The Beast with Five Fingers (1947)

The Age of Commercialism

One of my all time favorites.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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

It's the summer of 1900 in Italy where crippled and retired concert pianist Victor Francen has a villa. Taking care of him is nurse Andrea King and hanging around is American tourist type Robert Alda, a guy who lives by his wits and is no better than he ought to be. Police inspector J. Carrol Naish bemusedly indulges Alda's penchant for fleecing tourists.Francen dies and his will causes consternation as everything is left to King. That's not good enough for Charles Dingle who married Francen's sister and Francen's closest blood relative John Alvin. But the guy who really goes off the deep end is Francen's secretary and companion Peter Lorre. There's a bit of a hint here that these two might have been an item. It would explain why Lorre is more than upset with being put out. There sure is a nice gay subtext to this plot.Soon afterward there's some one handed piano playing going on which Lorre hears and at least one murder. Francen's fingerprints are found in all kinds of interesting places after he died.The story could have used a bit of tightening up, but Lorre really carries the day playing his usual madman. This was Lorre's last Warner Brothers film and it certainly is his show.Could have been better though.

A wealthy wheelchair-bound pianist (Victor Francen) with a nasty temper is murdered. As the police investigate, more murders occur and soon suspicion falls on the unlikeliest of suspects: the pianist's severed hand!Stories involving disembodied hands that kill people have been around for a long time. I think this is the first such movie made with this theme and, for my money, it's the best. Robert Alda (father of Alan Alda) plays the slightly cynical hero of the film. He does fine except for the romantic stuff with lovely Andrea King. That part of the movie is weak but, to be fair, it almost always was in these types of films. The real stars are the wonderful character actors making up the rest of the cast. Peter Lorre, unsurprisingly, steals every scene with a gripping performance. Any movie with J. Carrol Naish in it is always worth checking out. Venerable Victor Francen does a fantastic job. Charles Dingle is hissable as only he could be. Wonderful atmospheric direction from Robert Florey with a nice screenplay by Curt Siodmak. One of the best horror movies of the '40s NOT made by Universal or RKO. Warner Bros. didn't make many horror movies back in the day but, judging by this film, maybe they should have. Definitely one you will want to see if you're a fan of horror/thriller films from the period.

The real stars of the film are the art director (Fleischer) and the set director (Tilford). That cavernous house is one spooky nightmare with its swooping staircase and elaborate décor. Gloom hangs over the mansion like a big suffocating blanket. I'm thinking the lighting bill couldn't have been more then a dollar-fifty. No wonder Hilary (Lorre) goes mad, imagining all sorts of strange things as he caresses his sinister old books.To my mind, the movie's biggest horror is when Hilary threatens to knife the beauteous Julie (King). Was there ever a Hollywood actress with more aristocratic cheekbones than Andrea King. I suspect she was a little too icy-looking for real stardom. Nonetheless, catch her strong presence in Ride the Pink Horse (1947).It's a florid production, heavy on atmosphere along with Hilary's growing madness, but especially on the thunderous Max Steiner score that was apparently recorded at the bottom of a deep well. The creeping hand effect is well done, along with the striking long shot of it pounding the ivories like a concert from heck.But why give the whole gimmick a real world solution when the supernatural alternative is so much more fun. And what genius was responsible for the wink-and-nod last frame, with the Commisario (Naish) showing us it's really only a movie. Did some studio producer think we really needed convincing. Too bad since breaking character harms the carefully crafted atmosphere. My advice is to enjoy the good part before switching off the last ten minutes.

**SPOILERS** After having a stoke which had him lose the use of his right hand world famous pianist Francis Ingram, Victor Frances, became the left handed wounder of the music world. Ingram was now able to master and even improve the very difficult Bach Chaconne in D minor with one hand tackling the ivories. Ingram after months and months of tireless practice was single handedly able to accomplish this amazing feat better the most concert pianists could do with both their hands.It's when Ingram got on the outs with his creepy secretary Hillary Commins, Peter Lorre, that strange things began to happen at the Ingram Mansion. One of those things was Ingrm falling or being pushed down a flight of stairs and ending up dead with a broken neck! It's when Ingram's last will and testament was read that friction developed between Hilary and Ingram's only living relatives Mr. Arlington, Charles Dingle, and his son Donald, John Alvin. Not that Hilary and the Arlington's were disputing what the late Ingram left to them but the fact that he left all his worldly possessions to his nurse Julie Holden, Andrea King!It wasn't much later that the lawyer in the Ingram estate proceedings Durex, David Hoffman, was found strangled with the murderer's fingerprints belonging to the dead Francis Igram's left hand!Was it Ingram's hand that somehow detached itself from his body that did Durex in or was somebody using Inram's had to do his dirty work in murdering the now deceased lawyer! That job, finding Durex's killer, was left up to both Julie's boyfriend American con artist Bruce Conrad, Robert Alda, and local village police commissioner Ovidio Castiio,J Carrol Naish.***SPOILERS*** It soon becomes apparent to everyone watching that "The Hand" is the real McCoy in seeing it crawl all over the mansion and even play the piano, playing Bach's concerto, in its spear time. The secret to "The Hand's" strange powers is known only to the creepy Hilary who in his study of the black arts has found, or thinks he has, the secrets of both life death and the workings of the vast and mysterious universe in the books left to him in Ingram's secret occult library! As"The Hand" gets more and more daring in coming out into the open Young Donlad Arlington sufferers a complete emotional breakdown. The last we see of a terrified Donald, when he's confronted by "The Hand", is him running out of the Ingram Mansion stark raving mad and screaming hysterically at the top of his lungs! In the end it's Bruce Conrad as well as Police Commissioner Castanio who cracks the secret of "The Hand" and what exactly it had to do with the case of Duprex's murder and Donald's insanity. Something that the by now completely out of his skull Hilary, who was manipulating "The Hand" since his boss Imngram's death, was soon to find out the hard way. By him trying to put "The Hand" out of commission before, with "The Hand" now turning on Hilary, it did a job on him!