THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS

Just counting on one hand (see what I did there?), I can think of at least four other films that deal with either haunted or disembodied hands. There's THE HANDS OF ORLAC, filmed twice, once in 1924 in the silent era and again in 1960, MAD LOVE (1935), which also starred Peter Lorre who features in the film at hand (ahem!), THE CRAWLING HAND (1963) and Oliver Stone's THE HAND (1981) in which Michael Caine stars as a comic book artist menaced by his own drawing hand (the actual comic art in the film was provided by the great Barry Windsor-Smith of CONAN THE BARBARIAN fame).

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946), which I watched for the first time this afternoon, has an impressive pedigree. The screenplay is by genre veteran Curt Siodmak, the score is by Max (KING KONG) Steiner, Peter Lorre is impressive as a sweaty mad man and the hand special effects are quite good and convincing. SPOILER ALERT: Trouble is, the whole thing turns out to be a Scooby-Doo, with J. Carroll Naish breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the audience in the final scene to make sure we all know how utterly preposterous the idea of a disembodied killer hand is. The film ends on a wink, wink, nudge, nudge note which manages to undermine what, up to that point, had been an atmospheric and effective little psychological horror film.

Francis Ingram (Victor Francen), is a renowned pianist living in a small Italian village in the 1890s. He's crippled and plays the piano only with his left hand (which is adorned by a gigantic ring). The music he plays was written for him by Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda), who is in love with Ingram's nurse Julie Holden (the lovely Andrea King). Ingram's secretary, Hillary Cummins (Lorre), wants only to have access to Ingram's immense library wherein he studies all sorts of arcane lore.

Ingram's death following a tumble down the staircase sets off a battle between his various inheritors, with a conniving nephew, Donald Arlington (John Alvin) and his father showing up to claim their share of the estate, almost  all of which has been left to Julie. In the midst of all this backbiting and double crossing, the disembodied hand of Ingram appears and starts killing people off left and right. The question is, it really the hand, somehow made manifest by some unknown supernatural power or a clever scheme devised by someone in the household to serve their own ends?

Lorre steals the show with his portrayal of a man gradually being driven insane by his own devices and guilt. The cinematography by Wesley Anderson is moody and director Robert Florey uses several well executed crane shots to great advantage. It can be argued that THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS isn't really a horror film, thanks to the explanation at the end. This being a Warner Brothers film, the supernatural is only used as a plot device and a phony one at that. But I bet if this same material had been produced at the same time at Universal, it would have been a bonafide horror shocker. Worth seeing if you're a genre fan. For others, your mileage may vary.