The Devil’s Hand

‘This is the hand of terror!’

The Devil’s Hand is a 1959 (released 1961) American film directed by William J. Hole Jr. (Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow; U.S. footage for Face of Terror) from a screenplay by Jo Heims (Play Misty for Me; You’ll Like My Mother). It was produced by Rex Carlton (The Brain That Wouldn’t Die; Nightmare in Wax; Blood of Dracula’s Castle). The film stars Linda Christian, Robert Alda, Ariadne Welter (The Vampire; The Vampire’s Coffin; The Brainiac), Neil Hamilton, Jeanne Carmen (The Monster of Piedras Blancas; The Naked Monster), Bruno VeSota (The Undead; A Bucket of Blood; Attack of the Giant Leeches).

The film features a delightfully cheesy surf guitar-saxophone-piano theme by Baker Knight. In the U.S., the film was distributed by Crown International Pictures.

Plot teaser:

Rick Turner is engaged to Donna Trent but is having nightmares involving a beautiful blonde woman who appears to be dancing in the sky. One night, he is mysteriously driven to enter a doll shop, and in the next morning he returns to the place with Donna. He finds a doll that resembles his fiancé, but the owner Francis Lamont delivers another doll to him, with the face of the woman of his dreams, Bianca Milan. Rick looks for Bianca and is seduced and convinced by her to join a sect that worships the diabolic “Devil-god of Evil” Gamba, while the health of Donna is threatened by Francis and Bianca. Francis Lamont, the “High Executioner” of the sect, threatens various members of the cult via his voodoo powers, which are also used upon a journalist who infiltrates the sect…

Reviews:

“The Devil’s Hand is talky and has extremely cheap-looking sets but the cast is pretty good (particularly Hamilton and the luscious Christian) and the plot is well-paced and engaging enough to maintain interest.” The Bloody Pit of Horror

“Jo Heims (who would later pen the Clint Eastwood vehicles Play Misty for Me and Dirty Harry) laced the film with some unexpected turns and neat surprises (who’s that cult member with the hidden camera?), and supplied a wrap-up that was quite fiery and frenetic, and which seemed to leave things open for a sequel. Give this a try on a slow night…you may be surprised.” Cinema Monolith

” … hilariously loopy in an endearing innocent kind of way, but with more than a touch of sleaze to the whole thing. There’s a ton of implied sex, which is kind of surprising for the time … The whole movie is pretty much about a dude cheating on his fiancee, who’s in the hospital for most of the running time with a voodoo induced chest injury. I won’t even get into the misogyny that lurks behind of all this either.” The Dollar Horror Blog