1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 3 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And we're 4 00:00:18,720 --> 00:00:21,280 Speaker 1: going back to the nineties on this one. This is 5 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: gonna be only the second time we have ventured into 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: the forties. The last time was for the film Dr Cyclops, 7 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:31,320 Speaker 1: and uh, this time we're going in for the Beast 8 00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:37,280 Speaker 1: with Five Fingers from nineteen Both of these films, uh 9 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:40,879 Speaker 1: that we've done from the forties have unusually good special 10 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: effects for their time. So Dr Cyclops the premise was 11 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,240 Speaker 1: there's a mad scientist who gets a bunch of people 12 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: into his house and then he shrinks them down to 13 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,840 Speaker 1: about the size of mice and they have to find 14 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: a way to to defeat the giant. But this movie 15 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: is a killer severed hand movie. So uh so you 16 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: might wonder, well, I don't know how good could the 17 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: killer severed hand effects be in nineteen forty six, but 18 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,959 Speaker 1: I gotta say really good. Yeah, the special effects in 19 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: this film are are pretty great. Uh, you know, especially 20 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: for the time period. They're they're very effective. Um, you know, 21 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: if you're if you're looking for the flaws. I'm sure 22 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:18,680 Speaker 1: you can. You can find them. You know that's not 23 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: an actual disembodied hand crawling across the floor. Um. You 24 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:24,839 Speaker 1: know that if you're looking for a whole lot of blood, 25 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: you're not going to find it in the n picture 26 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:30,400 Speaker 1: for the most part. But it's there's still some wonderfully 27 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: creepy scenes, especially when you have um, the wonderfully weird 28 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: actor Peter Lori interacting with it. Because if anybody can 29 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: act opposite a rubber hand and and make you believe it, 30 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:45,800 Speaker 1: it's going to be somebody of Laurie's caliber. That's right. 31 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: This movie has to meat spiders in it. One is 32 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: the hand and the other is Peter Laurie. That's right. Now. 33 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 1: One of the fun things about this is that I 34 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: believe we actually mentioned this title though neither of us 35 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: had seen it yet, when we covered the ninety five 36 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:04,600 Speaker 1: film Mad Love, which that that one was just wonderful 37 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:09,080 Speaker 1: film starring Peter Laurie, Francis Dre Colin Clive, and that 38 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 1: film featured hand transplants and supernatural paranoid ideas of what 39 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: that might mean. As we discussed at that point, hand 40 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:22,040 Speaker 1: transplants were science fiction. It had not been pulled off yet, 41 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,079 Speaker 1: and this was a film that you know, went wild 42 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: with the idea. Well, if if I received the hands 43 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,959 Speaker 1: of a knife thrower, then am I now a knife thrower? 44 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:37,920 Speaker 1: You know where? Yes you are? Yeah, undoubtedly, and it 45 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: was well utilized in the plot. Now that tradition storytelling 46 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:45,640 Speaker 1: tradition goes back at least as far as the film 47 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: The Hands of Oarlock, which is based on the same 48 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,800 Speaker 1: source material as Mad Love. But The Beast with Five 49 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,080 Speaker 1: Fingers takes things in a related but different direction entirely. 50 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: And that is, if you if you cut a hand 51 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 1: off of somebody, if some if you remove the hand, 52 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: does something of the the original humans will survive in 53 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: that hand? What could that hand have a life of 54 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: its own? Could it crawl around and manipulate things? Could 55 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: it strangle people? Uh? And so forth, which I guess 56 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: is related to some of the anxieties and in sci 57 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: fi ponderings that you find in works like Mad Love. 58 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: But this takes it into an even more ridiculous and 59 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,720 Speaker 1: special effects powered level of monster movie. Well, there are 60 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: actually even more similarities than we've already mentioned, because if 61 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 1: you'll recall in Mad Love and the story was based 62 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: on which I guess is the hands of Orlock. Orlock 63 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: is not the name of Peter Laurie's character. Peter Lorii 64 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: is the is the sort of is the mad surgeon 65 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: who does the hand transplant, and Orlock is the name 66 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:54,440 Speaker 1: of Colin Clive's character, who is a concert pianist. He's like, 67 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: these hands have great talent, and his hands are badly 68 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 1: damaged in a train accident. Colin Clive is riding in 69 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: a train car with a man who has a large 70 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: sausage with him and I think, also like a dog 71 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: in a picanic basket. Uh, but I think the train crashes, 72 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: his hands are harmed, and his his beloved comes to 73 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie and is like, save my you know. She's like, 74 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:21,359 Speaker 1: save my, my fiance's brilliant hands. And the way that 75 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie saves his brilliant hands is by transplanting the 76 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: hands of a murderer onto this concert pianist. And he finds, 77 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: you know, okay, it works. His hands, he can use them, 78 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: but now he's not really good at the piano anymore. 79 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: And instead what he's really good at is wielding a knife. Yeah, 80 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,320 Speaker 1: he's an he's an expert knife thrower. Now, now this 81 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: movie is also got some weird hand magic going on, 82 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: also involving somebody who's a concert pianist. It does. Yeah, 83 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,160 Speaker 1: And this one is also notable for being I believe, 84 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:56,479 Speaker 1: I believe, unless I'm missing something like, this is the 85 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: film that starts at all with crawling hand movies. It's 86 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: easy to to take crawling hands for granted now because 87 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,679 Speaker 1: it's a you know, it's a well established trope. Crawling 88 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: hands are in the Dungeons and Dragons Monster manual, you 89 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:12,080 Speaker 1: know that sort of thing. Yeah, Adams Family is a 90 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,480 Speaker 1: big one. The thing now, in in that I was 91 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,560 Speaker 1: looking it up, the thing dates back I think to 92 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:21,040 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four. I think that's when it first popped 93 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 1: up in the Charles Adams comic of the Adams Family. 94 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: But of course it famously appeared in the TV series 95 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,120 Speaker 1: and of course factored into the two major nineteen nineties 96 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:33,800 Speaker 1: films of the Adams Family, as well as the third 97 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: I want to say made for TV or direct to 98 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,359 Speaker 1: video sequel. But one thing I was surprised at, and 99 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:42,720 Speaker 1: that is that the thing in those films, all three 100 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,080 Speaker 1: of those, was played by Canadian actor and magician Christopher 101 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: Hart Um, which it makes sense. If you want to 102 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,160 Speaker 1: you want somebody to play a disembodied hand, you get 103 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,800 Speaker 1: a slide a hand guy, you get a magician in there, right, Yeah, 104 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: the graceful movements and the well I mean the magicians 105 00:05:56,680 --> 00:05:59,240 Speaker 1: are are practiced at doing a twirl of the fingers right, 106 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: kind of dazzle you while they misdirect your attention. Now, um, now, Rob, 107 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: I noticed though you keep calling it the thing. I 108 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: think it's just thing. I think thing is its name. 109 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: I think you're you're correct on that thing, not the thing. Now. 110 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: In terms of other crawling hand features that came out 111 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,280 Speaker 1: after the Beast with five fingers, you have three is 112 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: the crawling hand. You have a segment of the amicast 113 00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: film Dr Terre's House of Horrors from sixty five, starring 114 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: Christopher Lee. There's another film from Amicus titled and Now 115 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: the Screaming Starts, and that has Peter Cushing and Herbert 116 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: Lawm in it. There's also a Mexican horror film that 117 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: I believe I've watched part of called Demonoid Messenger of 118 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 1: Death crawling hand movie. Uh. There's also famously The Hand 119 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: from One as well, directed by Oliver Stone and starring 120 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:53,800 Speaker 1: Michael Caine. Have you seen this one, Joe, I haven't, 121 00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: but I've seen it described as a remake of the 122 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,000 Speaker 1: movie we're talking about today, The Beast with Five Fingers. 123 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:01,679 Speaker 1: I don't know if that's act it. I don't remember 124 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: being angry. This is a film that I think I 125 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: watched it on any uh, like on a Sunday afternoon 126 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:08,039 Speaker 1: back in the day. It was one that was in 127 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: in rotation there, and I remember being it seemed to 128 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,720 Speaker 1: be like more of a serious psychological treatment. But no, no, 129 00:07:16,920 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 1: I take that back. I think there was really a 130 00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 1: crawling hand in it. Uh. But yeah, Michael Caine's good 131 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: in it, and he's like a comic book artist. It's 132 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: weirdly named Joe Lansdale. I think, um, John Lansdale. Okay, 133 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:32,320 Speaker 1: But every time I look it up, I'm like, is 134 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,120 Speaker 1: that supposed to be a reference to Joe Lansdale? I 135 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: don't know. Okay, so that but in that one, is 136 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:40,600 Speaker 1: it also like his hand has such talent in it 137 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,000 Speaker 1: and then it becomes severed from his body and goes 138 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 1: and does its own business. Yeah yeah, but then it 139 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: comes back. Um. But yeah, there's also a lot of 140 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: like you know Michael Caine, dark psychological stuff going on 141 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,120 Speaker 1: in that one. Um. Now, if you're an Evil Dead fan, 142 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: The Evil Dead two from eight seven famously features some 143 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: crawling hands and an aggins. Right, Ash's hand becomes possessed 144 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: by a demon and he has to chop it off 145 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 1: and then put it under a bucket which he weighs 146 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: down with a stack of books, the top of which 147 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: is a farewell to arms. Oh yeah, and that's the thing, 148 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,280 Speaker 1: right It kind of, I guess increases. It's so well 149 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:19,480 Speaker 1: known at this point that it's increasingly about gags, So 150 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: I think there's a crawling hand gag briefly at least 151 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: in lepre Con. And then there is the comedy horror 152 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: film from UH titled Idle Hands. Um. I vaguely remember 153 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 1: seeing this one. I want to say it has either 154 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: either Gary Busey's son or that other guy. Is it 155 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:45,640 Speaker 1: Matthew Lillard or Jake Busey. I don't think either one. 156 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,199 Speaker 1: I've seen it. I think I saw this with that 157 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: money that one of those two guys is in this movie. 158 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: It's got Devin Salwa, he's the main guy. He plays 159 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: a stoner kid. It has Jessica Alba who was all 160 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: the rage at the time. It has Seth green End 161 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: another guy who plays you know, they play a couple 162 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:09,400 Speaker 1: of stoner buddies. I definitely don't recall Jake Busey or 163 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: or who's the other one? You said, Uh what, Matthew Lillard. No, No, 164 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:17,760 Speaker 1: there are no little Ardians in the film at all. 165 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: Uh well, there you go. In my in my mind, 166 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: I see them clearly running running around with a disembodied hand. 167 00:09:25,720 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 1: Well I can see why you think that, because it 168 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:30,880 Speaker 1: has some of the same sheen or grime to it 169 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:36,160 Speaker 1: as say Hackers, Like it's going for a alternative, stoner 170 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:39,680 Speaker 1: cool kid in the late nineties sort of thing. I 171 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,520 Speaker 1: guess Hackers was probably earlier, maybe early nineties, I'm not sure. 172 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:46,360 Speaker 1: But anyway, it's it's not it's not quite at that level. 173 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 1: It's more of a low brow stoner horror comedy. A 174 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: lot of the jokes are about marijuana. Okay. Interestingly enough, 175 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:57,880 Speaker 1: Christopher Hart, who played Thing in those three Adams Family movies, 176 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,120 Speaker 1: also plays the hand in Idle Hands. It's the best 177 00:10:01,160 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 1: performance in the film. Oh and then also, um, this 178 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:06,520 Speaker 1: guy goes on to play a hand in an episode 179 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: of TV's Angel As well, I never watched Angel, that's 180 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:13,560 Speaker 1: the Buffy spinoff. That the Buffy spinoff. Yeah, but yeah, 181 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: I wasn't familiar with Christopher Heart beforehand, but that this 182 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: was beforehand. This was three guy for disembodied hands for 183 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: pretty much an entire decade. So I guess my my 184 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 1: main point here is that, yeah, this is this film 185 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: sets a trend. This film, uh introduces what would become 186 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: a trope, and so it's interesting to go back and 187 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:37,080 Speaker 1: watch it and think, well, audience had audiences had never 188 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 1: seen this before. It's old hat to anybody who lived 189 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:43,440 Speaker 1: during the age of the Adams family. You know. But 190 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:45,679 Speaker 1: but but at the time, like these scenes where you 191 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:49,679 Speaker 1: finally see the beast with five fingers, which is a hand, 192 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,120 Speaker 1: is a disembodied hand, it's uh, it's pretty shocking, especially 193 00:10:54,160 --> 00:10:56,600 Speaker 1: since the effects are so good. Yeah, I agree. Now, 194 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: I know we set this up at the beginning sort 195 00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: of in contrast Mad Love, and I would not say 196 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: that this movie is anywhere near as great as Mad Love, 197 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 1: but on its own terms, it is a uh fun 198 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: and silly and pretty inventive little little horror thriller with 199 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,480 Speaker 1: with good special effects for the time. Yeah, absolutely, Now 200 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:19,400 Speaker 1: at this point. Yeah, do we even need to give 201 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:21,719 Speaker 1: an elevator pitch. We've sort of already done it. It's like, 202 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:24,840 Speaker 1: what if there were a murder mystery in which the 203 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: hand of the killer wasn't attached to a wrist. Yes, well, 204 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:41,240 Speaker 1: let's hear some trailer audio. A piano, long, silent mysteriously plays. Again, 205 00:11:41,679 --> 00:11:44,640 Speaker 1: it's weird. Anomalous chords filling up a deviled house was 206 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:48,600 Speaker 1: to talk to terror A concerto of a dead cobra, 207 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,680 Speaker 1: music of a dead man played by a hand that 208 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,840 Speaker 1: returned from the grave to wreak vengeance on his betrayals, 209 00:11:56,440 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: marking each for a murder as it strikes within human power, 210 00:12:00,200 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: A horrifying monster that takes its evil commands from beyond 211 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:07,880 Speaker 1: that cannot return to the tool until it completes its 212 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:47,960 Speaker 1: mission of destruction. Now, one thing that's worth noting about 213 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,160 Speaker 1: this film too, and I'm not sure I'm not sure 214 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: if this was was ever even possible, but it seems 215 00:12:53,800 --> 00:12:56,839 Speaker 1: like if you were watching this with absolutely no spoilers 216 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,520 Speaker 1: and having never seen the trailer or a poster or anything, 217 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: the big reveal that the hand is crawling around on 218 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,679 Speaker 1: its own mound have been more impactful. Um because they 219 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: kind of set it up like what's happening, what's you know? 220 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:11,840 Speaker 1: And the first time you see the hand, you can't 221 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: tell that it has that it's not attached to a body. Right, 222 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: somebody will appear in the crack of a door and 223 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: then a hand reaches around from behind them and grabs 224 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,160 Speaker 1: their throat and starts choking them. But for all you know, 225 00:13:25,240 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: the hand could in fact be attached to a risk. 226 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: It could just be somebody killing this guy. Uh. And 227 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:33,320 Speaker 1: then there's actually some question later on in the movie 228 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:35,800 Speaker 1: about whether it is. In fact, it probably is, the 229 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,319 Speaker 1: movie implies, but it doesn't make it clear even when 230 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:41,440 Speaker 1: you see the hand, that the hand is not just 231 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: a regular hand that you know, that's running around on 232 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:46,080 Speaker 1: its own. You don't get to that until probably two 233 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: thirds of the way through the movie. Yeah, all right, well, 234 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:50,760 Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the people involved in this one. 235 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: The director is Robert Florey, who lived nine hundred through 236 00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:01,679 Speaker 1: ninety nine, industrial strength French American director who worked from 237 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:04,360 Speaker 1: the twenties through the sixties. One of these guys where 238 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:08,040 Speaker 1: you check out his filmography and it's a it's just 239 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:10,680 Speaker 1: this long list of a hundred and eighteen credits. He 240 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:13,600 Speaker 1: was just absolutely cranking out pictures during the nineteen thirties, 241 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:18,319 Speaker 1: especially he's hustling. Yeah. Now, his early career was apparently 242 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:23,720 Speaker 1: more about avant garde expressionist work, but he increasingly became 243 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:26,400 Speaker 1: just like a cinematic workhouse and also apparently the very 244 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,480 Speaker 1: dependable filmmakers, someone the studios could turn to to uh to, 245 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:32,680 Speaker 1: to really put the picture together, you know, put it out, 246 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,240 Speaker 1: you know, under budget, on time. That kind of great. Ye. Now, 247 00:14:36,280 --> 00:14:40,200 Speaker 1: from a purely horror standpoint, he's perhaps best known for 248 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:44,200 Speaker 1: Murders in the Room Morgue from nineteen thirty two, based 249 00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:48,080 Speaker 1: on the Edgar Allen post story and starring Hungarian American 250 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: film legend Bel Legosi, oh as well as ape suit 251 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 1: legend Charles Gemra, who've mentioned on the show before. Another floor. 252 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: A film of note is The Face Behind the Mask, 253 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,200 Speaker 1: which was when I was so looking at potentially to 254 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 1: cover in this episode, but went with the Beast instead. 255 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: This was a film that starred Peter Laurie as an 256 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:11,400 Speaker 1: immigrant watchmaker Who's who who who? You know. It comes 257 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:13,240 Speaker 1: in with a lot of optimism about what he can 258 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: make of himself in America, but then he's kind of 259 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: chewed up by dark American realities and he becomes a 260 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:24,800 Speaker 1: disfigured crime boss instead. Um. And then also of interesting note, 261 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: I was not familiar with this film, but flore directed 262 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:31,120 Speaker 1: a noir film titled Daughter of Shanghai from thirty seven, 263 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: which featured a female Chinese American lead in the form 264 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: of Anime Wong, as well as Korean American actor Philip 265 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:43,200 Speaker 1: On and this was in some ways progressive for the time, 266 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: as Asian leads were often played by white actors, and 267 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:49,920 Speaker 1: in fact, in the same year, Wong lost out the 268 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:54,600 Speaker 1: lead role of a Chinese character in The Good Earth. UM. 269 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 1: So again I haven't seen Daughter of Shanghai, but it 270 00:15:57,680 --> 00:16:00,640 Speaker 1: seems to be, you know, to be noteworthy in um, 271 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: in in in film history. UM. Now, I think Wong 272 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 1: typically played sort of dragon ladies stereotypes. Um. But still 273 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:11,080 Speaker 1: it was apparently something of the time to to see 274 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,440 Speaker 1: her at the top in the lead, even in a 275 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:17,120 Speaker 1: noir sort of crime thriller type of a film. Daughter 276 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:19,280 Speaker 1: of Shanghai, by the way, also features a young Anthony 277 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: Quinn popping up in a lesser role. So, like I said, 278 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,600 Speaker 1: Floy busted out a bunch of films directed a lot 279 00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:29,800 Speaker 1: of TV later on during his career, and his last 280 00:16:29,840 --> 00:16:33,120 Speaker 1: credit is actually an episode of the original Outer Limits series, 281 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,120 Speaker 1: a one titled Moonstone, and he also did three different 282 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: Twilight Zone episodes. Oh, you're the Outer Limits connoisseur. How's Moonstone? Well, 283 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,880 Speaker 1: my I'm I'm not a connoisseur as much of the 284 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:49,119 Speaker 1: original series. I'm more of a connoisseur or growing connoisseur 285 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 1: of the ninety nineties Outer Limits revival. So I don't 286 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:55,760 Speaker 1: think I've seen Moonstone. I've seen some of the original 287 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,040 Speaker 1: Outer Limits episodes, and of course they're they're great, but 288 00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 1: I haven't seen that one. Likewise, I look up the 289 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: three Twilight Zone episodes he did, and I faintly remember 290 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:07,399 Speaker 1: one of them, but I don't think, uh, any of 291 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: them are like the really famous Twilight Zone episodes. You 292 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:13,720 Speaker 1: like the era of the Outer Limits that sometimes has 293 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: c g I that looks like it's from one of 294 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 1: the Wing Commander games, and it really does. I mean 295 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 1: sometimes there's also, to be fair, there's a lot of 296 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,399 Speaker 1: of great practical alien makeup and some cool set design 297 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:28,800 Speaker 1: as they figure out like how can we on a 298 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: budget create a different alien or futuristic Hallway for every 299 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,879 Speaker 1: episode of this series. But yeah, there's some there's some 300 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,239 Speaker 1: truly awful c G I at times as well. I 301 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 1: love it now. The screenplay for this film was written 302 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: by a pretty famous name, Kurt C. O Mac who 303 00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: lived nineteen o two through the year two thousand. It's 304 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:50,919 Speaker 1: a German born novelist and screenwriter who left Germany UH, 305 00:17:51,280 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: first for the for the for Britain, and then for 306 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:57,120 Speaker 1: the US due to concerns over rising anti Semitism under 307 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: the Nazis. Um his u he his his family was Jewish. 308 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:06,879 Speaker 1: His German output was already pretty successful prior to this, however, UH, 309 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:09,080 Speaker 1: including the sci fi film I was looking at this 310 00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: one FP one doesn't answer, which seems to be about 311 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 1: sort of a sort of an air aircraft carrier base, 312 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,400 Speaker 1: like a like not a ship, but like some sort 313 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,480 Speaker 1: of like a large um like at the time sci 314 00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:25,760 Speaker 1: fi aircraft platform in the middle of the ocean. Once 315 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:28,159 Speaker 1: he once he left for the UK, he did British 316 00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,919 Speaker 1: war thrillers and he did some comedies, but then he 317 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:34,680 Speaker 1: started striking it big with some horror screenplays. He did 318 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:38,679 Speaker 1: the screenplay for the one film The Invisible Man Returns 319 00:18:39,200 --> 00:18:42,560 Speaker 1: that has Vincent Price in it, and then he wrote 320 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:46,879 Speaker 1: an original screenplay for nineteen forty one Is the wolf Man, 321 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:50,800 Speaker 1: starring Claude Raines, Bell Legosti, and Lon Cheney Jr. He 322 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:52,840 Speaker 1: went on from there to write a ton of screenplays, 323 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: including Frankenstein Meets wolf Man from forty three, I Walked 324 00:18:57,240 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: with a Zombie from forty three, Son of Drag from 325 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: You Guessed At nineteen forty three, and then House of 326 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,720 Speaker 1: Frankenstein from four, along with just a lot of other stuff. 327 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:09,200 Speaker 1: But those are some of the titles that jumped out 328 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:13,160 Speaker 1: at me. He also wrote the nineteen forty two sci 329 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:17,200 Speaker 1: fi novel Donovan's Brain, which has been adapted three times. 330 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: I don't think he was personally involved in any of 331 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:22,000 Speaker 1: the adaptations, but it was adapted in nineteen forty four 332 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 1: as The Lady and the Monster, in nineteen fifty three 333 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,280 Speaker 1: Is Donovan's Brain, and in nineteen sixty two as The Brain. 334 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,359 Speaker 1: Donovan's Brain is a great poster. Have you seen it? Yeah? Yeah? 335 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,119 Speaker 1: With them? In fact, I think The Brain from sixty 336 00:19:36,119 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: two also has a pretty pretty snazzy poster. But uh yeah, 337 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,199 Speaker 1: I'm all about a good brain film. I love the 338 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 1: colors it's got these big bars of yellow and then 339 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: these these creepy eyes and a green background, and it 340 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:51,000 Speaker 1: says a dead man's brain in a hidden laboratory told 341 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:55,480 Speaker 1: him to kill, Kill, Kill. So you can see why 342 00:19:55,520 --> 00:19:58,480 Speaker 1: this was the perfect guy to adapt The Beast with 343 00:19:58,560 --> 00:20:01,679 Speaker 1: Five Fingers. Uh. And I say adapt because it's based 344 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:05,400 Speaker 1: on a short story by William Fryer Harvey, who lived 345 00:20:07,119 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: seven I think, professionally known as W. F. Harvey, a 346 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:23,320 Speaker 1: British writer who wrote horror and ghost stories. All right, 347 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: let's get into the cast of this film. Uh, the 348 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: credited lead is not Peter Laurie. It is Robert Alda 349 00:20:31,680 --> 00:20:34,199 Speaker 1: playing Oh let's see in the in the credits is 350 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,760 Speaker 1: listed as Conrad Riiler. But that's not what people call him, right, No, 351 00:20:38,080 --> 00:20:41,199 Speaker 1: it's all over the place. The promotional materials for this 352 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: movie call him Conrad Railer, but then characters on screen 353 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 1: call him Bruce Conrad. So it sounds like his name 354 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,159 Speaker 1: was changed in like the shooting script. But then some 355 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:54,719 Speaker 1: something else ended up using a name from an earlier 356 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,200 Speaker 1: draft or something. That's that's crazy, because yeah, it's still 357 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,800 Speaker 1: listed on IMDV as Conrad Tiler, So it's it's a disservice, 358 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:04,639 Speaker 1: disservice to I mean, they couldn't have possibly realized this 359 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:07,879 Speaker 1: that one day people would be watching your film going 360 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,439 Speaker 1: to the you know, this official listing of character names 361 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:13,720 Speaker 1: to keep track of what's going on, and if you 362 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,520 Speaker 1: don't have the right names there, we're just gonna be lost. Well, 363 00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:18,679 Speaker 1: whether it's his first name or his last name, he 364 00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:21,920 Speaker 1: is Conrad, so we can at least stick with that. Yes. So. 365 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 1: Alda was born nineteen fourteen died six Originally a vaudeville 366 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: singing dance guy who made his way up through the 367 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,080 Speaker 1: worlds of radio and burlesque theater before landing a role 368 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:40,879 Speaker 1: in Rhapsody in Blue playing George Gershwin. Yeah. So by 369 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,679 Speaker 1: the time Beast with Five Fingers comes out, this Beast 370 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:46,480 Speaker 1: is only his fourth film role. Okay, well he's got 371 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: he's got a very optimistic, youthful energy in this Yeah, yeah, 372 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: calm confidence. Yeah, he's got a good Uh I'm not 373 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,760 Speaker 1: sure what you call the style of mustache that he has. 374 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:00,960 Speaker 1: It's it's kind of a table. Yeah, It's like it's 375 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,879 Speaker 1: like a Clark Gable um, which which gives him a 376 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:06,240 Speaker 1: unique look. He has kind of a I think he 377 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: pointed out he has kind of his character has kind 378 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:12,320 Speaker 1: of a loopin in quality to it. Yes, all the continue, we'll, 379 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: we'll we'll talk more about his character Conrad as we 380 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:17,639 Speaker 1: move forward, But all the continue to act in film 381 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: and increasingly in TV. But he did very well on Broadway, 382 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,800 Speaker 1: popping up in major fifties and sixties runs of stuff 383 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:27,399 Speaker 1: like Guys and Dolls. And I'm delighted to report that 384 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,440 Speaker 1: he was also a cast member on Super Train from nine, 385 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,879 Speaker 1: a show about an atomic powered train full of like 386 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:37,920 Speaker 1: extravagant cars that had things like swimming pools in them, 387 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,199 Speaker 1: so kind of a predecessor to snow Piercer. Like the 388 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,399 Speaker 1: whole show takes place on the train, right, and I 389 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,800 Speaker 1: think they have murder mysteries and stuff. Um, everything is terrible. 390 00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:51,920 Speaker 1: At a video with clips from from the minis from 391 00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: the like the TV movie that kicks started the one 392 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:59,080 Speaker 1: season series. Oh, I gotta look this up after we're done. Um. 393 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,399 Speaker 1: But oh, one thing that I wondered about, and you 394 00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:06,520 Speaker 1: can rest assured, Yes, indeed, Robert Alda is Alan Alda's dad. 395 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: Another thing I was reading about, though there's some lack 396 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:13,320 Speaker 1: of clarity here. I've read that the lead in the 397 00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 1: Beast with Five Fingers was originally supposed to go to 398 00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:20,920 Speaker 1: Paul Henryed, the actor who plays Victor Laslow in Casablanca, 399 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: though I can't tell if this means he was supposed 400 00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,520 Speaker 1: to play the Robert Alda role or the Peter Laurie role, 401 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:29,480 Speaker 1: but either way it would have been a very different movie. 402 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:35,520 Speaker 1: Robert Alda is giving a strangely variable performance in in 403 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,560 Speaker 1: this movie. Uh, and I guess the role itself is 404 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:42,359 Speaker 1: strangely variable. Sometimes he's like I said, he's Clark Gable, 405 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,160 Speaker 1: He's sometimes he's a smooth, rascally con man with this 406 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,920 Speaker 1: lustful twinkle in his eye, and then other times he's 407 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,560 Speaker 1: just like a straight down the middle galahad. He's just 408 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:56,480 Speaker 1: this perfectly steady and virtuous hero. Yeah. And one of 409 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 1: the weird unexpected things about this you know what, We'll 410 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:02,119 Speaker 1: get into the plot in a bit, but he you know, 411 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,639 Speaker 1: he starts that he's the he's the top build actor 412 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:07,720 Speaker 1: in the film. He's he's the pretty much the first 413 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,960 Speaker 1: that's introduced, I believe, and you expect him to play 414 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,399 Speaker 1: a more pivotal role in like the final quarter of 415 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 1: the film. But he really, he really kind of he's 416 00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:19,760 Speaker 1: inconsequential for the most part. When you get into the 417 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,960 Speaker 1: final act, it seems like in the second half of 418 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,160 Speaker 1: the movie, really he's just there to be the handsome 419 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:28,960 Speaker 1: man that Andrea King is in love with, and that's 420 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,160 Speaker 1: pretty and he stands around and watches things happen. Yeah. Yeah, 421 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,919 Speaker 1: he is increasingly little agency, which ultimately I'm fine with. Uh, 422 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: you know, it's it's kind of nice to see the um, 423 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,879 Speaker 1: you know, the attractive male lead in a film from 424 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,199 Speaker 1: this era ultimately mean nothing. Well, right, you gotta make 425 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:50,800 Speaker 1: more room for Peter Laurie, which I'm I'm all for. Yeah, Now, 426 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:53,719 Speaker 1: before we we already mentioned Andrea King as she plays 427 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,359 Speaker 1: um Julie Holden. Uh. Impossible to forget her name because 428 00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: there's a lot of screaming for Julie, a lot of 429 00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:05,240 Speaker 1: Erica's pondering around this big castle mansion and screaming her 430 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,639 Speaker 1: first name. Yeah, and and like the commissario with the 431 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:15,560 Speaker 1: Italian accent, just saying Julie many many times. Yeah. So um, 432 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,040 Speaker 1: so yeah, you easily remember her name. If you remember 433 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,760 Speaker 1: no other character's name in this you'll remember her. So. 434 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,720 Speaker 1: Andrea King was a French born American actor who was 435 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,800 Speaker 1: especially active in the forties and fifties, but had a 436 00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:31,280 Speaker 1: pretty long career on screen and on TV, known for 437 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,959 Speaker 1: God Is My co Pilot and The Very Thought of You. 438 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,920 Speaker 1: But she also pops back up in the nineties seventies 439 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,879 Speaker 1: in House of the Black Death and Blackenstein. Now I 440 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:43,920 Speaker 1: was looking at her other stuff to see if I 441 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:45,840 Speaker 1: had seen her in anything else, and there was nothing 442 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: that really stood out to me. So I don't know 443 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:51,040 Speaker 1: what she's like usually, but I gotta say her performance 444 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,680 Speaker 1: in this movie feels phoned in. She does not seem 445 00:25:54,760 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: to be super interested in being in the Beast with 446 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: five fingers. However, her relatively flat acting performance sometimes makes 447 00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,199 Speaker 1: scenes more amusing than they would have been if she 448 00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:09,439 Speaker 1: was more into it, Because I don't know, it's just 449 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:12,040 Speaker 1: like a funny compliment to the weird stuff going on 450 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:16,160 Speaker 1: around her and to her all inspiring hair dues. This 451 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,200 Speaker 1: is this movie is an event of profoundly big hair, 452 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,160 Speaker 1: which makes me want to see another movie I saw 453 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 1: that she was in. It's a nineteen fifty topic film 454 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:29,560 Speaker 1: called I Was a Shoplifter, which hide things in her 455 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:31,880 Speaker 1: hair to get him out of the store. I think, 456 00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:33,679 Speaker 1: But before I watched it, when you were to tell 457 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:35,960 Speaker 1: me a little bit about that about it, you said 458 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,199 Speaker 1: you compared her hair to um Dracula's hair like the 459 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:41,600 Speaker 1: old Man Garry Oldman. Yeah, with the butt cut in 460 00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:44,359 Speaker 1: the Francis Ford Coppola Dracula, Yeah, a couple of times 461 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:49,879 Speaker 1: she has an enormous, like curly butt cut. Well. Um, 462 00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:54,320 Speaker 1: there are some pretty hilarious scenes where her very flat 463 00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:58,120 Speaker 1: performance is um is in stark contrast to say, Peter 464 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:03,160 Speaker 1: Laurie's performance. But but I hesitate to to like heap 465 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:06,040 Speaker 1: the blame on her for this, or to really cast 466 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:07,919 Speaker 1: any blame on her at all, because there are some 467 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,239 Speaker 1: questions that arise concerning the script. Uh, Like you are 468 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: scenes where it's like one character can see things that 469 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: are not there, and she is perhaps legitimate Her character 470 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,680 Speaker 1: is legitimately supposed to be looking at nothing, and therefore 471 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:24,000 Speaker 1: maybe it makes sense that she is not reacting the 472 00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: same way other characters are. Well. Yeah, and then, and 473 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,280 Speaker 1: I also want to say it, it makes perfect sense 474 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,359 Speaker 1: in the earlier parts of the movie where there's like 475 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,280 Speaker 1: another character who is obsessed with her and she is 476 00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,320 Speaker 1: not into him at all, and so her flat performance 477 00:27:38,359 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: is great in those scenes because you can tell she's 478 00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:43,200 Speaker 1: just conveying like, can you get me out of here? 479 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:45,920 Speaker 1: Kind of kind of feeling yeah, and kind of going 480 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,800 Speaker 1: for like a steely calm because there's some crazy dude 481 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: ranting at you and you're trying to to to not 482 00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,720 Speaker 1: escalate the situation and trying to like maybe play into 483 00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:58,840 Speaker 1: their their delusions a little bit so that you can 484 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,280 Speaker 1: make a you know, belie for these game. Okay, So 485 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,320 Speaker 1: I'd say with both of our lead actors so far, 486 00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:05,520 Speaker 1: there's a little bit of weirdness in how the character 487 00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,720 Speaker 1: is realized on screen. But but then we get to 488 00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:11,399 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie. He gets like third billing, right, and he 489 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,720 Speaker 1: plays a character named Hilary Cummins and this is the 490 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: main event, that's right. So, uh, We're not gonna go 491 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:22,320 Speaker 1: super into Laurie's biography and filmography here because we we 492 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:23,800 Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with it in the Mad 493 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: lat Of episode, so definitely go back to that. But 494 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,320 Speaker 1: he lived nineteen o four or ninety four. Uh. He 495 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: was an Austro Hungarian actor of Jewish descent who made 496 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:38,160 Speaker 1: it big in Fritz Lang's em before like mac Fleeing 497 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:41,480 Speaker 1: the Rise of Anti Semitism under the Nazi regime, a 498 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: great actor, plagued at times by substance abuse and health problems, 499 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,280 Speaker 1: but completely unequaled in his ability to play this these 500 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 1: kind of artful mixes of sympathetic weirdos and absolutely mad men. 501 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:57,000 Speaker 1: Um like it's a it's a careful um uh you know, 502 00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: it's it's a careful mixology going on at times with 503 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,200 Speaker 1: a Peter Lori role, because it's not like he's just 504 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: great at playing like a scary weirdo. It's like he 505 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 1: he he does has to have the sympathetic nature. And 506 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: then also you know, just is really able to uh 507 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:18,239 Speaker 1: emote through his performance in ways that it seems like 508 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 1: many actors around him in any any just any given 509 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: film he's in either didn't have the ability to or 510 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: did not have like you know, free um free reign 511 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,520 Speaker 1: to do. So. I like what you say about him 512 00:29:30,520 --> 00:29:33,240 Speaker 1: being more sympathetic than you would expect a character in 513 00:29:33,280 --> 00:29:35,480 Speaker 1: this role to be, because there are several scenes in 514 00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:41,240 Speaker 1: this movie of him making these desperate begging please for 515 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:45,400 Speaker 1: something that is actually a totally unreasonable request. But he's 516 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,760 Speaker 1: such a good performer that you feel sad for him. 517 00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:49,680 Speaker 1: You kind of get on his side. You're like, yeah, 518 00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,040 Speaker 1: why won't Why won't you just stay with this old 519 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:58,200 Speaker 1: man forever so that Peter Laurie can continue his occult research. Yeah, yeah, 520 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,920 Speaker 1: there's just something about him. I'm also I just I 521 00:30:01,960 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: just really like a good Peter Lori performance. That's probably 522 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,000 Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's one of the reasons I was 523 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:11,000 Speaker 1: looking at this film anyway. Um, And while I was 524 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:12,880 Speaker 1: watching this, my wife asked me. She's like, why, how 525 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:17,239 Speaker 1: how can you enjoy a film like this comp So 526 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:19,960 Speaker 1: she's just not as until like the older pictures, you know, 527 00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: She's like, how can you you know you enjoy a 528 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,040 Speaker 1: film like this the same way you enjoy a film 529 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,360 Speaker 1: from like the eighties or the seventies, And um, you know, 530 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 1: I mean part of it is like, yeah, it is 531 00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,280 Speaker 1: a different era, it's a different there different sensibilities in play. 532 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:33,960 Speaker 1: But I think a big part of it too, is 533 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,520 Speaker 1: like there's something about Peter Lori's voice. It just it 534 00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:39,000 Speaker 1: calms me to hear it. Like there's something about a 535 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,720 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie performance that I'm just I'm just captivated by 536 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,400 Speaker 1: the whole thing. Long stretches of the first half of 537 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: this movie, though, I would say, suffer from Peter Lorie deficiency, 538 00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:50,960 Speaker 1: but he has more of a role as the movie 539 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,280 Speaker 1: goes on, and whenever he returns to screen, our grail 540 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:58,400 Speaker 1: of delight overfloweth uh, because he plays this this queasy, 541 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: bookish little man who is obsessed with discovering forbidden secrets 542 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: of astrology, and his his obsession just builds to these 543 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,640 Speaker 1: points of absurdity with these excellent freak out scenes. I 544 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,840 Speaker 1: I love him in this. Yeah. I have to say. 545 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,400 Speaker 1: One of one of the main reasons I hesitated with 546 00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: this film was that I expected him to be a 547 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:22,560 Speaker 1: minor character that gets killed off halfway through the picture. 548 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:25,200 Speaker 1: So I was delighted when that was not the case. 549 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:28,480 Speaker 1: The Peter Laurie is not the only actor playing a 550 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,760 Speaker 1: crazy person, which is great because we also have a 551 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: Victor Franzen playing Francis Ingram Um. This uh, this is 552 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: a fun performance. This is the the actor here. Uh. 553 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,400 Speaker 1: Frandson was born in eighty eight died in nineteen seventy seven, 554 00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,960 Speaker 1: Belgian born actor known for Hold Back the Dawn, Helen 555 00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: high Water and I accuse um. He's pretty great in 556 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: this as the while he's still alive, before he becomes 557 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:58,320 Speaker 1: just a hand as the overly dramatic composer and concert pianist. 558 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: This movie proposes that if you are paralyzed on one 559 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,800 Speaker 1: side of your body, as Victor Franson's character is, so 560 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,000 Speaker 1: that you cannot use one of your hands, the other 561 00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:14,240 Speaker 1: hand somehow becomes incredibly good at both piano playing and choking. 562 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: And Victor Franson embraces this premise with cranky alacrity. It 563 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:23,240 Speaker 1: really really powerful. That's yeah, that this was like a 564 00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:27,840 Speaker 1: sort of a weird um weird movie logic for the 565 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: beast with five fingers to dwell on. But yeah, it's 566 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:31,880 Speaker 1: like he only has the one hand, so it has 567 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: the strength of two hands. But then on top of that, 568 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,680 Speaker 1: he's also this this brilliant pianist, and so he's you know, 569 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 1: his fingers danced across the uh you know, the ivories 570 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,920 Speaker 1: with just amazing dexterity. And I guess the idea is 571 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: that all of that intense piano playing um just makes 572 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:50,720 Speaker 1: your the hands of a professional piano player like a 573 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,080 Speaker 1: couple of coconut crabs. So like somebody, like a like 574 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: a Tory Amos could just rip a phone book in 575 00:32:56,520 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 1: half with those dexterous digits of verse. But if she 576 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: could only use one hand. Then she could rip a 577 00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: phone book in half with one hand, right, Yeah, there. 578 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,520 Speaker 1: There there are times where characters um are grabbed by 579 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,680 Speaker 1: Ingram and they're like his his, his hand was so 580 00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:17,040 Speaker 1: so powerful. It's it's it's it's wonderful and ultimately like 581 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: that's part of it. It's like the hand becomes so 582 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,280 Speaker 1: powerful that it cannot die. Like the man dies, but 583 00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:24,080 Speaker 1: the hand lives on the The only other actor of 584 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:29,440 Speaker 1: note uh here for our purposes is J Carroll nish Um, 585 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:34,959 Speaker 1: who plays Detective Old Video Castagnio. This is the Italian 586 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 1: law enforcement guy who the commissario yeah, who becomes involved 587 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,640 Speaker 1: with the various murderers going on. No. Uh. The actor 588 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: in question here is actually of Irish descent. He's playing 589 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:51,520 Speaker 1: in Italian. Uh. This is a role that I would 590 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,320 Speaker 1: say feels really fun and balanced for most of the picture, 591 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:56,880 Speaker 1: but by the apps, by the time the credits roll, 592 00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,280 Speaker 1: you're sick of him. He's still sick of him, Yeah, 593 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,040 Speaker 1: because at the very end of the movie they have 594 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:04,520 Speaker 1: him look directly into the camera and then do a 595 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: vaudeville comedy act. What. Yeah, this is something we've run 596 00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:13,359 Speaker 1: into before with films where Um It's like you just 597 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: could not send the audience home with any ounce of 598 00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 1: dread in their body. You had to take whatever was 599 00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:23,200 Speaker 1: funny or or heartfelt about the film and not only 600 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,480 Speaker 1: double down on it, but triple down on it in 601 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,640 Speaker 1: the closing moments. And that's exactly what they do with 602 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:31,360 Speaker 1: this guy's character. You remember, Actually there is an ending 603 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:36,080 Speaker 1: to uh Bava's Black Sabbath much like this that suddenly 604 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,520 Speaker 1: at the end, Boris Karloff shows up and he's doing 605 00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:41,640 Speaker 1: a comedy routine and he's like, actually there are no ghosts, 606 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:45,760 Speaker 1: so ho and the yeah, and you see the crew 607 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,360 Speaker 1: and they're all like, don't be afraid. Now it's safe 608 00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:52,400 Speaker 1: to go to bed. There's nothing in your closet. Uh yeah. 609 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,880 Speaker 1: I mean it's just I guess it's just an artifact 610 00:34:54,880 --> 00:34:57,200 Speaker 1: of the time. Just if you just couldn't send the 611 00:34:57,400 --> 00:35:00,480 Speaker 1: audience home with with the sense of dre you had 612 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:02,040 Speaker 1: to send him out with a smile on their face. 613 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: I mean, this is theater, right. One of the interesting 614 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:07,960 Speaker 1: things about Ja Carol Neish, however, is that uh he 615 00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:11,560 Speaker 1: he's an octor oscar nominated actor for Um Sahara from 616 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: nineteen forty three and from for a medal for Benny 617 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: from ninety. His final film role was the role of 618 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: Dr Frankenstein in nineteen seventy ones Dracula Versus Frankenstein, alongside 619 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,160 Speaker 1: Long Cheney Jr. Alright onto just a few of the 620 00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:33,399 Speaker 1: I guess artistic mentions here. Max Steiner did the music. Uh. 621 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,880 Speaker 1: Steiner lived at eight eight to nineteen seventy one. Austrian 622 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:41,240 Speaker 1: born American music composer, nominated for twenty four Academy Awards, 623 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,480 Speaker 1: winning three for The Informer and thirty five Now Voyager 624 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:48,080 Speaker 1: in forty two and Since You Went Away in forty four. 625 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,799 Speaker 1: He also composed the score for Casablanca. UM. I don't 626 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:53,759 Speaker 1: know if this jumped out at you, Joe. I wasn't 627 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,839 Speaker 1: familiar with this individual. But the costume designer on this 628 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:03,000 Speaker 1: was Travilla, Just Travilla, Just Travilla, Yeah, Madonna, Yeah Yeah, 629 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:07,840 Speaker 1: this was uh born William Travilla. Uh. He was famed 630 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: for his work with Marilyn Monroe on various films, including 631 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:13,720 Speaker 1: The Seven Year Itch. So that costume that she's wearing 632 00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,680 Speaker 1: in The Seven Year Itch over the Subway great, Uh, 633 00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 1: that is the work of Travilla. He was also the 634 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,440 Speaker 1: costume designer on the Daily Earth stood still. Oh okay, 635 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,520 Speaker 1: so he came up with the gort suit maybe so, 636 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,520 Speaker 1: but anyway, Yeah, it was apparently a big name. Uh. 637 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: If not at the time, I guess at the time, 638 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,440 Speaker 1: you can't just call yourself Travilla and not be a 639 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: big deal. I mean, I'm convinced, but he lived. Yeah, 640 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,480 Speaker 1: Travilla is great. Uh So I figured we should call 641 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,480 Speaker 1: it the special effects because they're so good for the 642 00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:49,279 Speaker 1: time they I didn't find much written about them, but 643 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:53,920 Speaker 1: the special effects are credited to William McGann as the 644 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:57,680 Speaker 1: special effects director and then also U h kind of 645 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:01,640 Speaker 1: camp s c. Yeah. I was looking into either of 646 00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:04,960 Speaker 1: these guys to see of Sometimes with films like this, 647 00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,760 Speaker 1: you can you can see where the special effects people 648 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:10,400 Speaker 1: went from there and you can so you can recognize, oh, 649 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 1: well this guy was this guy was a synthetic flash master, 650 00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,520 Speaker 1: because we see it reflected in various pictures they were 651 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:20,200 Speaker 1: involved in. But I couldn't find any direct signs of 652 00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:22,239 Speaker 1: that here. But I guess these are the guys to 653 00:37:22,280 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: thank for these wonderful crawling and effects because again that 654 00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:36,839 Speaker 1: they hold up really well. Should we discuss the plot? Oh, 655 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,919 Speaker 1: let's do all right? Well, we begin somewhere in an 656 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,800 Speaker 1: outdoor market place it seems in a kind of Mediterranean region, 657 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,200 Speaker 1: though their mountains in the background. And then we get 658 00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:49,799 Speaker 1: a uh text that pops up that says, this is 659 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:53,960 Speaker 1: the story of what happened or seemed to happen in 660 00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:58,239 Speaker 1: the small Italian village of San Stefano nearly fifty years ago. 661 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,000 Speaker 1: So if it was nearly five two years ago at 662 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:02,719 Speaker 1: the time of the movie, this would put this in 663 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,879 Speaker 1: like the nineties. By the way, I could not find 664 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:09,839 Speaker 1: evidence of a real sin Stefano in Italy, though there 665 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,680 Speaker 1: is one in bulk area. But it looks like, you know, 666 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,640 Speaker 1: business is booming in the marketplace. We see children running 667 00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,880 Speaker 1: all around fruit cards with big dangling strings of garlic, 668 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,719 Speaker 1: and we see a horse drawn cart carrying a bunch 669 00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:25,560 Speaker 1: of tourists around and it stops so they can have lunch. 670 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: And then, looking on from the shadows nearby like a 671 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,640 Speaker 1: wolf staring at a herd of cattle, is Robert Alda 672 00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:36,360 Speaker 1: playing this character again, who has multiple names depending on 673 00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,359 Speaker 1: where you look, but in the movie they call him 674 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,040 Speaker 1: Bruce Conrad, though if you look him up it might 675 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:45,239 Speaker 1: say he's Conrad Railer. Either way, he's Conrad, He's our guy, 676 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:48,920 Speaker 1: and just just look at him. I mean, yeah, I 677 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,520 Speaker 1: mean he's just an obvious conn from the good go here. Yes, 678 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,879 Speaker 1: he's got the pencil mustache. He he's got that that 679 00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,120 Speaker 1: Clark Gable smirk. He's got a brimmed hat kind of 680 00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:03,000 Speaker 1: pulled down low over his eyebrows, cigarette dangling loosely out 681 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,600 Speaker 1: of his mouth, and a kind of smooth looking suit 682 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:11,480 Speaker 1: jacket with wide Lapel's uh, obvious obvious cigarettes smoking wolf 683 00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:15,160 Speaker 1: and he slithers up to a couple of American rubes 684 00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,720 Speaker 1: who sit down at a cafe table. He insinuates himself 685 00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 1: into their lunch state and eventually cons them into buying 686 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,959 Speaker 1: some fake artifacts He's got, Like, he's got this whole 687 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,120 Speaker 1: story about how he he buys things that are actually 688 00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:32,520 Speaker 1: priceless antiques, but he gets them for a song by 689 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:36,120 Speaker 1: going through people's estates and then he ends up selling something. 690 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:37,839 Speaker 1: I did not know what these were, by the way. 691 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:41,280 Speaker 1: They're called cameos, but Rachel and I watched this together 692 00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:43,360 Speaker 1: and she explained it to me. They're like these little 693 00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 1: oval things that have people's heads in profile on them. Okay, 694 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,680 Speaker 1: so sort of a combination between like a person's likeness 695 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,120 Speaker 1: in jewelry that he might remember them by. Yeah, kind of. 696 00:39:56,520 --> 00:39:58,800 Speaker 1: But he gets these people, the you know, these ignorant 697 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,480 Speaker 1: farmers to believe of that they are buying priceless fifteenth 698 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:06,120 Speaker 1: century antiques. They are not. The lady is like, I 699 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,319 Speaker 1: love cameos, and the dude ends up buying a bunch 700 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,600 Speaker 1: of them. Yeah, I mean he completely hustles them. It's 701 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:15,480 Speaker 1: it's it's completely apparent before anything else happens with the 702 00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:18,840 Speaker 1: plot to uh, to confirm the matter, right, So Conrad 703 00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,920 Speaker 1: pulls off the con he gets some sweet U S dollars, 704 00:40:21,960 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: and he ends up strolling on down the avenue, where 705 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:28,279 Speaker 1: he strikes up a conversation with the local commissario Commissario 706 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:35,640 Speaker 1: Video Costagnio, who is a smooth Italian version of Urkule Parrot. Yes, yeah, 707 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,920 Speaker 1: I think it's a fair comparison. And it's funny when 708 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,680 Speaker 1: you see them walking next to each other because they're 709 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,880 Speaker 1: like both guys in in hats with thin mustaches, smoking 710 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: rolled tobacco products. Yeah, and this this scene that they 711 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,120 Speaker 1: have together is actually pretty fun. I like the I 712 00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:53,040 Speaker 1: like the dialogue in this. Oh yeah, because the commissario 713 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:55,839 Speaker 1: he's a fun character, at least for most of the movie, 714 00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:00,400 Speaker 1: because he clearly knows that Conrad is crooked, but it 715 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,440 Speaker 1: also implies their kind of buddies, and he's not interested 716 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:06,600 Speaker 1: in actually arresting him. He's like, oh, you are aware 717 00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:10,480 Speaker 1: it is illegal to sell sell antiques without a license, 718 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,000 Speaker 1: and and conrads like, I am aware of every law. Yeah. 719 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:16,720 Speaker 1: They're basically like, I I would just like to remind 720 00:41:16,719 --> 00:41:18,279 Speaker 1: you what the law is. And he's like, oh, I 721 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:19,759 Speaker 1: I know what the law is. I would not dream 722 00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,319 Speaker 1: of passing that line. And he's like, well, I'm just 723 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,480 Speaker 1: here to remind you where that line is, and and 724 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:26,919 Speaker 1: and and so forth, Like they have a fun back 725 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,640 Speaker 1: and forth. Yeah, And it also kind of drives home 726 00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:33,160 Speaker 1: that our our character, Conrad here is is maybe not 727 00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:36,399 Speaker 1: too bad. He's not so bad that the local law 728 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,239 Speaker 1: enforcement is is telling him and hey, cut it out. 729 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:41,840 Speaker 1: It's more like, alright, just make sure make sure you 730 00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:43,960 Speaker 1: know what you're doing a small time con man, and 731 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,319 Speaker 1: don't don't get too big time on me. Right, They 732 00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:49,720 Speaker 1: don't mind. They don't mind him out here mildly hustling 733 00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:53,680 Speaker 1: the tourists. Yeah, but Conrad also gets some news from 734 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:57,719 Speaker 1: the Commissario. It is gossip about the Villa Francesco, the 735 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:01,920 Speaker 1: estate of somebody named Francis Ingram, who we understand is 736 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,680 Speaker 1: a very rich old man who has been unwell, and 737 00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:09,560 Speaker 1: apparently somebody named Julie is planning to leave the Ingram place. 738 00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:13,080 Speaker 1: The Commissario reveals that he has just authorized her exit 739 00:42:13,200 --> 00:42:16,480 Speaker 1: visa earlier this morning. Presumably I guess too, to leave 740 00:42:16,520 --> 00:42:20,239 Speaker 1: the country. And it's also implied that Conrad has some 741 00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:23,960 Speaker 1: kind of relationship with Julie. Mr Commissarios, like, aren't you 742 00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:26,759 Speaker 1: going to go see her before she leaves? So we 743 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,480 Speaker 1: follow Conrad to the Villa Francesco as he approaches through 744 00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:34,240 Speaker 1: the elegant courtyard has a lot of lush greenery and 745 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:38,400 Speaker 1: and fancy looking statues and uh. And meanwhile, a sullen 746 00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:42,040 Speaker 1: looking Peter Laurie watches from a second story window as 747 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:46,480 Speaker 1: Conrad approaches. He's just shooting laser beams of gray sadness 748 00:42:46,560 --> 00:42:49,480 Speaker 1: out of his eyeballs. And the whole time we hear 749 00:42:49,480 --> 00:42:52,840 Speaker 1: piano music. Somebody is playing with great skill and intensity, 750 00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,480 Speaker 1: and it turns out it is Mr Francis Ingram himself 751 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:59,719 Speaker 1: again played by Victor Franson. Uh, the old man who 752 00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,600 Speaker 1: owned the Villa francesco Is is a skilled pianist, though 753 00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: with a twist because he is paralyzed on one side 754 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:09,880 Speaker 1: of his body, so he only plays the piano with 755 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:14,240 Speaker 1: one hand, the left hand, though his left hand alone 756 00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:18,280 Speaker 1: is implied to be of of the most incredible skill 757 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:22,319 Speaker 1: the incredible virtuosity of his one handed piano playing, and 758 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:25,160 Speaker 1: Conrad stops at the door to listen while while he 759 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:29,160 Speaker 1: does this performance, and also meanwhile, Julie played by Andrea King, 760 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,480 Speaker 1: she is sitting beside the piano in a nurse's uniform, 761 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:37,720 Speaker 1: supposedly listening to him play, but honestly looking excruciatingly bored. 762 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:41,000 Speaker 1: I was trying to think of how to describe it. 763 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:44,600 Speaker 1: She looks like an adult at a party who gets 764 00:43:44,719 --> 00:43:47,960 Speaker 1: like cornered by a friend's seven year old kid who 765 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,000 Speaker 1: is explaining the plot of Dragon Ball Z for thirty minutes. 766 00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,759 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, are walking you through the the 767 00:43:54,800 --> 00:44:00,480 Speaker 1: evolution of various pokemons. Yes, and you're just like, oh wow, yeah, 768 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,160 Speaker 1: I have learned by the way to to ask very 769 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:06,239 Speaker 1: good questions about Pokemon. I am a good receiver of 770 00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:09,880 Speaker 1: Pokemon conversation at this point, so you can do this 771 00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:12,879 Speaker 1: without looking as bored as she does. Right, I hope, so, 772 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:16,680 Speaker 1: I hope. So Anyway, after he finishes playing, Julie picks 773 00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:21,360 Speaker 1: up this this very conspicuous, gigantic ring and puts it 774 00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:25,279 Speaker 1: on Mr. Ingram's finger, and Buddy, this ring is bananas. 775 00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:29,320 Speaker 1: It is probably it's like the biggest ring I've ever seen. Yeah, 776 00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:31,279 Speaker 1: one gets the impression that it is. This is a 777 00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:33,200 Speaker 1: black and white movie, but I get the impression that 778 00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:37,840 Speaker 1: it's deeply red, you know, um and and so on 779 00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:40,279 Speaker 1: the film it's it's deeply dark and black, and it 780 00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:42,520 Speaker 1: just kind of like sucks you in, right, So it 781 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:44,920 Speaker 1: sticks in your mind, and it's supposed to because you 782 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,360 Speaker 1: will see it later too. I think, help you identify 783 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:50,000 Speaker 1: whose hand you're looking at when you just see a hand. 784 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,800 Speaker 1: He it's this giant, conspicuous ring and he always takes 785 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:55,960 Speaker 1: it off and sits it on top of the piano 786 00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:59,319 Speaker 1: when he plays. Yeah, and there's this this scene with 787 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,880 Speaker 1: Julie here he holds out his hand for her to 788 00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:05,960 Speaker 1: put the ring back on, which seems kind of weird. Uh, 789 00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:09,919 Speaker 1: I mean it is weird getting married. Yeah, Like there's 790 00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:15,480 Speaker 1: a ritualistic quality to it, but uh, their cinematic payoff later, right, Uh, 791 00:45:15,560 --> 00:45:18,279 Speaker 1: so Julie lets Conrad inside and we learn more about 792 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,720 Speaker 1: all of their relationships. So we find out that Conrad 793 00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:23,600 Speaker 1: is well known at the Villa Francesco. He and Ingram 794 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:27,239 Speaker 1: are good friends, such good friends that Ingram seems to 795 00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:31,440 Speaker 1: know about Conrad's tourist scamming racket, because Conrad's like, you 796 00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,960 Speaker 1: look very well and Ingram's like, ah, save it for 797 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,879 Speaker 1: the tourists. Don't do that on me. And we find 798 00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:39,520 Speaker 1: out that they play chess together a lot, often for money, 799 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,120 Speaker 1: and Conrad always wins and and takes Ingram's money. There 800 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:45,480 Speaker 1: are a lot of freeloaders in this household. Um yeah, 801 00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,440 Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I mean Julie is not a freeloader, 802 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:53,800 Speaker 1: but but Conrad and m and Peter Lauri's character Hillary, 803 00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,479 Speaker 1: Um yeah, I mean again, I mean, I guess there's 804 00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:00,920 Speaker 1: there's camaraderie here. I guess Ingram's getting something, getting companionship 805 00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:04,399 Speaker 1: out of it. But they're they're they're very much they're 806 00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:09,320 Speaker 1: you know, enjoying the facilities and sharing in his money. 807 00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:13,080 Speaker 1: Julie is the only one working right, everybody else has 808 00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:17,360 Speaker 1: a different kind of hustle going. But so Conrad also 809 00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,480 Speaker 1: compliments Ingram's piano playing. I think the situation is that 810 00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:24,960 Speaker 1: he was once a famed pianist who played with both hands, 811 00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:27,000 Speaker 1: and then he had a stroke or some other kind 812 00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:31,279 Speaker 1: of medical event and his right hand became paralyzed. So 813 00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:34,319 Speaker 1: he learned to play concert piano all over again with 814 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,920 Speaker 1: only one hand. And Conrad helped him in this because 815 00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:42,560 Speaker 1: he's also a musician, and he re scored famous pieces 816 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,239 Speaker 1: of music for Ingram in such a way that they 817 00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:48,640 Speaker 1: could be played one handed on the piano. Yeah. Yeah, 818 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:51,239 Speaker 1: the film reminds you a couple of times, yeah, that 819 00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:54,480 Speaker 1: Conrad is himself a musician, that we never actually see 820 00:46:54,560 --> 00:46:57,359 Speaker 1: him doing anything musical. I don't think, no, I don't, 821 00:46:57,520 --> 00:47:00,680 Speaker 1: I don't think once. Uh. And there's there's a moment 822 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:05,720 Speaker 1: of that bilateral hand awe because like Ingram starts looking 823 00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,279 Speaker 1: at his left hand and he says, now that all 824 00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:12,640 Speaker 1: my strength, all my will is concentrated in these fingers, 825 00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:16,840 Speaker 1: and Conrad says exactly the power, the tonal quality, the 826 00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:21,160 Speaker 1: prodigious technique. So it's not explicit, but they seem to 827 00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:24,560 Speaker 1: be implying that that it's only logical that if a 828 00:47:24,600 --> 00:47:27,960 Speaker 1: man has use of only one hand, it will double 829 00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:33,040 Speaker 1: in strength and skill, absorbing the latent power of the other. Yeah, 830 00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:37,160 Speaker 1: perhaps even like over it's it's it's kind of implied, 831 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:39,920 Speaker 1: especially with some of the occurrences that happened later on, 832 00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,239 Speaker 1: that that the hand becomes more powerful than Ingram himself, 833 00:47:43,719 --> 00:47:47,000 Speaker 1: Like yeah, it is, uh, you know, it no longer 834 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:51,239 Speaker 1: needs Ingram. Ingram is holding it back, right yeah. Um, 835 00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,799 Speaker 1: and maybe it should be freed of of Ingram so 836 00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:56,879 Speaker 1: that it can achieve its own dreams. Oh. But also 837 00:47:56,880 --> 00:48:00,360 Speaker 1: at the same time, Ingram has this obviously un healthy 838 00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:03,400 Speaker 1: fixation on Julie, who is his nurse. Uh, you know 839 00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:05,600 Speaker 1: she she's supposed to be there helping take care of 840 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:10,040 Speaker 1: him during his his illness, but he's he's obviously got 841 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,719 Speaker 1: different plans. He's like, he's like, Julie, since you came, 842 00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:15,640 Speaker 1: I found new life, a new source of energy, a 843 00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:19,080 Speaker 1: stronger ambition to live. And he keeps talking about her 844 00:48:19,120 --> 00:48:22,520 Speaker 1: beauty and stuff. Um. And then when she leaves the room, 845 00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:25,279 Speaker 1: he's confessing to Conrad, He's like, I need her. She's 846 00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,759 Speaker 1: the only one I care about and she is quite 847 00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:31,040 Speaker 1: rightly just kind of like like looking for ways to 848 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:34,880 Speaker 1: leave the room. Well, anyway, Ingram invites both Julie and 849 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: Conrad to a dinner that he's hosting where he will 850 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,839 Speaker 1: be having his lawyer from Rome, a man named Duprex, 851 00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:45,960 Speaker 1: and also Hillary his secretary, who is Peter Lourie. And 852 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,360 Speaker 1: the next scene is the one where we actually meet Hillary. 853 00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:52,040 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie is tucked away up in his study reading 854 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,719 Speaker 1: from occult tomes. Uh. It's supposed to be implied that 855 00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,799 Speaker 1: he's doing serious, deep arcane research. That we get to 856 00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,200 Speaker 1: see the title page of the book that he's got 857 00:49:02,239 --> 00:49:04,880 Speaker 1: in his hands, and I don't know, it just doesn't 858 00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,719 Speaker 1: seem that wild to me. It's called Lombardo's History of Astrology, 859 00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:14,640 Speaker 1: a Complete Textbook for Astrologers by Federico Lombardo. And I 860 00:49:14,640 --> 00:49:16,560 Speaker 1: don't know. I thought it was funny because in a 861 00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:19,880 Speaker 1: minute he starts talking about how he's unlocking the ancient 862 00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:23,560 Speaker 1: secrets of the stars. But he's doing that by reading 863 00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:28,759 Speaker 1: what looks like a mass printed introductory textbook for astrology. Yeah, 864 00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:30,279 Speaker 1: the way they set it up, you'd expect it would 865 00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:33,520 Speaker 1: be more of some sort of ancient tome that he's consulting. 866 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:37,640 Speaker 1: But look at this, this original scroll from ancient Babylon. 867 00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:40,480 Speaker 1: But no, it's like a it's a printed book. Well, 868 00:49:40,520 --> 00:49:43,080 Speaker 1: we don't know how he seems obsessed with this research, 869 00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:45,240 Speaker 1: but we don't know how far long he is. Maybe 870 00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:47,440 Speaker 1: he's maybe he just started it the other day and 871 00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,600 Speaker 1: he's just super into it. But you gotta start somewhere. 872 00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:52,279 Speaker 1: Might as well start with the you know, the with 873 00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,520 Speaker 1: this before you move on to the ecnomicon and so forth. 874 00:49:55,800 --> 00:49:58,440 Speaker 1: I guess so. But in this scene we learned of 875 00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:03,040 Speaker 1: a conflict between Hillary and Julie because Julie is exhausted 876 00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:06,520 Speaker 1: by constantly attending to the old man and she's creeped 877 00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:09,320 Speaker 1: out by his obsession with her, so she wants to 878 00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:11,960 Speaker 1: quit and travel back to the United States. You can 879 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:15,399 Speaker 1: totally understand that. But then meanwhile Hillary is like, you 880 00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:20,160 Speaker 1: cannot do that, you will regret it. Why is this, Well, 881 00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:22,640 Speaker 1: it's because he is in the middle of achieving a 882 00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:26,960 Speaker 1: world historical breakthrough in unlocking the secrets of ancient astrology 883 00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:31,040 Speaker 1: with this introductory textbook, and if he unlocks these secrets, 884 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:34,799 Speaker 1: they would allow him to predict the future with absolute certainty. 