Q: What do you get when you bring together this cast: Alan Hale, Jr. (Skipper from "Gilligan's Island"), Kent Taylor (1950s-60s "B" star who once worked with Mae West), Peter Breck (volatile actor from "The Big Valley"), Allison Hayes (title role in "Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman"), Rod Lauren (wannabe teen idol from the early 1960s with almost no acting talent), Arline Judge (aging, washed-up actress from the 1930s and 1940s), and Richard Arlen (old, tired, and faded early 1930s leading man)? A: You get "The Crawling Hand", and what an enjoyable mess it is. Directed by 50s sci-fi veteran Herbert L. Strock, this movie will either leave you dumbstruck or rolling on the floor with laughter.
I've commented on "Disembodied Head Movies", so I'll write about this "Disembodied Hand Movie". Breck and Taylor are project managers for a "Space Operations" moon mission that goes bad when the astronaut gets very wacky and grows black makeup around his eyes. For safety reasons, Taylor has to blow up the spaceship and the astronaut, causing great anxiety to Arlen, who plays the head of "Space Operations". Breck spends the tense final moments of the mission yelling, throwing things, and smoking cigarettes. The explosion of the spacecraft results in the astronaut's disconnected hand landing on a California beach, where it is discovered by college student Lauren and his girlfriend (Sirry Steffen). I've always thought the hand looks pretty good, considering it has experienced a spacecraft explosion and fiery re-entry into the earth's atmosphere; it isn't even singed!
Lauren, being a naïve kid, takes the hand home instead of notifying authorities. In short order, the hand strangles Lauren's landlady (Judge, who has one of the funniest death scenes ever), and tries to strangle Lauren, transferring the hand's "strangler curse"or whateverto him. Breck and Taylor arrive in town, and spend the rest of the film battling the local Sheriff (Hale) while Lauren periodically goes crazy. The hand meets its ultimate demise in a salvage yard where it's promptly eaten by stray cats.
Although there have been other "Disembodied Hand" movies ("Hands of a Stranger" comes to mind), this one is in a league of its own. Space travel, romance, grisly murders, bad acting, bad makeup, very dated technology, goofy "pop" music, a once-in-a-lifetime cast, and unintentionally funny situations make this film quite an experience. Breck, Hale, and Arlen all overact so outrageously that it's hard to decide which one is worst while Taylor and Hayes are both quite good. The best scene has two really dopey paramedics loading Judge's body on a gurney before they search the poor lady's house for a cold can of beer! It isn't something to watch if you're looking for a good movie, but if you like early 1960s campy sci-fi/horror, it's a must-see.
I've commented on "Disembodied Head Movies", so I'll write about this "Disembodied Hand Movie". Breck and Taylor are project managers for a "Space Operations" moon mission that goes bad when the astronaut gets very wacky and grows black makeup around his eyes. For safety reasons, Taylor has to blow up the spaceship and the astronaut, causing great anxiety to Arlen, who plays the head of "Space Operations". Breck spends the tense final moments of the mission yelling, throwing things, and smoking cigarettes. The explosion of the spacecraft results in the astronaut's disconnected hand landing on a California beach, where it is discovered by college student Lauren and his girlfriend (Sirry Steffen). I've always thought the hand looks pretty good, considering it has experienced a spacecraft explosion and fiery re-entry into the earth's atmosphere; it isn't even singed!
Lauren, being a naïve kid, takes the hand home instead of notifying authorities. In short order, the hand strangles Lauren's landlady (Judge, who has one of the funniest death scenes ever), and tries to strangle Lauren, transferring the hand's "strangler curse"or whateverto him. Breck and Taylor arrive in town, and spend the rest of the film battling the local Sheriff (Hale) while Lauren periodically goes crazy. The hand meets its ultimate demise in a salvage yard where it's promptly eaten by stray cats.
Although there have been other "Disembodied Hand" movies ("Hands of a Stranger" comes to mind), this one is in a league of its own. Space travel, romance, grisly murders, bad acting, bad makeup, very dated technology, goofy "pop" music, a once-in-a-lifetime cast, and unintentionally funny situations make this film quite an experience. Breck, Hale, and Arlen all overact so outrageously that it's hard to decide which one is worst while Taylor and Hayes are both quite good. The best scene has two really dopey paramedics loading Judge's body on a gurney before they search the poor lady's house for a cold can of beer! It isn't something to watch if you're looking for a good movie, but if you like early 1960s campy sci-fi/horror, it's a must-see.