Creature with the Blue Hand

(Blood splattered everywhere in the first scene, mopped up by the janitors?) Kinski escapes from an asylum and hides out at his family's nearby estate, and assumes the identity of his twin brother, just as a series of murders begin, committed by a man in a black cloak with an iron glove and razor fingers.

How is that, for contrived and convoluted? And quick: this was filmed in February and March 1967, and released already in West Germany in April 1967!

Almost the entire film is bound to the family estate, a setting which allows for plenty of surreal images and vivid colours and soft photography and cracks of lightning in the night, and a few well done stalking scenes, but also limits the film, and makes it feel like a photographed stage-play. A slow moving and somewhat dull stage-play, with an abrupt and dodgy ending.

The DVD I watched had both the Bloody Dead and the original Creature with the Blue Hand versions on it; I watched the latter. Presumably the latter isn't exactly the original since it has English language titles and dialogue. Additionally, during the opening credits there are twelve gunshots and twelve bloody stains that appear on the screen. In The Video Watchdog Book, it's mentioned that krimis begin with that and the letters E D G A R W A L L A C E appearing out of the blood. However, those letters don't emerge on the version on the DVD, though they're clearly arranged that way.

Dave (Kinski) is committed after being found criminally insane for the murder of the family gardener. He later escapes, and people are murdered by a figure dressed in black wielding an iron blue glove with retractable knives. His twin brother, two other brothers, mother and sister are all concerned about his escape. The police investigate. Lots of secret passages and a sinister doctor is in charge of the asylum.

Enjoyable, but the ending seemed sort of contrived. Still, I'd like to see more krimis and even read some Edgar Wallace.

CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND is a suspenseful thriller full of mystery. Klaus Kinski plays a dual role as twins, one of whom might be a homicidal maniac. The titular killer actually has a blue hand to dispatch his victims. It comes complete with finger-knives!

This movie also contains an insane asylum, a castle with secret passages, and inhuman torture by both rats and snakes! Kinski is his usual, amazing self. He devours these sort of roles like so much candy!

WARNING: This film was rereleased under the title THE BLOODY DEAD, which includes a few added, non sequitur sequences of gory violence having nothing to do with the actual story. This unnecessary footage is tacky, silly, and insulting to anyone with a functioning brain...

Creature with the Blue Hand AKA: The Bloody Dead is a fun, breezy film. It's short and sweet and gets right down to business. If you've seen any of Vohrer's other films, you'll find that this is basically his greatest hits album. Creepy mansion with secret passages? Check. Creepy asylum run by a powerful, corrupt man? Check. Creepy truck driven by villain in creepy fog at night? Check. Creepy visually impaired character? Check. And the list goes on. It's fun and doesn't take itself seriously. I liked the soundtrack too!

On the other hand, it felt a bit too formulaic. Some of the scenes were so contrived as to be almost like a parody.

Life is short and you only live it once! That was my principal motivation to purchase a 33-DVD box set entitled "The Edgar Wallace Collection". Most of them are obscure and unknown euro-exploitation movies, but they all look deliciously sinister and entertaining. I'm watching them randomly, via a sort of bingo-system, and I was lucky enough to draw one starring my all-time favorite actor; - Klaus Kinski! Apparently, that wasn't too difficult. Kinski stars in approximately one-third of these films.

I am slightly familiar with the oeuvre of novelist Edgar Wallace, and can safely state that ("Creature with) the Blue Hand" is a prototypic work. It's a convoluted murder-whodunit, set in grim décors like spooky insane asylums and gothic family mansions full of secret passageways. Kinski plays a double role, identical twin brothers Dave & Richard Emerson, of which Dave is falsely accused of murder and submitted to an asylum. Someone unknown helps him escape, and simultaneously more members from the noble Emerson clan are brutally murdered by a killer who uses a blue gauntlet with sharp spikes. For once, Kinski doesn't portray the most diabolical character of the bunch. That honor goes to Carl Lange, who plays the sadist head warden of the asylum. He wears a monocle and keeps poisonous snakes in a safe in his office! Siegfried Schürenberg, in his familiar role as Sir John of Scotland Yard, ensures the obligatory comic-relief.