WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Beast With Five Fingers 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:14.960 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.720 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And we're 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:21.280 going back to the nineties on this one. This is 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.000 gonna be only the second time we have ventured into 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.720 the forties. The last time was for the film Dr Cyclops, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.320 and uh, this time we're going in for the Beast 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:37.280 with Five Fingers from nineteen Both of these films, uh 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:40.879 that we've done from the forties have unusually good special 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.680 effects for their time. So Dr Cyclops the premise was 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.240 there's a mad scientist who gets a bunch of people 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:49.320 into his house and then he shrinks them down to 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.840 about the size of mice and they have to find 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.920 a way to to defeat the giant. But this movie 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.200 is a killer severed hand movie. So uh so you 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:01.560 might wonder, well, I don't know how good could the 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.399 killer severed hand effects be in nineteen forty six, but 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.959 I gotta say really good. Yeah, the special effects in 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.760 this film are are pretty great. Uh, you know, especially 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.000 for the time period. They're they're very effective. Um, you know, 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:16.760 if you're if you're looking for the flaws. I'm sure 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:18.680 you can. You can find them. You know that's not 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.880 an actual disembodied hand crawling across the floor. Um. You 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:24.839 know that if you're looking for a whole lot of blood, 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:27.120 you're not going to find it in the n picture 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.400 for the most part. But it's there's still some wonderfully 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.440 creepy scenes, especially when you have um, the wonderfully weird 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.800 actor Peter Lori interacting with it. Because if anybody can 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:43.240 act opposite a rubber hand and and make you believe it, 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.800 it's going to be somebody of Laurie's caliber. That's right. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.320 This movie has to meat spiders in it. One is 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.280 the hand and the other is Peter Laurie. That's right. Now. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:53.880 One of the fun things about this is that I 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:56.960 believe we actually mentioned this title though neither of us 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.280 had seen it yet, when we covered the ninety five 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:04.600 film Mad Love, which that that one was just wonderful 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:09.080 film starring Peter Laurie, Francis Dre Colin Clive, and that 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.800 film featured hand transplants and supernatural paranoid ideas of what 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.800 that might mean. As we discussed at that point, hand 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.040 transplants were science fiction. It had not been pulled off yet, 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:25.079 and this was a film that you know, went wild 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.360 with the idea. Well, if if I received the hands 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.959 of a knife thrower, then am I now a knife thrower? 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:37.920 You know where? Yes you are? Yeah, undoubtedly, and it 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:42.040 was well utilized in the plot. Now that tradition storytelling 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.640 tradition goes back at least as far as the film 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.280 The Hands of Oarlock, which is based on the same 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.800 source material as Mad Love. But The Beast with Five 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.080 Fingers takes things in a related but different direction entirely. 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.240 And that is, if you if you cut a hand 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:01.440 off of somebody, if some if you remove the hand, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.320 does something of the the original humans will survive in 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.760 that hand? What could that hand have a life of 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.960 its own? Could it crawl around and manipulate things? Could 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.040 it strangle people? Uh? And so forth, which I guess 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.960 is related to some of the anxieties and in sci 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:21.720 fi ponderings that you find in works like Mad Love. 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.160 But this takes it into an even more ridiculous and 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:30.720 special effects powered level of monster movie. Well, there are 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.120 actually even more similarities than we've already mentioned, because if 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.840 you'll recall in Mad Love and the story was based 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.560 on which I guess is the hands of Orlock. Orlock 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.160 is not the name of Peter Laurie's character. Peter Lorii 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.200 is the is the sort of is the mad surgeon 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.520 who does the hand transplant, and Orlock is the name 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.440 of Colin Clive's character, who is a concert pianist. He's like, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.800 these hands have great talent, and his hands are badly 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.560 damaged in a train accident. Colin Clive is riding in 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:04.280 a train car with a man who has a large 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.840 sausage with him and I think, also like a dog 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:11.520 in a picanic basket. Uh, but I think the train crashes, 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:14.880 his hands are harmed, and his his beloved comes to 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.520 Peter Laurie and is like, save my you know. She's like, 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.359 save my, my fiance's brilliant hands. And the way that 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.960 Peter Laurie saves his brilliant hands is by transplanting the 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.600 hands of a murderer onto this concert pianist. And he finds, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.080 you know, okay, it works. His hands, he can use them, 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.760 but now he's not really good at the piano anymore. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.360 And instead what he's really good at is wielding a knife. Yeah, 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.320 he's an he's an expert knife thrower. Now, now this 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.080 movie is also got some weird hand magic going on, 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.880 also involving somebody who's a concert pianist. It does. Yeah, 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:54.160 And this one is also notable for being I believe, 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:56.479 I believe, unless I'm missing something like, this is the 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.600 film that starts at all with crawling hand movies. It's 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.680 easy to to take crawling hands for granted now because 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.679 it's a you know, it's a well established trope. Crawling 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.320 hands are in the Dungeons and Dragons Monster manual, you 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.080 know that sort of thing. Yeah, Adams Family is a 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.480 big one. The thing now, in in that I was 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.560 looking it up, the thing dates back I think to 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:21.040 nineteen fifty four. I think that's when it first popped 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.960 up in the Charles Adams comic of the Adams Family. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.920 But of course it famously appeared in the TV series 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.120 and of course factored into the two major nineteen nineties 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.800 films of the Adams Family, as well as the third 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:35.840 I want to say made for TV or direct to 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.359 video sequel. But one thing I was surprised at, and 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.720 that is that the thing in those films, all three 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.080 of those, was played by Canadian actor and magician Christopher 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:48.640 Hart Um, which it makes sense. If you want to 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.160 you want somebody to play a disembodied hand, you get 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:53.800 a slide a hand guy, you get a magician in there, right, Yeah, 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.680 the graceful movements and the well I mean the magicians 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.240 are are practiced at doing a twirl of the fingers right, 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:05.520 kind of dazzle you while they misdirect your attention. Now, um, now, Rob, 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.039 I noticed though you keep calling it the thing. I 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.080 think it's just thing. I think thing is its name. 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:16.360 I think you're you're correct on that thing, not the thing. Now. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.320 In terms of other crawling hand features that came out 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.280 after the Beast with five fingers, you have three is 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:28.080 the crawling hand. You have a segment of the amicast 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:30.880 film Dr Terre's House of Horrors from sixty five, starring 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.440 Christopher Lee. There's another film from Amicus titled and Now 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:37.240 the Screaming Starts, and that has Peter Cushing and Herbert 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:40.120 Lawm in it. There's also a Mexican horror film that 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.520 I believe I've watched part of called Demonoid Messenger of 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.800 Death crawling hand movie. Uh. There's also famously The Hand 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.200 from One as well, directed by Oliver Stone and starring 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.800 Michael Caine. Have you seen this one, Joe, I haven't, 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.159 but I've seen it described as a remake of the 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.000 movie we're talking about today, The Beast with Five Fingers. 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.679 I don't know if that's act it. I don't remember 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:03.279 being angry. This is a film that I think I 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.320 watched it on any uh, like on a Sunday afternoon 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.039 back in the day. It was one that was in 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.040 in rotation there, and I remember being it seemed to 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:16.720 be like more of a serious psychological treatment. But no, no, 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:18.400 I take that back. I think there was really a 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.240 crawling hand in it. Uh. But yeah, Michael Caine's good 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.120 in it, and he's like a comic book artist. It's 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:30.720 weirdly named Joe Lansdale. I think, um, John Lansdale. Okay, 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:32.320 But every time I look it up, I'm like, is 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.120 that supposed to be a reference to Joe Lansdale? I 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.800 don't know. Okay, so that but in that one, is 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.600 it also like his hand has such talent in it 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.000 and then it becomes severed from his body and goes 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.960 and does its own business. Yeah yeah, but then it 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.440 comes back. Um. But yeah, there's also a lot of 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:52.400 like you know Michael Caine, dark psychological stuff going on 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.120 in that one. Um. Now, if you're an Evil Dead fan, 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.360 The Evil Dead two from eight seven famously features some 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:02.840 crawling hands and an aggins. Right, Ash's hand becomes possessed 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.760 by a demon and he has to chop it off 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.000 and then put it under a bucket which he weighs 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:09.160 down with a stack of books, the top of which 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:13.880 is a farewell to arms. Oh yeah, and that's the thing, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.280 right It kind of, I guess increases. It's so well 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.480 known at this point that it's increasingly about gags, So 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.480 I think there's a crawling hand gag briefly at least 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:27.600 in lepre Con. And then there is the comedy horror 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:34.320 film from UH titled Idle Hands. Um. I vaguely remember 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.400 seeing this one. I want to say it has either 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.600 either Gary Busey's son or that other guy. Is it 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.640 Matthew Lillard or Jake Busey. I don't think either one. 