(The audience does not see if Ingram was pushed or if he fell.) Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. One of the most effective touches with this particular narrative is the way the author allows the reader to be one jump ahead of the protagonist. 0:31. Julie isn't sure she wants the money, but most everyone else responds selfishly. Was this review helpful to you? 0:31. Doctors Jo Wilson, April Kepner, and Andrew DeLuca share the episodes they think are essential to understanding their characters. Daniel Bubbeo . The hand of pianist Victor Aller is shown playing the piano and throughout the movie. Horror. ), for example, is typical of Harvey’s smooth and deceptive style, incorporating as it does sly moments of gentle humour amongst the dark and sinister shadows. Synopsis: Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. Certificate: Passed In a turn-of-the-century Renaissance Italian mansion, its tyrannical owner, a one-handed, wheelchair-bound pianist, with a strong belief in the occult, is murdered. A few days later, Donald's father Raymond Arlington (Charles Dingle) arrives, determined to ensure that his son gets the inheritance. The film's score was composed by Max Steiner. Ingram falls down the stairs, breaking his neck. The Beast With Five Fingers. “We absolutely hated the title,” says Andrea with a sigh. In Paris, a demented surgeon's obsession with a British actress leads him to secretly replace her concert pianist husband's mangled hands with those of a guillotined murderer with a gift for knife-throwing. Yes, he is excellent, but wouldn't it be nice to see him the hero occasionally, instead of the delusional, pathetic villain? Was there also an alternate ending to this movie? These include his nurse, Julie Holden (Andrea King); his secretary and astrologist Hillary Cummins (Peter Lorre); a friend, Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda); and his sister's son, Donald Arlington (John Alvin). Buy $9.99. The Beast With Five Fingers. But it seems impossible for anyone to have gotten in or out. He theorizes that Cummins cut off the hand, killed Duprex, and tried to kill Raymond. But Julie is secretly in love with Conrad. Can't play on this device. The Beast With Five Fingers [Part-1] Black & White Series. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Ingram has fallen in love with Julie Holden, and has changed his will so that she receives the vast bulk of his enormous estate when he dies. In 1946, Andrea King stepped reluctantly in front of the cameras at Warner Bros. to make what is now probably her best-known film. I shall never forget the awe in which I gazed up at Ingram, outraged at the slander on his beloved's good name, tries to choke Cummins to death. p.262 "Curt Siodmak Interview" by Patrick McGilligan, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) – Robert Florey", "The Beast With Five Fingers (1946) – Rotten Tomatoes", https://web.archive.org/web/20091231170928/http://thenostalgialeague.com/olmag/beast.html, The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Beast_with_Five_Fingers&oldid=1003911412, Articles needing additional references from October 2017, All articles needing additional references, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017, Articles to be expanded from October 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 31 January 2021, at 08:12. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Genre: Horror, Mystery. Number one is Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre (Casablanca)… The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness. The wealthy, partly paralyzed Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) surprises his family when he announces that he's changed his will to leave his large villa and fortune to his nurse Julie Holden (Andrea King). He has retreated to the manor house for the past few years—seen by only a few close friends. A mad scientist turns a man into an electrically-controlled monster to do his bidding. It is a horror/mystery and a film noir. There are a couple of things I like about a movie like this. The Beast With Five Fingers still holds up pretty well in my opinion. “The Beast With Five Fingers” was released in 1946 and was directed by Robert Florey. By that point, his mind had snapped, making him believe his own fabricated plot. Rent $2.99. Directed by Robert Florey. In 1945, a strange mix of Germans, military personnel and civilians, pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi, celebrities and escaped prisoners, converges at a lavish hotel in heavily-bombed Berlin. [7] The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story written by W. F. Harvey and first published in 1919 in The New Decameron. Barbara Brown Mrs. Miller. The film stars Robert Alda, Victor Francen, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre. The brilliant and scary "The Beast with Five Fingers", is the first entry in this mammoth collection of strange and chilling short stories by W. F. Harvey, an unjustly neglected author of supernatural tales. Film icon Peter Lorre turns in yet another memorable performance in this eerie classic set in a small town in Italy. Directed by Robert Florey. When an errant bomb unearths the coffin of a vampire during the London Blitz, a gravedigger unknowingly reanimates the monster by removing the stake from his heart. Overview System Requirements Related. An escaped convict uses miniaturized humans to wreak vengeance on those that framed him. The Andrew Klavan Show: Hip Hip Hypocrisy! My father had called to appeal for a subscription, and before he left, Mr. Borlsover laid his right hand in blessing on my head. Title: [4] The piece much played throughout the film is a slightly modified