Die Bestie mit den fünf Fingern

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.

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.

In a turn-of-the-century Italian village, a famed pianist (Victor Francen) with only one hand is killed. Murders soon begin occurring, and the occupants of the pianist's house believe his left-hand is committing them.

What starts out as an average Warner Brothers melodrama/murder mystery is made memorable by the use of the disembodied hand. Robert Alda and Andrea King are forgettable leads, and J. Carrol Naish is horrible as the police inspector. Peter Lorre gives the best performance, and his scenes where he confronts the hand are great. The special effects are excellent.

Rewatch. 3/5

Classic early horror with Lorre in superb eye-popping form. Film is set in an Italian mansion where a wealthy pianist is close to death. When he passes away it turns out he has left everything in his will to his nurse, who incurs the wrath of the grasping relatives who have arrived. The bickering takes a sinister turn when the solicitor is strangled, seemingly by the severed hand of the dead pianist.

Lorre plays the deranged librarian whose sightings of the hand send him increasingly over the edge into madness. Despite the true horror potential of the storyline, the film tends to play more like a murder mystery. Much of the atmosphere is wasted by the air of light-heartedness, particularly the contrived slap-happy ending.

Misgivings aside, 'The Beast with Five Fingers' is still one of the genre making horrors, and while not in the same league as the heavyweight films of the 1930's like 'Frankenstein', 'The Invisible Man' or 'Mad Love', still rates serious attention.

Other severed hands featured in ' Dr Terror's House of Horrors, 'Evil Dead II', and Oliver Stone's 'The Hand'.