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.199 I've seen it. I think I saw this with that 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:50.400 money that one of those two guys is in this movie. 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.280 It's got Devin Salwa, he's the main guy. He plays 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.720 a stoner kid. It has Jessica Alba who was all 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.280 the rage at the time. It has Seth green End 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.160 another guy who plays you know, they play a couple 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:09.400 of stoner buddies. I definitely don't recall Jake Busey or 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:15.200 or who's the other one? You said, Uh what, Matthew Lillard. No, No, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:17.760 there are no little Ardians in the film at all. 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.920 Uh well, there you go. In my in my mind, 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:25.360 I see them clearly running running around with a disembodied hand. 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:27.400 Well I can see why you think that, because it 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.880 has some of the same sheen or grime to it 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:36.160 as say Hackers, Like it's going for a alternative, stoner 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.680 cool kid in the late nineties sort of thing. I 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.520 guess Hackers was probably earlier, maybe early nineties, I'm not sure. 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.360 But anyway, it's it's not it's not quite at that level. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.520 It's more of a low brow stoner horror comedy. A 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.080 lot of the jokes are about marijuana. Okay. Interestingly enough, 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.880 Christopher Hart, who played Thing in those three Adams Family movies, 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.120 also plays the hand in Idle Hands. It's the best 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:04.440 performance in the film. Oh and then also, um, this 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.520 guy goes on to play a hand in an episode 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.480 of TV's Angel As well, I never watched Angel, that's 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.560 the Buffy spinoff. That the Buffy spinoff. Yeah, but yeah, 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:15.840 I wasn't familiar with Christopher Heart beforehand, but that this 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.920 was beforehand. This was three guy for disembodied hands for 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.240 pretty much an entire decade. So I guess my my 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.880 main point here is that, yeah, this is this film 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.760 sets a trend. This film, uh introduces what would become 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.760 a trope, and so it's interesting to go back and 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.080 watch it and think, well, audience had audiences had never 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.600 seen this before. It's old hat to anybody who lived 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:43.440 during the age of the Adams family. You know. But 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:45.679 but but at the time, like these scenes where you 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.679 finally see the beast with five fingers, which is a hand, 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.120 is a disembodied hand, it's uh, it's pretty shocking, especially 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.600 since the effects are so good. Yeah, I agree. Now, 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.520 I know we set this up at the beginning sort 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.800 of in contrast Mad Love, and I would not say 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:04.520 that this movie is anywhere near as great as Mad Love, 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:09.440 but on its own terms, it is a uh fun 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:14.000 and silly and pretty inventive little little horror thriller with 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.480 with good special effects for the time. Yeah, absolutely, Now 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.400 at this point. Yeah, do we even need to give 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:21.719 an elevator pitch. We've sort of already done it. It's like, 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.840 what if there were a murder mystery in which the 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.880 hand of the killer wasn't attached to a wrist. Yes, well, 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:41.240 let's hear some trailer audio. A piano, long, silent mysteriously plays. Again, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.640 it's weird. Anomalous chords filling up a deviled house was 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.600 to talk to terror A concerto of a dead cobra, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.680 music of a dead man played by a hand that 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.840 returned from the grave to wreak vengeance on his betrayals, 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.640 marking each for a murder as it strikes within human power, 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.720 A horrifying monster that takes its evil commands from beyond 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.880 that cannot return to the tool until it completes its 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:47.960 mission of destruction. Now, one thing that's worth noting about 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:51.160 this film too, and I'm not sure I'm not sure 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.800 if this was was ever even possible, but it seems 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.839 like if you were watching this with absolutely no spoilers 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.520 and having never seen the trailer or a poster or anything, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.520 the big reveal that the hand is crawling around on 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.679 its own mound have been more impactful. Um because they 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.800 kind of set it up like what's happening, what's you know? 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.840 And the first time you see the hand, you can't 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.400 tell that it has that it's not attached to a body. Right, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.920 somebody will appear in the crack of a door and 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.840 then a hand reaches around from behind them and grabs 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:25.160 their throat and starts choking them. But for all you know, 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.800 the hand could in fact be attached to a risk. 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.640 It could just be somebody killing this guy. Uh. And 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:33.320 then there's actually some question later on in the movie 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.800 about whether it is. In fact, it probably is, the 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:39.319 movie implies, but it doesn't make it clear even when 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.440 you see the hand, that the hand is not just 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.040 a regular hand that you know, that's running around on 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.080 its own. You don't get to that until probably two 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.640 thirds of the way through the movie. Yeah, all right, well, 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:50.760 let's talk about some of the people involved in this one. 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:56.040 The director is Robert Florey, who lived nine hundred through 0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:01.679 ninety nine, industrial strength French American director who worked from 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.360 the twenties through the sixties. One of these guys where 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.040 you check out his filmography and it's a it's just 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.680 this long list of a hundred and eighteen credits. He 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.600 was just absolutely cranking out pictures during the nineteen thirties, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:18.319 especially he's hustling. Yeah. Now, his early career was apparently 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:23.720 more about avant garde expressionist work, but he increasingly became 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.400 just like a cinematic workhouse and also apparently the very 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:30.480 dependable filmmakers, someone the studios could turn to to uh to, 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:32.680 to really put the picture together, you know, put it out, 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.240 you know, under budget, on time. That kind of great. Ye. Now, 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.200 from a purely horror standpoint, he's perhaps best known for 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.200 Murders in the Room Morgue from nineteen thirty two, based 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.080 on the Edgar Allen post story and starring Hungarian American 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.240 film legend Bel Legosi, oh as well as ape suit 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.720 legend Charles Gemra, who've mentioned on the show before. Another floor. 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.600 A film of note is The Face Behind the Mask, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.200 which was when I was so looking at potentially to 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.320 cover in this episode, but went with the Beast instead. 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:07.360 This was a film that starred Peter Laurie as an 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.400 immigrant watchmaker Who's who who who? You know. It comes 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.240 in with a lot of optimism about what he can 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.840 make of himself in America, but then he's kind of 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.960 chewed up by dark American realities and he becomes a 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:24.800 disfigured crime boss instead. Um. And then also of interesting note, 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.680 I was not familiar with this film, but flore directed 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:31.120 a noir film titled Daughter of Shanghai from thirty seven, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:35.880 which featured a female Chinese American lead in the form 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.560 of Anime Wong, as well as Korean American actor Philip 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.200 On and this was in some ways progressive for the time, 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.040 as Asian leads were often played by white actors, and 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.920 in fact, in the same year, Wong lost out the 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.600 lead role of a Chinese character in The Good Earth. UM. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.400 So again I haven't seen Daughter of Shanghai, but it 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.640 seems to be, you know, to be noteworthy in um, 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.960 in in in film history. UM. Now, I think Wong 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.800 typically played sort of dragon ladies stereotypes. Um. But still 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.080 it was apparently something of the time to to see 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.440 her at the top in the lead, even in a 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.120 noir sort of crime thriller type of a film. Daughter 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.280 of Shanghai, by the way, also features a young Anthony 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.840 Quinn popping up in a lesser role. So, like I said, 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.600 Floy busted out a bunch of films directed a lot 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.800 of TV later on during his career, and his last 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.120 credit is actually an episode of the original Outer Limits series, 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.120 a one titled Moonstone, and he also did three different 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.960 Twilight Zone episodes. Oh, you're the Outer Limits connoisseur. How's Moonstone? Well, 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.880 my I'm I'm not a connoisseur as much of the 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:49.119 original series. I'm more of a connoisseur or growing connoisseur 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.320 of the ninety nineties Outer Limits revival. So I don't 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:55.760 think I've seen Moonstone. I've seen some of the original 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.040 Outer Limits episodes, and of course they're they're great, but 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.280 I haven't seen that one. Likewise, I look up the 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:04.680 three Twilight Zone episodes he did, and I faintly remember 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.399 one of them, but I don't think, uh, any of 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:11.359 them are like the really famous Twilight Zone episodes. You 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.720 like the era of the Outer Limits that sometimes has 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:15.600 c g I that looks like it's from one of 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:19.520 the Wing Commander games, and it really does. I mean 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.280 sometimes there's also, to be fair, there's a lot of 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:26.399 of great practical alien makeup and some cool set design 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:28.800 as they figure out like how can we on a 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.399 budget create a different alien or futuristic Hallway for every 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.879 episode of this series. But yeah, there's some there's some 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.239 truly awful c G I at times as well. I 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.320 love it now. The screenplay for this film was written 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.800 by a pretty famous name, Kurt C. O Mac who 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.600 lived nineteen o two through the year two thousand. It's 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.919 a German born novelist and screenwriter who left Germany UH, 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.520 first for the for the for Britain, and then for 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.120 the US due to concerns over rising anti Semitism under 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:02.600 the Nazis. Um his u he his his family was Jewish. