The Hands of Orlac

This film was incomplete for decades, due to footage that never made it into the American prints and footage that had been cut due to censorship in German prints. The film was restored to its original length in 1995 by F. W. Murnau Stiftung.

When Orlac reads a newspaper, the headlines are in German but the body in French.

In the opening credits, all cast members are billed by their last names only.

First released in 1924 in Austria and several months later in Germany, the original print ran to 2,507m (92 minutes). In June 1928, it premiered in the United States with an entire reel edited out which prompted a mixed critical reception. In 1995, the film was restored by Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv in Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the Deutsches Filminstitut with the co-operation of Jugoslovenska Kinoteka in Belgrad. This version had new music by Henning Lohner and was also given background noises and the sound effects of an interrogation scene of which was not universally approved. A new restoration was released on Region 1 DVD in 2008 by Kino Lorber which was based on the 1995 restoration and restored by Bret Wood, with a score by composer Paul Mercer and additional footage courtesy of The Raymond Rohauer Collection in Columbus, Ohio and took the running time to 110 minutes. In 2013 Filmarchiv Austria restored the film with material from its archives, running to 93 minutes. This had a score composed by Donald Sosin, performed by the composer at the piano and Dennis James at the Rieger organ. The 2013 restoration, with a score by Johannes Kalitze, was released on Blu-ray in Germany in 2019 and later in the United Kingdom in 2021.

Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Fatale beauté (1994)