard…where it's promptly eaten by stray cats.

Although there have been other "Disembodied Hand" movies ("Hands of a Stranger" comes to mind), this one is in a league of its own. Space travel, romance, grisly murders, bad acting, bad makeup, very dated technology, goofy "pop" music, a once-in-a-lifetime cast, and unintentionally funny situations make this film quite an experience. Breck, Hale, and Arlen all overact so outrageously that it's hard to decide which one is worst…while Taylor and Hayes are both quite good. The best scene has two really dopey paramedics loading Judge's body on a gurney before they search the poor lady's house for a cold can of beer! It isn't something to watch if you're looking for a good movie, but if you like early 1960s campy sci-fi/horror, it's a must-see.

One of my favorite really awful movies!

[angelynx · 3/10 · 30 December 1998]

Now here's what cheap sci-fi teen horror is all about, and it's from AIP, of course! Astronaut is killed in space while possessed by an evil alien force, but somehow his severed arm makes its way to earth, still hosting the alien, and begins a killing spree. If that's not good enough, you've got troubled teens, two proto-X-Files scientists tracking the hand, a sublimely weird malt-shop assault scene, and the crawling arm's demise comes via a pack of stray cats! Classic trash from start to finish!

What a Grip!

[BaronBl00d · 13 January 2001]

Delightful hokum from the early sixties and the directorial seat of Herbert Strock. A space flight to the moon brings back the dead body of a man who warns his space station to kill him...and the thing that has partially possessed his body. The man is literally blown to bits on his return flight home, but one lone appendage happens to make it intact to the beaches of California. That's right.....THIS is the Crawling Hand! Two teenagers, very well-versed in science and knowing about these manned flights to the moon, come across the hand. Rod Lauren as a teenaged scientist takes the hand home for scientific glory, but soon becomes a pawn in the hand's quest for murder and body possession. This film has many faults and you will laugh your hands off(okay it's a cheap pun) at the film's bad acting, cheap sets, and incredibly inept scientific logic. But make no mistake....this is a fun film to watch and has a lot of charm. The make-up of the people strangled by the hand is pretty chilling and Allison Hayes and Alan Hale(the Skipper) have some fun in their roles. One scene that really stands out is a hand's on strangle of a soda shop owner with a juke box playing menacingly in the backdrop. I'm sure some statement of misbegotten youth was being made.

Who Said That Ed Wood Is the Worst Director of All Time?

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 6 May 2015]

In NASA, the technician Steve Curan (Peter Breck) and Dr. Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor) lose contact with a spacecraft returning from the moon and they assume that the astronauts have died. Out of the blue, one of them appears in the monitor and asks to people destroy the ship, and Dr. Weitzberg pushes a button and explodes the spacecraft.

Meanwhile the medical student Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren) goes to the beach with his girlfriend Donna (Allison Hayes) and they find the severed arm of one astronaut. Later Paul returns to the beach and brings the arm as a sort of souvenir. The arm mysteriously comes to life and kills his landlord. Further the alien in the hand occasionally takes over his brain and he begins the prime suspect of Sheriff Townsend (Alan Hale) of being the killer in town.

The lame "The Crawling Hand" is so awful that becomes very entertaining and even a cult movie. The story is stupid; the lead character is dumb; the acting and direction are terrible. There are many funny things, like the scientist blowing up the spacecraft after the request of an ill astronaut, but maybe the best is when Paul Lawrence brings the severed arm home and puts it on the shelve like a trophy. In the end, who said that Ed Wood is the worst director of all time? My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on DVD or Blu-Ray

No acting, not allowed!

[Jared G. · 4/10 · 5 September 1999]

This is a pretty typical piece of Sci-Fi tripe of the late 50's-early 60's period. With the assistence of the Skipper (Yep, Alan Hale) two scientists track down a rougue body part that takes over the mind of a local teen, Paul. The hand controls him through some "cosmic force" that goes unexplained. The hand/arm strangles the poor lad's toadlike landlady before taking over his mind. Paul is less successful in killing people, as he fails to kill both a sour soda shop keeper and his Swedish girlfriend.

Will Paul be able to defeat his foe? Or will he need the help of alley cats? "Dames like this ALWAYS got beer around".