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.879 His German output was already pretty successful prior to this, however, UH, 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.080 including the sci fi film I was looking at this 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.240 one FP one doesn't answer, which seems to be about 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.760 sort of a sort of an air aircraft carrier base, 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:18.400 like a like not a ship, but like some sort 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:21.480 of like a large um like at the time sci 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.760 fi aircraft platform in the middle of the ocean. Once 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.159 he once he left for the UK, he did British 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.919 war thrillers and he did some comedies, but then he 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.680 started striking it big with some horror screenplays. He did 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:38.679 the screenplay for the one film The Invisible Man Returns 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.560 that has Vincent Price in it, and then he wrote 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:46.879 an original screenplay for nineteen forty one Is the wolf Man, 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:50.800 starring Claude Raines, Bell Legosti, and Lon Cheney Jr. He 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:52.840 went on from there to write a ton of screenplays, 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:57.240 including Frankenstein Meets wolf Man from forty three, I Walked 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.960 with a Zombie from forty three, Son of Drag from 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.560 You Guessed At nineteen forty three, and then House of 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.720 Frankenstein from four, along with just a lot of other stuff. 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:09.200 But those are some of the titles that jumped out 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.160 at me. He also wrote the nineteen forty two sci 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.200 fi novel Donovan's Brain, which has been adapted three times. 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:18.800 I don't think he was personally involved in any of 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:22.000 the adaptations, but it was adapted in nineteen forty four 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.560 as The Lady and the Monster, in nineteen fifty three 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.280 Is Donovan's Brain, and in nineteen sixty two as The Brain. 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.359 Donovan's Brain is a great poster. Have you seen it? Yeah? Yeah? 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:36.119 With them? In fact, I think The Brain from sixty 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:39.800 two also has a pretty pretty snazzy poster. But uh yeah, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.199 I'm all about a good brain film. I love the 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:44.560 colors it's got these big bars of yellow and then 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.720 these these creepy eyes and a green background, and it 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:51.000 says a dead man's brain in a hidden laboratory told 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:55.480 him to kill, Kill, Kill. So you can see why 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.480 this was the perfect guy to adapt The Beast with 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.679 Five Fingers. Uh. And I say adapt because it's based 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.400 on a short story by William Fryer Harvey, who lived 0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:10.840 seven I think, professionally known as W. F. Harvey, a 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:23.320 British writer who wrote horror and ghost stories. All right, 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.200 let's get into the cast of this film. Uh, the 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.200 credited lead is not Peter Laurie. It is Robert Alda 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.199 playing Oh let's see in the in the credits is 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.760 listed as Conrad Riiler. But that's not what people call him, right, No, 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:41.199 it's all over the place. The promotional materials for this 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:45.320 movie call him Conrad Railer, but then characters on screen 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.920 call him Bruce Conrad. So it sounds like his name 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:52.159 was changed in like the shooting script. But then some 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.719 something else ended up using a name from an earlier 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:58.200 draft or something. That's that's crazy, because yeah, it's still 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.800 listed on IMDV as Conrad Tiler, So it's it's a disservice, 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.639 disservice to I mean, they couldn't have possibly realized this 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.879 that one day people would be watching your film going 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.439 to the you know, this official listing of character names 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:13.720 to keep track of what's going on, and if you 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.520 don't have the right names there, we're just gonna be lost. Well, 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.679 whether it's his first name or his last name, he 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.920 is Conrad, so we can at least stick with that. Yes. So. 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:27.360 Alda was born nineteen fourteen died six Originally a vaudeville 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:29.840 singing dance guy who made his way up through the 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:34.080 worlds of radio and burlesque theater before landing a role 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:40.879 in Rhapsody in Blue playing George Gershwin. Yeah. So by 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:43.679 the time Beast with Five Fingers comes out, this Beast 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:46.480 is only his fourth film role. Okay, well he's got 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:50.320 he's got a very optimistic, youthful energy in this Yeah, yeah, 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.560 calm confidence. Yeah, he's got a good Uh I'm not 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:57.760 sure what you call the style of mustache that he has. 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.960 It's it's kind of a table. Yeah, It's like it's 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.879 like a Clark Gable um, which which gives him a 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.240 unique look. He has kind of a I think he 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:07.840 pointed out he has kind of his character has kind 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:12.320 of a loopin in quality to it. Yes, all the continue, we'll, 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.800 we'll we'll talk more about his character Conrad as we 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.639 move forward, But all the continue to act in film 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.960 and increasingly in TV. But he did very well on Broadway, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.800 popping up in major fifties and sixties runs of stuff 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.399 like Guys and Dolls. And I'm delighted to report that 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.440 he was also a cast member on Super Train from nine, 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.879 a show about an atomic powered train full of like 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.920 extravagant cars that had things like swimming pools in them, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.199 so kind of a predecessor to snow Piercer. Like the 0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.399 whole show takes place on the train, right, and I 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:47.800 think they have murder mysteries and stuff. Um, everything is terrible. 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.920 At a video with clips from from the minis from 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.760 the like the TV movie that kicks started the one 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:59.080 season series. Oh, I gotta look this up after we're done. Um. 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:02.399 But oh, one thing that I wondered about, and you 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.520 can rest assured, Yes, indeed, Robert Alda is Alan Alda's dad. 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:10.280 Another thing I was reading about, though there's some lack 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.320 of clarity here. I've read that the lead in the 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.040 Beast with Five Fingers was originally supposed to go to 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.920 Paul Henryed, the actor who plays Victor Laslow in Casablanca, 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.320 though I can't tell if this means he was supposed 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.520 to play the Robert Alda role or the Peter Laurie role, 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.480 but either way it would have been a very different movie. 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:35.520 Robert Alda is giving a strangely variable performance in in 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:38.560 this movie. Uh, and I guess the role itself is 0:23:38.600 --> 0:23:42.359 strangely variable. Sometimes he's like I said, he's Clark Gable, 0:23:42.480 --> 0:23:46.160 He's sometimes he's a smooth, rascally con man with this 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.920 lustful twinkle in his eye, and then other times he's 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:52.560 just like a straight down the middle galahad. He's just 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:56.480 this perfectly steady and virtuous hero. Yeah. And one of 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.240 the weird unexpected things about this you know what, We'll 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:02.119 get into the plot in a bit, but he you know, 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.639 he starts that he's the he's the top build actor 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.720 in the film. He's he's the pretty much the first 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.960 that's introduced, I believe, and you expect him to play 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:14.399 a more pivotal role in like the final quarter of 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.280 the film. But he really, he really kind of he's 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:19.760 inconsequential for the most part. When you get into the 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:22.960 final act, it seems like in the second half of 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:26.160 the movie, really he's just there to be the handsome 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:28.960 man that Andrea King is in love with, and that's 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.160 pretty and he stands around and watches things happen. Yeah. Yeah, 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:36.919 he is increasingly little agency, which ultimately I'm fine with. Uh, 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:39.600 you know, it's it's kind of nice to see the um, 0:24:39.640 --> 0:24:42.879 you know, the attractive male lead in a film from 0:24:42.920 --> 0:24:46.199 this era ultimately mean nothing. Well, right, you gotta make 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:50.800 more room for Peter Laurie, which I'm I'm all for. Yeah, Now, 0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:53.719 before we we already mentioned Andrea King as she plays 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:57.359 um Julie Holden. Uh. Impossible to forget her name because 0:24:57.359 --> 0:24:59.840 there's a lot of screaming for Julie, a lot of 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:05.240 Erica's pondering around this big castle mansion and screaming her 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:08.639 first name. Yeah, and and like the commissario with the 0:25:08.640 --> 0:25:15.560 Italian accent, just saying Julie many many times. Yeah. So um, 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:19.040 so yeah, you easily remember her name. If you remember 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:21.760 no other character's name in this you'll remember her. So. 0:25:22.000 --> 0:25:24.720 Andrea King was a French born American actor who was 0:25:24.800 --> 0:25:27.800 especially active in the forties and fifties, but had a 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:31.280 pretty long career on screen and on TV, known for 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:33.959 God Is My co Pilot and The Very Thought of You. 0:25:34.440 --> 0:25:36.920 But she also pops back up in the nineties seventies 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:41.879 in House of the Black Death and Blackenstein. Now I 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:43.920 was looking at her other stuff to see if I 0:25:43.960 --> 0:25:45.840 had seen her in anything else, and there was nothing 0:25:45.880 --> 0:25:47.639 that really stood out to me. So I don't know 0:25:47.720 --> 0:25:51.040 what she's like usually, but I gotta say her performance 0:25:51.080 --> 0:25:54.680 in this movie feels phoned in. She does not seem 0:25:54.760 --> 0:25:57.560 to be super interested in being in the Beast with 0:25:57.640 --> 0:26:03.240 five fingers. However, her relatively flat acting performance sometimes makes 0:26:03.520 --> 0:26:06.199 scenes more amusing than they would have been if she 0:26:06.320 --> 0:26:09.439 was more into it, Because I don't know, it's just 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:12.040 like a funny compliment to the weird stuff going on 0:26:12.080 --> 0:26:16.160 around her and to her all inspiring hair