The Beast with Five Fingers

In a gloomy 1900s mansion in Italy a famed pianist(Victor Francen)lives with his devoted nurse(Andrea King) and his faithful secretary(Peter Lorre). The wheelchair bound pianist is only able to use one hand to play. An antique dealer(Robert Alda)adapts a piece of music to be played with one hand to dull the musician's bitterness. Francen dies after a rolling tumble down a staircase leaving his fortune to his nurse. A couple of upset relatives arrive protesting the will; but this moves to the back burner when murder and attempted murder is committed by the dead pianist's severed hand. Plus the hand likes to play the piano which adds to the terror. Lorre nails the hand in a box; and even throws it in a fire after confrontations with the disembodied member. Local Commissario Castanio(J. Carrol Naish)investigates this creepy mystery. Lorre is outstanding in a passive demented way. His wrestling with the severed hand is hilarious. Max Steiner is responsible for the haunting score. Great black and white from Warner Brothers.

It is very easy to critize the plot or story line of this picture, however, Peter Lorre made this film into an all time great classic along with the great supporting skills of Victor Francen and J. Carrol Naish. Lorre made his own human hand into a monster with his great acting talents, telling us all that mental illness can cause many things to happen within our very souls. The piano music pounded in my ears throughout this picture and the black and white effect made it a great thriller. Police inspector J Carrol Naish gave a great final touch to the ending of this picture, he gave us all a BIG LAUGH!

I enjoyed this film because you are never really sure if the beast is real or not. However, the highlight of the film for me is the fact that it has a great musical score composed by Max Steiner, and orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer.

This is one of the scariest movies I ever saw. It really plays with your mind. I admit that I first saw this movie as a kid int the back seat of my parent's car at the drive-in, and FOR YEARS, I was very afraid of the hand coming out from under sofas, beds and anywhere dark.

It connects with something deep in the subconscious as the hand is the part of the body that does all things and in this movie it is a power all unto itself.

The black and white film makes this movie a perfect expression of the subconscious, fearful and malevolent. Definitely one that I hope would eventually make it to DVD, and one to own if you're into the classics of this genre.

It's nearly fifty years ago in the small Italian village of San Stefano. Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda) cons money from tourists. His friend, pianist Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) lost the use of his right side and lives in a mansion with his nurse Julie Holden (Andrea King) and his secretary Hillary Cummins (Peter Lorre). Various people gather to fight over Ingram's fortune after his death.

The hand is mighty and this hand is a beast. I would like to have more of the hand earlier. There are some functional effects but I want more. That's the money shot better than the premise. As for the premise reveal, I like it but I don't like the comedic turn at the end. The movie needs to stay dark. As for the acting, there is no one better than Lorre at being creepy. He is the king of creeps. This is good.