THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS

US, 1946, 89 minutes, Black and white.
Peter Lorre, Andrea King, Robert Alda, J. Carroll Naish, Victor Francen, Charles Dingle.
Directed by Robert Florey.

The Beast With Five Fingers was a popular horror film of the 1940s. It capitalised on a grotesque story of a possessed hand. While the film initially built up atmosphere, especially with Peter Lorre, the film explains away too much at the end. Nevertheless, for the time that it is on the screen, it is an enjoyable example of high-handed horror.

1. The popularity of this kind of horror film? Nightmare? Violence?

2. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, the Italian settings, studio backgrounds? The special effects for the murderous hand? Max Steiner's score?

3. The focus on the hand, the death of Francis Ingram, invalid, pianist, his death - and the bequest to Julie? His cutting off his brother? Cutting off his secretary? The aftermath of his death and funeral?

4. The gathering in the villa? His left hand cut off? The right hand having cut off the left?

5. Murders? The investigation of the tomb?

6. The atmosphere of murders? The detective?

7. The focus on the separated hand and its playing the piano, its moving about, the deaths? The explanation to explain away the hand at the end? Spoiling the effect?

8. Peter Lorre and his horror style? The contrast with the hero and heroine and their being vindicated? actions?

9. The horror theme - what if ... ?