dues. This 0:26:16.200 --> 0:26:19.200 is this movie is an event of profoundly big hair, 0:26:20.240 --> 0:26:22.160 which makes me want to see another movie I saw 0:26:22.200 --> 0:26:24.800 that she was in. It's a nineteen fifty topic film 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:29.560 called I Was a Shoplifter, which hide things in her 0:26:29.600 --> 0:26:31.880 hair to get him out of the store. I think, 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:33.679 But before I watched it, when you were to tell 0:26:33.760 --> 0:26:35.960 me a little bit about that about it, you said 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:39.199 you compared her hair to um Dracula's hair like the 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:41.600 old Man Garry Oldman. Yeah, with the butt cut in 0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:44.359 the Francis Ford Coppola Dracula, Yeah, a couple of times 0:26:44.359 --> 0:26:49.879 she has an enormous, like curly butt cut. Well. Um, 0:26:50.359 --> 0:26:54.320 there are some pretty hilarious scenes where her very flat 0:26:54.359 --> 0:26:58.120 performance is um is in stark contrast to say, Peter 0:26:58.200 --> 0:27:03.160 Laurie's performance. But but I hesitate to to like heap 0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:06.040 the blame on her for this, or to really cast 0:27:06.040 --> 0:27:07.919 any blame on her at all, because there are some 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:11.239 questions that arise concerning the script. Uh, Like you are 0:27:11.320 --> 0:27:14.280 scenes where it's like one character can see things that 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:17.720 are not there, and she is perhaps legitimate Her character 0:27:17.760 --> 0:27:20.680 is legitimately supposed to be looking at nothing, and therefore 0:27:20.760 --> 0:27:24.000 maybe it makes sense that she is not reacting the 0:27:24.040 --> 0:27:26.840 same way other characters are. Well. Yeah, and then, and 0:27:26.880 --> 0:27:29.280 I also want to say it, it makes perfect sense 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:31.359 in the earlier parts of the movie where there's like 0:27:31.720 --> 0:27:35.280 another character who is obsessed with her and she is 0:27:35.320 --> 0:27:38.320 not into him at all, and so her flat performance 0:27:38.359 --> 0:27:40.480 is great in those scenes because you can tell she's 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:43.200 just conveying like, can you get me out of here? 0:27:43.400 --> 0:27:45.920 Kind of kind of feeling yeah, and kind of going 0:27:45.960 --> 0:27:49.800 for like a steely calm because there's some crazy dude 0:27:49.920 --> 0:27:53.159 ranting at you and you're trying to to to not 0:27:53.359 --> 0:27:56.720 escalate the situation and trying to like maybe play into 0:27:56.720 --> 0:27:58.840 their their delusions a little bit so that you can 0:27:59.000 --> 0:28:01.280 make a you know, belie for these game. Okay, So 0:28:01.320 --> 0:28:03.320 I'd say with both of our lead actors so far, 0:28:03.359 --> 0:28:05.520 there's a little bit of weirdness in how the character 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:08.720 is realized on screen. But but then we get to 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:11.399 Peter Laurie. He gets like third billing, right, and he 0:28:11.720 --> 0:28:14.720 plays a character named Hilary Cummins and this is the 0:28:14.760 --> 0:28:18.800 main event, that's right. So, uh, We're not gonna go 0:28:18.880 --> 0:28:22.320 super into Laurie's biography and filmography here because we we 0:28:22.400 --> 0:28:23.800 spent a lot of time with it in the Mad 0:28:23.880 --> 0:28:26.040 lat Of episode, so definitely go back to that. But 0:28:26.600 --> 0:28:30.320 he lived nineteen o four or ninety four. Uh. He 0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:33.520 was an Austro Hungarian actor of Jewish descent who made 0:28:33.560 --> 0:28:38.160 it big in Fritz Lang's em before like mac Fleeing 0:28:38.160 --> 0:28:41.480 the Rise of Anti Semitism under the Nazi regime, a 0:28:41.600 --> 0:28:44.920 great actor, plagued at times by substance abuse and health problems, 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:48.280 but completely unequaled in his ability to play this these 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:52.920 kind of artful mixes of sympathetic weirdos and absolutely mad men. 0:28:53.440 --> 0:28:57.000 Um like it's a it's a careful um uh you know, 0:28:57.040 --> 0:29:02.120 it's it's a careful mixology going on at times with 0:29:02.160 --> 0:29:05.200 a Peter Lori role, because it's not like he's just 0:29:05.280 --> 0:29:08.040 great at playing like a scary weirdo. It's like he 0:29:08.040 --> 0:29:11.040 he he does has to have the sympathetic nature. And 0:29:11.080 --> 0:29:14.400 then also you know, just is really able to uh 0:29:14.440 --> 0:29:18.239 emote through his performance in ways that it seems like 0:29:18.560 --> 0:29:21.800 many actors around him in any any just any given 0:29:21.800 --> 0:29:24.640 film he's in either didn't have the ability to or 0:29:24.720 --> 0:29:28.120 did not have like you know, free um free reign 0:29:28.240 --> 0:29:30.520 to do. So. I like what you say about him 0:29:30.520 --> 0:29:33.240 being more sympathetic than you would expect a character in 0:29:33.280 --> 0:29:35.480 this role to be, because there are several scenes in 0:29:35.520 --> 0:29:41.240 this movie of him making these desperate begging please for 0:29:41.400 --> 0:29:45.400 something that is actually a totally unreasonable request. But he's 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:47.760 such a good performer that you feel sad for him. 0:29:47.800 --> 0:29:49.680 You kind of get on his side. You're like, yeah, 0:29:49.760 --> 0:29:52.040 why won't Why won't you just stay with this old 0:29:52.080 --> 0:29:58.200 man forever so that Peter Laurie can continue his occult research. Yeah, yeah, 0:29:58.240 --> 0:30:01.920 there's just something about him. I'm also I just I 0:30:01.960 --> 0:30:05.080 just really like a good Peter Lori performance. That's probably 0:30:05.320 --> 0:30:07.000 I mean, that's that's one of the reasons I was 0:30:07.040 --> 0:30:11.000 looking at this film anyway. Um, And while I was 0:30:11.040 --> 0:30:12.880 watching this, my wife asked me. She's like, why, how 0:30:13.000 --> 0:30:17.239 how can you enjoy a film like this comp So 0:30:17.960 --> 0:30:19.960 she's just not as until like the older pictures, you know, 0:30:20.040 --> 0:30:21.880 She's like, how can you you know you enjoy a 0:30:21.920 --> 0:30:24.040 film like this the same way you enjoy a film 0:30:24.120 --> 0:30:27.360 from like the eighties or the seventies, And um, you know, 0:30:27.440 --> 0:30:28.720 I mean part of it is like, yeah, it is 0:30:28.720 --> 0:30:32.280 a different era, it's a different there different sensibilities in play. 0:30:32.360 --> 0:30:33.960 But I think a big part of it too, is 0:30:34.000 --> 0:30:36.520 like there's something about Peter Lori's voice. It just it 0:30:36.600 --> 0:30:39.000 calms me to hear it. Like there's something about a 0:30:39.000 --> 0:30:41.720 Peter Laurie performance that I'm just I'm just captivated by 0:30:41.760 --> 0:30:44.400 the whole thing. Long stretches of the first half of 0:30:44.440 --> 0:30:47.840 this movie, though, I would say, suffer from Peter Lorie deficiency, 0:30:48.840 --> 0:30:50.960 but he has more of a role as the movie 0:30:51.000 --> 0:30:54.280 goes on, and whenever he returns to screen, our grail 0:30:54.360 --> 0:30:58.400 of delight overfloweth uh, because he plays this this queasy, 0:30:58.640 --> 0:31:03.520 bookish little man who is obsessed with discovering forbidden secrets 0:31:03.520 --> 0:31:08.160 of astrology, and his his obsession just builds to these 0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:11.640 points of absurdity with these excellent freak out scenes. I 0:31:11.640 --> 0:31:13.840 I love him in this. Yeah. I have to say. 0:31:13.920 --> 0:31:16.400 One of one of the main reasons I hesitated with 0:31:16.480 --> 0:31:19.400 this film was that I expected him to be a 0:31:19.480 --> 0:31:22.560 minor character that gets killed off halfway through the picture. 0:31:22.920 --> 0:31:25.200 So I was delighted when that was not the case. 0:31:25.560 --> 0:31:28.480 The Peter Laurie is not the only actor playing a 0:31:28.520 --> 0:31:31.760 crazy person, which is great because we also have a 0:31:31.920 --> 0:31:36.920 Victor Franzen playing Francis Ingram Um. This uh, this is 0:31:36.920 --> 0:31:39.760 a fun performance. This is the the actor here. Uh. 0:31:39.960 --> 0:31:43.400 Frandson was born in eighty eight died in nineteen seventy seven, 0:31:43.680 --> 0:31:46.960 Belgian born actor known for Hold Back the Dawn, Helen 0:31:47.040 --> 0:31:50.840 high Water and I accuse um. He's pretty great in 0:31:50.880 --> 0:31:53.920 this as the while he's still alive, before he becomes 0:31:53.960 --> 0:31:58.320 just a hand as the overly dramatic composer and concert pianist. 0:31:58.640 --> 0:32:02.400 This movie proposes that if you are paralyzed on one 0:32:02.440 --> 0:32:05.800 side of your body, as Victor Franson's character is, so 0:32:05.840 --> 0:32:09.000 that you cannot use one of your hands, the other 0:32:09.040 --> 0:32:14.240 hand somehow becomes incredibly good at both piano playing and choking. 0:32:14.920 --> 0:32:19.480 And Victor Franson embraces this premise with cranky alacrity. It 0:32:19.680 --> 0:32:23.240 really really powerful. That's yeah, that this was like a 0:32:23.280 --> 0:32:27.840 sort of a weird um weird movie logic for the 0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:30.000 beast with five fingers to dwell on. But yeah, it's 0:32:30.000 --> 0:32:31.880 like he only has the one hand, so it has 0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:34.440 the strength of two hands. But then on top of that, 0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:37.680 he's also this this brilliant pianist, and so he's you know, 0:32:37.760 --> 0:32:40.840 his fingers danced across the uh you know, the ivories 0:32:40.960 --> 0:32:44.920 with just amazing dexterity. And I guess the idea is 0:32:44.960 --> 0:32:47.880 that all of that intense piano playing um just makes 0:32:47.920 --> 0:32:50.720 your the hands of a professional piano player like a 0:32:50.720 --> 0:32:54.080 couple of coconut crabs. So like somebody, like a like 0:32:54.120 --> 0:32:56.440 a Tory Amos could just rip a phone book in 0:32:56.520 --> 0:33:00.800 half with those dexterous digits of verse. But if she 0:33:00.800 --> 0:33:02.680 could only use one hand. Then she could rip a 0:33:02.680 --> 0:33:05.760 phone book in half with one hand, right, Yeah, there. 0:33:05.800 --> 0:33:09.520 There there are times where characters um are grabbed by 0:33:10.000 --> 0:33:12.680 Ingram and they're like his his, his hand was so 0:33:12.680 --> 0:33:17.040 so powerful. It's it's it's it's wonderful and ultimately like 0:33:17.080 --> 0:33:18.560 that's part of it. It's like the hand becomes so 0:33:18.600 --> 0:33:21.280 powerful that it cannot die. Like the man dies, but 0:33:21.360 --> 0:33:24.080 the hand lives on the The only other actor of 0:33:24.160 --> 0:33:29.440 note uh here for our purposes is J Carroll nish Um, 0:33:29.520 --> 0:33:34.959 who plays Detective Old Video Castagnio. This is the Italian 0:33:35.320 --> 0:33:41.320 law enforcement guy who the commissario yeah, who becomes involved 0:33:41.360 --> 0:33:44.640 with the various murderers going on. No. Uh. The actor 0:33:44.640 --> 0:33:48.120 in question here is actually of Irish descent. He's playing 0:33:48.120 --> 0:33:51.520 in Italian. Uh. This is a role that I would 0:33:51.520 --> 0:33:54.320 say feels really fun and balanced for most of the picture, 0:33:54.800 --> 0:33:56.880 but by the apps, by the time the credits roll, 0:33:57.080 --> 0:34:00.280 you're sick of him. He's still sick of him, Yeah, 0:34:00.360 --> 0:34:02.040 because at the very end of the movie they have 0:34:02.160 --> 0:34:04.520 him look directly into the camera and then do a 0:34:04.600 --> 0:34:10.200 vaudeville comedy act. What. Yeah, this is something we've run 0:34:10.200 --> 0:34:13.359 into before with films where Um It's like you just 0:34:13.400 --> 0:34:16.080 could not send the audience home with any ounce of 0:34:16.160 --> 0:34:19.360 dread in their body. You had to take whatever was 0:34:19.400 --> 0:34:23.200 funny or or heartfelt about the film and not only 0:34:23.239 --> 0:34:25.480 double down on it, but triple down on it in 0:34:25.520 --> 0:34:27.640 the closing moments. And that's exactly what they do with 0:34:27.680 --> 0:34:31.360 this guy's character. You remember, Actually there is an ending 0:34:31.400 --> 0:34:36.080 to uh Bava's Black Sabbath much like this that suddenly 0:34:36.120 --> 0:34:38.520 at the end, Boris Karloff shows up and he's doing 0:34:38.520 --> 0:34:41.640 a comedy routine and he's like, actually there are no ghosts, 0:34:41.640 --> 0:34:45.760 so ho and the yeah, and you see the crew 0:34:45.840 --> 0:34:48.360 and they're all like, don't be afraid. Now it's safe 0:34:48.360 --> 0:34:52.400 to go to bed. There's nothing in your closet. Uh yeah. 0:34:52.440 --> 0:34:54.880 I mean it's just I guess it's just an artifact 0:34:54.880 --> 0:34:57.200 of the time. Just if you just couldn't send the 0:34:57.400 --> 0:35:00.480 audience home with with the sense of dre you had 0:35:00.520 --> 0:35:02.040 to send him out with a smile on their face. 0:35:02.080 --> 0:35:04.520 I mean, this is theater, right. One of the interesting 0:35:04.520 --> 0:35:07.960 things about Ja Carol Neish, however, is that uh he 0:35:07.960 --> 0:35:11.560 he's an octor oscar nominated actor for Um Sahara from 0:35:11.600 --> 0:35:15.160 nineteen forty three and from for a medal for Benny 0:35:15.239 --> 0:35:20.080 from ninety. His final film role was the role of 0:35:20.160 --> 0:35:25.480 Dr Frankenstein in nineteen seventy ones Dracula Versus Frankenstein, alongside 0:35:25.680 --> 0:35:29.160 Long Cheney Jr. Alright onto just a few of the 0:35:29.640 --> 0:35:33.399 I guess artistic mentions here. Max Steiner did the music. Uh. 0:35:33.480 --> 0:35:36.880 Steiner lived at eight eight to nineteen seventy one. Austrian 0:35:36.880 --> 0:35:41.240 born American music composer, nominated for twenty four Academy Awards, 0:35:42.120 --> 0:35:45.480 winning three for The Informer and thirty five Now Voyager 0:35:45.480 --> 0:35:48.080 in forty two and Since You Went Away in forty four. 0:35:48.160 --> 0:35:51.799 He also composed the score for Casablanca. UM. I don't 0:35:51.800 --> 0:35:53.759 know if this jumped out at you, Joe. I wasn't 0:35:53.800 --> 0:35:56.839 familiar with this individual. But the costume designer on this 0:35:57.040 --> 0:36:03.000 was Travilla, Just Travilla, Just Travilla, Yeah, Madonna, Yeah Yeah, 0:36:03.120 --> 0:36:07.840 this was uh born William Travilla. Uh. He was famed 0:36:07.840 --> 0:36:11.520 for his work with Marilyn Monroe on various films, including 0:36:11.520 --> 0:36:13.720 The Seven Year Itch. So that costume that she's wearing 0:36:13.760 --> 0:36:16.680 in The Seven Year Itch over the Subway great, Uh, 0:36:16.719 --> 0:36:19.840 that is the work of Travilla. He was also the 0:36:19.840 --> 0:36:23.440 costume designer on the Daily Earth stood still. Oh okay, 0:36:23.440 --> 0:36:26.520 so he came up with the gort suit maybe so, 0:36:27.239 --> 0:36:29.520 but anyway, Yeah, it was apparently a big name. Uh. 0:36:30.200 --> 0:36:31.960 If not at the time, I guess at the time, 0:36:32.000 --> 0:36:34.440 you can't just call yourself Travilla and not be a 0:36:34.480 --> 0:36:39.600 big deal. I mean, I'm convinced, but he lived. Yeah, 0:36:39.640 --> 0:36:42.480 Travilla is great. Uh So I figured we should call 0:36:42.480 --> 0:36:45.480 it the special effects because they're so good for the 0:36:45.480 --> 0:36:49.279 time they I didn't find much written about them, but 0:36:49.360 --> 0:36:53.920 the special effects are credited to William McGann as the 0:36:53.960 --> 0:36:57.680 special effects director and then also U h kind of 0:36:57.760 --> 0:37:01.640 camp s c. Yeah. I was looking into either of 0:37:01.719 --> 0:37:04.960 these guys to see of Sometimes with films like this, 0:37:05.080 --> 0:37:07.760 you can you can see where the special effects people 0:37:08.160 --> 0:37:10.400 went from there and you can so you can recognize, oh, 0:37:10.480 --> 0:37:13.200 well this guy was this guy was a synthetic flash master, 0:37:13.320 --> 0:37:16.520 because we see it reflected in various pictures they were 0:37:16.520 --> 0:37:20.200 involved in. But I couldn't find any direct signs of 0:37:20.239 --> 0:37:22.239 that here. But I guess these are the guys to 0:37:22.280 --> 0:37:25.120 thank for these wonderful crawling and effects because again that 0:37:25.239 --> 0:37:36.839 they hold up really well. Should we discuss the plot? Oh, 0:37:37.000 --> 0:37:39.919 let's do all right? Well, we begin somewhere in an 0:37:39.920 --> 0:37:43.800 outdoor market place it seems in a kind of Mediterranean region, 0:37:43.840 --> 0:37:46.200 though their mountains in the background. And then we get 0:37:46.200 --> 0:37:49.799 a uh text that pops up that says, this is 0:37:49.840 --> 0:37:53.960 the story of what happened or seemed to happen in 0:37:54.040 --> 0:37:58.239 the small Italian village of San Stefano nearly fifty years ago. 0:37:58.880 --> 0:38:01.000 So if it was nearly five two years ago at 0:38:01.000 --> 0:38:02.719 the time of the movie, this would put this in 0:38:02.840 --> 0:38:06.879 like the nineties. By the way, I could not find 0:38:06.920 --> 0:38:09.839 evidence of a real sin Stefano in Italy, though there 0:38:09.920 --> 0:38:12.680 is one in bulk area. But it looks like, you know, 0:38:12.760 --> 0:38:15.640 business is booming in the marketplace. We see children running 0:38:15.640 --> 0:38:18.880 all around fruit cards with big dangling strings of garlic, 0:38:19.600 --> 0:38:22.719 and we see a horse drawn cart carrying a bunch 0:38:22.719 --> 0:38:25.560 of tourists around and it stops so they can have lunch. 