885 00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,520 Speaker 1: He tells us that this knowledge has been lost since 886 00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:40,479 Speaker 1: the burning of the Alexandrian Library, but he is now 887 00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:44,480 Speaker 1: just on the cusp of rediscovering it and anyway. So 888 00:50:44,560 --> 00:50:47,439 Speaker 1: he explains to Julie, look, you have to stay here 889 00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:50,840 Speaker 1: and let Ingram be obsessed with you, because if you don't, 890 00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:53,200 Speaker 1: I'm going to have to do work for him, and 891 00:50:53,239 --> 00:50:57,839 Speaker 1: I don't have time for that. I'm learning elite zodiac sorcery. Yes, 892 00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,520 Speaker 1: it's like the bosses is obsessed with you. If you leave, 893 00:51:00,560 --> 00:51:04,759 Speaker 1: he will make me work. Yeah, take away all of 894 00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:09,640 Speaker 1: my free time for my astrology. Wikipedia scrolling right. So 895 00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:12,520 Speaker 1: he's and he begs her quite desperately to stay with 896 00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:17,280 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie's trademark pitiful puppy dog, eyes welling with tears 897 00:51:17,360 --> 00:51:20,480 Speaker 1: at the thought of not succeeding it becoming a wizard 898 00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:23,759 Speaker 1: and she she's like, I don't know. I mean, I'd 899 00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:25,560 Speaker 1: like to help you, but I really do need to 900 00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:29,799 Speaker 1: get out of here. And he's like, no, please. And 901 00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:32,520 Speaker 1: she also has no comment at all about the astrology 902 00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:35,279 Speaker 1: or wizardry or anything. She's just like, yeah, I get it, 903 00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,759 Speaker 1: but I need to go. Yeah. There's very little follow 904 00:51:37,840 --> 00:51:40,640 Speaker 1: up really on the on the astrology thing. I kept 905 00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,720 Speaker 1: expecting it to become more of a of a plot focus, 906 00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:45,680 Speaker 1: but I am and then ultimate I guess it's not 907 00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:47,880 Speaker 1: as important, like just we we know that it's his 908 00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:52,680 Speaker 1: area of obsession and if if his if his if 909 00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:56,680 Speaker 1: his obsession were threatened, then who knows what might happen. Anyway, 910 00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:00,239 Speaker 1: later we we see this dinner where Ingram and Really 911 00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:03,479 Speaker 1: and Conrad and Hillary and the lawyer do prex are 912 00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,600 Speaker 1: all gathered around the table, and then I love the 913 00:52:06,640 --> 00:52:09,319 Speaker 1: scene that follows where the old man is like, let's 914 00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,640 Speaker 1: all go around the table now, and everyone talk about 915 00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:17,120 Speaker 1: how sane I am? And there, oh, you you're extremely sane. 916 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:19,680 Speaker 1: You're there the sanest person I've ever met. Well, I 917 00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:22,239 Speaker 1: think you're even saner than he does. That. One of 918 00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:24,160 Speaker 1: the things I was thinking watching this though, is like 919 00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:27,880 Speaker 1: I don't really remember what dinner parties were like exactly, 920 00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:31,040 Speaker 1: U so, you know, since they were pre pandemic. So 921 00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:32,879 Speaker 1: it's like I'm thinking, maybe this is what they will 922 00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:35,080 Speaker 1: be like when they're finally back. No one will actually 923 00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:37,399 Speaker 1: know how to entertain multiple people at a dinner table, 924 00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:42,520 Speaker 1: and we'll just like go around, Am I not sane? Right? Yeah? 925 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:44,839 Speaker 1: Everybody will just go on at length about how your 926 00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:48,560 Speaker 1: mental balance is awesome. Uh and and and make sure 927 00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,239 Speaker 1: that your lawyer can can hear them saying that, now, 928 00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,120 Speaker 1: why this whole performance, Well, it's because do Prex the 929 00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:58,200 Speaker 1: lawyer has brought a new copy of Ingram's will and 930 00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,200 Speaker 1: everybody there has to sign it to hastify that Ingram 931 00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:04,640 Speaker 1: is of sound mind when he authorizes this, this version 932 00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:08,040 Speaker 1: of the will. And then Ingram plays the piano for everybody, 933 00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:10,400 Speaker 1: and I was wondering, Okay, so is do Prex the 934 00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:13,080 Speaker 1: lawyer getting paid to have dinner and listen to him 935 00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:16,160 Speaker 1: play the piano? I mean probably, so you know he's 936 00:53:16,200 --> 00:53:18,719 Speaker 1: he's you know, he's charging by the hour. Anyway, later 937 00:53:18,719 --> 00:53:21,640 Speaker 1: in the garden, Conrad and Julie meet up, and I 938 00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,200 Speaker 1: think this is the first time we really see them 939 00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:27,759 Speaker 1: having some alone time, and they they discussed what they 940 00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:31,400 Speaker 1: each want. Um Conrad confronts her about whether she's leaving, 941 00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:35,279 Speaker 1: and she says, how did you know? And then Conrad says, 942 00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:39,040 Speaker 1: there are three forms of communication, the telephone, the telegram, 943 00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:42,920 Speaker 1: and the commissario. Commissario is the fastest, so it's like 944 00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:46,400 Speaker 1: gossip cops strikes again. I don't know if that is 945 00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:49,480 Speaker 1: unique to the character in this movie, or was there 946 00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:52,480 Speaker 1: a general idea at the time that, like late nineteenth 947 00:53:52,480 --> 00:53:56,480 Speaker 1: century Italian police were huge gossips. I guess I just 948 00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:00,360 Speaker 1: I figured he's he's kind of the you know, central 949 00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:02,520 Speaker 1: part of the community. He kind of knows what's going 950 00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:05,080 Speaker 1: on with everybody. And he's also he's also very a 951 00:54:06,080 --> 00:54:09,680 Speaker 1: nosy about everything, right he is. And they talk about 952 00:54:10,080 --> 00:54:12,560 Speaker 1: what they want and and it's a very tender scene, 953 00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:15,239 Speaker 1: and she discusses how she feels guilty but also that 954 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:18,680 Speaker 1: she has to escape, and Conrad confesses that he's in 955 00:54:18,719 --> 00:54:21,160 Speaker 1: love with her, and it seems like she likes him too, 956 00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:25,400 Speaker 1: so they decide to run away together and they kiss. Meanwhile, 957 00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,080 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie is creeping on them from behind the hedges 958 00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,400 Speaker 1: where he overhears everything and you can just see the 959 00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:35,680 Speaker 1: anguish in his face. He's like, no, my astrology research, 960 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:39,319 Speaker 1: I will never achieve awesome power unless I sabotage this 961 00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:44,719 Speaker 1: right now. So he goes to Ingram and just immediately tattles. Yes. Yeah, 962 00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:49,240 Speaker 1: He's like, like, Conrad's out there, he's talking to Julie. 963 00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:52,600 Speaker 1: They were smooching. He's going to take her away from you, 964 00:54:52,920 --> 00:54:56,600 Speaker 1: and we can't let that happen, Ingram. But of course Ingram, 965 00:54:56,640 --> 00:54:58,200 Speaker 1: he doesn't want to hear this. You know this is 966 00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:00,719 Speaker 1: this is, this is rocking his world and he's not 967 00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,880 Speaker 1: happy with it. So he becomes enraged and brutally chokes 968 00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:08,719 Speaker 1: Hillary with his left hand, and Julie runs in just 969 00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:11,520 Speaker 1: in time, just in time, to save Hillary's life, and 970 00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:15,840 Speaker 1: dude has horrible scars on his throat. Ingram orders Hillary 971 00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:17,360 Speaker 1: out of the house. He says, I never want to 972 00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:20,080 Speaker 1: see you again. And oh, we also see that dup 973 00:55:20,080 --> 00:55:22,799 Speaker 1: Rex the lawyer is nearby spying. Did you notice how 974 00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:26,920 Speaker 1: many scenes of a character hiding in the shadows spying 975 00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:29,719 Speaker 1: on other characters there were in this movie. It's constant, 976 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,040 Speaker 1: it is Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of 977 00:55:32,080 --> 00:55:36,439 Speaker 1: conniving and eaves dropping in this picture. But later that night, 978 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:42,400 Speaker 1: the spookiness sets in because the atmosphere changes. Wind tears 979 00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:45,279 Speaker 1: through the gardens and the window shutters are banging and 980 00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:49,040 Speaker 1: clattering in the dark, and then ominous music swells as 981 00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:52,120 Speaker 1: Ingram senses something and he wakes up. He gets out 982 00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:54,680 Speaker 1: of bed, he gets into his wheelchair, and he goes 983 00:55:54,719 --> 00:55:57,520 Speaker 1: out to the main hall, where he believes he hears 984 00:55:57,560 --> 00:56:01,080 Speaker 1: a ghostly figure playing his piano like he hears his 985 00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:05,760 Speaker 1: own piano performances. But there's nobody there, nobody at the piano, 986 00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:08,839 Speaker 1: and this appears to drive him mad, and he ends 987 00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:12,120 Speaker 1: up falling down the stairs and he dies. Yeah, this 988 00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,359 Speaker 1: is a weird scene. It was a weird scene at 989 00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:16,399 Speaker 1: the time, not knowing what was going to happen, and 990 00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:18,120 Speaker 1: by the end of the film, looking back on it, 991 00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:21,000 Speaker 1: I have a lot of questions about what was actually 992 00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:24,040 Speaker 1: occurring here. But they do that kind of like way, 993 00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:26,719 Speaker 1: the optical effect that makes it feel like there is 994 00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:30,440 Speaker 1: some sort of delusion going on here, that he is 995 00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:34,440 Speaker 1: hallucinating and is unwell. Now, given what we find out 996 00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:37,000 Speaker 1: at the end of the movie, though, do you think 997 00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:42,279 Speaker 1: there was a hidden record player involved in this scene? Uh? 998 00:56:42,920 --> 00:56:45,120 Speaker 1: I mean, I want to make an argument for it, 999 00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:46,719 Speaker 1: but then I feel like if that were the case, 1000 00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:49,600 Speaker 1: it would break a lot of things about the plot 1001 00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:52,680 Speaker 1: as we understand it, because it means there's some other 1002 00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,000 Speaker 1: villain at play here. Hell, I don't know. Could be 1003 00:56:56,080 --> 00:56:59,360 Speaker 1: Hillary could be playing a hidden record player to drive 1004 00:56:59,400 --> 00:57:01,560 Speaker 1: them in mad, add by me by thinking that he's 1005 00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:05,800 Speaker 1: hearing somebody playing his own music. Maybe, I don't know it. 1006 00:57:07,800 --> 00:57:09,960 Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like a perfect fit for some reason. 1007 00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:12,360 Speaker 1: I'm not sure though. Okay, Well, I guess that's jumping 1008 00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:14,239 Speaker 1: ahead to the Scooby Doo ending, which we'll have to 1009 00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,360 Speaker 1: come back to in a bit. But I thought also 1010 00:57:17,440 --> 00:57:19,520 Speaker 1: there was I know they weren't doing this on purpose, 1011 00:57:19,560 --> 00:57:22,080 Speaker 1: but there was a bit of slightly awkward editing where 1012 00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:26,120 Speaker 1: for some reason it cuts from Ingram's death scene to 1013 00:57:26,400 --> 00:57:30,040 Speaker 1: church bells and mourners in procession, and for some reason, 1014 00:57:30,120 --> 00:57:33,760 Speaker 1: the feeling the edit suggests is that this is Ingram's 1015 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:36,920 Speaker 1: funeral and it's like fifteen minutes later. Yeah, like like 1016 00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:39,919 Speaker 1: Ingram died and they just called the whole town over there, 1017 00:57:39,920 --> 00:57:41,920 Speaker 1: like all right, everybody comes, it's happened. We got to 1018 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:44,520 Speaker 1: do this now. I think it's because they're both at night, 1019 00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:47,000 Speaker 1: and I don't know something visual about the cut, it 1020 00:57:47,040 --> 00:57:49,400 Speaker 1: just makes it seem like and then a few minutes later, 1021 00:57:49,480 --> 00:57:52,240 Speaker 1: here's where we are, and Ingram's laid out on a 1022 00:57:52,280 --> 00:57:55,720 Speaker 1: big like black cushion and people are observing him, and 1023 00:57:55,960 --> 00:57:58,480 Speaker 1: the Commissario even comes to the funeral where he and 1024 00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:02,160 Speaker 1: Conrad have some marsala together and talk things over, and 1025 00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:07,000 Speaker 1: they discuss how Ingram's money grubbing distant relatives have already 1026 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:10,120 Speaker 1: showed up. They are here to claim their their inheritance. 1027 00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:12,960 Speaker 1: They want the money. And these are a couple of 1028 00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:18,280 Speaker 1: American guys from London named Raymond and Donald Arlington. Raymond 1029 00:58:18,360 --> 00:58:20,960 Speaker 1: is the father played by Charles Dingle, and I think 1030 00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:24,480 Speaker 1: he is supposed to be Ingram's brother in law. He 1031 00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:28,800 Speaker 1: was married to Ingram's sister, I think. And then Donald 1032 00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:32,360 Speaker 1: is his son, and they say, yeah, we're his only 1033 00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:34,840 Speaker 1: living relatives. So they think that they are here for 1034 00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:38,640 Speaker 1: some money. And oh oh, and there are people, of 1035 00:58:38,680 --> 00:58:42,440 Speaker 1: course mourning outside, and the Commissario explains, oh, these are 1036 00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:45,480 Speaker 1: the professional mourner mourners. They will be mourning through the night. 1037 00:58:45,560 --> 00:58:49,240 Speaker 1: It is customary in these parts. And Raymond and Donald 1038 00:58:49,280 --> 00:58:52,720 Speaker 1: are obviously they're they're very stuffy types and they're bothered 1039 00:58:52,760 --> 00:58:55,920 Speaker 1: by all of the audible mourning. So Donald is like, 1040 00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:59,440 Speaker 1: ask those witches to stop howling and uh. And the 1041 00:59:00,160 --> 00:59:03,040 Speaker 1: not very sympathetic to local customs. Well, they're not looking 1042 00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:06,280 Speaker 1: to put down roots here. They're looking to collect and 1043 00:59:06,360 --> 00:59:09,600 Speaker 1: cut out right. In fact, they're even they focus on 1044 00:59:09,760 --> 00:59:13,600 Speaker 1: the occult books, the astrology books. Raymond Donald start just 1045 00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:17,200 Speaker 1: grabbing books off the shelf and they're like, oh, Lombardo's 1046 00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:19,600 Speaker 1: astrology a you know, the British Library will give me 1047 00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:23,520 Speaker 1: ten pounds for this book. And meanwhile, Peter Laurie's in 1048 00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:28,640 Speaker 1: the background going like no, um. It's it's a kind 1049 00:59:28,640 --> 00:59:31,000 Speaker 1: of an alarming scene where he he actually gets in 1050 00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:35,520 Speaker 1: um in in Donald's face and it's like it's like 1051 00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:37,880 Speaker 1: tells him to to leave the books alone, and it's 1052 00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,960 Speaker 1: it's one of those moments where like Laurie is intimidating 1053 00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:44,080 Speaker 1: in this moment, like maybe he's even a little too intimidating, 1054 00:59:44,120 --> 00:59:47,240 Speaker 1: like they actually maybe should have done another take and 1055 00:59:47,320 --> 00:59:50,479 Speaker 1: backed it up a little big, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, 1056 00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:53,400 Speaker 1: he well he's furious and you understand why, like they're 1057 00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:57,760 Speaker 1: undercutting his his wizard quest and just to get a 1058 00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:01,800 Speaker 1: few pounds from the British Library. So so immediately there 1059 01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:06,920 Speaker 1: is conflict over who will be inheriting the goods. It's 1060 01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:09,440 Speaker 1: a classic murder mystery set up, right. It's you know, 1061 01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:12,440 Speaker 1: there are a ton of movies like this, you know, 1062 01:00:12,480 --> 01:00:15,880 Speaker 1: it's actually the same premise as Um Knives Out. Yeah, 1063 01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:18,439 Speaker 1: I thought, really, you know, thinking back on Knives Out, 1064 01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:22,080 Speaker 1: you know, fine film would have benefited from a disembodied hand. Yes, 1065 01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:32,400 Speaker 1: maybe they're going to do that in a sequel. Right, 1066 01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:35,600 Speaker 1: So everybody's got to fight over the dead man's possessions, 1067 01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:38,600 Speaker 1: and we get a reading of the will scene where 1068 01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:42,520 Speaker 1: we learn gasp that in the most recent revision of 1069 01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:44,400 Speaker 1: his will, the one that everybody had to come to 1070 01:00:44,480 --> 01:00:47,120 Speaker 1: dinner and talk about how saying he was in order 1071 01:00:47,160 --> 01:00:52,080 Speaker 1: to make possible, Ingram radically changed the distribution of his assets. 