Friday, October 19, 2012

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS / Warner Bros. Pictures - 1946

It's another Friday Fright Halloween Countdown 2012 with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Peter Lorre is great in this little weirdie, also stars Robert (THE DEVIL'S HAND) Alda, Andrea (RED PLANET MARS) King and J. Carrol (HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN) Naish, Curt (THE WOLFMAN) Siodmak helped in the writing, Robert (MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE) Flory directs.

Eegah!! sent over a teriffic little soundclip for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can go ahead and push the big red 'GO' button located directly above the atomic slab buffer, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS!

Lorre's maniacal laughing in the soundclip is amongst his very best!

And, the story goes like this... Locals in an Italian village think that evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist who was associated with the occult. Several murders have taken place, and, the alleged killer is believed to be the pianist's severed hand! This movie played occassionally on TV in the late fifties and it was always a fave, crawling hands are way cool!

Victor Francen plays master pianist Francis Ingram, supposedly, he has a ring that gives him supernatural powers! He's assisted by his nursemaid, Clara. He's paraylized on the right side, in a wheelchair and plays the piano with just his left hand!

Peter plays Hilary Cummins, Ingram's personal secretary. He steeps himself in occult studies.

Hilary confronts Francis about what will happen to the library after he dies, Hilary wants the books. Francis chokes Hilary with his left hand, leaving bruises on his neck!

Francis starts hallucinating, then, tumbles down the stairs in his wheelchair to his death.

There's a mysterious murder at the estate, and, Ingram's ring is found on his piano after the crime was committed.

Here are two very interesting shots of the dudes investigating the mystery. The excellent cinematography was by Wesley Anderson.

Then, they come across this weird handprint in the soil outside the mansion!

Hilary has a dirty little secret, he's gained possession of Ingram's ring!

Thing, errr, the Beast comes out of it's box and gets Hilary to put the ring on on it's finger, then, it gets away and crawls behind the books...

The next night, the hand is playing the piano, driving Hilary freakin' insane!

Hilary laughs maniacally after he tosses the hand into the fireplace, but, not when it crawls out and grabs him by the throat! The hand disappears into thin air the second Hilary passes on...

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