The Devil's Hand (1961)

Great Film overall

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Good find in the 50-pack Drive-in Collection. This one is a good old fashioned horror film. It's not a blood and guts film like we have today. The film is just a good older horror film. I'm very glad they added this gem to the 50-pack.Rick has dreams of a woman named Bianca but is engaged to Donna. Rick becomes strangely hypnotized by his dreams of Bianca and seeks her out. She seduces him into a cult that worships Camba. Donna becomes sick and is in the hospital by the wicked cult leader Francis and his Bianca. Can Rick snap out of it? Can Rick save himself and Donna? This is a worthwhile film. It's not the greatest horror film from the 1960s but it's a good one.6/10

Don't ring the bell, don't read the book and don't light the candles. This ultra cheap precursor to "Rosemary's Baby" has a few genuine scares, but mainly contains unintentional laughs. After playing George Gershwin on "Rhapsody in Blue" and the original Sky Masrerson in the original Broadway production of "Guys and Dolls"' Robert Alda was reduced to this low grade supernatural horror film where he is haunted in dreams by the presence of a beautiful woman he's never met. Destiny takes him and his sweet girlfriend into a strange doll shop where he meets the strange Neil Hamilton as well as the gorgeous dream doll. This doll house is the front for a group of satanists who seem somewhat normal. Hamilton chews the scenery more than any "Batman" villain, eventually turning into a cartoon character. Among the chilling moments are a sequence where Hamilton reveals that a traitor amongst them will die and the truly violent follow up. Yet, the structure is presented with such silliness that the film ends up becoming melodramatic and totally over the top. When you look at the more well made supernatural films yet to follow, the result here is a midnight movie where you have to wonder just how much popcorn ended up being thrown at the screen.

An overly sleek socialite is haunted by visions of a beautiful scantily clad vixen, which becomes an intriguing mystery when he finds a doll with her likeness. The colluding shop-owner reveals the girl from his dreams actually exists and encourages him to deliver it in person to her, which he does. When he arrives, she admits to being a voodoo witch. Obviously he has been under her voodoo spell all along, but joins her voodoo cult without question anyway. It turns out the shopkeeper is the voodoo priest and the basement of the shop is their temple. Later the hapless cad has growing doubts which lead him to be tested. Rather than comply, he rejects the religion and the witch-girl and in trying to escape, destroys the temple.This rather nonsensical fair thankfully drives on at a decent pace and is a bearable length. Robert Alda does not give an amazing performance, but plays his character much as his own personality. The witch-girl is a smouldering beauty even if her performance is wooden. Neil Hamilton is unconvincing and gives a rather dry delivery rather than the campy style his role deserved. Somehow this movie manages to be charming enough to not completely suck, but very nearly does!

William J.Hole Jr. directs this very low-budget satanic flick from Crown International Pictures. Rick Turner(Robert Alda)is haunted nightly by visions of a seductive beautiful woman dancing. Rick is drawn to a doll shop where he finds a doll that resembles the woman trying to seduce him. He later returns to the shop with his fiancée Donna(Arianda Welter)to get the doll. On the shelf is a doll that looks exactly like Donna. The shop owner Frank Lamont(Neil Hamilton)gives Rick the one doll that he is anxious to deliver. Lamont will not let the couple leave with the doll resembling Donna; because it is actually a voodoo doll that he uses to cause her crippling pain. Rick makes his delivery to Bianca Milan(Linda Christian), the dancing seductress in his dreams. She will have her way with Rick and convinces him to join a coven of devil worshipers that actually wants his fiancée Donna as a human sacrifice. Rounding out the cast: Gertrude Astor, Julie Scott and Gere Craft.