"The Sound Of One Hand Clapping"

[ferbs54 · 5/10 · 11 August 2010]

On the flip side of the Rhino DVD of the 1963 sci-fi film "The Crawling Hand," Joel Robinson and his two 'bot buddies, Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, skewer the movie in question in their typically merciless manner, and Lord knows the picture deserves such treatment! Cheaply made and cheezy as can be, featuring some pretty lousy thesping and a whackadoodle plot, the movie IS certainly ripe for the "MST3K" treatment. But is the picture also fun? Oh, yes! In it, Earth's second lunar astronaut is taken over by an alien life form during his return trip to Earth. His capsule is destroyed by Mission Control after his own pleadings, but unfortunately, the possessed, eponymous limb somehow makes it back to Earth intact, where it washes up on a California beach and is found by a hunky premed student. The student, Paul Lawrence (lamely portrayed by Rod Lauren), occasionally becomes possessed by the alien entity, too; we know when he is "under the influence" because he then develops heavy mascara smears around his eyes and turns decidedly anti-social! Anyway, a raft of "psychotronic" talent both in front of and behind the camera has conspired here to bring this loopy conceit to the screen. Director Herbert L. Strock (previously known for such enduring works as "Gog," "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein," "Blood of Dracula" and "How To Make a Monster") adds some interesting touches, and Allison Hayes (five years after "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," and wasted here in a small, secretarial role), Peter Breck (he'd be infinitely more memorable that same year in Sam Fuller's cult film "Shock Corridor") and Alan Hale, Jr. (one year pre-"Gilligan") do their best to enliven their roles. The picture actually does feature two memorable sequences: that possessed astronaut pleading to be killed, and the possessed Paul attempting to strangle the local malt-shop owner, while lights flash stroboscopically and the jukebox blares out the Rivingtons' hit song "The Bird's the Word." Of course, the film is a sci-fi rehash of 1946's "The Beast With Five Fingers," but for what it is--a teenage rock 'n' roll sci-fi/horror flick--it remains reasonably goofy fun. Oh...the Rhino disc here looks just fine, but features some pretty lousy sound. Be prepared to turn your audio system ALL the way up...and to have a few cold ones HANDy....

Yikes!

[xredgarnetx · 2/10 · 5 April 2006]

THE CRAWLING HAND looks like something straight out of the 1950s, when TV was beginning to upset the Hollywood applecart, forcing the major studios to look for new angles and gimmicks (Todd A-O, Cinemascope, VistaVision, Cinerama, 3-D, stereo sound, and big-budget color remakes of old films) and small indie directors like Ed Wood were having a field day turning out tons of drive-in drivel. HAND is about a dead astronauts's severed hand seeking revenge on the living. Yowsa! How's that for a plot! In some scenes, you can actually spot the uncredited actor whose hand is doing the crawling. Considering HAND is from 1963, I am a little surprised as drive-ins by then were on the wane and no self-respecting movie house would have been likely to show this. It is a terrible, wooden movie, with poverty-row sets, little or no action, a virtually nonexistent script, bad music, uncorrected sound and so on. But ... for true film buffs, we get to see a very young Peter "Big Valley" Breck, veteran leading men Kent Taylor and Tris "King of the Rocketmen" Coffin, a pre-"Gilligan's Island" Alan Hale and the alluring Alison "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" Hayes. A rather unusual cast for a no-budget movie. I guess they were taking what they could get in the dawning era of color TV and the collapse of the studio system.

Why did he want the hand in the first place?

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 19 September 2001]

That is the question you will be asking yourself as you watch this sci-fi stinker. The movie obviously takes place before we did any extensive space travel as it involves a kind of force that takes possesion of people. As cool as that sounds the movie is rather dull. Lets just say a rocket blows up after an insane astronaut asks the people to blow it up. His hand ends up on the beach where this dumb guy sees it and wants to wrap it up and put it into storage or something. The hand trys to choke him, then partially tries to control him you know how it goes. Though he does have an attractive girlfriend. And as bad as most of the movies is you still hope the kid doesn't get killed in the end, even if he is a bit dense.

Have to hand it to them

[InzyWimzy · 2/10 · 2 November 2000]

I have to admit. I was rooting for the hand. I laughed my head off as it strangled the victims who did their best to look like the latex hand was really choking them! I wish everyone got strangled in this film. Also, cats munching on human flesh really made this film more enjoyable. The kid looks like he's high on something. Alan Hale is in this as the dimwit sheriff who still can't find Gilligan. Watch clock drag slowly while you wait for this movie to end.

