La mano che nutre la morte

"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..

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.

(1974) Evil Face/ La mano che nutre la morte/ The Hand That Feeds The Dead (In Italian with English subtitles) HORROR

Written and co-directed by Sergio Garrone that has married couple of Alex (Ayhan Isik) and Masha (Katia Christine) going on a honeymoon. Until their horse carriage flipped over, killing only the driver. They are then taken in and taken care of by the baron and doctor, Prof. Sergej Nijinski (Klaus Kinski). Living with them also includes a prostitute/ hostess, Katya (Marzia Damon) and an aspired novelist, Katiuscia (Carmen Silva) who is in search for her sister, she suspects that the doctor has something to do with it. And the doctor's wife, Tanja Nijinski whose face has been disfigured as a result of the fire that killed her father.

Sergio Garrone tries to juice up the old gothic horror/mad scientist deal get up by adding gore and nudity, but still manages to bore the life out of me.

The whole deal is that Klaus Kinski is a scientist whose wife has been horrifically scarred in an accident that also claimed the life of her brilliant scientist father, Ivan Rassimov, who is a character called Ivan Rassimov and not the actor Ivan Rassimov. Kinski of course has one of those labs you get in old mansions that's full of bubbling flasks and electricity,and this is where he conducts his skin graft experiments, using local girls. I'm getting bored writing this review.

There's an Igor character running around the place, a couple of girls, one of which is searching for her missing sister, and some guy. Other things happen that you've seen a million times before but Garrone throws in a lesbian sequence, treachery, and Kinski talking to a toy doll but also pads things out with the girl going to the police over and over again, and the medical procedures taking forever. Does it matter if the film bored me? Would that deter others from watching it anyway? Some people love this film and think it's some sort of classic. Maybe instead of an opinion, a brief description of the film and where to find it would suffice. Or is it better to hear the opinion of someone whose watched hundreds of these rather than, say, Mark Kermode?

I don't know. There's another film called Lover of the Monster which was made using the same sets and the same actors. I'm going to watch that one, even though this one bored me, so I'm ignoring my own opinion too.

This is another collaboration between crazed German actor Klaus Kinski, hack Italian director Sergio Garrone, and beautiful Dutch actress Katia Christine, and it is a marginal improvement over their other collaboration "Amanti di Mostro". The story is superficially similar to the other film. Once again, Kinski is a mad scientist married to Katia Christine, and once again he is carrying on the work of his late father-in-law (named "Ivan Rassimov" in this movie, which is perhaps an inside joke since Ivan Rassimov was a familiar character actor in Italian exploitation films during this era). But instead of Kinski turning himself into Mr. Hyde and attacking all the half-naked,local women, this movie has an "Eyes without a Face"-type plot where Kinski uses his Igor-like assistant to kidnap all the half-naked, local women in order to transplant their flesh onto his disfigured wife.

Sergio Garrone (to borrow a line from "Shock Cinema's" Steve Puchalski) probably couldn't successfully direct his own bowel movement, so it's impressive here that the direction at times approaches borderline competence (or maybe that should be credited to his Turkish co-director?). Kinski generally gave two kinds of performances in movies like this--scenery-gnawing or totally phoned-in. He definitely gnawed some serious scenery in "Amanti di Mostro", but here is performance is pretty much phoned-in (he also may have stormed off the set at some point because they seem to use a double for some of his scenes). If you're a fan of Katia Christine's acting, you'll enjoy this more than "Amanti" because she has much more screen time and essentially plays two different roles, one of which is deliciously evil. If you're more a fan of Katia Christine's body, however, you might prefer the other movie because she generally keeps her Victorian garments on here. There is as much nudity and even more gore than in "Amanti", but it all comes toward the end of the movie, by which time you may have already slipped into a boredom-induced coma.

Although the best thing about this might be the literal translation of the Italian title, "The Hand that Feeds Death", this was recently released on Region 1 DVD under the ho-hum title "Evil Face". I wouldn't really recommend this, but god knows I'VE seen worse movies.