The Beast with Five FingersYear: 1946 Director: Robert Florey Written by: Curt Siodmak Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Hand Based upon: short story - "The Beast with Five Fingers" - William Fryer Harvey Color/B&W/3D: B&W Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
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The tyranist's thoughts
I love Peter Lorre. And I love that he was weird enough that they made lots of movies
just like this one so that he could be a star.
Death is in the air in a small Italian village and it all seems to lead to the denizens of one particular
local house. When the master of the house dies and his cousin from America shows up to claim
the inheritance over the nurse that had kept the master alive for all these years, the air becomes
a little colder and the odd happenings more frequent.
This is the kind of horror flick we just don't get anymore. The atmosphere is as much about
mystery and the inquisitiveness of the characters as it is about the horror. The story is not
terribly complex. The action not breathtaking. But the movie carries itself well and is engaging.
The effects were absolutely stunning for the day. The titular beast was nearly flawless and
as effective as anything that would have been done today.
I'm guessing this is relatively difficult to track down, but if you enjoy the older horror flicks, this
one ought to be seen. It is a fine example of what they could do long, long before computers
came along.
Posted: December 28, 2006
Rish Outfield's reviews
Tyranist and I saw this one the same night we saw Masque
of the Red Death. I think we both quite enjoyed it.
I say "I think" because, hey, the movie wasn't great, and was dishonest in its narrative,
and it might not even have been Horror. But because Red Death was so bad,
this looked alright in comparison.
Man, I wish I had something to say about it. But I don’t, really. I thought I had heard
of this movie as a boy, but now I’m not so sure.
Like tyranist, I really liked Peter Lorre. I’ve never been a fan of his, though I’ve always
enjoyed his peculiar voice and mannerisms. I should see more of his stuff. I also liked
J. Carrol Naish (who I recognised from a couple Universal Monster classics), though
the part at the end when he talks to the audience was pretty silly.
I also haven’t seen a great deal of films from the Thirties and Forties. I ought to see
more, though.
What stood out most in Beast were the great special effects of the crawling hand.
Even by today's standards, they were good stuff.
Unfortunately, I think the film was misleading, and an ending like this today would have
21st Century audiences throwing excrement at the screen like a cage of overcaffeinated
monkeys.
Posted: March 29, 2007
Total Skulls: 11
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat |  |
|
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | |
|
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | |
|
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | |
|
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | |
|
| No one believes only witness | |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | |
|
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | |
|
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |
