The Monkey's Paw

1948
1h 4m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A mother wishes for the return of her dead son, and that wish is granted by a charm made from a severed monkey's paw.A mother wishes for the return of her dead son, and that wish is granted by a charm made from a severed monkey's paw.A mother wishes for the return of her dead son, and that wish is granted by a charm made from a severed monkey's paw.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

455

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews14

Featured review

5/10

"There's Someone at the Door..."

A once-in-a-lifetime cast includes late appearances by Milton Rosmer and Hay Petrie (the former soon retired and the latter soon died) and early ones by Sydney 'Taffler' (sic) and Alfie Bass. A young Megs Jenkins is ironically made up to look older here than she did in the seventies; while Michael Martin Harvey, who here plays your friendly neighbourhood poacher, was promoted by director Norman Lee the following year to the lead in 'The Case of Charles Peace'.

It looks good, and passes it's short running time agreeably enough. But as several previous reviewers have already noted devotes very little time to W.W.Jacobs' spine-chilling short story of 1902 itself (beautifully parodied in 2005 in the 'South Park' episode 'Marjorine'), clutters up the story with a gratuitous flashback structure; and even adds a little coda having at last given us the famous final act, just in case we'd found it all a bit too scary!