The Black Hand

Black Hand, The (1906)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Biograph short is credited as being the first gangster picture ever made and it was a big hit back in the day because it was filmed just a few days after the real event took place. Two gangsters blackmail a rich butcher threatening to kidnap his daughter if he doesn't pay them one thousand dollars. The butcher refuses and soon his daughter is kidnapped so it's up to NYC's finest to try and find her. I had heard a lot of good things about this film and I was expecting all the hype to leave me disappointed but that wasn't the case as this is one of the best Biograph films I've seen that wasn't directed by D.W. Griffith. The ending when the police come to rescue the girl contains some nice suspense and the robbery of the butcher store was also very well done. The story is quite strong and apparently stayed close to the real case, which was an interesting one. Fans of the gangster genre will certainly want to check this one out.

That's right, the beginnings of the city crime movies genre began here when The Black Hand was released in March of 1906. There had never been such a cinematic plot dealing with extortion and kidnapping by a group of criminals in an urban setting before. Sure, 1903's The Great Train Robbery was a western with a gang of thieves robbing a train and its passengers. But here, the viewer is exposed to all the sordid details of a ransom note written for a wealthy butcher demanding money for the release of his daughter, all taking place in a city landscape.

As a first, director "Old Man" Wallace McCutcheon Sr., working for the American Mutoscope & Biograph, could have drastically tightened up the scenes. Just having the criminals writing a ransom note takes some time, let alone our introduction to the butcher and his shop. And the kidnapping of the daughter on the city sidewalk is interminably leisurely filmed.

What's fascinating about this film are the street scenes. With snow and ice on the roads, the viewer can see this was shot in February of 1906, with the horse and buggy dominating the transportation system. No automobiles seen here, despite the internal combustion vehicle being invented well over a decade before.

Lastly, the arrest procedures by law enforcement shown in The Black Hand should be adapted by today's police departments. No choke holds here, just strong-armed maneuvers by our men in blue constraining a gang of miscreants, proving that justice always prevails.

This movie is 10 minutes long. If you've ended up on this IMDb-page without seeing it, give it it watch! The plot is simple, but supposedly based on a true story. You follow a butcher, who gets a threatening letter from some gangster. The gangsters wants money from it, and they kidnap his daughter.

The two highlights of this movie are: - The extortion letter is very nice! The lettering is almost like Ralph Steadmans illustrations, making the letter seem very iconic. - The shots done on the streets of New York. I'm not from the US, and have never been to New York, but I still really liked the couple of scenes sets in the streets of NY. They're not that good story wise, as they are slow and don't really movie the story along much.

Some of the action sequences are a bit fun, but over all the plot is too simple to become that thrilling. Still, it's a gangster film (famously the first one ever made), so if you are into those kind of movies, you'll most likely find this interesting (if nothing more).

The kidnap plot is set in the Italian immigrant society in a U.S. city. The 'good' immigrant, a hard working shop owner, is threatened by hard drinking 'bad' immigrants. The film is not particularly well structured, as after receiving a threat of kidnap for his daughter, the shop owner lets the girl wander the city streets alone! The film has a simple plot, and much over acting, and cultural stereotyping of its era. As a film student, I found this films structure and composition interesting, but I would not watch it for fun.

The story-telling and photography in this short crime feature are both pretty good, and the story is interesting enough to be worth seeing. The story is relatively involved for a one-reeler, but it is told with clarity and with decent pacing. There's really only one sequence when some of the action is unclear for a short stretch, and the rest of the time it holds your attention pretty easily.

The story, which is said to have been based on factual events, starts with a gang writing a threatening letter to a butcher, and it sets up a series of crises and confrontations that are handled rather well in general. The settings and situations are more of a presence than are the characters themselves, but there are a couple of times when a small creative touch makes the characters more alive. The story is also enhanced by some outdoor scenes that are filmed pretty well.

Overall, the technique is good enough, and the story just interesting enough, to make this somewhat above average for its time and genre.