Hands of a Stranger

Hands of a Stranger (1962)

** (out of 4)

Low-budget remake of THE HANDS OF ORLAC from the one and only Allied Artists. As in the numerous earlier versions, a concert pianist (James Stapleton) loses his hands in a car wreck so a doctor (Paul Lukather) gives him the hands of someone else. Soon the pianist begins to lose his mind and goes around killing several people. Is it the new hands or is something else going on? HANDS OF A STRANGER really doesn't improve on any of the earlier versions of this story and in the end the film is just way too talky and doesn't feature enough energy or excitement. For a horror film from 1962 I was a little surprised to see how much it was lacking in regards to the horror elements. The death scenes are all rather tame and there were a few times where you couldn't even tell that he killed the people until later in the film when it was mentioned that they were dead. The biggest problem, however, is the fact that there's just way too much talking going on and it just makes the film drag along to a point where you just grow tired of everything going on. The performances are also all over the place but I thought Lukather and Stapleton were good in their parts. The one thing I did like is how the film never really made it clear if the hands were doing the killing or if it was the actual person just mentally unstable from not being a concert pianist anymore. Still, with such better films out there it's hard to recommend this to anyone other than those who want to see every version.

(Some Spoilers) Obvious re-make of the Peter Lorre 1935 classic "Mad Love" the movie "Hands of a Stranger" deals with the loss of world famous concert pianist Vernon Paris, James Stapleton, most precious asset his hands. Hands that by tickling the piano keys with creates the kind of music that brings the roof down every time that he preforms.

Going home after his greatest performance, that he practiced for six months,the cab driver Tony Wilder, George Sawaya,loses control and smashes into the oncoming traffic blinding himself and causing Vernon to lose both his hands in the accident. At the hospital emergency ward Vernon's agent George Britton, Michael Ray, begs the presiding surgeon Dr. Gil Harding, Paul Lukather,to save his hands. The doctor is told that Vernon would be as good as dead without them. Dr. Harding using the hands of a corpse, suffering from gunshot wounds that he just operated on and graphs it's hands onto the stumps of Vernon. Later their accepted by his body making the operation an amazing success, a success until Vernon attempted to play his beloved piano. It turned out that the hands grafted on Vernon were that of an extremely strong person who also happened to be a brutal murder.

Not as bad as you would think with the acting and script far superior then most low-budget horror movies that were made back then in the early 1960's. Vernon even though he became an uncontrolled killer showed glimpses of his previous personally as a talented and sensitive artist. You could really feel for Vernon as you saw everything that he loved and cared for like his ability to play the piano and his girlfriend Elaine, Eileen Hunter, desert him at the time of his greatest need.

Vernon was a bad guy in the movie but you could well understand why he was that way and not be that critical of him. Vernon just couldn't control both his hands and emotions that made him do the terrible things that he did in the film. "Hands of a Strager" followed the usual scenario with Vernon destroying everything, and everyone, that he came in contact with. In the end he destroyed himself as he tried to murder Dr. Harding who he held responsible for his new found lot in life.

What really struck me about the film was the conduct of it's star Dr. Gil Harding who was anything but the mad doctor that you would have expected him to be. Concerned and understanding he didn't even want to operate on Vernon's hands at first. Dr. Harding had to be talked into it by his friend George who felt that without his hands Vernon would lose his will to live. Vernon's sister Dina, Joan Harvey, who sacrificed her personal live to care for and help Vernon become a success and was by far the most sympathetic person in the movie fell in love with Dr. Harding. Dina at first greatly disliked Dr. Harding for what he did to her brother not realizing that it wasn't his idea to operate. Which also showed that he was anything but the unstable and maniacal lunatic that's always portrayed in moves like "Hands of a Stranger".

A world famous pianist loses his hands as the result of a car crash, and is then given the hands of a killer in an audacious medical transplant. This event has a dark psychological effect on him.

Hands of a Stranger is a little too talky for its own good. The story itself might be a well-worn one but there's no excuse for the serious lack of action here. An 'evil hands' film really needs to cut back on the chat and deliver more schlock. There are occasional memorable moments such as the scene where the pianist visits the home of the taxi driver responsible for the crash that maimed him but in the main such sequences are in short supply. The lead character Vernon is also a somewhat hard character to get behind. His ingratitude for the surgery that prevented him from being without hands marks him out as a somewhat arrogant and unsympathetic individual.

One reasonably interesting aspect of the film is that its quite ambiguous for a movie of this type, in that it is never really made certain that the hands are inherently evil or not. It seems to me that the surgery merely effects the natural dexterity that Vernon had, and as a result makes him unable to play piano, leading to psychological breakdown. In this sense Hands of a Stranger is quite interesting. But its poor pacing and lack of action mean that it is not enough to save it from being a bit of a clunker.

A man is murdered on the streets. Dr. Gil Harding tries to save him but he dies on the operating table. The doctor does notice the dead man's exquisite hands. Police Lt. Syms has questions for the doctor. Vernon Paris is a brilliant concert pianist and his sister Dina Paris is his biggest supporter. Vernon's hands are terribly mangled in a car accident. Dr. Harding tries an experimental hand transplant surgery.

This is a horror story staple. The body horror idea has deep roots despite its surgical unreality at the time. This is closer to an old style slasher B-movie. It's not the most compelling after an intriguing start. It's old and melodramatic. I doesn't take advantage of the body horror angle. It's all rather flat.

I saw this on the Saturday night Creature Feature, which usually plays the WORST kind of dreck... I was pleasantly surprised that this film was as good as it was. Being from a family of musicians, and a flutist myself, I understood all too well the care that Vernon took of his hands, and the devastation he must have felt. The premise of the film wasn't really anything new, but there were enough twists to keep it interesting... :-)