A creepy find on the beach.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 1 April 2002]

A spacecraft explodes and the doomed astronaut's dismembered hand and forearm are discovered on the beach by an ambitious science student. The body part is put in a food closet by the fruit jars; it does not stay there for long. The 'crawling hand' instigates randem stranglings.Cheesy Sci-Fi, but fun. Over acting cast includes: Peter Breck, Rod Lauren, Alan Hale Jr. and Sirry Steffen.

Absolutely ridiculous...and I mean that in the best possible way

[Scott_Mercer · 9/10 · 10 January 2010]

This is exactly the kind of low budget laugh fest that has fans of Fifties/Sixties schlock in Nirvana. A cadre of random b-movie superstars, all taking the whole absurd premise 110% seriously, a classic sci-fi/horror movie idea of disembodied body parts going on a rampage, cheap jack production, and the rocking awesomeness of "The Bird's The Word" by The Rivingtons (heard several times during the show). That's the precursor to the even more incredible "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen, so I'll have to give the producers thumbs up for good taste in music.

An astronaut on his way back from the moon is possessed by...something. Something which is never explained, but it gives him a bad case of excess eyeliner. He begs mission control to blow up him and his spaceship, by pressing the red button (if I can quote Daffy Duck, "No! Not the wed button!") and they do so. The Head of the space agency deals with the loss of his colleague the only way that guys in bad potboilers from the 1950's can: he throws stuff and smokes a lot of cigarettes.

Meanwhile, the astronaut's shredded hand and lower arm has somehow survived burning up in the atmosphere, and lands on a California beach, where budding med student Paul and his Swedish exchange student girlfriend find it. (What is it about foreign exchange student girlfriends in these cheap movies? THE GIANT GILA MONSTER has a French exchange student girlfriend. I guess if you hire a low-cost foreign actress looking to "break into the biz" you have to turn her into a foreign exchange student to have her presence there make any kind of sense.) Paul is a naughty boy and takes the severed arm home for further study. Once there, it promptly possesses him and causes him to kill his landlady.

Then, guys from the Space agency show up in town, investigating the possible rogue hand. Alan Hale, the local Sheriff, wants them to stop putting their noses where they don't belong in his investigation. Can they stop the murderous Paul before it's too late? This whole thing is a riot, and appropriately, was covered by the gang at Mystery Science Theatre 3000. That version will cost you money to see, but the original version (thanks to the Public Domain) is free for streaming here online. At that price (nothing) it is certainly worth a watch. Grab the popcorn and turn off your brain.

Oh, and the ending is one of those classic "The End?" cop-outs so favored by 1950's sci-fi B-movies. Okay, they don't actually use the question mark there, but it's implied. I guarantee you will get some yucks out of this film.

You Got To Hand It To Them

[davidcarniglia · 6/10 · 17 April 2024]

Surprisingly watchable sci-fi/horror from near the end of the golden age of this genre. The premise of an astronaut's arm returning to earth to strangle people seems slightly ludicrous; but substitute what in a previous generation would've been a mad scientist's experiment gone wrong for a hapless lunar expedition's cosmic plague, and it makes enough atomic-age sense.

The set-up is pretty tense NASA-style mission control gone bad. Then, the segue to a cool couple finding the remains of our lunar hero on a California beach drives the plot into a murder mystery that plays out with some suspense, as the innocent guy who is somehow possessed by the hand's power (actually, most of an arm too) is accused first of killing his landlady, then a few other apparent murders.

The convergence of the egg head scientists from Washington with the local sheriff plays out well too. There's plenty of grey area about who's right and who's responsible for the stranglings. We know more than the sheriff and even the scientists, but even the young guy possessed by the alien doesn't understand what's happened to him.

There's some very effective comic touches--when the protagonist's body, presumed to be dead, rises up in the ambulance the medics are dumbfounded. They thought he was a corpse. This foreshadows the very end, when the same two guys have to transport the evil hand; this time they sabotage the entire plot.

The movie maintains a chilling atmosphere, has some engaging performances, and relentlessly builds toward its clever ending. Very underrated, and definitely worth a look.

"No rats, not allowed!"

[bensonmum2 · 3/10 · 28 June 2007]

A space capsule is destroyed upon re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere sending a shower of wreckage across a Southern California beach. A teenager finds the astronaut's dismembered arm and (inexplicably) takes it home. How could he possibly know that the arm is possessed by a killer force or that he too will come under its influence?