0:38:26.200 --> 0:38:29.120 And then, looking on from the shadows nearby like a 0:38:29.160 --> 0:38:32.640 wolf staring at a herd of cattle, is Robert Alda 0:38:32.840 --> 0:38:36.360 playing this character again, who has multiple names depending on 0:38:36.440 --> 0:38:39.359 where you look, but in the movie they call him 0:38:39.360 --> 0:38:42.040 Bruce Conrad, though if you look him up it might 0:38:42.080 --> 0:38:45.239 say he's Conrad Railer. Either way, he's Conrad, He's our guy, 0:38:46.120 --> 0:38:48.920 and just just look at him. I mean, yeah, I 0:38:48.920 --> 0:38:52.520 mean he's just an obvious conn from the good go here. Yes, 0:38:52.600 --> 0:38:55.879 he's got the pencil mustache. He he's got that that 0:38:55.960 --> 0:38:59.120 Clark Gable smirk. He's got a brimmed hat kind of 0:38:59.160 --> 0:39:03.000 pulled down low over his eyebrows, cigarette dangling loosely out 0:39:03.000 --> 0:39:05.600 of his mouth, and a kind of smooth looking suit 0:39:05.680 --> 0:39:11.480 jacket with wide Lapel's uh, obvious obvious cigarettes smoking wolf 0:39:12.040 --> 0:39:15.160 and he slithers up to a couple of American rubes 0:39:15.160 --> 0:39:18.720 who sit down at a cafe table. He insinuates himself 0:39:18.760 --> 0:39:22.040 into their lunch state and eventually cons them into buying 0:39:22.120 --> 0:39:25.959 some fake artifacts He's got, Like, he's got this whole 0:39:25.960 --> 0:39:29.120 story about how he he buys things that are actually 0:39:29.239 --> 0:39:32.520 priceless antiques, but he gets them for a song by 0:39:32.520 --> 0:39:36.120 going through people's estates and then he ends up selling something. 0:39:36.400 --> 0:39:37.839 I did not know what these were, by the way. 0:39:37.880 --> 0:39:41.280 They're called cameos, but Rachel and I watched this together 0:39:41.320 --> 0:39:43.360 and she explained it to me. They're like these little 0:39:43.840 --> 0:39:48.440 oval things that have people's heads in profile on them. Okay, 0:39:49.080 --> 0:39:52.680 so sort of a combination between like a person's likeness 0:39:52.760 --> 0:39:56.120 in jewelry that he might remember them by. Yeah, kind of. 0:39:56.520 --> 0:39:58.800 But he gets these people, the you know, these ignorant 0:39:58.840 --> 0:40:02.480 farmers to believe of that they are buying priceless fifteenth 0:40:02.520 --> 0:40:06.120 century antiques. They are not. The lady is like, I 0:40:06.160 --> 0:40:09.319 love cameos, and the dude ends up buying a bunch 0:40:09.400 --> 0:40:11.600 of them. Yeah, I mean he completely hustles them. It's 0:40:11.680 --> 0:40:15.480 it's it's completely apparent before anything else happens with the 0:40:15.480 --> 0:40:18.840 plot to uh, to confirm the matter, right, So Conrad 0:40:18.920 --> 0:40:21.920 pulls off the con he gets some sweet U S dollars, 0:40:21.960 --> 0:40:24.160 and he ends up strolling on down the avenue, where 0:40:24.160 --> 0:40:28.279 he strikes up a conversation with the local commissario Commissario 0:40:28.560 --> 0:40:35.640 Video Costagnio, who is a smooth Italian version of Urkule Parrot. Yes, yeah, 0:40:35.640 --> 0:40:37.920 I think it's a fair comparison. And it's funny when 0:40:37.960 --> 0:40:40.680 you see them walking next to each other because they're 0:40:40.680 --> 0:40:44.880 like both guys in in hats with thin mustaches, smoking 0:40:44.960 --> 0:40:48.239 rolled tobacco products. Yeah, and this this scene that they 0:40:48.239 --> 0:40:50.120 have together is actually pretty fun. I like the I 0:40:50.160 --> 0:40:53.040 like the dialogue in this. Oh yeah, because the commissario 0:40:53.320 --> 0:40:55.839 he's a fun character, at least for most of the movie, 0:40:55.920 --> 0:41:00.400 because he clearly knows that Conrad is crooked, but it 0:41:00.480 --> 0:41:03.440 also implies their kind of buddies, and he's not interested 0:41:03.480 --> 0:41:06.600 in actually arresting him. He's like, oh, you are aware 0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:10.480 it is illegal to sell sell antiques without a license, 0:41:10.600 --> 0:41:14.000 and and conrads like, I am aware of every law. Yeah. 0:41:14.000 --> 0:41:16.720 They're basically like, I I would just like to remind 0:41:16.719 --> 0:41:18.279 you what the law is. And he's like, oh, I 0:41:18.280 --> 0:41:19.759 I know what the law is. I would not dream 0:41:19.800 --> 0:41:22.319 of passing that line. And he's like, well, I'm just 0:41:22.360 --> 0:41:24.480 here to remind you where that line is, and and 0:41:24.480 --> 0:41:26.919 and and so forth, Like they have a fun back 0:41:26.920 --> 0:41:29.640 and forth. Yeah, And it also kind of drives home 0:41:29.640 --> 0:41:33.160 that our our character, Conrad here is is maybe not 0:41:33.239 --> 0:41:36.399 too bad. He's not so bad that the local law 0:41:36.480 --> 0:41:39.239 enforcement is is telling him and hey, cut it out. 0:41:39.320 --> 0:41:41.840 It's more like, alright, just make sure make sure you 0:41:41.840 --> 0:41:43.960 know what you're doing a small time con man, and 0:41:44.000 --> 0:41:46.319 don't don't get too big time on me. Right, They 0:41:46.320 --> 0:41:49.720 don't mind. They don't mind him out here mildly hustling 0:41:49.800 --> 0:41:53.680 the tourists. Yeah, but Conrad also gets some news from 0:41:53.680 --> 0:41:57.719 the Commissario. It is gossip about the Villa Francesco, the 0:41:57.880 --> 0:42:01.920 estate of somebody named Francis Ingram, who we understand is 0:42:01.960 --> 0:42:04.680 a very rich old man who has been unwell, and 0:42:04.760 --> 0:42:09.560 apparently somebody named Julie is planning to leave the Ingram place. 0:42:09.719 --> 0:42:13.080 The Commissario reveals that he has just authorized her exit 0:42:13.200 --> 0:42:16.480 visa earlier this morning. Presumably I guess too, to leave 0:42:16.520 --> 0:42:20.239 the country. And it's also implied that Conrad has some 0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:23.960 kind of relationship with Julie. Mr Commissarios, like, aren't you 0:42:24.040 --> 0:42:26.759 going to go see her before she leaves? So we 0:42:26.840 --> 0:42:30.480 follow Conrad to the Villa Francesco as he approaches through 0:42:30.520 --> 0:42:34.240 the elegant courtyard has a lot of lush greenery and 0:42:34.239 --> 0:42:38.400 and fancy looking statues and uh. And meanwhile, a sullen 0:42:38.480 --> 0:42:42.040 looking Peter Laurie watches from a second story window as 0:42:42.120 --> 0:42:46.480 Conrad approaches. He's just shooting laser beams of gray sadness 0:42:46.560 --> 0:42:49.480 out of his eyeballs. And the whole time we hear 0:42:49.480 --> 0:42:52.840 piano music. Somebody is playing with great skill and intensity, 0:42:53.280 --> 0:42:56.480 and it turns out it is Mr Francis Ingram himself 0:42:56.600 --> 0:42:59.719 again played by Victor Franson. Uh, the old man who 0:42:59.719 --> 0:43:03.600 owned the Villa francesco Is is a skilled pianist, though 0:43:03.719 --> 0:43:07.200 with a twist because he is paralyzed on one side 0:43:07.200 --> 0:43:09.880 of his body, so he only plays the piano with 0:43:10.000 --> 0:43:14.240 one hand, the left hand, though his left hand alone 0:43:14.560 --> 0:43:18.280 is implied to be of of the most incredible skill 0:43:18.400 --> 0:43:22.319 the incredible virtuosity of his one handed piano playing, and 0:43:22.480 --> 0:43:25.160 Conrad stops at the door to listen while while he 0:43:25.200 --> 0:43:29.160 does this performance, and also meanwhile, Julie played by Andrea King, 0:43:29.280 --> 0:43:32.480 she is sitting beside the piano in a nurse's uniform, 0:43:32.600 --> 0:43:37.720 supposedly listening to him play, but honestly looking excruciatingly bored. 0:43:39.200 --> 0:43:41.000 I was trying to think of how to describe it. 0:43:41.040 --> 0:43:44.600 She looks like an adult at a party who gets 0:43:44.719 --> 0:43:47.960 like cornered by a friend's seven year old kid who 0:43:48.040 --> 0:43:51.000 is explaining the plot of Dragon Ball Z for thirty minutes. 0:43:51.400 --> 0:43:54.759 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, are walking you through the the 0:43:54.800 --> 0:44:00.480 evolution of various pokemons. Yes, and you're just like, oh wow, yeah, 0:44:01.000 --> 0:44:03.160 I have learned by the way to to ask very 0:44:03.160 --> 0:44:06.239 good questions about Pokemon. I am a good receiver of 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:09.880 Pokemon conversation at this point, so you can do this 0:44:09.960 --> 0:44:12.879 without looking as bored as she does. Right, I hope, so, 0:44:12.960 --> 0:44:16.680 I hope. So Anyway, after he finishes playing, Julie picks 0:44:16.800 --> 0:44:21.360 up this this very conspicuous, gigantic ring and puts it 0:44:21.400 --> 0:44:25.279 on Mr. Ingram's finger, and Buddy, this ring is bananas. 0:44:25.080 --> 0:44:29.320 It is probably it's like the biggest ring I've ever seen. Yeah, 0:44:29.320 --> 0:44:31.279 one gets the impression that it is. This is a 0:44:31.280 --> 0:44:33.200 black and white movie, but I get the impression that 0:44:33.239 --> 0:44:37.840 it's deeply red, you know, um and and so on 0:44:37.880 --> 0:44:40.279 the film it's it's deeply dark and black, and it 0:44:40.400 --> 0:44:42.520 just kind of like sucks you in, right, So it 0:44:42.880 --> 0:44:44.920 sticks in your mind, and it's supposed to because you 0:44:44.920 --> 0:44:47.360 will see it later too. I think, help you identify 0:44:47.440 --> 0:44:50.000 whose hand you're looking at when you just see a hand. 0:44:50.080 --> 0:44:53.800 He it's this giant, conspicuous ring and he always takes 0:44:53.800 --> 0:44:55.960 it off and sits it on top of the piano 0:44:56.040 --> 0:44:59.319 when he plays. Yeah, and there's this this scene with 0:44:59.400 --> 0:45:01.880 Julie here he holds out his hand for her to 0:45:01.920 --> 0:45:05.960 put the ring back on, which seems kind of weird. Uh, 0:45:06.080 --> 0:45:09.919 I mean it is weird getting married. Yeah, Like there's 0:45:09.960 --> 0:45:15.480 a ritualistic quality to it, but uh, their cinematic payoff later, right, Uh, 0:45:15.560 --> 0:45:18.279 so Julie lets Conrad inside and we learn more about 0:45:18.320 --> 0:45:20.720 all of their relationships. So we find out that Conrad 0:45:20.880 --> 0:45:23.600 is well known at the Villa Francesco. He and Ingram 0:45:23.640 --> 0:45:27.239 are good friends, such good friends that Ingram seems to 0:45:27.280 --> 0:45:31.440 know about Conrad's tourist scamming racket, because Conrad's like, you 0:45:31.480 --> 0:45:33.960 look very well and Ingram's like, ah, save it for 0:45:34.000 --> 0:45:36.879 the tourists. Don't do that on me. And we find 0:45:36.880 --> 0:45:39.520 out that they play chess together a lot, often for money, 0:45:39.760 --> 0:45:43.120 and Conrad always wins and and takes Ingram's money. There 0:45:43.120 --> 0:45:45.480 are a lot of freeloaders in this household. Um yeah, 0:45:45.480 --> 0:45:48.440 I mean, I mean, I mean Julie is not a freeloader, 0:45:48.480 --> 0:45:53.800 but but Conrad and m and Peter Lauri's character Hillary, 0:45:54.320 --> 0:45:57.479 Um yeah, I mean again, I mean, I guess there's 0:45:57.560 --> 0:46:00.920 there's camaraderie here. I guess Ingram's getting something, getting companionship 0:46:00.920 --> 0:46:04.399 out of it. But they're they're they're very much they're 0:46:05.160 --> 0:46:09.320 you know, enjoying the facilities and sharing in his money. 0:46:09.719 --> 0:46:13.080 Julie is the only one working right, everybody else has 0:46:13.120 --> 0:46:17.360 a different kind of hustle going. But so Conrad also 0:46:17.480 --> 0:46:21.480 compliments Ingram's piano playing. I think the situation is that 0:46:21.560 --> 0:46:24.960 he was once a famed pianist who played with both hands, 0:46:25.000 --> 0:46:27.000 and then he had a stroke or some other kind 0:46:27.080 --> 0:46:31.279 of medical event and his right hand became paralyzed. So 0:46:31.320 --> 0:46:34.319 he learned to play concert piano all over again with 0:46:34.440 --> 0:46:38.920 only one hand. And Conrad helped him in this because 0:46:38.920 --> 0:46:42.560 he's also a musician, and he re scored famous pieces 0:46:42.600 --> 0:46:45.239 of music for Ingram in such a way that they 0:46:45.239 --> 0:46:48.640 could be played one handed on the piano. Yeah. Yeah, 0:46:49.520 --> 0:46:51.239 the film reminds you a couple of times, yeah, that 0:46:51.280 --> 0:46:54.480 Conrad is himself a musician, that we never actually see 0:46:54.560 --> 0:46:57.359 him doing anything musical. I don't think, no, I don't, 0:46:57.520 --> 0:47:00.680 I don't think once. Uh. And there's there's a moment 0:47:00.680 --> 0:47:05.720 of that bilateral hand awe because like Ingram starts looking 0:47:05.800 --> 0:47:08.279 at his left hand and he says, now that all 0:47:08.360 --> 0:47:12.640 my strength, all my will is concentrated in these fingers, 0:47:13.280 --> 0:47:16.840 and Conrad says exactly the power, the tonal quality, the 0:47:16.880 --> 0:47:21.160 prodigious technique. So it's not explicit, but they seem to 0:47:21.160 --> 0:47:24.560 be implying that that it's only logical that if a 0:47:24.600 --> 0:47:27.960 man has use of only one hand, it will double 0:47:28.120 --> 0:47:33.040 in strength and skill, absorbing the latent power of the other. Yeah, 0:47:33.080 --> 0:47:37.160 perhaps even like over it's it's it's kind of implied, 0:47:37.400 --> 0:47:39.920 especially with some of the occurrences that happened later on, 0:47:40.000 --> 0:47:43.239 that that the hand becomes more powerful than Ingram himself, 0:47:43.719 --> 0:47:47.000 Like yeah, it is, uh, you know, it no longer 0:47:47.040 --> 0:47:51.239 needs Ingram. Ingram is holding it back, right yeah. Um, 0:47:51.280 --> 0:47:53.799 and maybe it should be freed of of Ingram so 0:47:53.840 --> 0:47:56.879 that it can achieve its own dreams. Oh. But also 0:47:56.880 --> 0:48:00.360 at the same time, Ingram has this obviously un healthy 0:48:00.440 --> 0:48:03.400 fixation on Julie, who is his nurse. Uh, you know 0:48:03.520 --> 0:48:05.600 she she's supposed to be there helping take care of 0:48:05.680 --> 0:48:10.040 him during his his illness, but he's he's obviously got 0:48:10.040 --> 0:48:12.719 different plans. He's like, he's like, Julie, since you came, 0:48:12.800 --> 0:48:15.640 I found new life, a new source of energy, a 0:48:15.719 --> 0:48:19.080 stronger ambition to live. And he keeps talking about her 0:48:19.120 --> 0:48:22.520 beauty and stuff. Um. And then when she leaves the room, 0:48:22.560 --> 0:48:25.279 he's confessing to Conrad, He's like, I need her. She's 0:48:25.320 --> 0:48:27.759 the only one I care about and she is quite 0:48:27.840 --> 0:48:31.040 rightly just kind of like like looking for ways to 0:48:31.120 --> 0:48:34.880 leave the room. Well, anyway, Ingram invites both Julie and 0:48:34.960 --> 0:48:38.160 Conrad to a dinner that he's hosting where he will 0:48:38.200 --> 0:48:41.839 be having his lawyer from Rome, a man named Duprex, 0:48:42.160 --> 0:48:45.960 and also Hillary his secretary, who is Peter Lourie. And 0:48:46.000 --> 0:48:48.360 the next scene is the one where we actually meet Hillary. 