1072 01:00:52,160 --> 01:00:55,320 Speaker 1: So in the previous draft, everything had been going to 1073 01:00:55,440 --> 01:00:59,040 Speaker 1: Donald Darlington, the mean youth who was like, make those 1074 01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:03,560 Speaker 1: witches be quiet um, And now Ingram has changed it 1075 01:01:03,640 --> 01:01:06,560 Speaker 1: so that all of his possessions are instead going to Julie. 1076 01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:10,160 Speaker 1: And obviously the Arlington's do not like this. They're they're 1077 01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:12,160 Speaker 1: here for the money, and when they find out they're 1078 01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:15,000 Speaker 1: not getting the money, they're instantly threatening to sue. They 1079 01:01:15,080 --> 01:01:16,880 Speaker 1: say they're going to go to court and get this 1080 01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:19,480 Speaker 1: will thrown out so that they can get possession of 1081 01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:23,040 Speaker 1: the Villa Francesco and all of Hilary's precious astrology books. 1082 01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:26,400 Speaker 1: And there's some scheming that goes on. Oh do Prex 1083 01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:30,720 Speaker 1: the lawyer, he's doing some some triple dealing. He's like 1084 01:01:30,800 --> 01:01:35,120 Speaker 1: telling the Arlington's in private that that if they will 1085 01:01:35,280 --> 01:01:39,040 Speaker 1: promise him a third of the inheritance that he will 1086 01:01:39,080 --> 01:01:41,840 Speaker 1: come work for them and definitely get the new copy 1087 01:01:41,880 --> 01:01:44,880 Speaker 1: of the will thrown out in court, and it seems 1088 01:01:44,920 --> 01:01:47,560 Speaker 1: like a done deal. They're like okay, and do Prex 1089 01:01:47,680 --> 01:01:50,560 Speaker 1: is like okay, tomorrow the will will be broken. But 1090 01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:55,640 Speaker 1: later that night, strange things start happening. For example, the 1091 01:01:55,760 --> 01:01:58,880 Speaker 1: servants in the kitchen notice there is a light out 1092 01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:01,920 Speaker 1: in the mausoleum where Ingram's body was laid to rest, 1093 01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:04,800 Speaker 1: and this is apparently so frightening that when the maid 1094 01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:07,720 Speaker 1: in the kitchen sees it, she screams and drops something 1095 01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:10,320 Speaker 1: breakable on the floor, which that seems to me a 1096 01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:13,000 Speaker 1: little bit excessive. Just seeing a light in the crypt 1097 01:02:13,080 --> 01:02:16,240 Speaker 1: Does that scream worthy? I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean 1098 01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:20,400 Speaker 1: might be something to be alarmed about, but it doesn't 1099 01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:23,520 Speaker 1: necessarily mean the dad are coming back to life. Well, 1100 01:02:23,560 --> 01:02:26,640 Speaker 1: the Arlington's go to investigate, but they find nobody out there, 1101 01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:30,760 Speaker 1: nothing out of the ordinary. But later that night du Prex, Oh, 1102 01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:33,840 Speaker 1: he has a date with He's gonna have a whole 1103 01:02:33,920 --> 01:02:37,840 Speaker 1: handful of trouble, And we got some wonderful close ups 1104 01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:40,920 Speaker 1: on his face. I'm sorry your listeners out there cannot 1105 01:02:41,360 --> 01:02:44,680 Speaker 1: see the screen grabs I got and I'm having robbed 1106 01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:48,440 Speaker 1: look at right now. But wide eyes there, there's a 1107 01:02:48,480 --> 01:02:50,920 Speaker 1: really great part is like you see a hand wearing 1108 01:02:51,160 --> 01:02:55,080 Speaker 1: Ingram's ring reach around a door as it creeps open, 1109 01:02:55,520 --> 01:02:57,720 Speaker 1: and then do Prex is like pinned up against the 1110 01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:01,880 Speaker 1: wall doing the like face back, nostrils flaring kind of 1111 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:04,400 Speaker 1: thing that it's coming to get me. The Mummy is 1112 01:03:04,440 --> 01:03:07,800 Speaker 1: going to break my neck. And uh, honestly I miss 1113 01:03:07,880 --> 01:03:11,200 Speaker 1: Duprex when he's gone from the movie. Yeah, yeah, he was. 1114 01:03:11,360 --> 01:03:13,600 Speaker 1: He was a fun presence. I think he's just got 1115 01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:16,320 Speaker 1: one of those kind of curious looking faces that that 1116 01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:19,600 Speaker 1: is nice to round out a movie. Oh but also, 1117 01:03:19,640 --> 01:03:21,760 Speaker 1: somebody starts playing piano in the middle of the night, 1118 01:03:21,840 --> 01:03:25,040 Speaker 1: sounding just like Ingram, and people are woken up by 1119 01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:27,440 Speaker 1: the sound. But when they go to investigate, there's no 1120 01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:32,040 Speaker 1: one at the piano, though Ingram's giant ring is there. 1121 01:03:32,280 --> 01:03:35,280 Speaker 1: It's sitting on top of the piano. And they find 1122 01:03:35,280 --> 01:03:37,160 Speaker 1: a dead lawyer in the corner of the room. It's 1123 01:03:37,200 --> 01:03:40,440 Speaker 1: Duke Rex. He has been choked. So oh, and then 1124 01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:42,320 Speaker 1: it looks like the Arlington's aren't going to get their 1125 01:03:42,360 --> 01:03:45,800 Speaker 1: special astrology books after all, but the police are called 1126 01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:48,080 Speaker 1: in to investigate, and what do you know, it's our 1127 01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:52,560 Speaker 1: old friend, the Commissario gossip cop once again, and he's 1128 01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:55,880 Speaker 1: there to to do do all the forensics. So they 1129 01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:59,560 Speaker 1: look for fingerprints, They take fingerprint dustings from the piano 1130 01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:03,080 Speaker 1: and they compare those to everybody alive in the house, 1131 01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:06,320 Speaker 1: and it turns out that they match no one alive 1132 01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:10,200 Speaker 1: in the house. Huh. So there's a lot of talking 1133 01:04:10,200 --> 01:04:14,120 Speaker 1: about you know who, motive, who could have been, and 1134 01:04:14,160 --> 01:04:17,280 Speaker 1: they do discuss that a former will existed that would 1135 01:04:17,280 --> 01:04:19,960 Speaker 1: have left everything to Donald, which would seem to implicate 1136 01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:25,440 Speaker 1: Julie or would implicate Conrad as Julie's ally, and so 1137 01:04:25,560 --> 01:04:28,960 Speaker 1: people go all around pointing fingers. But I love how 1138 01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:32,200 Speaker 1: Conrad just comes straight out and he's like, well, obviously 1139 01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:36,040 Speaker 1: Ingram's ghost killed Duprex because he didn't want his will contested. 1140 01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:39,120 Speaker 1: And then the Commissario is like, but there are no 1141 01:04:39,240 --> 01:04:42,840 Speaker 1: such things as ghosts. But then there's a there's just 1142 01:04:43,720 --> 01:04:48,800 Speaker 1: absolutely exquisite logic scene that follows. So the Commissario is like, 1143 01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:50,640 Speaker 1: how can we know it was a ghost? I've never 1144 01:04:50,680 --> 01:04:53,960 Speaker 1: seen a ghost, and Conrad says, neither have I, but 1145 01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:57,600 Speaker 1: one can never be absolutely sure. They don't exist, so 1146 01:04:57,720 --> 01:04:59,840 Speaker 1: oh well, then it must have been a ghost. You know, 1147 01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:02,960 Speaker 1: you can't prove they don't exist. Then therefore this murder 1148 01:05:03,040 --> 01:05:05,840 Speaker 1: was done by one. I mean, it's it's you. I 1149 01:05:05,840 --> 01:05:08,600 Speaker 1: don't believe it was. What the Sherlock Home quote, you know, 1150 01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:13,840 Speaker 1: when when all natural, uh, when you excluded the impossible, 1151 01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:17,560 Speaker 1: the improbable, whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, so in this 1152 01:05:17,720 --> 01:05:20,600 Speaker 1: it's it's similar. It's just if you've thought of the impossible, 1153 01:05:20,720 --> 01:05:24,200 Speaker 1: just stick with that. That sounds good. Yeah. Well, anyway, 1154 01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:26,400 Speaker 1: and the next day everybody goes to the mausoleum to 1155 01:05:26,480 --> 01:05:29,280 Speaker 1: investigate a lead about the light in the crypt of 1156 01:05:29,320 --> 01:05:31,840 Speaker 1: the night before, and they find a number of very 1157 01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:35,960 Speaker 1: odd things. There is a tiny window broken from the 1158 01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:39,960 Speaker 1: inside to the outside, with a little jagged opening that 1159 01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:42,959 Speaker 1: a person could clearly not fit through. And I also 1160 01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,800 Speaker 1: this point, I'm getting excited like that. That that was like, oh, well, 1161 01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:47,760 Speaker 1: we're getting there, we're getting into the hand. It's going 1162 01:05:47,840 --> 01:05:50,600 Speaker 1: to be a hand. And the coffin has been tampered with. 1163 01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:54,600 Speaker 1: They open it up and oh, the corpse of Ingram 1164 01:05:54,640 --> 01:05:58,400 Speaker 1: is missing its left hand. Yeah, this is really excellent, 1165 01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:00,880 Speaker 1: I thought, because everybody shocked and I was afraid they 1166 01:06:00,880 --> 01:06:02,480 Speaker 1: weren't going to show it, but then they do show it. 1167 01:06:02,800 --> 01:06:06,520 Speaker 1: There's a knife in like like the paralyzed hand, and 1168 01:06:06,520 --> 01:06:10,600 Speaker 1: then there's the bloody stump where the superpowered hand was 1169 01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:15,800 Speaker 1: previously attached, right, and then uh, they also find outside 1170 01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:21,280 Speaker 1: the broken window, no footprints, but hand prints, single a 1171 01:06:21,400 --> 01:06:25,560 Speaker 1: line of single handprints, as if a hand by itself 1172 01:06:25,720 --> 01:06:29,000 Speaker 1: was crawling along the ground, or if not crawling, then 1173 01:06:29,040 --> 01:06:31,600 Speaker 1: at least like flip flopping, like doing some sort of 1174 01:06:31,640 --> 01:06:33,600 Speaker 1: a fish out of the water there. And then there's 1175 01:06:33,600 --> 01:06:36,240 Speaker 1: a kind of fun sequence where they go out in public, 1176 01:06:36,280 --> 01:06:38,480 Speaker 1: Conrad and Julie like go to the cafe to get 1177 01:06:38,520 --> 01:06:41,919 Speaker 1: some brandy, and the whole town just shuns them because 1178 01:06:41,960 --> 01:06:45,000 Speaker 1: apparently they believe somebody at the Villa Francesco has the 1179 01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:48,160 Speaker 1: evil eye and they just can't can't do business with 1180 01:06:48,200 --> 01:06:50,640 Speaker 1: them anymore, even like the guy at the cafe who 1181 01:06:50,640 --> 01:06:52,880 Speaker 1: had served them before is like, I reserve the right 1182 01:06:52,920 --> 01:06:55,840 Speaker 1: to refuse service. You you you can't come in here. Yeah, 1183 01:06:55,880 --> 01:06:58,480 Speaker 1: I mean, I think Conrad's even realize. He's like, we're 1184 01:06:58,480 --> 01:07:01,160 Speaker 1: gonna have to leave because otherwise we will starve. Nobody 1185 01:07:01,160 --> 01:07:03,400 Speaker 1: will feed us. Right, They're going to be starved. Out 1186 01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:05,840 Speaker 1: of the town. And then also they meet up with 1187 01:07:05,880 --> 01:07:09,480 Speaker 1: the Commissario and there is new evidence I think, he says, 1188 01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:11,640 Speaker 1: am I right about this? He's like, Okay, so the 1189 01:07:11,680 --> 01:07:15,280 Speaker 1: fingerprints on the piano, who we assume belonged to the killer, 1190 01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:19,640 Speaker 1: they were Ingram's and they were not older than a day, 1191 01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:22,360 Speaker 1: so this would have been after Ingram was dead. But also, 1192 01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:26,960 Speaker 1: can you date fingerprints? I mean, you can do anything 1193 01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:30,000 Speaker 1: with forensics in a motion picture. Yeah. Oh, but at 1194 01:07:30,040 --> 01:07:33,160 Speaker 1: some point Commissario seems to be one over because he says, 1195 01:07:33,680 --> 01:07:35,920 Speaker 1: in my mind there is no doubt the hand is 1196 01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:40,040 Speaker 1: walking around. But I'd say it's right about here that 1197 01:07:40,080 --> 01:07:45,440 Speaker 1: the movie transitions into high gear hand mode. Would you agree? Oh? Yeah, absolutely? 1198 01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:47,560 Speaker 1: And I was. I was totally on board with all 1199 01:07:47,600 --> 01:07:50,200 Speaker 1: of this because it's it's clear that this is a 1200 01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:56,640 Speaker 1: disembodied hand crawling around attacking people in the night. And 1201 01:07:57,120 --> 01:08:00,440 Speaker 1: they have some just some fabulous scenes follow There's a 1202 01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:04,680 Speaker 1: great confrontation between Hillary and Donald Arlington the shut those 1203 01:08:04,680 --> 01:08:09,200 Speaker 1: witches up, kid and uh and so Donald Darlington comes 1204 01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:11,560 Speaker 1: into Hillary's office and he's like, Hey, what are you 1205 01:08:11,600 --> 01:08:14,720 Speaker 1: expecting to find in all these old astrology books? And 1206 01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:17,200 Speaker 1: Peter Laurie says that you know the law that changes 1207 01:08:17,280 --> 01:08:20,760 Speaker 1: unknown fate into scientific fact. Oh great uh. And as 1208 01:08:20,800 --> 01:08:23,840 Speaker 1: an example or a demonstration of of what he can 1209 01:08:23,920 --> 01:08:27,960 Speaker 1: predict with his astrology knowledge, he's like, hey, Donald, did 1210 01:08:28,000 --> 01:08:30,599 Speaker 1: you know that there were two other people who lived 1211 01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:32,960 Speaker 1: hundreds of years ago who have the same birthday as 1212 01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:35,639 Speaker 1: you and they both died by being choked to death. 1213 01:08:36,479 --> 01:08:40,639 Speaker 1: And Donald's like wow, okay, yeah, He's like, well, good, 1214 01:08:40,680 --> 01:08:42,760 Speaker 1: I hate surprises he has. He's like a kind of 1215 01:08:42,800 --> 01:08:46,120 Speaker 1: a fun comeback there and they oh oh and then there. 1216 01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:49,280 Speaker 1: It turns out Donald remembers where there was a safe 1217 01:08:49,400 --> 01:08:52,719 Speaker 1: hidden behind the bookcase in in the study here because 1218 01:08:52,760 --> 01:08:55,600 Speaker 1: he saw saw Ingram open it when he was a 1219 01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:58,960 Speaker 1: young child. He remembers there is a jingle to to 1220 01:08:59,479 --> 01:09:03,080 Speaker 1: summon the combination to mind. And Donald comes back later 1221 01:09:03,120 --> 01:09:05,120 Speaker 1: in the night to try to return to the safe 1222 01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:08,519 Speaker 1: um But then meanwhile the commissario is in the house. 1223 01:09:08,600 --> 01:09:11,640 Speaker 1: He's like hiding out behind the fireplace, watching from the shadows, 1224 01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:15,360 Speaker 1: and it's those bad fingers striking once again. Donald's creeping 1225 01:09:15,360 --> 01:09:17,679 Speaker 1: around and he opens up the door to the study 1226 01:09:17,720 --> 01:09:21,080 Speaker 1: a crack while the commissario is looking, and a hand 1227 01:09:21,320 --> 01:09:24,240 Speaker 1: reaches around as if from behind and grabs him by 1228 01:09:24,280 --> 01:09:29,840 Speaker 1: the throat, wearing the ingram ring. But this time it's like, man, 1229 01:09:29,920 --> 01:09:33,320 Speaker 1: this is a lock because the police detective is right 1230 01:09:33,360 --> 01:09:36,599 Speaker 1: there and he witnesses the attack by the killer hand. Yeah, 1231 01:09:36,640 --> 01:09:39,560 Speaker 1: so at this point I'm completely convinced and excited to 1232 01:09:39,600 --> 01:09:42,679 Speaker 1: see more of the hand, though technically still the hand, 1233 01:09:43,400 --> 01:09:45,920 Speaker 1: you can't see if there it belongs to an arm 1234 01:09:46,000 --> 01:09:47,880 Speaker 1: or not, because it's like the door is only open 1235 01:09:47,920 --> 01:09:50,640 Speaker 1: a crack. I would say one of the advantages to 1236 01:09:50,760 --> 01:09:53,560 Speaker 1: the plotting here is that at this point in the 1237 01:09:53,600 --> 01:09:56,320 Speaker 1: film you might not know exactly how good the special 1238 01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:59,200 Speaker 1: effects will be, and so you don't know, you know, 1239 01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:01,519 Speaker 1: the limit. Paitians here are based on like what was 1240 01:10:01,520 --> 01:10:04,000 Speaker 1: possible with the effects, Like maybe the hand is always 1241 01:10:04,040 --> 01:10:07,120 Speaker 1: going to attack people uh close to a door, because 1242 01:10:07,160 --> 01:10:11,360 Speaker 1: that's all that's possible with the filmmaking. Right. So, so 1243 01:10:11,439 --> 01:10:14,599 Speaker 1: Donald is not killed. He he is injured, and Julie 1244 01:10:14,600 --> 01:10:17,160 Speaker 1: says that there is a possibility of brain fever, but 1245 01:10:17,240 --> 01:10:20,639 Speaker 1: he's there recovering in the night. Meanwhile, the servants all 1246 01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:23,240 Speaker 1: flee the villa because they believe that the hand is 1247 01:10:23,280 --> 01:10:26,599 Speaker 1: loose and it's the devil. And then later that night 1248 01:10:26,640 --> 01:10:28,800 Speaker 1: there is one of the best scenes in the movie, 1249 01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:32,759 Speaker 1: this great long one on one scene between Peter LORII 1250 01:10:32,960 --> 01:10:36,040 Speaker 1: and the hand, and we finally see the hand revealed 1251 01:10:36,160 --> 01:10:38,439 Speaker 1: in all its glory. Yeah, I mean it's pretty great. 