The Hand (1960) starring Derek Bond, Reed De Rouen, Bryan Coleman, Walter Randall directed by Henry Cass Movie Review

The Hand (1960)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Ronald Leigh-Hunt in The Hand (1960)

In Need of a Hand

3 soldiers find them selves prisoners of war in the Burmese jungle where the Japanese interrogate them separately wanting to know details and plans. When the first two refuse to speak they both end up with their right hands chopped off. But the third prisoner decides to squeal and saves himself and his hands. Many years later the police find themselves investigating some mysterious goings on when they bring in a drunk who for payment has had his right hand chopped off. As Scotland Yard detectives try to peace together what is happening the doctor who amputated the hand is killed.

When I stumbled across "The Hand" it was billed as a horror movie and the artwork which I saw for the movie backed this up but unfortunately it isn't as "The Hand" ends up detective movie. Yes we have a 1960s crime movie where a couple of detectives try to get to the bottom of a mysterious case of hand amputation. Wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact this is also one of those 1960's British B-movies where due to lack of budget is dialogue heavy and certainly not that exciting.

Now "The Hand" has a lot of things wrong with it but the most notable is the generic actors and characters that are indistinguishable. The lack of character depth combined with their ordinariness makes it hard to get in to and if you do stay in to because you have no care for anyone. And as for the storyline well with the intro in Burma we can guess that either two things are going to have happened; the two who lost limbs discover their bravery was in vain and so seek revenge or the one who turned coward is fearful that they will come after him and so is pre-empting things. The journey too the ending ends up convoluted and frankly frequently stupid.

What this means is that "The Hand" ends up a dull police procedural full of uninteresting dialogue, generic characters and forgettable performances. About the only reasons I can give for anyone to want to watch "The Hand" is either an interest in an actor or a general interest in old British cinema.


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