0:48:48.680 --> 0:48:52.040 Peter Laurie is tucked away up in his study reading 0:48:52.080 --> 0:48:55.719 from occult tomes. Uh. It's supposed to be implied that 0:48:55.760 --> 0:48:59.799 he's doing serious, deep arcane research. That we get to 0:48:59.800 --> 0:49:02.200 see the title page of the book that he's got 0:49:02.239 --> 0:49:04.880 in his hands, and I don't know, it just doesn't 0:49:04.920 --> 0:49:08.719 seem that wild to me. It's called Lombardo's History of Astrology, 0:49:09.120 --> 0:49:14.640 a Complete Textbook for Astrologers by Federico Lombardo. And I 0:49:14.640 --> 0:49:16.560 don't know. I thought it was funny because in a 0:49:16.600 --> 0:49:19.880 minute he starts talking about how he's unlocking the ancient 0:49:20.000 --> 0:49:23.560 secrets of the stars. But he's doing that by reading 0:49:23.560 --> 0:49:28.759 what looks like a mass printed introductory textbook for astrology. Yeah, 0:49:28.760 --> 0:49:30.279 the way they set it up, you'd expect it would 0:49:30.280 --> 0:49:33.520 be more of some sort of ancient tome that he's consulting. 0:49:33.640 --> 0:49:37.640 But look at this, this original scroll from ancient Babylon. 0:49:37.760 --> 0:49:40.480 But no, it's like a it's a printed book. Well, 0:49:40.520 --> 0:49:43.080 we don't know how he seems obsessed with this research, 0:49:43.120 --> 0:49:45.240 but we don't know how far long he is. Maybe 0:49:45.239 --> 0:49:47.440 he's maybe he just started it the other day and 0:49:47.480 --> 0:49:49.600 he's just super into it. But you gotta start somewhere. 0:49:49.680 --> 0:49:52.279 Might as well start with the you know, the with 0:49:52.360 --> 0:49:55.520 this before you move on to the ecnomicon and so forth. 0:49:55.800 --> 0:49:58.440 I guess so. But in this scene we learned of 0:49:58.440 --> 0:50:03.040 a conflict between Hillary and Julie because Julie is exhausted 0:50:03.080 --> 0:50:06.520 by constantly attending to the old man and she's creeped 0:50:06.520 --> 0:50:09.320 out by his obsession with her, so she wants to 0:50:09.400 --> 0:50:11.960 quit and travel back to the United States. You can 0:50:11.960 --> 0:50:15.399 totally understand that. But then meanwhile Hillary is like, you 0:50:15.480 --> 0:50:20.160 cannot do that, you will regret it. Why is this, Well, 0:50:20.440 --> 0:50:22.640 it's because he is in the middle of achieving a 0:50:22.719 --> 0:50:26.960 world historical breakthrough in unlocking the secrets of ancient astrology 0:50:27.000 --> 0:50:31.040 with this introductory textbook, and if he unlocks these secrets, 0:50:31.080 --> 0:50:34.799 they would allow him to predict the future with absolute certainty. 0:50:35.200 --> 0:50:37.520 He tells us that this knowledge has been lost since 0:50:37.560 --> 0:50:40.479 the burning of the Alexandrian Library, but he is now 0:50:40.600 --> 0:50:44.480 just on the cusp of rediscovering it and anyway. So 0:50:44.560 --> 0:50:47.439 he explains to Julie, look, you have to stay here 0:50:47.600 --> 0:50:50.840 and let Ingram be obsessed with you, because if you don't, 0:50:51.320 --> 0:50:53.200 I'm going to have to do work for him, and 0:50:53.239 --> 0:50:57.839 I don't have time for that. I'm learning elite zodiac sorcery. Yes, 0:50:57.880 --> 0:51:00.520 it's like the bosses is obsessed with you. If you leave, 0:51:00.560 --> 0:51:04.759 he will make me work. Yeah, take away all of 0:51:04.800 --> 0:51:09.640 my free time for my astrology. Wikipedia scrolling right. So 0:51:09.680 --> 0:51:12.520 he's and he begs her quite desperately to stay with 0:51:12.560 --> 0:51:17.280 Peter Laurie's trademark pitiful puppy dog, eyes welling with tears 0:51:17.360 --> 0:51:20.480 at the thought of not succeeding it becoming a wizard 0:51:21.000 --> 0:51:23.759 and she she's like, I don't know. I mean, I'd 0:51:23.760 --> 0:51:25.560 like to help you, but I really do need to 0:51:25.560 --> 0:51:29.799 get out of here. And he's like, no, please. And 0:51:29.920 --> 0:51:32.520 she also has no comment at all about the astrology 0:51:32.600 --> 0:51:35.279 or wizardry or anything. She's just like, yeah, I get it, 0:51:35.320 --> 0:51:37.759 but I need to go. Yeah. There's very little follow 0:51:37.840 --> 0:51:40.640 up really on the on the astrology thing. I kept 0:51:40.640 --> 0:51:43.720 expecting it to become more of a of a plot focus, 0:51:43.800 --> 0:51:45.680 but I am and then ultimate I guess it's not 0:51:45.719 --> 0:51:47.880 as important, like just we we know that it's his 0:51:48.040 --> 0:51:52.680 area of obsession and if if his if his if 0:51:52.680 --> 0:51:56.680 his obsession were threatened, then who knows what might happen. Anyway, 0:51:56.800 --> 0:52:00.239 later we we see this dinner where Ingram and Really 0:52:00.400 --> 0:52:03.479 and Conrad and Hillary and the lawyer do prex are 0:52:03.520 --> 0:52:06.600 all gathered around the table, and then I love the 0:52:06.640 --> 0:52:09.319 scene that follows where the old man is like, let's 0:52:09.320 --> 0:52:11.640 all go around the table now, and everyone talk about 0:52:11.640 --> 0:52:17.120 how sane I am? And there, oh, you you're extremely sane. 0:52:17.160 --> 0:52:19.680 You're there the sanest person I've ever met. Well, I 0:52:19.719 --> 0:52:22.239 think you're even saner than he does. That. One of 0:52:22.280 --> 0:52:24.160 the things I was thinking watching this though, is like 0:52:24.200 --> 0:52:27.880 I don't really remember what dinner parties were like exactly, 0:52:28.120 --> 0:52:31.040 U so, you know, since they were pre pandemic. So 0:52:31.080 --> 0:52:32.879 it's like I'm thinking, maybe this is what they will 0:52:32.920 --> 0:52:35.080 be like when they're finally back. No one will actually 0:52:35.080 --> 0:52:37.399 know how to entertain multiple people at a dinner table, 0:52:37.440 --> 0:52:42.520 and we'll just like go around, Am I not sane? Right? Yeah? 0:52:42.520 --> 0:52:44.839 Everybody will just go on at length about how your 0:52:44.880 --> 0:52:48.560 mental balance is awesome. Uh and and and make sure 0:52:48.640 --> 0:52:52.239 that your lawyer can can hear them saying that, now, 0:52:52.239 --> 0:52:55.120 why this whole performance, Well, it's because do Prex the 0:52:55.200 --> 0:52:58.200 lawyer has brought a new copy of Ingram's will and 0:52:58.280 --> 0:53:01.200 everybody there has to sign it to hastify that Ingram 0:53:01.280 --> 0:53:04.640 is of sound mind when he authorizes this, this version 0:53:04.640 --> 0:53:08.040 of the will. And then Ingram plays the piano for everybody, 0:53:08.040 --> 0:53:10.400 and I was wondering, Okay, so is do Prex the 0:53:10.520 --> 0:53:13.080 lawyer getting paid to have dinner and listen to him 0:53:13.080 --> 0:53:16.160 play the piano? I mean probably, so you know he's 0:53:16.200 --> 0:53:18.719 he's you know, he's charging by the hour. Anyway, later 0:53:18.719 --> 0:53:21.640 in the garden, Conrad and Julie meet up, and I 0:53:21.640 --> 0:53:24.200 think this is the first time we really see them 0:53:24.239 --> 0:53:27.759 having some alone time, and they they discussed what they 0:53:27.800 --> 0:53:31.400 each want. Um Conrad confronts her about whether she's leaving, 0:53:32.040 --> 0:53:35.279 and she says, how did you know? And then Conrad says, 0:53:35.320 --> 0:53:39.040 there are three forms of communication, the telephone, the telegram, 0:53:39.239 --> 0:53:42.920 and the commissario. Commissario is the fastest, so it's like 0:53:43.120 --> 0:53:46.400 gossip cops strikes again. I don't know if that is 0:53:46.480 --> 0:53:49.480 unique to the character in this movie, or was there 0:53:49.480 --> 0:53:52.480 a general idea at the time that, like late nineteenth 0:53:52.480 --> 0:53:56.480 century Italian police were huge gossips. I guess I just 0:53:56.680 --> 0:54:00.360 I figured he's he's kind of the you know, central 0:54:00.400 --> 0:54:02.520 part of the community. He kind of knows what's going 0:54:02.560 --> 0:54:05.080 on with everybody. And he's also he's also very a 0:54:06.080 --> 0:54:09.680 nosy about everything, right he is. And they talk about 0:54:10.080 --> 0:54:12.560 what they want and and it's a very tender scene, 0:54:12.600 --> 0:54:15.239 and she discusses how she feels guilty but also that 0:54:15.280 --> 0:54:18.680 she has to escape, and Conrad confesses that he's in 0:54:18.719 --> 0:54:21.160 love with her, and it seems like she likes him too, 0:54:21.440 --> 0:54:25.400 so they decide to run away together and they kiss. Meanwhile, 0:54:25.480 --> 0:54:28.080 Peter Laurie is creeping on them from behind the hedges 0:54:28.160 --> 0:54:31.400 where he overhears everything and you can just see the 0:54:31.480 --> 0:54:35.680 anguish in his face. He's like, no, my astrology research, 0:54:35.760 --> 0:54:39.319 I will never achieve awesome power unless I sabotage this 0:54:39.480 --> 0:54:44.719 right now. So he goes to Ingram and just immediately tattles. Yes. Yeah, 0:54:44.880 --> 0:54:49.240 He's like, like, Conrad's out there, he's talking to Julie. 0:54:49.680 --> 0:54:52.600 They were smooching. He's going to take her away from you, 0:54:52.920 --> 0:54:56.600 and we can't let that happen, Ingram. But of course Ingram, 0:54:56.640 --> 0:54:58.200 he doesn't want to hear this. You know this is 0:54:58.239 --> 0:55:00.719 this is, this is rocking his world and he's not 0:55:00.800 --> 0:55:04.880 happy with it. So he becomes enraged and brutally chokes 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:08.719 Hillary with his left hand, and Julie runs in just 0:55:08.840 --> 0:55:11.520 in time, just in time, to save Hillary's life, and 0:55:11.640 --> 0:55:15.840 dude has horrible scars on his throat. Ingram orders Hillary 0:55:15.840 --> 0:55:17.360 out of the house. He says, I never want to 0:55:17.360 --> 0:55:20.080 see you again. And oh, we also see that dup 0:55:20.080 --> 0:55:22.799 Rex the lawyer is nearby spying. Did you notice how 0:55:22.840 --> 0:55:26.920 many scenes of a character hiding in the shadows spying 0:55:26.960 --> 0:55:29.719 on other characters there were in this movie. It's constant, 0:55:30.080 --> 0:55:32.040 it is Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of 0:55:32.080 --> 0:55:36.439 conniving and eaves dropping in this picture. But later that night, 0:55:36.960 --> 0:55:42.400 the spookiness sets in because the atmosphere changes. Wind tears 0:55:42.480 --> 0:55:45.279 through the gardens and the window shutters are banging and 0:55:45.320 --> 0:55:49.040 clattering in the dark, and then ominous music swells as 0:55:49.160 --> 0:55:52.120 Ingram senses something and he wakes up. He gets out 0:55:52.120 --> 0:55:54.680 of bed, he gets into his wheelchair, and he goes 0:55:54.719 --> 0:55:57.520 out to the main hall, where he believes he hears 0:55:57.560 --> 0:56:01.080 a ghostly figure playing his piano like he hears his 0:56:01.120 --> 0:56:05.760 own piano performances. But there's nobody there, nobody at the piano, 0:56:06.280 --> 0:56:08.839 and this appears to drive him mad, and he ends 0:56:08.920 --> 0:56:12.120 up falling down the stairs and he dies. Yeah, this 0:56:12.200 --> 0:56:14.359 is a weird scene. It was a weird scene at 0:56:14.360 --> 0:56:16.399 the time, not knowing what was going to happen, and 0:56:16.440 --> 0:56:18.120 by the end of the film, looking back on it, 0:56:18.239 --> 0:56:21.000 I have a lot of questions about what was actually 0:56:21.080 --> 0:56:24.040 occurring here. But they do that kind of like way, 0:56:24.120 --> 0:56:26.719 the optical effect that makes it feel like there is 0:56:26.800 --> 0:56:30.440 some sort of delusion going on here, that he is 0:56:30.480 --> 0:56:34.440 hallucinating and is unwell. Now, given what we find out 0:56:34.480 --> 0:56:37.000 at the end of the movie, though, do you think 0:56:37.160 --> 0:56:42.279 there was a hidden record player involved in this scene? Uh? 0:56:42.920 --> 0:56:45.120 I mean, I want to make an argument for it, 0:56:45.160 --> 0:56:46.719 but then I feel like if that were the case, 0:56:46.760 --> 0:56:49.600 it would break a lot of things about the plot 0:56:49.640 --> 0:56:52.680 as we understand it, because it means there's some other 0:56:53.600 --> 0:56:56.000 villain at play here. Hell, I don't know. Could be 0:56:56.080 --> 0:56:59.360 Hillary could be playing a hidden record player to drive 0:56:59.400 --> 0:57:01.560 them in mad, add by me by thinking that he's 0:57:01.600 --> 0:57:05.800 hearing somebody playing his own music. Maybe, I don't know it. 0:57:07.800 --> 0:57:09.960 It doesn't feel like a perfect fit for some reason. 0:57:10.080 --> 0:57:12.360 I'm not sure though. Okay, Well, I guess that's jumping 0:57:12.400 --> 0:57:14.239 ahead to the Scooby Doo ending, which we'll have to 0:57:14.280 --> 0:57:17.360 come back to in a bit. But I thought also 0:57:17.440 --> 0:57:19.520 there was I know they weren't doing this on purpose, 0:57:19.560 --> 0:57:22.080 but there was a bit of slightly awkward editing where 0:57:22.080 --> 0:57:26.120 for some reason it cuts from Ingram's death scene to 0:57:26.400 --> 0:57:30.040 church bells and mourners in procession, and for some reason, 0:57:30.120 --> 0:57:33.760 the feeling the edit suggests is that this is Ingram's 0:57:33.800 --> 0:57:36.920 funeral and it's like fifteen minutes later. Yeah, like like 0:57:37.120 --> 0:57:39.919 Ingram died and they just called the whole town over there, 0:57:39.920 --> 0:57:41.920 like all right, everybody comes, it's happened. We got to 0:57:41.920 --> 0:57:44.520 do this now. I think it's because they're both at night, 0:57:44.680 --> 0:57:47.000 and I don't know something visual about the cut, it 0:57:47.040 --> 0:57:49.400 just makes it seem like and then a few minutes later, 0:57:49.480 --> 0:57:52.240 here's where we are, and Ingram's laid out on a 0:57:52.280 --> 0:57:55.720 big like black cushion and people are observing him, and 0:57:55.960 --> 0:57:58.480 the Commissario even comes to the funeral where he and 0:57:58.560 --> 0:58:02.160 Conrad have some marsala together and talk things over, and 0:58:02.200 --> 0:58:07.000 they discuss how Ingram's money grubbing distant relatives have already 0:58:07.000 --> 0:58:10.120 showed up. They are here to claim their their inheritance. 0:58:10.200 --> 0:58:12.960 They want the money. And these are a couple of 0:58:12.960 --> 0:58:18.280 American guys from London named Raymond and Donald Arlington. Raymond 0:58:18.360 --> 0:58:20.960 is the father played by Charles Dingle, and I think 0:58:21.000 --> 0:58:24.480 he is supposed to be Ingram's brother in law. He 0:58:24.560 --> 0:58:28.800 was married to Ingram's sister, I think. And then Donald 0:58:29.000 --> 0:58:32.360 is his son, and they say, yeah, we're his only 0:58:32.400 --> 0:58:34.840 living relatives. So they think that they are here for 0:58:34.880 --> 0:58:38.640 some money. And oh oh, and there are people, of 0:58:38.680 --> 0:58:42.440 course mourning outside, and the Commissario explains, oh, these are 0:58:42.440 --> 0:58:45.480 the professional mourner mourners. They will be mourning through the night. 