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Bud Brewster · Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:46 pm Post subject: Hands of a Stranger (1962)

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One year after the English-French version of "The Hands of Orlac" was released, Allied Artists produced the fourth version of the popular tale, in which the injured hands of a pianist, (James Stapleton) are replaced by the hands of a criminal.

Each version of this popular story adds and subtracts various secondary characters and plot elements to change the basic plot.

This version puts at least some of the blame for the pianist's mental deterioration on the fact that he can't play as well as he did before. He stalks the people connected with his misfortune: the cab driver responsible for the accident and the doctor who grafted on the criminal's hands.

Irish McCalla ("Sheena, Queen of the Jungle") lends her considerable charms to the film. Also starring Joan Harvey, Sally Kellerman, and Paul Lukather. Written and directed by Newton Arnold.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

Bud Brewster · Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 12:00 pm Post subject:

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Come on, tell the truth — doesn't the trailer leave you itchin' to watch this movie?

Wait a second . . . you said "yes". I ask you to tell the truth! Shocked

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____________ Hands of a Stranger (1962) Trailer

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

scotpens · Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 4:11 pm Post subject:

This is easily the weakest of the several film adaptations of Maurice Renard's 1920 novel Les Mains d'Orlac. The credits don't even acknowledge the novel as the source material.

The movie does feature an early appearance by a young and very sexy Sally Kellerman, eight years before her breakout role as "Hot Lips" Houlihan in M*A*S*H.

Are we all in agreement that the best film version of the story is 1935's Mad Love with Peter Lorre?

Interesting how the stuff of yesterday's medical horror fiction becomes reality. Hand transplants and face transplants are being done today, while artificial insemination and surrogate pregnancy (à la Alraune) are now practically commonplace!