version of Brahms' transcription for left hand of the chaconne from Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Partita in D minor, performed by Warner Bros. pianist Victor Aller. (1946). Castanio and Conrad discover a hidden record player with a recording of Ingram's piano playing and conclude that Cummins had been playing it to scare people. He discovers that someone has broken into the Ingram mausoleum and that Ingram's left hand has been cut off. I first saw it some70 years ago and remembered an ending where as the Doctor drove away for the last time, the light in the mausoleum came on and a piano could be heard playing.If it wasn't 'The Beast With Five Fingers', is there another horror flick of the same period with an ending like that?Having just re-seen it, my grandkids were just as impressed with Peter Lorre, who they had never seen before, as are all the other reviewers here. The film's score was composed by Max Steiner. Commissario Ovidio Castanio (J. Carrol Naish) of the local police investigates the death, but finds little sign of murder. Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider. A well off English bachelor receives a legacy from his uncle. An endocrinologist in a dysfunctional marriage with an aging, alcoholic wife journeys to Africa seeking a drug that will restore youth. [citation needed], Filming started 27 November 1945. Warner Bros., 1946. Let our editors help you find what's trending and what's worth your time. They discover the old will...and the disembodied hand. Written by He climbs into his wheelchair, makes it to the top of the stairs, and calls out for Julie (who never comes to his aid). Director (s): Robert Florey. Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film two and a half out of a possible four stars, calling it "[an] Intriguing, if not entirely successful mood piece". The alleged killer: the pianist's severed hand. Peter Lorre and Andrea King star in “The Beast With Five Fingers.”. [5], On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89% based on 18 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 6.6/10. Its atmospheric direction is brilliant.The cast, too, is excellent: Andrea King, a damsel in distress but a little icy and with kind of an edge (and a hairstyle resembling a headdress0; Robert Alda as the wry romantic lead figure. [2] The screenwriter Curt Siodmak had originally written the film for Henreid, who turned it down. [citation needed], The film was released on Laser Disc by MGM/UA Home Video on March 16, 1999 and released on DVD by Warner Brothers on October 1, 2013. [citation needed], Graham Baker was reported as working on a script for Warner Bros in 1945. View production, box office, & company info. The Beast With Five Fingers is a rather indiscriminate collection for a 'Mystery & Supernatural' imprint, with only a third of the tales qualifying as horror (several of which are psychological rather than supernatural) and only one real mystery tale. He comes to his senses, and is not harmed. Patricia White Clara. Number one is Peter Lorre. The Beast with Five Fingers ★★½ 1946After a pianist mysteriously dies and leaves his fortune to his private nurse, the occupants of his villa are terrorized by a creature that turns out to be the pianist's hand which was severed by his personal secretary (Lorre). The change in the will disinherits Arlington and Cummins, and Cummins tries to expose Holden's affair. See Full Cast + Crew for The Beast With Five Fingers. That night, Duprex is strangled by an unseen assailant. Volcanic activity frees giant scorpions from the earth who wreak havoc in the rural countryside and eventually threaten Mexico City. The Beast with Five Fingers AugustusSheldon. It is a horror/mystery and a film noir. The disappearance of people and corpses leads a reporter to a wax museum and a sinister sculptor. The Beast With Five Fingers When I was a little boy I once went with my father to call on Adrian Borlsover. Ingram suffered a stroke which left his right side immobile, and he has to use a wheelchair to get around. The Beast with Five Fingers (click to read! I played on the floor with a black spaniel while my father appealed for a subscription. A house cat sees her mistress murdered by two servants under orders from her husband , and becomes ferociously bent on revenge. Only Julie's arrival (after meeting Conrad in the garden) saves him. Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA. The audience now begins to see a disembodied hand moving around the manor house. Released 1946. Use the HTML below. Locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. Cummins (now completely mentally unhinged) tries to burn it in the fire, but the hand crawls out and chokes him, fading out of existence after he dies. The hand attacks Cummins, but he is able to assuage the hand's quest for vengeance by returning to the hand Ingram's signet ring. That night, everyone hears Ingram playing the piano in the main hall, but when they go to check no one is there. The Beast with Five Fingers by W.F. With Rich Koz, Doug Scharf. Full E-book Five Little Ducks: Fingers Toes Nursery Rhyme Book: Fingers Toes Tabbed Board Book. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 film about a one-handed, wheelchair-bound pianist, with a strong belief in the occult, who is murdered. The Beast with Five Fingers. The film stars Robert Alda, Victor Francen, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre. Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) is a noted pianist who lives in a large manor house near a small, isolated Italian village. 16 of 24 people found this review helpful. An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Bob Mastrangelo from Allmovie gave the film a positive review, calling it "effectively eerie", and praised the film's special effects.