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Film: The Crawling Hand
Year: 1963
Director: Herbert L. Strock
Writer: Bill Idelson and Herbert L. Strock
Starring: Peter Breck, Kent Taylor and Rod Lauren
Review:
This was a film that I never heard of until coming across it in the Horror Show Guide encyclopedia that I’m working through. I found it interesting that this is from the 60’s, just missing out on the 1950’s horror/sci-fi boom that happened. I’ve now given it a second watch as part of my Traverse through the Threes.
Synopsis: the hand of a dead astronaut comes crawling back from the grave to strangle the living.
We start seeing an astronaut as he looks out of the window. This is how it gives us the credits for this film. This I found to be creative. We then shift to the Earth where Steve Curan (Peter Breck) looks stressed. He oversees a mission where they put a man on the moon and they’re trying to bring him home. The problem is that they lost contact on the way back and that’s where we currently are. They have a countdown until the oxygen runs out as well.
He then meets with Dr. Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor) as they try to figure out what could be happening. That is when they hear the astronaut calling out for help. They turn on a monitor and his face appears. His skin is pale and he has dark circles around his eyes. He is begging them to blow up the ship. What they can’t make sense of is that he’s been without air for twenty minutes. They’re reluctant but relent to put him out of his misery.
It then shifts over to a small town in California. We’re at a little soda shop where we see Donna (Allison Hayes) and her friend Marta Farnstrom (Sirry Steffan) hang out. As they’re chatting, the owner who is a bit of a curmudgeon, played by Syd Saylor, is a harbinger of doom. He saw a large fireball that fell from the sky, but the two young women laugh it off. Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren) then shows up. He is seeing Marta and they’re going to go swimming. Before they can, they stop by the place she is staying. Her grandfather is Prof. Farnstrom (Edward Wermel). He’s Paul’s teacher and through interactions, we learn that Paul is a lone wolf and keeps to himself.
The couple goes off to the beach and goes swimming. They get scared when they find the severed arm of an astronaut in the sand. Paul can’t stop thinking about it and goes back to collect it later that night. Things go dark though when the arm frees itself from the shower curtain Paul collected it in. It then attacks Mrs. Hotchkiss (Arline Judge), the owner of the place where he is staying. Paul calls the sheriff, Townsend (Alan Hale Jr.). He knows there’s something not quite right and thinks Paul could be involved.
Things takes a turn when they learn who the fingerprints found at the scene belong to. Paul has a change come over him as well after he’s also attacked by this crawling hand. Steve and Dr. Weitzberg head there to get to the bottom of what is going on before it is too late.
That’s where I’m going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Something that I left out of the opening was that I came in knowing that this was going to be cheesy as I was trying to find a copy of this to watch and the most popular was a Mystery Science Theater 3000 version. Despite this, I try to keep an open mind to find whatever I can be positive about it. I love sci-fi and space in general as both are just something that amazes me. For science fiction it is interesting to see what people come up with and space, because we know a lot and yet there’s still so much that we don’t know about it as well.
With that idea, I do find the opening conversation from Steve and Dr. Weitzberg interesting. Even more so this second time around. They don’t know how Capt. Mel Lockhart (Ashley Cowan) is communicating with them. He didn’t have oxygen for twenty minutes. This duo brings up that we don’t fully understand cosmic radiation. An example that is used is a rat that was sent up and was different upon returning. No matter what we do, cells, bacteria and whatever else gets on to the spacecraft before it goes up. They surmised that whatever he experienced changed him and he adapted. This also explains how his hand crawls when it comes back to Earth.
I do have an issue here though. The first thing is that if they blew up the ship, then there’s no way this arm could have made it to Earth. It would have burned up in the ship or in the atmosphere. I can ignore this though as during this era that might not completely realized. This is a minor quibble; I will acknowledge that for a B-level 60s horror movie.
The last thing I want to cover with the story that is hit or miss is with Paul. He gets choked, but not killed. This causes him to be altered as well. This I don’t mind. He looks like Capt. Lockhart. Paul’s affliction comes and goes though since he was introduced to lesser amount of exposure. What I don’t like is what happens with him in the end either. It feels like they were running out of time or money so they wrap it up too neatly without explanation. There should have been just a bit more for it to work.
That should be enough for the story so then over to the acting. I think it is fine for a movie like this. Breck showed emotions and I felt his frustration that this mission isn’t working. A man’s life is a stake. He also is bothered when he learns what is happening in California. Taylor plays well off him as the scientist on that team. They make a good duo. Lauren is also solid in his role. The issue I see is that he comes off quiet and brooding so I didn’t see much when he becomes ‘evil’. He does lash out so there is that. I was fine to see Hale in this, as I know him from Gillian’s Island. Steffan is quite attractive and seeing her in a bikini was nice. Hayes was pretty good looking too. It is funny that we have a ‘Crazy Ralph’ character long before Friday the 13th with Saylor. He and the rest of the cast rounded out the movie for what was needed. I do have to point out as a goof, I could see Judge breathing when she was supposed to be dead and she blinks at one point as well.
All that is left would then be with filmmaking. First would be the effects where there aren’t much. The offices and scientific supplies look real enough. Pulling in the cinematography, the framing was good for the crawling hand. The fake arm also looks fine as well as they use stop-motion. I have a soft spot there. The makeup of Paul and Capt. Lockhart when he turns is basic, but still worked. The cinematography is fine. The soundtrack about the same as it fit for what was needed. It is funny that they used ‘The Bird’s the Word’ a couple of different times. That made me chuckle.
In conclusion, this is a low budget sci-fi movie that knows what it is doing. The concept is fine with the logical and potential explanation behind it being the better aspect. What they do to bring the crawling hand to life is the best part. The acting is decent. No one stands out or ruins anything. Seeing Hale was a treat though. This doesn’t have much to work with though. It might be more fun to watch this with a rift track for sure. Just a run of the mill B-sci-fi/horror film.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 10