‘He experimented in horror!’
Hand of Death is a 1962 sci-fi horror film about a scientist who creates a serum combining a hypnotic drug and nerve gas. Unfortunately, he spills the formula, breathing the vapours and transforms into a hideous murderous monster.
The movie was directed by Gene Nelson from a screenplay by producer Eugene Ling for Associated Producers Inc. (API). Screenplay writer Harry Spalding said that 20th Century Fox initially rejected the project but passed it on to Robert L. Lippert’s company, which had made low budget movies for them in the past.
Ling was apparently assigned to write the script because Maury Dexter, a producer/director himself, said that Lippert “owed him a favour.” According to Dexter, they could not find an experienced director for the film because the script was so too weak. Nelson had acted in the past and was keen to direct, so Lippert gave him the job. Shooting took just seven days.
The notable theremin and bongo fuelled score was by Sonny Burke, whilst the widescreen 2:35:1 Cinemascope cinematography was by Floyd Crosby, Roger Corman’s frequent collaborator during this period.
The monster in the film closely resembles the character of Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) from the best-selling Marvel Comics magazine The Fantastic Four, right down to the hat and trenchcoat the character used to hide himself from the public in the comic book stories. The comic book series premiered in September 1961, and may well have served as the template for Agar’s makeup in the film
The movie stars John Agar (The Mole People; The Brain from Planet Arous; Zontar: The Thing from Venus) Paula Raymond (Blood of Dracula’s Castle), Stephen Dunne (TV series Quatermass II), Roy Gordon (The Unearthly; Attack of the 50 Foot Woman; The Wasp Woman), John A. Alonzo (Bewitched), Jack Younger (Dinosaurus!), Joe Besser (Savage Intruder; The New Scooby-Doo Movies; Scooby’s Laff-A Lympics) , Butch Patrick, Norman Burton (Fade to Black; Mausoleum; Deep Space).
Plot [contains spoilers]:
Scientist Alex Marsh )John Agar) has invented a powerful paralytic-hypnotic nerve gas for the military that he has been testing on sheep in the Mojave Desert. The local mailman blunders into the test site and is overcome but recovers without ill effect.
A confident Alex rushes to the home of Doctor Frederick Ramsey, his mentor, to tell him about it. Alex’s girlfriend Carol Wilson and his colleague Tom Holland are also there. Alex designed the gas as a way to eliminate casualties at war by placing those exposed to it in a trance-like state for a certain amount of time, at which time the exposed are compliant to any commands given to them. Although Carol feels the project is both dangerous and immoral, Alex continues his testing, vowing not to stop until he has found a way to eliminate the loss of life in war.
While working in the lab, Alex accidentally spills a liquefied version of the nerve gas and, in haste to clean it up, accidentally gets some of it on his hands. The next day, Alex awakens to discover his extremities have darkened, and have become irritating and painful.
When his assistant Carlos touches him, Carlos withers away and dies. Panicking, Alex sets the lab afire to cover Carlos’s death and heads to Ramsey’s. When Alex stops as a gas station, the attendant dies after touching him, causing Alex to flee in horror.
Arriving at Ramsey’s house, Alex begs him to find an antidote, which Ramsey eventually agrees to do with the help of Tom. After the first attempted cure has no effect, a desperate Alex consumes the vial of serum Ramsey was working on. Instead of curing his condition like Alex had hoped, the serum mutates him further, bloating and darkening his body until he is unrecognizable.
Horrified by his monstrous appearance, Alex accidentally kills Ramsey and flees. Attempting to cover his now deformed features with a trench coat and a fedora, Alex tries to hail a cab but the driver is unable to understand his muffled speech, and when the cabbie tries to get Alex out of the cab he is killed after touching him and Alex flees in the cab. He later falls asleep on the beach in a deserted area where a small boy playing on the rocks almost discovers him accidentally.
Alex later abandons the cab and stumbles toward Tom’s house, where Carol is staying. Breaking into the house Alex attempts to speak to a terrified Carol, but can only scrawl a note in shaky handwriting that simply reads “Tom serum Help.”
The police soon arrive and Alex flees to the beach, where he is surrounded by the armed police. Although Carol pleas for Alex to surrender, the mutated scientist whose mind has become warped lunges towards them and is promptly gunned down in the surf.
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“Resembling The Hideous Sun Demon but completely lacking that picture’s personality, Hand of Death at least offers one of the more bizarre monster suits of the 1960s […] As in The Incredible Melting Man, our doomed hero does little more than wander around and kill a few people by accident…” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers book
“Hand of Death is not an important or remarkable movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it is an amazing artifact — and the Fantastic Four parallel will keep it visible for decades to come, if only to curious comic fans.” Stephen R. Bissette, Monster! magazine, issue 7
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Choice dialogue:
Alex Marsh (John Agar): “Do you realise, this is a weapon that is so powerful, it could conceivably banish nuclear warfare?”
Cast and characters:
John Agar as Alex Marsh
Paula Raymond as Carol Wilson
Stephen Dunne as Tom Holland (as Steve Dunne)
Roy Gordon as Doctor Frederick Ramsey
John A. Alonzo as Carlos, lab assistant (as John Alonzo)
Jack Younger as Mike The Mailman
Joe Besser as Service station Attendant
Butch Patrick as Davey, little boy on beach (later Eddie Munster in the TV series)
Norman Burton as Chief Homicide Investigator
Fred Krone as Cab Driver
Kevin Enright as Police Photographer
Jack Donner as Cop (as Jack Doner)
Chuck Niles as Reporter
Ruth Terry as Woman with Packages
Bob Whitney as Cop
Filming locations:
Malibu, California
Santa Monica, California
Working titles:
Five Fingers of Death
The Death Walker
Release:
Hand of Death was released in the USA in March 1962. It played theatrically on a double-bill with The Cabinet of Caligari (1962).
Trailer:
Full film – free to watch online on YouTube:
Related:
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