I've watched a lot of really bad movies lately, but The Crawling Hand is far from the worst. In fact, it's almost "good" in comparison with dreck like Monster A Go-Go and The Starfighters (yes, I've been on something of a MST3K binge lately). The movie has its share of problems (hit and miss acting, obvious budgetary constraints, a ridiculous premise, etc.), but there are some nice moments mixed in here and there. Chief among them is the scene in the malt shop when the owner is attacked. The action, lighting, sound, and cinematography found in this scene far exceed anything you might expect to see in a movie with the reputation of The Crawling Hand. The two biggest problems I have with the movie seem to rarely get mentioned – the shift from the hand of the movie's title to "teen angst" movie and the amount of padding used to extend the film's runtime. So while I may never think of The Crawling Hand as a masterpiece, I certainly see it in a better light than the majority of comments I've read.

As The Crawling Hand is from the first season of MST3K, it suffers from the same lack of consistent riffing that plagues most of the early episodes. But in comparison with the other first season episodes I have seen, it's among the best. There is a bit involving a telephone that is very funny. Overall, I'll give this episode of MST3K a very generous 3/5 – a wishy-washy average rating.

The cheesiest.

[Horror Fan · 13 August 1999]

MAN!! This movie is the cheese. It's about a astronaut who is taken over by an unknown force and goes mad in space. He begs his friends down on Earth to push the red button and blow him up. So they do so. However, his hand survives the blast and starts killing people. Though, it horrifies his girlfriend, a med student finds it and takes it home. It kills his landlady, and then takes him over. The kid starts acting weird and kills people and attempts to kill the crusty old man who says "No dancing, not allowed!" in his restaurant. The hand is picked clean by cats but then it is attempted to be shipped away and....Well....let's just say never trust the delivery man. This really scared me as kid.

The Thing has escaped

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 28 September 2013]

Watching The Crawling Hand tonight all I could think of was The Addams Family and The Thing which was guest starring in this film. The Thing should have received top billing.

It's hard to believe that so many name players were desperate for work to sign on to this film. An astronaut dies on a mission, but his severed hand takes on a life of its own and starts strangling people. And it possesses the mind of young Rod Lauren who is starting to show some homicidal tendencies.

People like Alan Hale, Jr. Peter Breck, Syd Saylor so many I know from many films just look downright embarrassed to be in this thing. And in the end, the security of NASA leaves something to be desired.

It's not even funny bad, just bad.

Not even a good bad movie

[heckles · 1/10 · 12 September 2005]

Itinerant hand somehow flies down from space and strangles people; and people also become paranoid and violent. There is supposed to be a connection between the two phenomena, although I couldn't figure out what is was. The space program in the movie sent a man to the moon, he was killed, and the program just sent another without bothering to find out as to what happened to the first.

Oh yes, and a flowsy landlady carries around a large, cocked pistol with a hair-trigger, throws it down on table and somehow does -not- blow a hole in her wall. Overly long scenes with no point. Cute Swedish chick is included, as is a *very* poor man's version of James Dean in Steve Curan. Best acting is done by Jackson the Cat.

Please, if you have to watch one of these B-movie scholckfests, watch "The Brain that Wouldn't Die" instead. It isn't boring and there is a lot more potential for cuttup material. And that is why we watch these movies, isn't it?

According to what I can tell, the hand crawled up to the Skipper and sent him on the three-hour tour.

[lee_eisenberg · 1/10 · 6 October 2005]

Poor Alan Hale. Before he got the role of a certain short-tempered sea captain with a dim-witted first mate, he was stuck in grade-Z movies. An example is the idiotic stinker "The Crawling Hand". Since the title explains the whole plot, I'll tell you what I said while watching it: "Everybody leave him to his business. This may be the Skipper's only chance not to get frustrated by Gilligan." You can't even focus on the hand going after people (which, I gotta "hand" it to, is the best part)! Anyway, you can just picture the Skipper hitting Gilligan with his hat throughout the whole movie. Apparently, "MST3K" once showed this movie, although I've never seen that episode.

Uh....no

[wierzbowskie · 2/10 · 20 August 2000]

I was constantly confused by the movie. I don't understand how a hand could make it back to earth without burning up in space, and....and.. (sob) AH! The hand crawled all by itself, bled even though there was no blood circulation, and none of the characters were likeable. Don't go near this at all!