[8]. Meanwhile, Donald remembers the combination and location of an old safe in the house, and Castanio and his father accompany him to the room where it is located. In a turn-of-the-century Renaissance Italian mansion, its tyrannical owner, a one-handed, wheelchair-bound pianist, with a strong belief in the occult, is murdered. The Beast with Five Fingers is set in a studio-created Italy. More Cast Members. The Arlingtons try to search for the old will, while suspicion falls on Cummins after he tries to remove several expensive old books from the manor house. [3] Robert Alda was cast instead. John Alvin, Charles Dingle, and J. Carrol Naish. The film was Warner Bros.' only foray into the horror genre in the 1940s and was Peter Lorre's last film with the studio. This includes the uncle's very large library and a box containing something that used to belong to his uncle. Distributor Warner Bros. Robert Florey directed and Curt Siodmak wrote it, but Luis Bunuel’s fingerprints (heh, heh) are allegedly all over the concept for this earliest and best of the crawling hand movies. The alleged killer: the pianist's severed hand. Showcasing another wild screenplay from horror master Curt Siodmak, The Beast with Five Fingers takes place almost entirely in the dark mansion of Francis Ingram, a wealthy recluse who lives in the village of San Stefano in early 20th century Italy. THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS 45 was a similar movie by Oliver Stone called The Hand in 1981, but Stone had the advantage of digital technology to animate his murderous beast, which belonged not to a musician but a cartoonist.) Written by Curt Siodmak. Title: The Beast with Five Fingers Author: W. F. Harvey The story, I suppose, begins with Adrian Borlsover, whom I met when I was a little boy and he an old man. Someone watching The Beast With Five Fingers today will surely wonder how it was done, in the pre-digital era and The Beast With Five Fingers (1946)Director: Robert FloreyStarring Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre There are a couple of things I like about a movie like this. With Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen. “The Beast With Five Fingers” was released in 1946 and was directed by Robert Florey. The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story written by W. F. Harvey and first published in 1919 in The New Decameron. William Edmunds Antonio. The Beast With Five Fingers. The Beast With Five Fingers Reviews. LibriVox recording of The Beast With Five Fingers by W. F. Harvey. The alleged killer: the pianist's severed hand. This movie has you on the edge of your seat. Once you select Rent you'll have 14 days to start watching the movie and 24 hours to finish it. The movie has solid acting and nice production values for a movie that is almost 75 years old. Tonight on MeTV- we bring you an iconic horror star in what was the Warner Bros. Studios only dip into the horror genre in the 1940s- and was the final film for the studio of the star himself- as Peter Lorre faces mystery, murder, and- the “Beast with Five Fingers”! Castanio begins to investigate. [6] Julie realizes that Cummins, who is now firmly convinced that the hand is out for vengeance and even sees it playing the piano, is responsible for the attacks and confronts him; he tries to kill her, but she is able to escape by claiming to believe his claims about the hand. The Beast With Five Fingers [Part-2] Black & White Series. Svengoolie.com. In a fit of madness, Donald flees the house with Conrad in pursuit. Turner Classic Movies Unveils It's Halloween Movie Schedule, May 30th Blu-ray & DVD Releases Include The Blackcoat’S Daughter, The Hearse, Movies that should have won the Oscar for best picture (in chronological order), The scariest horror movie poster with a hand as it's main feature. Among his best-known stories are "August Heat" and "The Beast with Five Fingers", described by horror historian Les Daniels as "minor masterpieces". Ray Walker Miller. 42:04. [1] Robert Florey was assigned to direct with Andrea King and Paul Henreid to star. )It's scary and has superb music and gorgeous photography.It does have two flaws: the illogical central conceit of a disembodied hand and the obvious casting of Lorre. Directed by Christopher M. Faulkner. Belle Mitchell Giovanna. The Beast With Five Fingers takes place in an Italian village where the locals believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. Previous Cast Members. The Beast with Five Fingers. Pedro de Cordoba Horatio. Check system requirements. Need some help finding the best things to watch on Netflix? Drama, Certificate: Passed Donald is attacked and almost choked to death by a hand and witnessed by Castanio. And of course, Peter Lorre -- neurotic as ever (in roles he was cast in. At the moment, let's spend a moment with what amounts the the last big studio attempt at horror in the 1940s: the 1946 Warner Bros. production The Beast with Five Fingers, which premiered at the tale end of that year (on Christmas Day, in fact), and had most of its run in 1947. Duprex (David Hoffman), Ingram's attorney, is "persuaded" (by the agreement of his getting a third of the estate) into helping Raymond overturn the new will in favor of the old one, telling him that there is evidence indicating Ingram was of unsound mind. Harvey Posted on December 14, 2009 by skullsinthestars I’ve been trying to keep up with my weird fiction reading while I’ve been working on my physics textbook, though it’s been pretty hard to read a major work considering I spend most of my evenings doing research for the text. 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