1252 01:10:38,439 --> 01:10:41,240 Speaker 1: I mean, you know exactly what it's going to be nowadays, 1253 01:10:41,360 --> 01:10:44,120 Speaker 1: it's going to be that effect of the disembodied hand, 1254 01:10:44,200 --> 01:10:46,559 Speaker 1: like they've somehow, uh, you know, cut out the rest 1255 01:10:46,560 --> 01:10:48,840 Speaker 1: of the body. Today today you would accomplish it with 1256 01:10:48,880 --> 01:10:53,040 Speaker 1: a like a green suit with everything covered except for 1257 01:10:53,080 --> 01:10:56,600 Speaker 1: the hand. Um, but it looks really good. So what 1258 01:10:56,720 --> 01:11:01,320 Speaker 1: happens in this scene? Oh, well, it's I mean, it's cool. 1259 01:11:01,360 --> 01:11:03,639 Speaker 1: I mean it's a pretty complex scene, I guess because 1260 01:11:03,680 --> 01:11:08,040 Speaker 1: it's it's it's crawling across the table. It's crawling towards 1261 01:11:08,640 --> 01:11:12,120 Speaker 1: uh Hillary and the ring that he was looking at 1262 01:11:12,160 --> 01:11:14,880 Speaker 1: that he puts out on the table. Uh crawls out 1263 01:11:14,880 --> 01:11:18,360 Speaker 1: of this box like a crab, like a spider, and 1264 01:11:18,439 --> 01:11:23,000 Speaker 1: he's like overcome with this this complex array of Peter 1265 01:11:23,080 --> 01:11:26,000 Speaker 1: Laurie emotions, a lot of dread in there, but also 1266 01:11:26,080 --> 01:11:29,800 Speaker 1: this sense of maybe wonder. The hand crawls across the 1267 01:11:29,840 --> 01:11:33,280 Speaker 1: table to him, and then it kind of it sort 1268 01:11:33,280 --> 01:11:34,880 Speaker 1: of does a dinosaur, you know, like how you do 1269 01:11:34,920 --> 01:11:36,960 Speaker 1: with your your hand where you put the middle finger 1270 01:11:37,000 --> 01:11:41,360 Speaker 1: becomes the like a brachiosaurus neck. Um, it kind of 1271 01:11:41,360 --> 01:11:43,760 Speaker 1: does that. But but it's clear what it is doing. 1272 01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:46,640 Speaker 1: It is doing what Ingram did in life. It is 1273 01:11:46,720 --> 01:11:49,439 Speaker 1: reaching out and asking if the ring be put on 1274 01:11:49,479 --> 01:11:55,240 Speaker 1: the finger, and and Laurie's character Hillary does it, and yeah, 1275 01:11:55,240 --> 01:11:58,240 Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty a pretty crazy scene, a 1276 01:11:58,240 --> 01:12:02,240 Speaker 1: pretty uh horrifically satisfying a scene, especially for a picture 1277 01:12:02,240 --> 01:12:05,640 Speaker 1: from the nineties. But then Lori he he gets the 1278 01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:07,640 Speaker 1: better of the hand and he ends up trapping it 1279 01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:12,080 Speaker 1: in a drawer and he runs and gets gets Conrad's help. 1280 01:12:12,120 --> 01:12:14,800 Speaker 1: He's like, hey, come look into the hands alive. I 1281 01:12:14,840 --> 01:12:16,680 Speaker 1: caught it in a drawer. But when then when they 1282 01:12:16,720 --> 01:12:19,839 Speaker 1: go check, it's not there. And Hillary has this epic 1283 01:12:19,880 --> 01:12:23,439 Speaker 1: fit of screaming searching around for the hand. He's all 1284 01:12:23,439 --> 01:12:26,120 Speaker 1: over the place. He eventually finds the hand hiding behind 1285 01:12:26,160 --> 01:12:28,400 Speaker 1: a bunch of books in the book. This is a 1286 01:12:28,400 --> 01:12:31,960 Speaker 1: great sequence too, because it's shot. Um, it's shot from 1287 01:12:31,960 --> 01:12:33,519 Speaker 1: the point that, you know, the impossible point of view 1288 01:12:33,560 --> 01:12:36,679 Speaker 1: of behind the bookshelf, and we see Lori's mad face 1289 01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:39,599 Speaker 1: the whole time as he's pulling these books off the shelf, 1290 01:12:39,880 --> 01:12:43,599 Speaker 1: and then the hands cowering like a like a cornered spider, 1291 01:12:43,680 --> 01:12:46,160 Speaker 1: like a corner tarantula behind the last two books, and 1292 01:12:46,160 --> 01:12:48,639 Speaker 1: he pulls those off as well, and he grabs it. Yeah, 1293 01:12:48,640 --> 01:12:50,760 Speaker 1: and he wrestles with the hand and then ends up 1294 01:12:50,880 --> 01:12:53,680 Speaker 1: nailing it to a base. Oh god, it's such a 1295 01:12:53,720 --> 01:12:57,360 Speaker 1: good scene. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. And then later Donald and 1296 01:12:57,479 --> 01:13:01,240 Speaker 1: Raymond they're they're going to uh think Donald remembers how 1297 01:13:01,280 --> 01:13:03,360 Speaker 1: to open the safe to get the whatever it is 1298 01:13:03,400 --> 01:13:05,320 Speaker 1: out of it. He's looking for. Maybe it's the will 1299 01:13:05,479 --> 01:13:07,639 Speaker 1: or something I don't recall, but he's trying to get 1300 01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:10,439 Speaker 1: in there. And they they managed to open up the safe, 1301 01:13:10,479 --> 01:13:13,479 Speaker 1: and then when they do, what's inside the safe. It's 1302 01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:16,960 Speaker 1: the severed hand. So Donald sees it and then runs 1303 01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:20,479 Speaker 1: away screaming. But then we get the final sort of 1304 01:13:20,520 --> 01:13:26,720 Speaker 1: confrontation and reveal sequence. So how do we describe that? Well, um, 1305 01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:29,720 Speaker 1: so at this point in the film that where we've 1306 01:13:29,760 --> 01:13:32,040 Speaker 1: come up to it, like it really feels like this 1307 01:13:32,600 --> 01:13:36,040 Speaker 1: hand is a reality, right this this seems we've seen 1308 01:13:36,040 --> 01:13:39,240 Speaker 1: it crawling around I guess, But then you quickly are 1309 01:13:39,240 --> 01:13:42,720 Speaker 1: made to realize who has actually seen the hand in 1310 01:13:42,760 --> 01:13:46,439 Speaker 1: its full glory Only one character, Peter, and that's Peter 1311 01:13:46,520 --> 01:13:49,120 Speaker 1: Laurie's Hillary character. No one else has seen it crawling 1312 01:13:49,160 --> 01:13:51,000 Speaker 1: around on the table, and no one else has nailed 1313 01:13:51,040 --> 01:13:54,679 Speaker 1: it down. And his attempts to show it to other people, come, look, 1314 01:13:54,720 --> 01:13:58,479 Speaker 1: it's in the drawer haven't actually panned out. Now, Donald 1315 01:13:58,640 --> 01:14:00,800 Speaker 1: and Raymond did see it in the safe, but it 1316 01:14:00,880 --> 01:14:04,519 Speaker 1: wasn't moving. It's just laying there and the safe. So yeah, 1317 01:14:04,560 --> 01:14:07,920 Speaker 1: we're coming to the realization that, yes, that corpse's hand 1318 01:14:08,040 --> 01:14:11,200 Speaker 1: is missing. That corpse's hand is in the safe, nailed 1319 01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:15,479 Speaker 1: to a board. Um, but perhaps it isn't actually alive. 1320 01:14:15,760 --> 01:14:20,040 Speaker 1: Perhaps only Peter Lori's character Hillary thinks that the hand 1321 01:14:20,120 --> 01:14:22,800 Speaker 1: is alive. Uh. And if that is the case, well, 1322 01:14:22,800 --> 01:14:25,200 Speaker 1: who's doing all the strangling, Well it would have to 1323 01:14:25,240 --> 01:14:29,040 Speaker 1: be Peter Lori's character Hillary, right, And that's the conclusion 1324 01:14:29,040 --> 01:14:31,200 Speaker 1: that Julie seems to come to. There's kind of a 1325 01:14:31,240 --> 01:14:35,960 Speaker 1: confrontation between Julie and Hillary, and then Hillary tries to 1326 01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:40,759 Speaker 1: choke her but fails, and then he further descends into madness. 1327 01:14:40,800 --> 01:14:43,120 Speaker 1: He loses his mind and he thinks he sees the 1328 01:14:43,160 --> 01:14:47,360 Speaker 1: hand everywhere, right, And there's a scene where he's he's 1329 01:14:47,360 --> 01:14:51,160 Speaker 1: coming and increasingly unhinged, and he's approaching her with a 1330 01:14:51,240 --> 01:14:53,880 Speaker 1: knife and she kind of turns the tables on him, 1331 01:14:54,080 --> 01:14:56,439 Speaker 1: like she she plays into his madness, and she's like, no, 1332 01:14:56,600 --> 01:14:58,800 Speaker 1: you're right, it is the hand. We've got to get 1333 01:14:58,840 --> 01:15:01,200 Speaker 1: that hand. We've got to stop that hand. And that 1334 01:15:01,240 --> 01:15:04,800 Speaker 1: buys her a little time. She's on team anti hand. Yeah, 1335 01:15:05,080 --> 01:15:07,559 Speaker 1: but I think what we're supposed to understand is that 1336 01:15:08,120 --> 01:15:12,720 Speaker 1: so Hillary did indeed sever the hand, and he so 1337 01:15:12,800 --> 01:15:14,640 Speaker 1: he went to the grave, cut off the hand, and 1338 01:15:14,680 --> 01:15:18,640 Speaker 1: then used the severed hand to attack the lawyer do 1339 01:15:18,840 --> 01:15:22,360 Speaker 1: prex uh and like put the fingerprints all over the 1340 01:15:22,400 --> 01:15:25,160 Speaker 1: piano and stuff to fool everybody and make make them 1341 01:15:25,160 --> 01:15:27,280 Speaker 1: think the hand did come back to life. But then 1342 01:15:27,320 --> 01:15:30,080 Speaker 1: he started to believe his own story, and as he's 1343 01:15:30,120 --> 01:15:33,800 Speaker 1: losing his mind, he thinks the hand is actually pursuing him. Yeah, 1344 01:15:33,840 --> 01:15:35,759 Speaker 1: there's kind of a healthy dose of the tell tale 1345 01:15:35,800 --> 01:15:38,320 Speaker 1: hard and all of this. Where is he he's driven 1346 01:15:38,400 --> 01:15:42,280 Speaker 1: mad by his own crimes and begins to believe that 1347 01:15:42,320 --> 01:15:45,000 Speaker 1: the hand is actually alive, begins to see the hand, 1348 01:15:45,479 --> 01:15:49,639 Speaker 1: and then ultimately uh, you know, ends up battling the hand. Yeah, 1349 01:15:49,640 --> 01:15:52,680 Speaker 1: there's a great SmackDown scene where he he fights the 1350 01:15:52,720 --> 01:15:55,000 Speaker 1: hand and in the end he he has to purge 1351 01:15:55,040 --> 01:15:58,560 Speaker 1: it by fire. Yes, yes, throws the hand into the fireplace. 1352 01:15:58,720 --> 01:16:01,519 Speaker 1: And this is all just a great uh showcase for 1353 01:16:01,520 --> 01:16:03,880 Speaker 1: for LORI. You know, I guess to act mad and 1354 01:16:03,960 --> 01:16:08,479 Speaker 1: physical and you know, just enraged and h and also 1355 01:16:08,640 --> 01:16:11,599 Speaker 1: full of horror. Really fun performance that he didn't think 1356 01:16:11,600 --> 01:16:13,880 Speaker 1: we were going to get, because again the first half 1357 01:16:13,880 --> 01:16:16,080 Speaker 1: of the film you can easily imagine it's gonna be 1358 01:16:16,240 --> 01:16:20,880 Speaker 1: Alda's character, Conrad battling the hand and saving um the 1359 01:16:20,880 --> 01:16:24,519 Speaker 1: female lead at the end. But Conrad's never really not 1360 01:16:24,560 --> 01:16:28,040 Speaker 1: seen much. What's he doing. He's somewhere, you know, having 1361 01:16:28,040 --> 01:16:30,720 Speaker 1: a smoke or something. I guess selling some crap to 1362 01:16:31,080 --> 01:16:34,520 Speaker 1: some tourists. Yeah, he's trying to sell Julie some cameos. 1363 01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:40,439 Speaker 1: But in the end, after this big confrontation, wait, I'm 1364 01:16:40,479 --> 01:16:43,840 Speaker 1: suddenly forgetting Hillary dies. But how does he die? The 1365 01:16:43,920 --> 01:16:47,880 Speaker 1: hand It chokes him. He falls down, and then we 1366 01:16:48,000 --> 01:16:50,760 Speaker 1: do a fade where the hand disappears to make it 1367 01:16:50,800 --> 01:16:53,000 Speaker 1: clear to the audience, I guess that the hand was 1368 01:16:53,040 --> 01:16:57,320 Speaker 1: a figment of his imagination. So did he choke himself? Well, 1369 01:16:57,360 --> 01:16:59,200 Speaker 1: I thought that when the hand disappeared, it was where 1370 01:16:59,240 --> 01:17:00,519 Speaker 1: the hand was going to be shown to be his 1371 01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:02,120 Speaker 1: own hand, But then there's no hand there at all, 1372 01:17:02,200 --> 01:17:04,360 Speaker 1: So I don't know if it's just like he died 1373 01:17:04,479 --> 01:17:08,639 Speaker 1: via psychic damage from the madness, or if he it's 1374 01:17:08,680 --> 01:17:10,840 Speaker 1: implied that he choked hisself and it's just maybe not. 1375 01:17:11,479 --> 01:17:15,519 Speaker 1: Um they didn't really show it on on screen in 1376 01:17:15,560 --> 01:17:17,760 Speaker 1: a way that was convincing, but it's a full on 1377 01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:20,760 Speaker 1: Scooby Doo ending because they like uncover all of the 1378 01:17:20,880 --> 01:17:24,880 Speaker 1: like here's what they were doing, because there is a 1379 01:17:24,920 --> 01:17:28,120 Speaker 1: gramophone is like a record player inside a suit of 1380 01:17:28,200 --> 01:17:33,639 Speaker 1: armor that was hidden there to apparently simulate Ingram's ghost 1381 01:17:33,800 --> 01:17:36,400 Speaker 1: playing the piano, because it was a recording of Ingram 1382 01:17:36,439 --> 01:17:39,679 Speaker 1: playing and they would end that They said that Hillary 1383 01:17:39,760 --> 01:17:42,599 Speaker 1: would play that in order to fool people into thinking 1384 01:17:42,600 --> 01:17:45,439 Speaker 1: that Ingram was running around. Yeah, which is great. We 1385 01:17:45,600 --> 01:17:48,479 Speaker 1: love an ending. When they describe something, they give you 1386 01:17:48,520 --> 01:17:50,840 Speaker 1: all the details in a way that it makes no 1387 01:17:50,920 --> 01:17:54,160 Speaker 1: sense whatsoever. Like this, this means that it's such a 1388 01:17:54,160 --> 01:17:57,599 Speaker 1: good vinyl recording where it's such a good like late 1389 01:17:57,680 --> 01:18:03,599 Speaker 1: nineteenth century um sound system that it's indistinguishable from live 1390 01:18:03,640 --> 01:18:07,640 Speaker 1: piano performance. People in the house are just like the 1391 01:18:07,640 --> 01:18:10,840 Speaker 1: piano is clearly playing the dead have come back to life, 1392 01:18:11,080 --> 01:18:12,720 Speaker 1: and it just feels like, you know, it's one of 1393 01:18:12,720 --> 01:18:16,639 Speaker 1: these ending that's that's like, don't worry, there's nothing supernatural exists. 1394 01:18:16,640 --> 01:18:18,800 Speaker 1: There are no monsters, there are no hands. This was 1395 01:18:18,840 --> 01:18:21,920 Speaker 1: all just a clever scheme and it wasn't clever enough 1396 01:18:21,960 --> 01:18:24,600 Speaker 1: for the good guys. Don't you forget it? Yeah, And 1397 01:18:24,600 --> 01:18:27,559 Speaker 1: then the commissario does the whole comedy routine. Oh there's 1398 01:18:27,600 --> 01:18:30,400 Speaker 1: the glove. There's like the glove that's dropped on the 1399 01:18:30,439 --> 01:18:32,519 Speaker 1: stairs and you think it's a hand, but then it's 1400 01:18:32,560 --> 01:18:35,040 Speaker 1: just a glove. Yeah. Like I then I thought they 1401 01:18:35,040 --> 01:18:37,080 Speaker 1: were Oh, maybe they're gonna go for it and they're 1402 01:18:37,080 --> 01:18:39,360 Speaker 1: gonna have the twist ending note the hand is real. 1403 01:18:39,400 --> 01:18:41,200 Speaker 1: The hand was real the whole time, and it's gonna 1404 01:18:41,280 --> 01:18:43,400 Speaker 1: kill you. I would have loved that, and I thought 1405 01:18:43,439 --> 01:18:45,360 Speaker 1: that's what we were getting. But then they're like, no, 1406 01:18:45,479 --> 01:18:48,120 Speaker 1: he just dropped a glove and it made a maid faint. Well, 1407 01:18:48,160 --> 01:18:51,360 Speaker 1: there's like four twist endings that they take back. Then 1408 01:18:51,439 --> 01:18:54,240 Speaker 1: later you think that they're doing it again because the 1409 01:18:54,280 --> 01:18:56,920 Speaker 1: hand with the ring is creeping up at the Commissario's 1410 01:18:57,000 --> 01:18:59,760 Speaker 1: neck while he's doing comedy into the camera, and then 1411 01:18:59,760 --> 01:19:03,519 Speaker 1: he's like, oh, it is my own hand. It's yeah, 1412 01:19:03,520 --> 01:19:07,000 Speaker 1: it's absolutely terrible. This is like, come on, I feel 1413 01:19:07,040 --> 01:19:08,960 Speaker 1: like you're making fun of the film that we just 1414 01:19:09,040 --> 01:19:12,640 Speaker 1: watched and enjoyed. But but like, like we said, it 1415 01:19:12,640 --> 01:19:14,640 Speaker 1: seems to have been more or less the style of 1416 01:19:14,680 --> 01:19:17,360 Speaker 1: the time. I mean, didn't Edgar Allan Poe do this, 1417 01:19:17,479 --> 01:19:19,000 Speaker 1: you know where at the end of The Tell Tale 1418 01:19:19,000 --> 01:19:21,599 Speaker 1: Heart he's like, you know, he's talking about the maddening 1419 01:19:21,600 --> 01:19:26,320 Speaker 1: Beatles is not a real heart at all. I'm just 1420 01:19:26,479 --> 01:19:28,920 Speaker 1: it is all in my mind in that kookie. Isn't 1421 01:19:28,920 --> 01:19:32,400 Speaker 1: it crazy? There are no there are no undead hearts. 1422 01:19:32,640 --> 01:19:36,920 Speaker 1: People don't worry about it. Oh man, Alright, well, I 1423 01:19:36,960 --> 01:19:38,800 Speaker 1: feel like we gotta wrap it up for the beast 1424 01:19:38,840 --> 01:19:42,080 Speaker 1: with five fingers. All right, yeah, let's do it. But hey, 1425 01:19:42,120 --> 01:19:44,640 Speaker 1: if you want to see this film yourself, um, I 1426 01:19:44,640 --> 01:19:46,439 Speaker 1: guess for the most part, you're in luck because it 1427 01:19:46,520 --> 01:19:50,080 Speaker 1: is widely available to you to purchase or rent digitally. 1428 01:19:50,600 --> 01:19:52,479 Speaker 1: You can also pick it up on DVD. But on 1429 01:19:52,520 --> 01:19:55,360 Speaker 1: the other hand, we're talking about this before we recorded. 1430 01:19:55,479 --> 01:19:57,559 Speaker 1: This doesn't seem to be a film that's received any 1431 01:19:57,800 --> 01:20:01,280 Speaker 1: like remastering love or certainly doesn't seem to have been 1432 01:20:01,320 --> 01:20:05,000 Speaker 1: released on Blu Ray or anything. So maybe we'll get 1433 01:20:05,000 --> 01:20:07,360 Speaker 1: that in the future. And and and that being said, 1434 01:20:07,400 --> 01:20:10,720 Speaker 1: it's still a beautiful looking film. It's not like the 1435 01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:14,760 Speaker 1: film quality is you know, degraded or anything to any 1436 01:20:14,840 --> 01:20:17,519 Speaker 1: degree that makes it unwatchable. But I feel like it 1437 01:20:17,560 --> 01:20:22,679 Speaker 1: deserves more love than it's seen. All right, well, right 1438 01:20:22,720 --> 01:20:25,320 Speaker 1: in if you have thoughts on this particular film or 1439 01:20:25,400 --> 01:20:29,160 Speaker 1: other crawling hand movies related crawling hand movies that we 1440 01:20:29,160 --> 01:20:31,760 Speaker 1: didn't cover. I'd also love to hear from anyone out 1441 01:20:31,760 --> 01:20:34,599 Speaker 1: there who plays the piano. What's the deal with with 1442 01:20:34,680 --> 01:20:37,280 Speaker 1: one headed piano? Is that? Is? I mean, I guess it, 1443 01:20:37,400 --> 01:20:40,559 Speaker 1: it's is it? Is that a thing? Let us know? Um, 1444 01:20:41,120 --> 01:20:43,040 Speaker 1: we would love to hear from you. In the meantime, 1445 01:20:43,080 --> 01:20:44,639 Speaker 1: if you'd like to check out other episodes of Weird 1446 01:20:44,680 --> 01:20:47,160 Speaker 1: House Cinema publishes every Friday, and the Stuff to Blow 1447 01:20:47,200 --> 01:20:50,600 Speaker 1: Your Mind podcast feed. Uh you know, we're primarily a 1448 01:20:50,640 --> 01:20:53,840 Speaker 1: science podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Listener 1449 01:20:53,840 --> 01:20:56,800 Speaker 1: mail on Mondays and an artifact short form episode on Wednesdays. 1450 01:20:56,800 --> 01:20:59,920 Speaker 1: But on Friday, that's when we uh we set us 1451 01:21:00,200 --> 01:21:02,599 Speaker 1: most serious matters and just talk about a strange film. 1452 01:21:02,880 --> 01:21:06,080 Speaker 1: Huge thanks, as always to our excellent audio producer Seth 1453 01:21:06,160 --> 01:21:08,960 Speaker 1: Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch 1454 01:21:09,040 --> 01:21:11,400 Speaker 1: with us with feedback on this episode or any other, 1455 01:21:11,520 --> 01:21:13,600 Speaker 1: to suggest a topic for the future, or just to 1456 01:21:13,680 --> 01:21:16,920 Speaker 1: say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff 1457 01:21:16,960 --> 01:21:26,360 Speaker 1: to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your 1458 01:21:26,360 --> 01:21:29,280 Speaker 1: Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts 1459 01:21:29,360 --> 01:21:32,440 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 1460 01:21:32,520 --> 01:21:34,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.