In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A scientist (John Agar) fools around with some chemicals, looking for a formula that could be used by the military to paralyze their enemy. Like any scientist working with dangerous chemical reactions, the good doctor falls asleep on the job, and spills the toxic substance. Soon he is dreaming about flying beakers, while the poison turns him into a screaming brute with a serious complexion disorder. He looks like a very tan version of the Hulk, and his touch is lethal to anybody except some guy with bongo drums who seems to be just off-camera in every scene.This drive-in second feature had a premise that held some possibilities, but a budget of about five bucks didn't allow for much except a lot of dialog between characters. The actors all try, but there isn't much substance for anybody to work with. Just chase scenes, and a few chance encounters with the creature. After menacing Hollywood, he beach combs Malibu.Not enough is done to make the character sympathetic, and the movie just ends abruptly as the budget ran out. A nostalgic curiosity only.

Not all that bad horror, if you take it for an unintentionally comedy, film with it having a former member of the three stooges as well as the hilarious Stinky Davis of the Abbot & Costello TV show Joe Besser as a gas station attendant as well as one of the "Hands of Death's" victims. "Hand of Death" with it's star John Agar as the obsessed and crazed scientist Alax Marsh who ends up turning into what looks like a overripe avocado. Marsh runs and drives around L.A doing his best to terrorize everyone he comes in contact with but mostly leaving them in a state of total bewilderment trying to figure out just what the hell he, or it, is.Trying to perfect this nerve/hypnotic gas for the US military that would not only knock out anyone who's affected by it but turn them into obedient zombies Marsh working day and night in his out of the way desert laboratory. One day Marsh falls asleep and knocks down a bottle of the nerve agent and gets infected by it. The gas gives him the power to kill by just touching anyone. Later Marsh develops a leprosy-like appearance that even his own mother would run from.Killing everyone he as much as touches Marsh trying to hide his identity, as the killer Avocado Man,just puts on a Humphrey Bogart like trench-coat and fedora hat thinking that would be enough to fool anyone! One of the craziest scenes in the movie is when Marsh pops into a taxi cab trying to communicate to the cabbie ,Fred Korne, where he want's to go, to the beach in order to get a suntan? The taxi driver turning around and seeing this weird and grossed-out guy isn't at all surprised or even scared at how he looks! Is he used to picking up customers like him,looking like vine-ripe avocados,in the city's many farmers markets and fruit and vegetable stores?Trying to contact his girlfriend Carol ,Paula Raymond, so he can take her, I could only guess, to the local drive-in to see someone who looks a lot like him his screen hero "Ceature from the Balck Lagoon". Marsh later gets to where she's hiding from him at her friends Tom Holland's, Stephen Dunne, beach-front home. As he breaks in Carol calls Tom gets the police who both come to her rescue. Marsh running along the beach and trying to take a dip into the ocean, with his heavy and bulky street cloths on, is shot dead and left floating on the waves as the movie finally comes to an end.Hard to believe that anyone would have been insane enough to take, much less pay for a movie ticket, "Hand of Death" seriously back in 1962 when it was released. "Hand of Death" looks like it must have been the final movie that was part of a quadruple feature following even the cartoons and coming attractions where by the time it came on the screen there was almost nobody left in the movie-house to watch it. Which may well have been the best thing that could have happened to the professional careers of everyone unfortunate enough to be in it.

AMC just ran HAND OF DEATH early Sunday morning at 5 am. The print was the same as what ran on Fox Movie Channel but with a major difference. The AMC print ( courtesy of Fox television ) was not a dark and muddy mess that obscured the monster make up. It was nice and bright with far better contrasts. So it was still a cruddy 16mm pan and scan print, but at least you could appreciate the effects and make up. If you are interested keep an eye on AMC as they are in the habit of running horror and sci-fi stuff late night on the weekends and this will undoubtedly get another broadcast over the coming months. As for the film itself, I'd agree with other comments that it is not a lost classic, but an entertaining way to pass 58 minutes if you are a fan of this genre. Fans of John Agar will certainly enjoy his performance, the guy played so many roles like this he could do them in his sleep ( and sometimes did ). Plus you get to see a young Eddie Munster almost menaced!

"Hand of Death" is a really generic, forgettable late 50's/early 60's Z-grade monster movie. John Agar plays a scientist working on some sort of experimental nerve gas and other top-secret government stuff. He exposes himself to too much of it, gains a nice tan (along with the touch of death) and eventually mutates into a sort of a dumpy, lumpy, clumsy, black-faced monster. He's basically a half-human half-charcoal briquette. His head looks like the Toxic Avenger only painted black. A good portion of the movie is him in monster form wandering around aimlessly. This is a pretty bad movie, there's absolutely nothing that sets it apart from other similar movies, and I can't think of anything in it that I hadn't seen in an older movie. Even the music is generic. In spite if this, I kind of enjoyed watching it, maybe due to the fast pace. Just when you're getting tired of it, it's over. It might be a good movie for Mystery Science Theater.