0:58:45.560 --> 0:58:49.240 It is customary in these parts. And Raymond and Donald 0:58:49.280 --> 0:58:52.720 are obviously they're they're very stuffy types and they're bothered 0:58:52.760 --> 0:58:55.920 by all of the audible mourning. So Donald is like, 0:58:56.000 --> 0:58:59.440 ask those witches to stop howling and uh. And the 0:59:00.160 --> 0:59:03.040 not very sympathetic to local customs. Well, they're not looking 0:59:03.040 --> 0:59:06.280 to put down roots here. They're looking to collect and 0:59:06.360 --> 0:59:09.600 cut out right. In fact, they're even they focus on 0:59:09.760 --> 0:59:13.600 the occult books, the astrology books. Raymond Donald start just 0:59:13.680 --> 0:59:17.200 grabbing books off the shelf and they're like, oh, Lombardo's 0:59:17.200 --> 0:59:19.600 astrology a you know, the British Library will give me 0:59:19.600 --> 0:59:23.520 ten pounds for this book. And meanwhile, Peter Laurie's in 0:59:23.520 --> 0:59:28.640 the background going like no, um. It's it's a kind 0:59:28.640 --> 0:59:31.000 of an alarming scene where he he actually gets in 0:59:31.280 --> 0:59:35.520 um in in Donald's face and it's like it's like 0:59:35.560 --> 0:59:37.880 tells him to to leave the books alone, and it's 0:59:37.960 --> 0:59:40.960 it's one of those moments where like Laurie is intimidating 0:59:41.440 --> 0:59:44.080 in this moment, like maybe he's even a little too intimidating, 0:59:44.120 --> 0:59:47.240 like they actually maybe should have done another take and 0:59:47.320 --> 0:59:50.479 backed it up a little big, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:59:50.520 --> 0:59:53.400 he well he's furious and you understand why, like they're 0:59:53.480 --> 0:59:57.760 undercutting his his wizard quest and just to get a 0:59:57.760 --> 1:00:01.800 few pounds from the British Library. So so immediately there 1:00:01.920 --> 1:00:06.920 is conflict over who will be inheriting the goods. It's 1:00:06.960 --> 1:00:09.440 a classic murder mystery set up, right. It's you know, 1:00:10.240 --> 1:00:12.440 there are a ton of movies like this, you know, 1:00:12.480 --> 1:00:15.880 it's actually the same premise as Um Knives Out. Yeah, 1:00:16.120 --> 1:00:18.439 I thought, really, you know, thinking back on Knives Out, 1:00:18.520 --> 1:00:22.080 you know, fine film would have benefited from a disembodied hand. Yes, 1:00:22.320 --> 1:00:32.400 maybe they're going to do that in a sequel. Right, 1:00:32.440 --> 1:00:35.600 So everybody's got to fight over the dead man's possessions, 1:00:36.320 --> 1:00:38.600 and we get a reading of the will scene where 1:00:38.640 --> 1:00:42.520 we learn gasp that in the most recent revision of 1:00:42.520 --> 1:00:44.400 his will, the one that everybody had to come to 1:00:44.480 --> 1:00:47.120 dinner and talk about how saying he was in order 1:00:47.160 --> 1:00:52.080 to make possible, Ingram radically changed the distribution of his assets. 1:00:52.160 --> 1:00:55.320 So in the previous draft, everything had been going to 1:00:55.440 --> 1:00:59.040 Donald Darlington, the mean youth who was like, make those 1:00:59.040 --> 1:01:03.560 witches be quiet um, And now Ingram has changed it 1:01:03.640 --> 1:01:06.560 so that all of his possessions are instead going to Julie. 1:01:07.000 --> 1:01:10.160 And obviously the Arlington's do not like this. They're they're 1:01:10.160 --> 1:01:12.160 here for the money, and when they find out they're 1:01:12.160 --> 1:01:15.000 not getting the money, they're instantly threatening to sue. They 1:01:15.080 --> 1:01:16.880 say they're going to go to court and get this 1:01:16.920 --> 1:01:19.480 will thrown out so that they can get possession of 1:01:19.480 --> 1:01:23.040 the Villa Francesco and all of Hilary's precious astrology books. 1:01:23.560 --> 1:01:26.400 And there's some scheming that goes on. Oh do Prex 1:01:26.480 --> 1:01:30.720 the lawyer, he's doing some some triple dealing. He's like 1:01:30.800 --> 1:01:35.120 telling the Arlington's in private that that if they will 1:01:35.280 --> 1:01:39.040 promise him a third of the inheritance that he will 1:01:39.080 --> 1:01:41.840 come work for them and definitely get the new copy 1:01:41.880 --> 1:01:44.880 of the will thrown out in court, and it seems 1:01:44.920 --> 1:01:47.560 like a done deal. They're like okay, and do Prex 1:01:47.680 --> 1:01:50.560 is like okay, tomorrow the will will be broken. But 1:01:51.240 --> 1:01:55.640 later that night, strange things start happening. For example, the 1:01:55.760 --> 1:01:58.880 servants in the kitchen notice there is a light out 1:01:58.880 --> 1:02:01.920 in the mausoleum where Ingram's body was laid to rest, 1:02:02.400 --> 1:02:04.800 and this is apparently so frightening that when the maid 1:02:04.840 --> 1:02:07.720 in the kitchen sees it, she screams and drops something 1:02:07.720 --> 1:02:10.320 breakable on the floor, which that seems to me a 1:02:10.360 --> 1:02:13.000 little bit excessive. Just seeing a light in the crypt 1:02:13.080 --> 1:02:16.240 Does that scream worthy? I'm not sure. Yeah, I mean 1:02:17.200 --> 1:02:20.400 might be something to be alarmed about, but it doesn't 1:02:20.440 --> 1:02:23.520 necessarily mean the dad are coming back to life. Well, 1:02:23.560 --> 1:02:26.640 the Arlington's go to investigate, but they find nobody out there, 1:02:26.800 --> 1:02:30.760 nothing out of the ordinary. But later that night du Prex, Oh, 1:02:30.920 --> 1:02:33.840 he has a date with He's gonna have a whole 1:02:33.920 --> 1:02:37.840 handful of trouble, And we got some wonderful close ups 1:02:37.840 --> 1:02:40.920 on his face. I'm sorry your listeners out there cannot 1:02:41.360 --> 1:02:44.680 see the screen grabs I got and I'm having robbed 1:02:44.720 --> 1:02:48.440 look at right now. But wide eyes there, there's a 1:02:48.480 --> 1:02:50.920 really great part is like you see a hand wearing 1:02:51.160 --> 1:02:55.080 Ingram's ring reach around a door as it creeps open, 1:02:55.520 --> 1:02:57.720 and then do Prex is like pinned up against the 1:02:57.760 --> 1:03:01.880 wall doing the like face back, nostrils flaring kind of 1:03:01.920 --> 1:03:04.400 thing that it's coming to get me. The Mummy is 1:03:04.440 --> 1:03:07.800 going to break my neck. And uh, honestly I miss 1:03:07.880 --> 1:03:11.200 Duprex when he's gone from the movie. Yeah, yeah, he was. 1:03:11.360 --> 1:03:13.600 He was a fun presence. I think he's just got 1:03:13.600 --> 1:03:16.320 one of those kind of curious looking faces that that 1:03:16.720 --> 1:03:19.600 is nice to round out a movie. Oh but also, 1:03:19.640 --> 1:03:21.760 somebody starts playing piano in the middle of the night, 1:03:21.840 --> 1:03:25.040 sounding just like Ingram, and people are woken up by 1:03:25.040 --> 1:03:27.440 the sound. But when they go to investigate, there's no 1:03:27.520 --> 1:03:32.040 one at the piano, though Ingram's giant ring is there. 1:03:32.280 --> 1:03:35.280 It's sitting on top of the piano. And they find 1:03:35.280 --> 1:03:37.160 a dead lawyer in the corner of the room. It's 1:03:37.200 --> 1:03:40.440 Duke Rex. He has been choked. So oh, and then 1:03:40.480 --> 1:03:42.320 it looks like the Arlington's aren't going to get their 1:03:42.360 --> 1:03:45.800 special astrology books after all, but the police are called 1:03:45.800 --> 1:03:48.080 in to investigate, and what do you know, it's our 1:03:48.160 --> 1:03:52.560 old friend, the Commissario gossip cop once again, and he's 1:03:52.600 --> 1:03:55.880 there to to do do all the forensics. So they 1:03:55.960 --> 1:03:59.560 look for fingerprints, They take fingerprint dustings from the piano 1:04:00.280 --> 1:04:03.080 and they compare those to everybody alive in the house, 1:04:03.240 --> 1:04:06.320 and it turns out that they match no one alive 1:04:06.480 --> 1:04:10.200 in the house. Huh. So there's a lot of talking 1:04:10.200 --> 1:04:14.120 about you know who, motive, who could have been, and 1:04:14.160 --> 1:04:17.280 they do discuss that a former will existed that would 1:04:17.280 --> 1:04:19.960 have left everything to Donald, which would seem to implicate 1:04:20.040 --> 1:04:25.440 Julie or would implicate Conrad as Julie's ally, and so 1:04:25.560 --> 1:04:28.960 people go all around pointing fingers. But I love how 1:04:29.080 --> 1:04:32.200 Conrad just comes straight out and he's like, well, obviously 1:04:32.400 --> 1:04:36.040 Ingram's ghost killed Duprex because he didn't want his will contested. 1:04:36.640 --> 1:04:39.120 And then the Commissario is like, but there are no 1:04:39.240 --> 1:04:42.840 such things as ghosts. But then there's a there's just 1:04:43.720 --> 1:04:48.800 absolutely exquisite logic scene that follows. So the Commissario is like, 1:04:48.840 --> 1:04:50.640 how can we know it was a ghost? I've never 1:04:50.680 --> 1:04:53.960 seen a ghost, and Conrad says, neither have I, but 1:04:54.080 --> 1:04:57.600 one can never be absolutely sure. They don't exist, so 1:04:57.720 --> 1:04:59.840 oh well, then it must have been a ghost. You know, 1:05:00.040 --> 1:05:02.960 you can't prove they don't exist. Then therefore this murder 1:05:03.040 --> 1:05:05.840 was done by one. I mean, it's it's you. I 1:05:05.840 --> 1:05:08.600 don't believe it was. What the Sherlock Home quote, you know, 1:05:08.640 --> 1:05:13.840 when when all natural, uh, when you excluded the impossible, 1:05:13.960 --> 1:05:17.560 the improbable, whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, so in this 1:05:17.720 --> 1:05:20.600 it's it's similar. It's just if you've thought of the impossible, 1:05:20.720 --> 1:05:24.200 just stick with that. That sounds good. Yeah. Well, anyway, 1:05:24.200 --> 1:05:26.400 and the next day everybody goes to the mausoleum to 1:05:26.480 --> 1:05:29.280 investigate a lead about the light in the crypt of 1:05:29.320 --> 1:05:31.840 the night before, and they find a number of very 1:05:31.880 --> 1:05:35.960 odd things. There is a tiny window broken from the 1:05:36.000 --> 1:05:39.960 inside to the outside, with a little jagged opening that 1:05:40.000 --> 1:05:42.959 a person could clearly not fit through. And I also 1:05:43.000 --> 1:05:45.800 this point, I'm getting excited like that. That that was like, oh, well, 1:05:45.840 --> 1:05:47.760 we're getting there, we're getting into the hand. It's going 1:05:47.840 --> 1:05:50.600 to be a hand. And the coffin has been tampered with. 1:05:50.720 --> 1:05:54.600 They open it up and oh, the corpse of Ingram 1:05:54.640 --> 1:05:58.400 is missing its left hand. Yeah, this is really excellent, 1:05:58.440 --> 1:06:00.880 I thought, because everybody shocked and I was afraid they 1:06:00.880 --> 1:06:02.480 weren't going to show it, but then they do show it. 1:06:02.800 --> 1:06:06.520 There's a knife in like like the paralyzed hand, and 1:06:06.520 --> 1:06:10.600 then there's the bloody stump where the superpowered hand was 1:06:10.680 --> 1:06:15.800 previously attached, right, and then uh, they also find outside 1:06:15.800 --> 1:06:21.280 the broken window, no footprints, but hand prints, single a 1:06:21.400 --> 1:06:25.560 line of single handprints, as if a hand by itself 1:06:25.720 --> 1:06:29.000 was crawling along the ground, or if not crawling, then 1:06:29.040 --> 1:06:31.600 at least like flip flopping, like doing some sort of 1:06:31.640 --> 1:06:33.600 a fish out of the water there. And then there's 1:06:33.600 --> 1:06:36.240 a kind of fun sequence where they go out in public, 1:06:36.280 --> 1:06:38.480 Conrad and Julie like go to the cafe to get 1:06:38.520 --> 1:06:41.919 some brandy, and the whole town just shuns them because 1:06:41.960 --> 1:06:45.000 apparently they believe somebody at the Villa Francesco has the 1:06:45.000 --> 1:06:48.160 evil eye and they just can't can't do business with 1:06:48.200 --> 1:06:50.640 them anymore, even like the guy at the cafe who 1:06:50.640 --> 1:06:52.880 had served them before is like, I reserve the right 1:06:52.920 --> 1:06:55.840 to refuse service. You you you can't come in here. Yeah, 1:06:55.880 --> 1:06:58.480 I mean, I think Conrad's even realize. He's like, we're 1:06:58.480 --> 1:07:01.160 gonna have to leave because otherwise we will starve. Nobody 1:07:01.160 --> 1:07:03.400 will feed us. Right, They're going to be starved. Out 1:07:03.440 --> 1:07:05.840 of the town. And then also they meet up with 1:07:05.880 --> 1:07:09.480 the Commissario and there is new evidence I think, he says, 1:07:09.800 --> 1:07:11.640 am I right about this? He's like, Okay, so the 1:07:11.680 --> 1:07:15.280 fingerprints on the piano, who we assume belonged to the killer, 1:07:15.800 --> 1:07:19.640 they were Ingram's and they were not older than a day, 1:07:19.760 --> 1:07:22.360 so this would have been after Ingram was dead. But also, 1:07:22.960 --> 1:07:26.960 can you date fingerprints? I mean, you can do anything 1:07:26.960 --> 1:07:30.000 with forensics in a motion picture. Yeah. Oh, but at 1:07:30.040 --> 1:07:33.160 some point Commissario seems to be one over because he says, 1:07:33.680 --> 1:07:35.920 in my mind there is no doubt the hand is 1:07:35.960 --> 1:07:40.040 walking around. But I'd say it's right about here that 1:07:40.080 --> 1:07:45.440 the movie transitions into high gear hand mode. Would you agree? Oh? Yeah, absolutely? 1:07:45.560 --> 1:07:47.560 And I was. I was totally on board with all 1:07:47.600 --> 1:07:50.200 of this because it's it's clear that this is a 1:07:51.960 --> 1:07:56.640 disembodied hand crawling around attacking people in the night. And 1:07:57.120 --> 1:08:00.440 they have some just some fabulous scenes follow There's a 1:08:00.440 --> 1:08:04.680 great confrontation between Hillary and Donald Arlington the shut those 1:08:04.680 --> 1:08:09.200 witches up, kid and uh and so Donald Darlington comes 1:08:09.200 --> 1:08:11.560 into Hillary's office and he's like, Hey, what are you 1:08:11.600 --> 1:08:14.720 expecting to find in all these old astrology books? And 1:08:14.840 --> 1:08:17.200 Peter Laurie says that you know the law that changes 1:08:17.280 --> 1:08:20.760 unknown fate into scientific fact. Oh great uh. And as 1:08:20.800 --> 1:08:23.840 an example or a demonstration of of what he can 1:08:23.920 --> 1:08:27.960 predict with his astrology knowledge, he's like, hey, Donald, did 1:08:28.000 --> 1:08:30.599 you know that there were two other people who lived 1:08:30.640 --> 1:08:32.960 hundreds of years ago who have the same birthday as 1:08:33.000 --> 1:08:35.639 you and they both died by being choked to death. 1:08:36.479 --> 1:08:40.639 And Donald's like wow, okay, yeah, He's like, well, good, 1:08:40.680 --> 1:08:42.760 I hate surprises he has. He's like a kind of 1:08:42.800 --> 1:08:46.120 a fun comeback there and they oh oh and then there. 1:08:46.680 --> 1:08:49.280 It turns out Donald remembers where there was a safe 1:08:49.400 --> 1:08:52.719 hidden behind the bookcase in in the study here because 1:08:52.760 --> 1:08:55.600 he saw saw Ingram open it when he was a 1:08:55.640 --> 1:08:58.960 young child. He remembers there is a jingle to to 1:08:59.479 --> 1:09:03.080 summon the combination to mind. And Donald comes back later 1:09:03.120 --> 1:09:05.120 in the night to try to return to the safe 1:09:05.680 --> 1:09:08.519 um But then meanwhile the commissario is in the house. 1:09:08.600 --> 1:09:11.640 He's like hiding out behind the fireplace, watching from the shadows, 1:09:12.000 --> 1:09:15.360 and it's those bad fingers striking once again. Donald's creeping 1:09:15.360 --> 1:09:17.679 around and he opens up the door to the study 1:09:17.720 --> 1:09:21.080 a crack while the commissario is looking, and a hand 1:09:21.320 --> 1:09:24.240 reaches around as if from behind and grabs him by 1:09:24.280 --> 1:09:29.840 the throat, wearing the ingram ring. But this time it's like, man, 1:09:29.920 --> 1:09:33.320 this is a lock because the police detective is right 1:09:33.360 --> 1:09:36.599 there and he witnesses the attack by the killer hand. Yeah, 1:09:36.640 --> 1:09:39.560 so at this point I'm completely convinced and excited to 1:09:39.600 --> 1:09:42.679 see more of the hand, though technically still the hand, 1:09:43.400 --> 1:09:45.920 you can't see if there it belongs to an arm 1:09:46.000 --> 1:09:47.880 or not, because it's like the door is only open 1:09:47.920 --> 1:09:50.640 a crack. I would say one of the advantages to 1:09:50.760 --> 1:09:53.560 the plotting here is that at this point in the 1:09:53.600 --> 1:09:56.320 film you might not know exactly how good the special 1:09:56.360 --> 1:09:59.200 effects will be, and so you don't know, you know, 1:09:59.560 --> 1:10:01.519 the limit. Paitians here are based on like what was 1:10:01.520 --> 1:10:04.000 possible with the effects, Like maybe the hand is always 1:10:04.040 --> 1:10:07.120 going to attack people uh close to a door, because 1:10:07.160 --> 1:10:11.360 that's all that's possible with the filmmaking. Right. So, so 1:10:11.439 --> 1:10:14.599 Donald is not killed. He he is injured, and Julie 1:10:14.600 --> 1:10:17.160 says that there is a possibility of brain fever, but 1:10:17.240 --> 1:10:20.639 he's there recovering in the night. Meanwhile, the servants all 1:10:20.680 --> 1:10:23.240 flee the villa because they believe that the hand is 1:10:23.280 --> 1:10:26.599 loose and it's the devil. And then later that night 1:10:26.640 --> 1:10:28.800 there is one of the best scenes in the movie, 1:10:28.840 --> 1:10:32.759 this great long one on one scene between Peter LORII 1:10:32.960 --> 1:10:36.040 and the hand, and we finally see the hand revealed 1:10:36.160 --> 1:10:38.439 in all its glory. Yeah, I mean it's pretty great. 