Push the red button...

[thehardyboyz2043 · 2/10 · 24 July 2003]

(Possible spoilers) not many people may know this but "The Crawling Hand" was an early MST3K episode from about '89, I think. Personally, I don't feel this was anywhere near being the worst movie they ever did, but it was still pretty bad. The story consists of an astronaut (whose lines consist mainly of "Push the red button" and "Kill" during which he sounds like a William Shatner wannabe) who is blown up and his remains, but mainly his hand are discovered later on a beach by a frolicking couple, a Swedish chick who has to read cue cards and a James Dean clone. For some reason the "James" guy goes on a killing or a dutch rub spree for any one whose seen the film all the while to NASA scientists (I think) and a dumpy sheriff (Alan Hale Jr., whose surprised)are trying to track him down. It's not really a very good movie, though the MST version was quite funny, for an early episode.

Hands down one of the lamest movies ever

[Oosterhartbabe · 2/10 · 7 November 2005]

Schlocky entertainment about an astronaut who apparently gets some kind of weird radiation poisoning, and so his hand becomes murderous and possessed and wants to kill, a la Evil Dead. This is pretty much a huh? statement, but there it is. The astronaut begs NASA to kill him, which they do pretty readily. Did they have such a surplus that they could so casually blow up a qualified and trained astronaut? He could have had a nasty space virus; they really had no idea what was wrong with him.

Oh, well. Onward we go. The two scientists who were in charge of the launch(since when does NASA put scientists in charge of space launches?) go looking for the pieces of the astronaut who fell to Earth. One of these guys would later play the greasy middle brother in The Big Valley; fortunately, they didn't give him a tepid romance in this film, or I would have lost my lunch. Weren't most of these 50's and 60's films the wet dreams of science geeks? Studly and know-it-all scientist saves the day and gets the beautiful girl? Like that ever happened in real life.

Getting back to the dull movie, two teenagers are out ofr a walk on the beach and find what's left of the astronaut. The boy later comes back with a bag(a hand bag?) to collect the arm of the astronaut. I wasn't sure why he took just the arm, but really I suppose this movie didn't have to make much sense.

The kid's landlady is attacked by the semi-mobile killer hand. In swoops the Skipper, playing a chunky cop. Well, at least he didn't call NASA 'Nasau', like he did as the sheriff in Giant Spider Invasion. he thinks the kid offed his landlady, and is very suspicious of his story. And who wouldn't be? You and she were the only ones in the house, but you swear you didn't strangle her? Yeah, right, kid. He lets it go, and the kid is attacked by the hand and gets a good dose of the radiation poisoning, turning him into a killer in the making. There goes a double huh? Two idiot ambulance attendants take the kid as well as the body of the landlady, intending to cart him off to the hospital. He escapes from the ambulance, and goes on a murder spree of epic proportions-well, no he doesn't. He attempts several murders, but even infected with whatever it is he has he's a dud as a strangler.

There are some long, slow scenes, and then some weird bit with some cats who attack the crawling astronaut hand and eat it or something. Wouldn't they have gotten the disease, too? Just wondering. The cop and the scientists find the kid, and then Alan Hale is going to do us a favor and off the annoying kid, but once the hand is consumed by the cats the boy is released from the spell? Disease? Whatever, and they take him to the hospital, where we're very much afraid that he'll recover. What's left of the hand is wrapped up good and taken away-by those same two idiot ambulance drivers! One of these dopes is curious about what's in the box they're supposed to be transporting, so he opens it. End of movie, leaving us wondering if there was supposed to be a sequel of some kind. Thank God that one was never made. Let's give a huge hand to whoever nixed that project.

Subpar, Low Budget Sci-Fi Film

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 5/10 · 29 November 2019]

This was a film that I never heard of until coming across it in the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia that I'm working through. I found it interesting that this is from the 60's, just missing out on the 1950's horror/sci-fi boom that happened. I've now given it a second watch as part of my Traverse through the Threes.

Synopsis: the hand of a dead astronaut comes crawling back from the grave to strangle the living.

We start seeing an astronaut as he looks out of the window. This is how it gives us the credits for this film. This I found to be creative. We then shift to the Earth where Steve Curan (Peter Breck) looks stressed. He oversees a mission where they put a man on the moon and they're trying to bring him home. The problem is that they lost contact on the way back and that's where we currently are. They have a countdown until the oxygen runs out as well.

