La mano que aprieta

This is one of the most confusing serials ever made, but everyone in it takes it so seriously that it becomes fun and I gave it a 5. Jack Mulhall was a horrible actor who appeared in gobs of serials and for some reason has been given a starring role here. He never met a line he couldn't overemote. You expect him to yell out, "Hark!" at any moment. Rex Lease and Marion Shilling are charming as the young couple, however. And where else can you see legendary Mae Busch (thank you, Joe Franklin) and Yakima Canutt in the same video? There are plenty of other serial veterans in this mish-mosh of a story. If you can find any continuity and logic in it, you're a better man than I. However, if you're into old serials, as I am, you can have fun with this.

This serial has a very good group of actors. Jack Mulhall, in the leading role, had a career that.spanned the silent era and ended in 1959. Rex Lease appeared in over 300 films. Robert Frazer also starred in silent films and will be remember for his roles in "White Zombie" and "The Vampire Bat." Mae Busch made the transition from silents to sound films and joined Hal Roach and began her association with Laurel and Hardy. Yakima Canutt was a stuntman and often doubled for John Wayne.

Of the four reviews now present, most take a condescending approach to this serial. One calls Jack Mulhall "a horrible actor," which he is not. Another states that the serial "appears to me to be an intentional comedy." Granted it was made in 1936, but it still is entertaining. The fighting scenes are staged poorly, which is surprising since Canutt was an excellent stuntman, but he may not have been consulted, since the fighting is not his style or up to his standards.

I'm shocked at so many of the reviews giving redeeming value to this serial. Above average production values? Really. So bad it's worth seeing? Yes, there are films so ridiculously bad they're good but I beg to differ that this is one of them. Not giving anything away by telling you that the villain is a hand. The story features the character called America's Sherlock Holmes, Craig Kennedy who is also called a Scientific Detective. Played here by 2nd fiddle actor Jack Mulhall with Rex Lease as his newspaper reporter friend Walter Jameson. Today's LED bulbs are brighter than the two of them put together and all I could do for 15 Chapters to entertain myself was to sing Help Gironda, help help Gironda who is the missing scientist who supposedly has developed a formula for synthetic gold. He hasn't and he's not even really missing which isn't giving away a spoiler. You know almost right away that he's the dreaded clutching hand. It's laughable but you won't laugh. I like serials and can usually find something to like about all of them. I'll get back to you.

"The Clutching Hand" is an above average independently produced serial. It has some excellent production values including set pieces such as the laboratory, the saloon and those oh so sharp vintage period cars. The direction by Albert Harmon is crisp, as he keeps the action flowing.

The "McGuffin" of this story is a formula for making gold developed by scientist Dr. Paul Gironda (Robert Frazier). Shortly after announcing its development, Gironda is kidnapped. Soon it is discovered that "The Clutching Hand" the shadowy villain with the maniacal laugh is responsible.

Famous detective Craig Kennedy (Jack Mulhall - not your usual handsome dashing hero) is brought into the case. Along with ace reporter Walter Jameson (Rex Lease) they set about to solve the case. They try in vain to find Dr. Gironda and to learn the identify of the Clutching Hand. As in all serials, there are many suspects, chief among whom are the Board of Directors of the International Research Foundation.

After making narrow escapes from the usual serial traps and pitfalls, Kennedy finally learns the identity of "The Clutching Hand" and solves the case in the final chapter. The identity of the villain caught me completely off guard.

Others in the cast include Mae Busch as Gironda's wife, Marion Schilling as their daughter Verna, William Farnum as Gaunt, Kennedy's chief, Ruth Mix as Gironda's secretary, Shirley McMillan and Franklyn Farnum as Gironda's assistant Nicky.

Lining up with the bad guys are Yakima Canutt, Robert Kortman, Dick Alexander, Tom London, Charles Lochner, Gaston Glass and Bryant Washburn. You can be sure that Canutt had a hand in the many fight scenes and other stunts.

William and Frankyn Farnum were not brothers as some believe, in fact they were not even related. William and Dustin Farnum were brothers, whose careers dated back to the early silent days. Charles Lochner would shortly change his name to Jon Hall and enjoy a lengthy career as a leading man.

Three hundred minutes! This ridiculous endless serial runs FIVE HOURS. Why? Why! WHY?!?! A real clutching hand must have used to get cinemas to run this bewildering epic. It is so silly and accidentally hilarious that I am sure even the simplest audiences marooned in suburban fleapits with this drivel must have been hooting at the screen. There is about 800 fights and all of them hilarious. I mean truly laugh out loud knee slapping howlers. They are POPEYE type fights with middle aged men in suits each with hats jammed on their heads fight like pussycats, swinging wide and 'thwapping' each other and missing by a mile. The incredulous bad dude: The Clutching Hand, with his muffled stupid 'orders' to each numbered henchmen over a primitive 1936 pedal TV just needs a good slap in reel 2 and we all could have saved ourselves several months of groan worthy slumping on the lounge. There is a great poverty row mansion with sort-of antiques, scenes filmed at 4.55pm of an afternoon in a hurry, pointless car chases and about 900 guys who all look the same. Lead thesp Jack Mulhall looks and acts like Stanley Holloway from MY FAIR LADY. He is like the praying mantis professor in A BUGS LIFE, rolling his eyes and A-C-T-I-N-G like this is Shakespeare. It's more bad than Bard. I just couldn't believe how this thing droned on and on. Then I saw it was reduced to 77 minutes as a feature in 1937. THAT just goes to show you how much superfluous footage was in this serial.THE CLUTCHING HAND is a 1919 level 'face at the window / Snidley Whiplash" melodrama serial with sound...If you have to watch ANY of it then I recommend Chapter 2 and 14 and 15. That will take up 70 minutes, and that is enough.