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ACTOR
John AgarPaula RaymondStephen DunneRoy Gordon
DIRECTOR
Gene Nelson
SYNOPSICS
Hand of Death (1962) is a English movie. Gene Nelson has directed this movie. John Agar,Paula Raymond,Stephen Dunne,Roy Gordon are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1962. Hand of Death (1962) is considered one of the best Horror,Sci-Fi movie in India and around the world.
Alex Marsh has created a serum combining a hypnotic drug and nerve gas. Unfortunately he uses himself as a guinea pig and the drug transforms him into a murderous monster.
Same Actors
Hand of Death (1962) Reviews
Not good, but sort of fun
Last night, Fox Movie Channel ran the long-feared-lost sci fi thriller HAND OF DEATH, starring John Agar. I believe this may have been the first-ever TV showing of this film. Here's my verdict.... First off, anyone hoping that Fox was clinging to a pristine print of this film, which had been simply filed away in the vaults, was in for a disappointment. What FMC ran was a clumsily panned and scanned transfer of a dupey, 16 mm print. The sound quality was fuzzy and the picture quality so contrasty that for stretches the monster-Agar was reduced to a silhouette. Director Gene Nelson and screenwriter Eugene Ling make very little of a fertile idea, unused since The Invisible Ray in 1936. A scientific experiment goes haywire, and scientist Alex Marsh's (John Agar) metabolism is altered so that his mere touch suddenly kills any living creature. The film's first 20 minutes are devoted to bland domestic melodrama and strained comic relief. But the the real problems begin once Agar gains his `hand of death.' When he gains the death-touch, Alex goes insane. Unfortunately, so does the movie. From that point forward, none of his actions have any coherent motivation, and the picture simply lurches from one ludicrious scene to the next without any apparent logic. When there's no logic, there's also no tension. Puzzled viewers are left to simply watch Agar run amok. As a result of the accident, Alex also turns black, and eventually morphs into a grotesque, bloated monster that looks like a cross between Uncle Remus and Ben Grimm (The Thing, from the Fantastic Four comic books). Making the scientist turn black gives the film unintented but hilarious additional layers of meaning. The acting is wooden, but the characters are so poorly sketched that it matters little. Agar has very little to do here except run around in an oversized foam rubber mask and grunt. The film is further weakened by a juvenile score (which, at one point, breaks into `Chopsticks!'). Nelson worked mostly in television, where he shot an episode of the original Star Trek series (`The Gamesters of Triskelion'), among other TV episodes. At just 58 minutes, Hand of Death isn't much longer than `Gamesters of Triskelion.' This appears to have been Ling's final screenwriting credit. Perhaps after this, he was too embarrassed to continue. The most distinguished member of the Hand of Death crew was cinematoprapher Floyd Crosby. Crosby (father of singer David Crosby) had lensed major Hollywood features including the stunning High Noon (1952), but was blacklisted by the major studios and reduced to shooting B pictures (including Attack of the Crab Monsters and Teenage Cave Man). After Hand of Death, Crosby would shoot most of the Roger Corman Poe adaptations, as well as X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and The Black Zoo, among other genre favorites. It's impossible to judge his work here, due to the poor quality of the FMC print. Hand of Death is not a good film, but manages to hold audiences' attention in the same `I-can't-believe-I'm-seeing-this' sort of way that films like The Hideous Sun Demon amuse audiences. It was not a major rediscovery by any means, but it was nice to finally see this little curio.
This is definitely worth the wait!
I've heard so many "critics" carp about this movie that it astounds me...Let's remember that this was a LOST movie for many years. Thousands of us grew up with tantalizing pictures of the movie in Famous Monsters and Castle of Frankenstein. Along with Horrors of Spider Island and The Awful Dr. Orloff, it was the Holy Grail of Silver Age Horrors. Don't listen to detractors...this is EVERYTHING you want in a low-budget monster film; the compact running time actually adds to its appeal. I want to join with the fans in getting FOX to release this on DVD, or have them release the rights to some company who would embrace the project.
surprisingly fun
i caught this kooky little horror film on cable the other night. it held up pretty well. the notion of scientist turned monster is obviously familiar, but it actually managed to be creepy and suspenseful..wished the guy had found a pair of gloves before touching all those poor people. i also loved the 'nightmare' sequence when he's exposed to the deadly gas, and dreams of beakers and flying white mice. kewl! how odd that it was directed by a musical comedy song and dance man. this is a fun 50's -ish horror tale, with delightful over the top acting. and it's really short. which is something.
To Film Snobs: Lighten Up!!
Reading through some of the IMDb reviews, I was truly bewildered by the responses. It was like bullies beating up on the weakling in school...not because he necessarily needed to be beat up, but just because the bullies could. Well, I'm the principal here to tell those folks to lighten up and leave the poor kid alone! My goodness, this movie had a budget of $1.95, yet everyone is expecting "Lawrence of Arabia"? Come on. John Agar is a government scientist out in the California desert who thinks he is a few steps away from creating a revolutionary nerve gas agent that will eliminate all wars. His mentor, the mentor's secretary, his scientist buddy, and even his own college intern think it's too dangerous and want him to stop, but John has noble and lofty goals and pushes on. Well, John has an accident, spills one of the liquefied variations on his hands, and slowly turns into a hideous, mutated creature whose touch can kill...and kill he does. Maybe I was just in the mood for a fun little film like this, but I must say the acting didn't bother me, nor did the production values, the music, the directing, or the monster make-up. Yes, the screenplay is dopey, has holes in the logic, and a rather abrupt and unsatisfying ending, but this is a Z-grade film aimed at kids at a drive-in theater looking for a fun time, not stuffy film critics or pretentious film snobs. Set your expectations at a reasonable level, have fun, and enjoy a great little throw-back to a bygone age of sci-fi/horror.
Hard to find title resurfaces
One of the most inexplicably hard-to-see Horror titles of the 60's has resurfaced -- well, sort of. Because of a combination of vague legal rights issues, big studio neglect and the dissolution of its original production company, HAND OF DEATH has all but disappeared from sight. Recently, its star, John Agar and a group of his devoted fans got a rare opportunity to watch a videotape of the film. Hopefully, 20th Century Fox (now that they have found a print) will resolve all those pesky legal details and reissue the film on DVD, tape and TV. The film itself has some definite merit. The acting, , writing, direction and basic storyline are totally pro all the way. Technically, HAND benefits from fine cinematography by Crosby (TABU, several Roger Corman features) -- although the Cinemascope film is hampered by a pan-and-scan transfer on tape. The real standout is a jazz cum horror genre score by Sonny Burke (ooh, a CD would be nice, hint hint). On one level, HAND is a typical: Mad scientist INVENTS serum, mad scientist TAKES serum, Mad Scientist BECOMES Monster kind of movie. But, a subplot (underdeveloped mainly because the film runs a too trim 60 whole minutes) about the military creating the serum for nerve gas war is intriguing and the above mentioned tech credits are handled by seasoned vets. I hope all IMDB fans will get the rare chance I did of seeing HAND OF DEATH soon. And, thank you, John Agar for letting me see your movie!