1:10:38.439 --> 1:10:41.240 I mean, you know exactly what it's going to be nowadays, 1:10:41.360 --> 1:10:44.120 it's going to be that effect of the disembodied hand, 1:10:44.200 --> 1:10:46.559 like they've somehow, uh, you know, cut out the rest 1:10:46.560 --> 1:10:48.840 of the body. Today today you would accomplish it with 1:10:48.880 --> 1:10:53.040 a like a green suit with everything covered except for 1:10:53.080 --> 1:10:56.600 the hand. Um, but it looks really good. So what 1:10:56.720 --> 1:11:01.320 happens in this scene? Oh, well, it's I mean, it's cool. 1:11:01.360 --> 1:11:03.639 I mean it's a pretty complex scene, I guess because 1:11:03.680 --> 1:11:08.040 it's it's it's crawling across the table. It's crawling towards 1:11:08.640 --> 1:11:12.120 uh Hillary and the ring that he was looking at 1:11:12.160 --> 1:11:14.880 that he puts out on the table. Uh crawls out 1:11:14.880 --> 1:11:18.360 of this box like a crab, like a spider, and 1:11:18.439 --> 1:11:23.000 he's like overcome with this this complex array of Peter 1:11:23.080 --> 1:11:26.000 Laurie emotions, a lot of dread in there, but also 1:11:26.080 --> 1:11:29.800 this sense of maybe wonder. The hand crawls across the 1:11:29.840 --> 1:11:33.280 table to him, and then it kind of it sort 1:11:33.280 --> 1:11:34.880 of does a dinosaur, you know, like how you do 1:11:34.920 --> 1:11:36.960 with your your hand where you put the middle finger 1:11:37.000 --> 1:11:41.360 becomes the like a brachiosaurus neck. Um, it kind of 1:11:41.360 --> 1:11:43.760 does that. But but it's clear what it is doing. 1:11:44.080 --> 1:11:46.640 It is doing what Ingram did in life. It is 1:11:46.720 --> 1:11:49.439 reaching out and asking if the ring be put on 1:11:49.479 --> 1:11:55.240 the finger, and and Laurie's character Hillary does it, and yeah, 1:11:55.240 --> 1:11:58.240 it's a it's a pretty a pretty crazy scene, a 1:11:58.240 --> 1:12:02.240 pretty uh horrifically satisfying a scene, especially for a picture 1:12:02.240 --> 1:12:05.640 from the nineties. But then Lori he he gets the 1:12:05.680 --> 1:12:07.640 better of the hand and he ends up trapping it 1:12:07.680 --> 1:12:12.080 in a drawer and he runs and gets gets Conrad's help. 1:12:12.120 --> 1:12:14.800 He's like, hey, come look into the hands alive. I 1:12:14.840 --> 1:12:16.680 caught it in a drawer. But when then when they 1:12:16.720 --> 1:12:19.839 go check, it's not there. And Hillary has this epic 1:12:19.880 --> 1:12:23.439 fit of screaming searching around for the hand. He's all 1:12:23.439 --> 1:12:26.120 over the place. He eventually finds the hand hiding behind 1:12:26.160 --> 1:12:28.400 a bunch of books in the book. This is a 1:12:28.400 --> 1:12:31.960 great sequence too, because it's shot. Um, it's shot from 1:12:31.960 --> 1:12:33.519 the point that, you know, the impossible point of view 1:12:33.560 --> 1:12:36.679 of behind the bookshelf, and we see Lori's mad face 1:12:36.800 --> 1:12:39.599 the whole time as he's pulling these books off the shelf, 1:12:39.880 --> 1:12:43.599 and then the hands cowering like a like a cornered spider, 1:12:43.680 --> 1:12:46.160 like a corner tarantula behind the last two books, and 1:12:46.160 --> 1:12:48.639 he pulls those off as well, and he grabs it. Yeah, 1:12:48.640 --> 1:12:50.760 and he wrestles with the hand and then ends up 1:12:50.880 --> 1:12:53.680 nailing it to a base. Oh god, it's such a 1:12:53.720 --> 1:12:57.360 good scene. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. And then later Donald and 1:12:57.479 --> 1:13:01.240 Raymond they're they're going to uh think Donald remembers how 1:13:01.280 --> 1:13:03.360 to open the safe to get the whatever it is 1:13:03.400 --> 1:13:05.320 out of it. He's looking for. Maybe it's the will 1:13:05.479 --> 1:13:07.639 or something I don't recall, but he's trying to get 1:13:07.640 --> 1:13:10.439 in there. And they they managed to open up the safe, 1:13:10.479 --> 1:13:13.479 and then when they do, what's inside the safe. It's 1:13:13.520 --> 1:13:16.960 the severed hand. So Donald sees it and then runs 1:13:17.000 --> 1:13:20.479 away screaming. But then we get the final sort of 1:13:20.520 --> 1:13:26.720 confrontation and reveal sequence. So how do we describe that? Well, um, 1:13:26.760 --> 1:13:29.720 so at this point in the film that where we've 1:13:29.760 --> 1:13:32.040 come up to it, like it really feels like this 1:13:32.600 --> 1:13:36.040 hand is a reality, right this this seems we've seen 1:13:36.040 --> 1:13:39.240 it crawling around I guess, But then you quickly are 1:13:39.240 --> 1:13:42.720 made to realize who has actually seen the hand in 1:13:42.760 --> 1:13:46.439 its full glory Only one character, Peter, and that's Peter 1:13:46.520 --> 1:13:49.120 Laurie's Hillary character. No one else has seen it crawling 1:13:49.160 --> 1:13:51.000 around on the table, and no one else has nailed 1:13:51.040 --> 1:13:54.679 it down. And his attempts to show it to other people, come, look, 1:13:54.720 --> 1:13:58.479 it's in the drawer haven't actually panned out. Now, Donald 1:13:58.640 --> 1:14:00.800 and Raymond did see it in the safe, but it 1:14:00.880 --> 1:14:04.519 wasn't moving. It's just laying there and the safe. So yeah, 1:14:04.560 --> 1:14:07.920 we're coming to the realization that, yes, that corpse's hand 1:14:08.040 --> 1:14:11.200 is missing. That corpse's hand is in the safe, nailed 1:14:11.200 --> 1:14:15.479 to a board. Um, but perhaps it isn't actually alive. 1:14:15.760 --> 1:14:20.040 Perhaps only Peter Lori's character Hillary thinks that the hand 1:14:20.120 --> 1:14:22.800 is alive. Uh. And if that is the case, well, 1:14:22.800 --> 1:14:25.200 who's doing all the strangling, Well it would have to 1:14:25.240 --> 1:14:29.040 be Peter Lori's character Hillary, right, And that's the conclusion 1:14:29.040 --> 1:14:31.200 that Julie seems to come to. There's kind of a 1:14:31.240 --> 1:14:35.960 confrontation between Julie and Hillary, and then Hillary tries to 1:14:36.040 --> 1:14:40.759 choke her but fails, and then he further descends into madness. 1:14:40.800 --> 1:14:43.120 He loses his mind and he thinks he sees the 1:14:43.160 --> 1:14:47.360 hand everywhere, right, And there's a scene where he's he's 1:14:47.360 --> 1:14:51.160 coming and increasingly unhinged, and he's approaching her with a 1:14:51.240 --> 1:14:53.880 knife and she kind of turns the tables on him, 1:14:54.080 --> 1:14:56.439 like she she plays into his madness, and she's like, no, 1:14:56.600 --> 1:14:58.800 you're right, it is the hand. We've got to get 1:14:58.840 --> 1:15:01.200 that hand. We've got to stop that hand. And that 1:15:01.240 --> 1:15:04.800 buys her a little time. She's on team anti hand. Yeah, 1:15:05.080 --> 1:15:07.559 but I think what we're supposed to understand is that 1:15:08.120 --> 1:15:12.720 so Hillary did indeed sever the hand, and he so 1:15:12.800 --> 1:15:14.640 he went to the grave, cut off the hand, and 1:15:14.680 --> 1:15:18.640 then used the severed hand to attack the lawyer do 1:15:18.840 --> 1:15:22.360 prex uh and like put the fingerprints all over the 1:15:22.400 --> 1:15:25.160 piano and stuff to fool everybody and make make them 1:15:25.160 --> 1:15:27.280 think the hand did come back to life. But then 1:15:27.320 --> 1:15:30.080 he started to believe his own story, and as he's 1:15:30.120 --> 1:15:33.800 losing his mind, he thinks the hand is actually pursuing him. Yeah, 1:15:33.840 --> 1:15:35.759 there's kind of a healthy dose of the tell tale 1:15:35.800 --> 1:15:38.320 hard and all of this. Where is he he's driven 1:15:38.400 --> 1:15:42.280 mad by his own crimes and begins to believe that 1:15:42.320 --> 1:15:45.000 the hand is actually alive, begins to see the hand, 1:15:45.479 --> 1:15:49.639 and then ultimately uh, you know, ends up battling the hand. Yeah, 1:15:49.640 --> 1:15:52.680 there's a great SmackDown scene where he he fights the 1:15:52.720 --> 1:15:55.000 hand and in the end he he has to purge 1:15:55.040 --> 1:15:58.560 it by fire. Yes, yes, throws the hand into the fireplace. 1:15:58.720 --> 1:16:01.519 And this is all just a great uh showcase for 1:16:01.520 --> 1:16:03.880 for LORI. You know, I guess to act mad and 1:16:03.960 --> 1:16:08.479 physical and you know, just enraged and h and also 1:16:08.640 --> 1:16:11.599 full of horror. Really fun performance that he didn't think 1:16:11.600 --> 1:16:13.880 we were going to get, because again the first half 1:16:13.880 --> 1:16:16.080 of the film you can easily imagine it's gonna be 1:16:16.240 --> 1:16:20.880 Alda's character, Conrad battling the hand and saving um the 1:16:20.880 --> 1:16:24.519 female lead at the end. But Conrad's never really not 1:16:24.560 --> 1:16:28.040 seen much. What's he doing. He's somewhere, you know, having 1:16:28.040 --> 1:16:30.720 a smoke or something. I guess selling some crap to 1:16:31.080 --> 1:16:34.520 some tourists. Yeah, he's trying to sell Julie some cameos. 1:16:36.200 --> 1:16:40.439 But in the end, after this big confrontation, wait, I'm 1:16:40.479 --> 1:16:43.840 suddenly forgetting Hillary dies. But how does he die? The 1:16:43.920 --> 1:16:47.880 hand It chokes him. He falls down, and then we 1:16:48.000 --> 1:16:50.760 do a fade where the hand disappears to make it 1:16:50.800 --> 1:16:53.000 clear to the audience, I guess that the hand was 1:16:53.040 --> 1:16:57.320 a figment of his imagination. So did he choke himself? Well, 1:16:57.360 --> 1:16:59.200 I thought that when the hand disappeared, it was where 1:16:59.240 --> 1:17:00.519 the hand was going to be shown to be his 1:17:00.560 --> 1:17:02.120 own hand, But then there's no hand there at all, 1:17:02.200 --> 1:17:04.360 So I don't know if it's just like he died 1:17:04.479 --> 1:17:08.639 via psychic damage from the madness, or if he it's 1:17:08.680 --> 1:17:10.840 implied that he choked hisself and it's just maybe not. 1:17:11.479 --> 1:17:15.519 Um they didn't really show it on on screen in 1:17:15.560 --> 1:17:17.760 a way that was convincing, but it's a full on 1:17:17.840 --> 1:17:20.760 Scooby Doo ending because they like uncover all of the 1:17:20.880 --> 1:17:24.880 like here's what they were doing, because there is a 1:17:24.920 --> 1:17:28.120 gramophone is like a record player inside a suit of 1:17:28.200 --> 1:17:33.639 armor that was hidden there to apparently simulate Ingram's ghost 1:17:33.800 --> 1:17:36.400 playing the piano, because it was a recording of Ingram 1:17:36.439 --> 1:17:39.679 playing and they would end that They said that Hillary 1:17:39.760 --> 1:17:42.599 would play that in order to fool people into thinking 1:17:42.600 --> 1:17:45.439 that Ingram was running around. Yeah, which is great. We 1:17:45.600 --> 1:17:48.479 love an ending. When they describe something, they give you 1:17:48.520 --> 1:17:50.840 all the details in a way that it makes no 1:17:50.920 --> 1:17:54.160 sense whatsoever. Like this, this means that it's such a 1:17:54.160 --> 1:17:57.599 good vinyl recording where it's such a good like late 1:17:57.680 --> 1:18:03.599 nineteenth century um sound system that it's indistinguishable from live 1:18:03.640 --> 1:18:07.640 piano performance. People in the house are just like the 1:18:07.640 --> 1:18:10.840 piano is clearly playing the dead have come back to life, 1:18:11.080 --> 1:18:12.720 and it just feels like, you know, it's one of 1:18:12.720 --> 1:18:16.639 these ending that's that's like, don't worry, there's nothing supernatural exists. 1:18:16.640 --> 1:18:18.800 There are no monsters, there are no hands. This was 1:18:18.840 --> 1:18:21.920 all just a clever scheme and it wasn't clever enough 1:18:21.960 --> 1:18:24.600 for the good guys. Don't you forget it? Yeah, And 1:18:24.600 --> 1:18:27.559 then the commissario does the whole comedy routine. Oh there's 1:18:27.600 --> 1:18:30.400 the glove. There's like the glove that's dropped on the 1:18:30.439 --> 1:18:32.519 stairs and you think it's a hand, but then it's 1:18:32.560 --> 1:18:35.040 just a glove. Yeah. Like I then I thought they 1:18:35.040 --> 1:18:37.080 were Oh, maybe they're gonna go for it and they're 1:18:37.080 --> 1:18:39.360 gonna have the twist ending note the hand is real. 1:18:39.400 --> 1:18:41.200 The hand was real the whole time, and it's gonna 1:18:41.280 --> 1:18:43.400 kill you. I would have loved that, and I thought 1:18:43.439 --> 1:18:45.360 that's what we were getting. But then they're like, no, 1:18:45.479 --> 1:18:48.120 he just dropped a glove and it made a maid faint. Well, 1:18:48.160 --> 1:18:51.360 there's like four twist endings that they take back. Then 1:18:51.439 --> 1:18:54.240 later you think that they're doing it again because the 1:18:54.280 --> 1:18:56.920 hand with the ring is creeping up at the Commissario's 1:18:57.000 --> 1:18:59.760 neck while he's doing comedy into the camera, and then 1:18:59.760 --> 1:19:03.519 he's like, oh, it is my own hand. It's yeah, 1:19:03.520 --> 1:19:07.000 it's absolutely terrible. This is like, come on, I feel 1:19:07.040 --> 1:19:08.960 like you're making fun of the film that we just 1:19:09.040 --> 1:19:12.640 watched and enjoyed. But but like, like we said, it 1:19:12.640 --> 1:19:14.640 seems to have been more or less the style of 1:19:14.680 --> 1:19:17.360 the time. I mean, didn't Edgar Allan Poe do this, 1:19:17.479 --> 1:19:19.000 you know where at the end of The Tell Tale 1:19:19.000 --> 1:19:21.599 Heart he's like, you know, he's talking about the maddening 1:19:21.600 --> 1:19:26.320 Beatles is not a real heart at all. I'm just 1:19:26.479 --> 1:19:28.920 it is all in my mind in that kookie. Isn't 1:19:28.920 --> 1:19:32.400 it crazy? There are no there are no undead hearts. 1:19:32.640 --> 1:19:36.920 People don't worry about it. Oh man, Alright, well, I 1:19:36.960 --> 1:19:38.800 feel like we gotta wrap it up for the beast 1:19:38.840 --> 1:19:42.080 with five fingers. All right, yeah, let's do it. But hey, 1:19:42.120 --> 1:19:44.640 if you want to see this film yourself, um, I 1:19:44.640 --> 1:19:46.439 guess for the most part, you're in luck because it 1:19:46.520 --> 1:19:50.080 is widely available to you to purchase or rent digitally. 1:19:50.600 --> 1:19:52.479 You can also pick it up on DVD. But on 1:19:52.520 --> 1:19:55.360 the other hand, we're talking about this before we recorded. 1:19:55.479 --> 1:19:57.559 This doesn't seem to be a film that's received any 1:19:57.800 --> 1:20:01.280 like remastering love or certainly doesn't seem to have been 1:20:01.320 --> 1:20:05.000 released on Blu Ray or anything. So maybe we'll get 1:20:05.000 --> 1:20:07.360 that in the future. And and and that being said, 1:20:07.400 --> 1:20:10.720 it's still a beautiful looking film. It's not like the 1:20:11.520 --> 1:20:14.760 film quality is you know, degraded or anything to any 1:20:14.840 --> 1:20:17.519 degree that makes it unwatchable. But I feel like it 1:20:17.560 --> 1:20:22.679 deserves more love than it's seen. All right, well, right 1:20:22.720 --> 1:20:25.320 in if you have thoughts on this particular film or 1:20:25.400 --> 1:20:29.160 other crawling hand movies related crawling hand movies that we 1:20:29.160 --> 1:20:31.760 didn't cover. I'd also love to hear from anyone out 1:20:31.760 --> 1:20:34.599 there who plays the piano. What's the deal with with 1:20:34.680 --> 1:20:37.280 one headed piano? Is that? Is? I mean, I guess it, 1:20:37.400 --> 1:20:40.559 it's is it? Is that a thing? Let us know? Um, 1:20:41.120 --> 1:20:43.040 we would love to hear from you. In the meantime, 1:20:43.080 --> 1:20:44.639 if you'd like to check out other episodes of Weird 1:20:44.680 --> 1:20:47.160 House Cinema publishes every Friday, and the Stuff to Blow 1:20:47.200 --> 1:20:50.600 Your Mind podcast feed. Uh you know, we're primarily a 1:20:50.640 --> 1:20:53.840 science podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Listener 1:20:53.840 --> 1:20:56.800 mail on Mondays and an artifact short form episode on Wednesdays. 1:20:56.800 --> 1:20:59.920 But on Friday, that's when we uh we set us 1:21:00.200 --> 1:21:02.599 most serious matters and just talk about a strange film. 1:21:02.880 --> 1:21:06.080 Huge thanks, as always to our excellent audio producer Seth 1:21:06.160 --> 1:21:08.960 Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch 1:21:09.040 --> 1:21:11.400 with us with feedback on this episode or any other, 1:21:11.520 --> 1:21:13.600 to suggest a topic for the future, or just to 1:21:13.680 --> 1:21:16.920 say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff 1:21:16.960 --> 1:21:26.360 to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your 1:21:26.360 --> 1:21:29.280 Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts 1:21:29.360 --> 1:21:32.440 my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 1:21:32.520 --> 1:21:34.280 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.