The Hand That Feeds the Dead

You don't hear much about them anymore, but from the 50's, to fairly recent times, Facial Transplant horror films were a thriving sub-genre.

Beginning with "La Yeux Sans Visage" (eyes without a face/Horror Chamber Of Dr. Faustus) by Georges Franju, these continued onward with "Awful Dr, Orloff" by Jess Franco (who has made quite a few, including one of the most recent, "Faceless"), "Double Face" by Riccardo Freda, "The Devil's Commandment", and "The Hand That Feeds The Dead". "THTFTD" was unknown to me at first viewing, but this is one of the great facial transplant movies. Klaus Kinski is in fine form as our "mad scientist", attempting to correct a past mistake. The laboratory he uses is also one of the best ever, just eye-popping. Very obscure in America, but available subtitled from the usual sources. This is one of the greats, and almost nobody even knows about it.

--Judexdot1--

The Hand That Feeds the Dead apparently is often confused with a film called Lover of the Monster. That's not at all surprising; they're both directed by Sergio Garrone, feature basically the same cast (both headed by Klaus Kinski), both were released in 1974, they both feature similar plots and even some of the same footage. Unfortunately, they're also both rubbish. After seeing Lover of the Monster recently, I had it in my head that at least it couldn't be worse than The Hand That Feeds the Dead - but I was wrong, as despite a very nice title; this film is utter dross. The film takes place in the nineteenth century and focuses on a doctor by the name of Prof Nijinski. He stumbles upon an old laboratory in his basement and begins experimenting with life and death (yadda, yadda). Of course, the experiments go wrong and end up messing with the doctors head.

I have to admit that the version I saw was sourced from a Turkish VHS and was cut down to about seventy eight minutes. I don't know exactly what was cut out, but I'm guessing it was all the good bits because we haven't been left with much. I'm sure that some of the gore was cut out because I didn't see much of it; there were a few skin graft scenes but overall the film is very lacking on that front. The period setting and obvious low budget gives the film something of a gritty feel that works fairly well with the plot but is nowhere near enough to save the production on the whole. Klaus Kinski is undoubtedly one of the major stars of cult cinema, but even his presence is not enough to lift this production; frankly he looked about as bored as I was. The pace is very slow and the editing is inept, which makes the film even harder to watch. I really didn't care what happened at the end and the climax was not interesting anyway. This film has vanished into obscurity since its release and I'm not at all surprised about that. The Hand That Feeds the Dead is nowhere as interesting as it sounds and is not recommended!

"The Hand that Feeds the Dead" is blessed with an enticing title and the presence of cult icon Klaus Kinski, but it's basically nothing more than a cheap, uninspired and exploitative rehash of the French horror milestone "Eyes without a Face". That doesn't necessarily have to be a negative thing, because many decent and entertaining horror flicks are derivative of that same classic – for example Jess Franco's "The Awful Dr. Orloff" or the British sleeper "Circus of Horrors – but this is a prototypical example of a rip-off that doesn't contribute anything to the genre whatsoever. Kinski stars as Dr. Nijinski, former acolyte of the brilliant Professor/Baron Ivan Rassimov who allegedly stood on the verge of a tremendous surgical breakthrough before he got killed in an all-devastating fire. The same fire also heavily mutilated the beautiful face of Rassimov's daughter (who also happens to be Nijinski's lover) and that's why Nijinski now attempts to finalize Rassimov's experiments. The work requires for Nijinski to lure unsuspecting girls to the castle and for his hunchbacked slave to kidnap innocent victims from the nearby village. "The Hands that Feeds the Dead", like many of its supportive characters, appears to be in a constant comatose condition. The period decors and filming locations are definitely adequate, but the pacing is dreadfully slow and the events are painfully dull and predictable. Half of the film is sheer padding footage, varying from pointless lesbian sex to endlessly overlong footage of bubbly potions and flashy machinery inside a pathetic wannabe laboratory where supposedly the skin and facial transplants take place. Oddly enough, the actual transplants are simultaneously gross and boring. The make-up effects are repulsive, but the extreme close-ups of the skinless faces seem to last eternally. Klaus Kinski obviously also wasn't the least bit interested in this film, and gives away the most indifferent performance imaginable. Those incredibly overlong transplantation sequences, for instance, plainly don't even star him. With his ego and reputation, Kinski probably refused to waste his precious time shooting retarded footage like that, and thus all we ever see are the surgeon's hands and uniform.

Note: although not an actual character in the film, I assume that the chose to use the name Ivan Rassimov must be some sort of inside joke of the director, as Ivan Rassimov really was a respectable Italian cult/horror actor around that time and starred in, among others, "Jungle Holocaust", "Eaten Alive", "Spasmo", etc..

Titled on my box as, The Hand That Feeds Death, but a more accurate translation, I believe is, The Hand That Feeds The Dead. Either way, of course nothing to do with the film in hand. Another confusing aspect to this title is the fact that director Sergio Garrone managed to complete another film the same year, called Lover Of The Monster, that had almost the same cast, same locations and more or less the same story. using much of the same footage. Add to that the fact this was made by the Italians with the Turkish, it is no wonder it seems a little off kilter. More than that it seems to switch from one location to another, day to night and almost story to story in the blink of an eye. On the positive side we do have Kinski (brilliant at the very end with lipstick bloodied lips) lots of gore (transplants) and a fair amount of flesh (young and female) and although it seemed ridiculous from the outset, I enjoyed it. It is bright, colourful and cheery with a really impressive laboratory with blood being pumped hither and thither. Silly yes, boring no.

Klaus Kinski delivers a rather subtle performance here as a mad scientist dominated by his disfigured wife Tanja. With the assistance of his ace henchman, a brutish, limping dolt named Vanya (Erol Tas), he must procure victims to function as donor bodies in order to restore Tanja's beauty. A young woman named Katja (the appealing Marzia Damon) is certain that this couple murdered her sister, and intends to find out for sure. Meanwhile, a travelling couple named Alex (Ayhan Isik) and Masha (the gorgeous Katia Christine) must take advantage of Kinski's hospitality when their coach has an accident on a trail.

The set-up and the story (by director Sergio Garrone) are largely routine, in this umpteenth variation on the old "Eyes Without a Face" tale. But there are still pleasures to be had. The film, a period piece, looks pretty good (Kinski's lab is a standout), and there's a steady parade of attractive ladies (also including Carmen Silva as Sonia) to maintain viewer interest. Also, people who like their period pieces / mad scientist yarns to be on the trashy side will be satisfied, as there is a notable amount of both sex and gore. Squeamish people will want to avoid this for the repeated shots of surgical procedures, but voyeurs will love the ample nudity and the lovemaking scene that takes place around the 50 minute mark.

The performances are actually all pretty decent. It's nice to see a more restrained performance from Kinski that even contains some pathos at the end. Christine is fun to watch, especially towards the end. Isik is amiable, and Tas is amusing as the almost mute thug who is regularly tortured aurally by a device that Tanja employs.

Although obviously not very well known, this is now available on DVD and Blu, so interested viewers can check it out for themselves.

Seven out of 10.