Curse of the Stone Hand (1965) User Reviews

Seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1968

[kevinolzak · 2/10 · 6 December 2013]

"Curse of the Stone Hand" bears a 1964 copyright, but this two-part anthology consists of footage derived from a pair of atmospheric Chilean titles made by Argentine directors nearly two decades earlier. The first half is taken from 1946's "La Dama de la Muerte" (The Lady of Death), from director Carlos Hugo Christensen, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1878 3-part anthology "The Suicide Club" (roughly half its original length), while the second half (at the 34-minute mark of this 57 minute feature) consists of 1945's "La Casa esta Vacia" (The House is Empty), from director Carlos Schlieper, reduced to about 30 percent of its footage. The final product was created by schlock director Jerry Warren, with himself and 'Hugo Christensen' listed as co-directors. Warren tied these stories together through some newly shot sequences depicting a stone hand, which supposedly signifies a curse. John Carradine was no stranger to Warren ("The Incredible Petrified World," "Invasion of the Animal People," "House of the Black Death," "Frankenstein Island"), but for his three brief scenes received second billing beneath actor 'Ernest Walch,' an Americanized pseudonym for Ernesto Vilches (from "La Dama de la Muerte"), who not only died in 1954 but was also listed ninth in the cast list, under the more simplified moniker 'Ernest Vilche.' Carradine, along with Katherine Victor and Bruno Ve Sota, only appears in the final reel, as 'The Old Drunk,' relating how he spied on a married woman cavorting with her husband's brother, totaling less than two minutes screen time (Victor gets one additional scene, confronting the husband, conveniently seen from the back). Warren's butchery makes for very dull viewing, even worse than "Invasion of the Animal People," another waste of Carradine's exceptional talents. "Curse of the Stone Hand" made its only appearance on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater May 4 1968, preceding second feature "Frankenstein-1970."

As bad as anything bearing the Warren name.

[Hey_Sweden · 4/10 · 13 September 2014]

Other reviews here indicate that the pilfered film footage in this "effort" by schlockmeister Jerry Warren comes from legitimately *good* Chilean movies, but you wouldn't know it from Warrens' bungling. He manages to make this assemblage of footage pretty dull and uninteresting. It still has some appeal for people channel surfing in the wee hours of the morning, and is not without atmosphere. "Curse of the Stone Hand" only really comes to life in scenes where the legendary John Carradine, one of Warrens' repertory players (and seemingly a man who could never say no to *any* script), appears. (However, that's because of Carradines' grandiose screen presence, not because of anything Warren does.)

The first tale is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevensons' "The Suicide Club", in which a young man, desperate to rid himself of debts, enters a club where he thinks he can gamble his way to good fortune. The second story is derived from the 1945 feature "The House is Empty", regaling us with the experience of two brothers tormented by an older sibling. Warren attempts to tie all of this together with his "stone hand" nonsense, which has something to do with a curse on the residents of a house, and removes the dialogue from his source material in favour of narration.

Even at only 68 minutes, this is a little tough to get through. In compressing / editing the footage from the two Chilean features, Warren and company rob them of their effectiveness. There's still the entertainment value from the revelations provided, in any event. If you're a Carradine fan, you may feel let down from only seeing him in the brief additional scenes. Another of Warrens' regulars, Katherine Victor, also appears here.

At the very least, seeing this exercise in dullness may motivate one to see the Chilean films in their proper context.

Four out of 10.

Attempted revival of Gothic thriller outrageously old fashioned.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 February 2016]

Two obscure Spanish language films have been shoved together with newly cheap film footage to try and create a new movie. The 40's footage of two movies from Chile look expensive but dated compared to the cheap new film added featuring John Carradine. Attempts to tie the two films together are unsuccessful and the the result is boring. With American International successfully producing modern frights on a budget, this looks like paper machete to their Styrofoam like sets that could be torn down and put back together to resemble whatever location castle the writers chose to set the story in. The first story us a loose re-telling of The Suicide Club, the second a weak attempt to create thrills for what appeared to be original. Carradine narrates both tales in what appears to be the only new footage with bad dubbing covering up the obvious Spanish by the original actors. This appears to have been barely released at all, although I did locate a few pictures of actual posters and lobby cards. At least there is a nice title sequence that reminded me of Charles Addams drawings. Not really horror, this barely has any chills and any attempts to create a proper Gothic setting are destroyed by the obvious theft of two long forgotten films.

Bad Bad Bad

[Michael_Elliott · 28 February 2008]

Curse of the Stone Hand (1964)

BOMB (out of 4)

Here's another history lesson for you fine folks, this time we take another look at the incredible hack Jerry Warren who really is the worst director ever. What Mr. Warren would do is buy foreign movies, cut them in half, hire John Carradine to film a couple new scenes and then add narration over the foreign elements of the film. Warren would then release these films as something "new" but they always turned out horrible and that's no different here. A mysterious stone hand is causing people to kill themselves but who cares? The "stone hand" only shows up twice and really doesn't play a part in the film. Warren took a Mexican film and another one from Chile to edit together and on their own both films appear to be quite good but with 2/3rds of them edited out there's really nothing this film is good for.