He then meets with Dr. Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor) as they try to figure out what could be happening. That is when they hear the astronaut calling out for help. They turn on a monitor and his face appears. His skin is pale and he has dark circles around his eyes. He is begging them to blow up the ship. What they can't make sense of is that he's been without air for twenty minutes. They're reluctant but relent to put him out of his misery.

It then shifts over to a small town in California. We're at a little soda shop where we see Donna (Allison Hayes) and her friend Marta Farnstrom (Sirry Steffan) hang out. As they're chatting, the owner who is a bit of a curmudgeon, played by Syd Saylor, is a harbinger of doom. He saw a large fireball that fell from the sky, but the two young women laugh it off. Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren) then shows up. He is seeing Marta and they're going to go swimming. Before they can, they stop by the place she is staying. Her grandfather is Prof. Farnstrom (Edward Wermel). He's Paul's teacher and through interactions, we learn that Paul is a lone wolf and keeps to himself.

The couple goes off to the beach and goes swimming. They get scared when they find the severed arm of an astronaut in the sand. Paul can't stop thinking about it and goes back to collect it later that night. Things go dark though when the arm frees itself from the shower curtain Paul collected it in. It then attacks Mrs. Hotchkiss (Arline Judge), the owner of the place where he is staying. Paul calls the sheriff, Townsend (Alan Hale Jr.). He knows there's something not quite right and thinks Paul could be involved.

Things takes a turn when they learn who the fingerprints found at the scene belong to. Paul has a change come over him as well after he's also attacked by this crawling hand. Steve and Dr. Weitzberg head there to get to the bottom of what is going on before it is too late.

That's where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Something that I left out of the opening was that I came in knowing that this was going to be cheesy as I was trying to find a copy of this to watch and the most popular was a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version. Despite this, I try to keep an open mind to find whatever I can be positive about it. I love sci-fi and space in general as both are just something that amazes me. For science fiction it is interesting to see what people come up with and space, because we know a lot and yet there's still so much that we don't know about it as well.

With that idea, I do find the opening conversation from Steve and Dr. Weitzberg interesting. Even more so this second time around. They don't know how Capt. Mel Lockhart (Ashley Cowan) is communicating with them. He didn't have oxygen for twenty minutes. This duo brings up that we don't fully understand cosmic radiation. An example that is used is a rat that was sent up and was different upon returning. No matter what we do, cells, bacteria and whatever else gets on to the spacecraft before it goes up. They surmised that whatever he experienced changed him and he adapted. This also explains how his hand crawls when it comes back to Earth.

I do have an issue here though. The first thing is that if they blew up the ship, then there's no way this arm could have made it to Earth. It would have burned up in the ship or in the atmosphere. I can ignore this though as during this era that might not completely realized. This is a minor quibble; I will acknowledge that for a B-level 60s horror movie.

The last thing I want to cover with the story that is hit or miss is with Paul. He gets choked, but not killed. This causes him to be altered as well. This I don't mind. He looks like Capt. Lockhart. Paul's affliction comes and goes though since he was introduced to lesser amount of exposure. What I don't like is what happens with him in the end either. It feels like they were running out of time or money so they wrap it up too neatly without explanation. There should have been just a bit more for it to work.

That should be enough for the story so then over to the acting. I think it is fine for a movie like this. Breck showed emotions and I felt his frustration that this mission isn't working. A man's life is a stake. He also is bothered when he learns what is happening in California. Taylor plays well off him as the scientist on that team. They make a good duo. Lauren is also solid in his role. The issue I see is that he comes off quiet and brooding so I didn't see much when he becomes 'evil'. He does lash out so there is that. I was fine to see Hale in this, as I know him from Gillian's Island. Steffan is quite attractive and seeing her in a bikini was nice. Hayes was pretty good looking too. It is funny that we have a 'Crazy Ralph' character long before Friday the 13th with Saylor. He and the rest of the cast rounded out the movie for what was needed. I do have to point out as a goof, I could see Judge breathing when she was supposed to be dead and she blinks at one point as well.

All that is left would then be with filmmaking. First would be the effects where there aren't much. The offices and scientific supplies look real enough. Pulling in the cinematography, the framing was good for the crawling hand. The fake arm also looks fine as well as they use stop-motion. I have a soft spot there. The makeup of Paul and Capt. Lockhart when he turns is basic, but still worked. The cinematography is fine. The soundtrack about the same as it fit for what was needed. It is funny that they used 'The Bird's the Word' a couple of different times. That made me chuckle.

