Hands of Destiny

When a film has no prior reviews on IMDb I know it must be relatively obscure. This one was filmed at the very cheap-looking Kay's Studio in Maida Vale and seems to be a vehicle to showcase the talents of Josef Ranald, a leading palm reader of his day. Ranald also wrote the production, which is certainly not a documentary despite the plot summary on this site.

HANDS OF DESTINY features the likable Terence Alexander in a main role as he acts as the audience's portal into the world of palm reading. He plays Ranald's secretary. The film is an unwieldy mix of short stories and various facts and figures relating to palmistry. What's most impressive is that Ranald has a collection of palm prints of some of the most famous figures of the day, including loads of US presidents and leading Nazi officials.

The stories tend to feature Arnald as himself, playing against genuine actors like Bill Nagy, John Breslin, and Hilda Fenemore. There's a feel-good story which amusingly sees London trying to stand in for Shanghai and shows how a suicidal woman can be brought back from the brink via fortune telling. The other story is more long-winded and about the hunt for a long-lost son. Although this is a very basic and dated propaganda piece, it does teach the viewer a few interesting facts about palm reading and I suspect most people will do as I did and watch this with one palm raised in front of them.

Austrian palmist Josef Ranald somehow managed to ingratiate himself with everyone from Bob Hope to Hitler and he had the signed palm prints to prove it. His 1938 book, "How to Know People by Their Hands", first produced a spin-off movie (also called "Hands of Destiny") in 1941. Then came this British programmer put out by exploitation outfit Adelphi. Ranald wrote the script, which repeats his claim that the evil of the entire Nazi hierarchy (and Mussolini) could be read in their hands. He also appears as himself in dramatisations of two of his cases. In Shanghai he saves a young woman from drowning and assures her that her palms show that happiness lies ahead. (He's right of course). In the U.S.he reunites a mother with her long-lost son because he is able to match palm prints. These stories require considerable suspension of disbelief. To use one example we're invited to accept that a child's palm print on a toy piano is of sufficient clarity for it to be matched some 16 years later with that of a university student. In these more cynical times it's also odd to hear Ranald described as a scientist and for there to be "absolute proof" of his theories. Nevertheless this is an exploitation film quite unlike any other and few who see it will be disappointed. It's adequately produced and director Tony Young (best known for film and TV work with The Goons) rises to the challenge of recreating pre-War Shanghai by putting half a dozen Chinatown residents on a Bankside wharf. Best known for her working-class housewives, Hilda Fenemore (here billed Fennimore) excels in a quite uncharacteristic role. As Ranald's manager, Terence Alexander has the task of spouting pages of narrative, something he did three years earlier in "Death Is a Number." I can guarantee that, although Ranald's claims and predictions may be better suited to a fairground caravan, no one will watch this film without examining their own palms.

It never ceases to amaze me what audiences in the 1950s had to put up with if they came in at the beginning of the programme.In this film we have the art of planetary.Now I am sure that there are people who are interested in this topic and that it would be possible to produce an entertaining film.However the producers have failed lamentable to make a film which had any glint of entertainment.For much of this film Terence Alexander narrates the details of famous people including Hitler and Gary Cooper.This is interspersed with stories from the Doctors files.The production is extremely cheap.I do wonder if there were many bookings for this film.