Two stories into one

[NuttyBaby · 5/10 · 26 June 2022]

It was edited and two separate scary films put together to make a larger background story. It centres around a spooky house which has got a curse. There are stone hands placed everywhere inside the house and outside in the grounds. An artist is told about the two stories of previous owners. It was very entertaining and the costumes were beautiful.

Stays in my memory, but not because it's good

[mlraymond · 5/10 · 18 June 2009]

I saw this film once, on the late, late show, when I was in high school. The only part that stays with me is an interesting segment that suddenly makes the previously dull movie come to life, when a group of men are holding a meeting of some kind. I remember exclaiming out loud, " Wait a minute, this is Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Suicide Club!" It was the only part of the movie that actually made any sense, and held my interest, as it was based on a strong literary source, and professionally acted and directed, in contrast with the typical Jerry Warren goofiness of the rest of the picture.

My impression of Jerry Warren is that his movies were just one slight step above the level of Ed Wood's productions. The hilarious sequence in Invasion of the Animal People, where a psychiatrist solemnly questions Katherine Victor about the argument that led to her daughter leaving the house in a snit, and later encountering a UFO, is like something you'd see on Saturday Night Live, along with the bit where the police surgeon demonstrates to his colleagues the structure of the inner ear, using a Halloween prop skull.

The remix

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 25 June 2022]

Alright, I know this isn't a Mexican movie, it's American, but it was a remix and reedit by Jerry Warren, who brought so many South of the Border movies to America. He shot new footage with John Carradine - who else? - and Katherine Victor to freshen up two twenty-year-old Chilean films, La Casa está Vacía (The House is Empty) and La Dama de la Muerte (The Lady of Death).

Seeing as how it's two films, Warren decided to turn this into an anthology, if two stories can really be an anthology. The same house is supposed to be the setting for both stories, one in which a gambler finds a set of stone hands in the cursed house and uses them to play curses before joining a suicide club. This is La Dama de la Muerte (The Lady of Death), as that movie was an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club. The second story has another owner's son finding the hands - this is La Casa está Vacía (The House is Empty) - and using them to hypnotize his brother's fiancee.

This is the closest that Warren would stay to his source material and therefore lacks the utter drug-induced insanity of his Mexican remake remixes. The dubbing is horrible, yet we can directly trace Godfrey Ho and the wildness that he dropped on us several decades later to the way that Warren could take any movie and chop it to pieces.

Warren once said, " "I'd shoot one day on this stuff and throw it together. I was in the business to make money. I never ever tried in any way to compete or to make something worthwhile. I only did enough to get by, so they would buy it, so it would play, and so I'd get a few dollars. It's not very fair to the public, I guess, but that was my attitude. You didn't have to go all out and make a really good picture."

Know what you're getting into before you watch this!

Warren's American Distributors Productions, Inc. Teamed this up with another of his mixtape wonders, Face of the Screaming Werewolf, which is Mexican and is also two movies in one - La Casa del Terror and La Momia Azteca.

The luck of the draw.

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 5 November 2021]

More a film made of two shorts than a seamless whole ;the first part ,adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson ,is the best : taking place in a foggy London where a noble tries to make money to pay his debts , and becomes part of a secret society : in it, man can be helped by his fellow men :but this would be "fraternity" has its own rules and one of them makes your hair stand on end; the card game is a good moment of suspense .So is the frightened hero who does not know who has drawn the ace .....

The second part has no real connection with the first ;the (slender) link is the house where the noble used to live ;the story of the family and the sons is much more conventional ,and the would be unexpected end falls flat.

One good half,you make it on the percentages but lose out on the bonuses.

The origins of this travesty

[todmichel · 22 May 2001]

For a long time, the true origins of this pitiful travesty of a film were unknown; it was rumored that two Mexican films were used as the basis of the Jerry Warren "work" - but in fact CURSE OF THE STONE HAND is composed (apart of the Warren-filmed horrendous sequences with Carradine, Katherine Victor, etc.) of two EXCELLENT (in their original form of course) Chilean movies of 1945, both directed by exiled Argentinian directors. The segment known as "House of Gloom" is made of one-third of LA CASA ESTA VACIA, directed by Carlos Schlieper, and the other segment, "The Suicide Club, is equally one-third of LA DAMA DE LA MUERTE, directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen. Both directors were highly talented men, and as you can imagine their works are totally destroyed by the Jerry Warren ineptitude. Another Christensen movie, LA BALANDRA ISABEL LLEGO ESTA TARDE (1949) was also "cannibalized" by Warren, and released under the title "The Violent and the Damned". If you can, AVOID AT ALL COSTS any Jerry Warren travesty (you can eventually watch his OWN films, such as "Teenage Zombies" or "Frankenstein Island"...) and try to see the original foreign movies destroyed by this man...