Disapointment

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I first saw this film on WXYZ TV's "Scream Theater" in Detroit during the late 1970s. Back then, a movie made in 1961 was one of the more "recent" films showing on TV.I always loved this film. I love the fantastic opening theme by Baker Knight and the Knight-mares. I also like the immaculate B&W cinematography (you have to see a fine grain 35mm print to appreciate it). The mood throughout is excellent--with very few dollars at their disposal, the producers succeed in creating a stylish twilight world where evil magic is quite real. The finely sculpted voodoo dolls are very creepy and the incidental music adds to the film's eeriness.The actors are all good, although I always felt Robert Alda wasn't attractive enough for the role of "Rick." When I was in high school and this was showing up on late night TV, I felt he "just missed" being handsome. Sleazy-sexy Ray Danton would have been my choice—Ray was HOT.I remember when 1981 rolled around and "Devil's Hand" was scheduled to air one Friday night. TV Guide listed its release date as 1961 and I was shocked to think this movie was now 20 years old! Up until then, movies made in the early sixties were fairly recent history—everyone remembered them.Today, nobody remembers them. Marijuana-worshiping 21st century audiences sneer because the actors wore attractive clothes (not jeans & tank tops), had their hair done (no floppy Marcia Brady 'dos) and had their faces on before being photographed...what a concept! "The Devil's Hand" is more than a creepy, late-night thriller. It's a handsome time capsule which proves America was a LOT more attractive before the drug-fueled "cultural revolution." Goodbye 1961, we're going to miss you!

An overly sleek socialite is haunted by visions of a beautiful scantily clad vixen, which becomes an intriguing mystery when he finds a doll with her likeness. The colluding shop-owner reveals the girl from his dreams actually exists and encourages him to deliver it in person to her, which he does. When he arrives, she admits to being a voodoo witch. Obviously he has been under her voodoo spell all along, but joins her voodoo cult without question anyway. It turns out the shopkeeper is the voodoo priest and the basement of the shop is their temple. Later the hapless cad has growing doubts which lead him to be tested. Rather than comply, he rejects the religion and the witch-girl and in trying to escape, destroys the temple.This rather nonsensical fair thankfully drives on at a decent pace and is a bearable length. Robert Alda does not give an amazing performance, but plays his character much as his own personality. The witch-girl is a smouldering beauty even if her performance is wooden. Neil Hamilton is unconvincing and gives a rather dry delivery rather than the campy style his role deserved. Somehow this movie manages to be charming enough to not completely suck, but very nearly does!

Followers of my reviews do know that I have problems with science-fiction and horror made in the fifties and sixties. Mostly there's nothing going on, I admit, there are a few exceptions but still, most of them use cheap effects and are really outdated. A thing we can't say from for example the Universal Horrors. But sometimes I do come across horrors made in that era. The reason is simple, I collect also grindhouse and drive-in flicks and let this one be available in a grindhouse box. Although it doesn't contain any nudity and not a blink of blood I still enjoyed it. It's about a man Rick Turner (Robert Alda) who's engaged to Donna Trent(Ariadna Welter) but is seeing a beautiful woman Bianca Milan (Linda Christian) in his dreams. By mysterious encounters he's visiting a doll shop. A few strange things happen and without knowing he sees the doll that looks like his woman in his dream. He goes searching for her in real life finds her and is introduced to a cult.From there on you can easily know what will happen towards the end but by clocking in at 71 minutes it's over before you know it. The acting is sometimes a bit exaggerated, a thing so typical for films from that era. Linda Christian really looks gorgeous in her nightgown and they tried to add a bit of romantic pieces. It's also funny to see that smoking was a hot thing in bed and in fact everywhere. For such an old flick the sound was rather okay as did the editing and the way it was filmed. But it shows because the director William J. Hole Jr. did move on to Peyton Place (1968-1969)and The Bionic Women (1976) as director.Above average for a flick from that time and even as it isn't that wellknown it's worth picking up. And the last 10 seconds I had a big laugh, just see it...Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A happily engaged man becomes plagued by vivid dreams of a beautiful woman. He ultimately meets her face-to-face, finding that she is a member of a secretive, near-lost religion which enables its loyal followers to obtain their heart's desires. Bewitched by this seductress, he quickly casts aside his fiancée to become her lover and converts to said religion. Predictable but amusing turmoil ensues in this poverty row potboiler, one which some viewers may find surprisingly watchable despite it's very evident financial privation.Briskly paced thrills with a deliciously tacky veneer distinct to early-60s low-budget cinema, this much-forgotten curiosity piece should please most undemanding genre fans and enthusiasts of vintage lower-berth film oddities.5.5/10