In conclusion, this is a low budget sci-fi movie that knows what it is doing. The concept is fine with the logical and potential explanation behind it being the better aspect. What they do to bring the crawling hand to life is the best part. The acting is decent. No one stands out or ruins anything. Seeing Hale was a treat though. This doesn't have much to work with though. It might be more fun to watch this with a rift track for sure. Just a run of the mill B-sci-fi/horror film.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

Enjoyably cruddy Grade Z sci-fi/horror schlockfest

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 31 October 2013]

The severed hand of a dead astronaut comes back to dangerous life so it can embark on a murderous strangling spree. Moreover, said evil appendage causes med student Paul Lawrence (wild overplayed with pop-eyed zeal by the hunky Rod Lauren) to go violently around the bend after failing to kill him. Boy, does this notoriously atrocious clunker strike out something rotten in every possible way: The flat (non)direction by Herbert L. Strock, extremely variable acting, shoddy (far from) special effects, leaden pacing, talky script, meandering narrative, static cinematography, and a numbing surplus of tedious filler all confirm this honey's shabby status as a real four star stinkeroonie. Gut-busting kitschy highlights include two jerky paramedics stealing beer from a murder victim's kitchen, a positively nutty assault on a grumpy malt shop owner set to "The Bird's the Word" by The Rivingtons, a supposedly dead woman in an ambulance opening her eyes and blinking, the hand being viciously assaulted by stray cats in a scrap yard, and a simply priceless "it ain't over yet!" surprise ending. Alan Hale Jr. goes above and beyond the call of duty with his robust portrayal of the local sheriff while the always dependable Allison Hayes keeps her dignity intact as the concerned Donna. As a tasty extra bonus, gorgeously voluptuous brunette knockout Sirry Steffen shows off her hot body in a two piece bikini. A hilariously horrendous hoot and a half.

Hand-y Work/Quite Disarming

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 1 April 2018]

I have no more puns. Once again we have a movie where victims seem to be so slow, they can be captured by something that takes a week to go across a room. Nevertheless, it does allow lots of screaming and terror. The entire astronaut thing goes by without a hitch. A spaceship is blown up at the word of a strange figure (looking like one of the astronauts) suddenly appearing. This forearm has the potential to take over the world (or so we are told). I haven't much to add. A waste of perfectly good film.

Remarkably mediocre.

[jonadab · 4 January 2004]

This is not a great movie. It's definitely a B movie. It was clearly done on a low budget, belongs to a generally unremarkable genre, and has a plot that leaves much to be desired. For all that, it's actually not nearly as bad as would be expected.

The major premise (that in space there is some kind of immateriel life form that possesses human flesh and wants to kill people) is obscurely bogus, yes, but many much better movies are open to the same criticism. SpiderMan's premise is hardly more realistic, for example, but that is a major motion picture and gets very good reviews.

Then there's the plot. Sure, it's a little thin, but the movie does *have* a discernible plot (not something you can take for granted in a B-grade movie), and what is more, the plot is quite coherent. You do not find yourself confused part-way through about what is going on, which of the people on the screen are from which group (good guys, bad guys, et cetera), or any of the other vagaries that often haunt the plots of lousy movies. The plot isn't deep, but as far as it goes it is solid.

The acting, moreover, is not bad. I did not notice a single instance of noticeably poor acting. Not that anyone's going to win any awards for the acting in this movie, but they don't do anything to break all pretenses of mimesis and make you want to scream at the actors, either. This is fairly unusual, especially for such an obviously low-budget flick, and extra-especially in the horror genre. You expect, in a movie of this sort, to be disgusted when actors stutter, scream at the wrong times, leave long pauses between lines, and have wooden, unlifelike expressions on their faces. I didn't notice any of that, unless you count characters who were at the time possessed by the alien life form, and that was clearly a deliberate charactarization of the menace as quirkily unhuman.

As for the writing, I've seen worse. The characters were mostly flat and static, but horror movies seldom make any pretenses about having round, dynamic characters. Only a couple of the characters were really obvious stereotypes (notably, the scientists' boss and the deputy).

Probably the worst thing about this movie is that the ending quite obviously left things wide open for a sequel.