The Black Hand

13 DEMON STREET was conceived as a horror anthology by screenwriter-turned-director Curt Siodmak, shot on location in Sweden with an occasional imported Hollywood veteran (such as John Crawford in "The Photograph"). On hand as host is Lon Chaney, "The Wolf Man" himself, cast as the lone inhabitant of the titular address for all 13 episodes, a disheveled and damned soul present to find another whose crimes can surpass his own (this detail goes unexplained). "The Black Hand" is a weak and sadly typical first outing, a rehash of "The Hands of Orlac" but using only one single hand. Dr. Heinz Schloss (Sheldon Lawrence) and his fiancée Hedy (Pat Clavin, also seen in "The Vine of Death") are involved in a crash with a stolen car driven by a compulsive murderer. The doctor loses his right hand in the accident, but notes that the dead driver no longer needs either of his, so orchestrates a transplant from one wrist to the other. Learning the true identity of the driver after the operation is completed sends the doctor into fits of paranoia, wondering why he cannot seem to control the movements of his unresponsive new hand, which habitually reaches for the neck of any unwary female nearby. The climax is quite unsatisfactory, though Chaney gets a good reaction to close things out. Director Siodmak cannot be blamed for the choice of subject matter, only the poor execution (a major reason the series was never picked up for American television); he could not have known that within months of this little seen production, two feature films would be made from the same basic source, "The Hands of Orlac," starring Mel Ferrer and Christopher Lee, and "Hands of a Stranger," featuring James Stapleton in the central role, none of which could hold a candle to the 1935 Hollywood version with Peter Lorre, "Mad Love."