The Hands of Orlac (1960 film)

The Hands of Orlac
British original poster
Directed by	Edmond T. Gréville
Written by	Edmond T. Gréville Donald Taylor John V. Baines
Based on	Hands of Orlac by Maurice Renard
Produced by	Steven Pallos Donald Taylor
Starring	Mel Ferrer Dany Carrel Lucile Saint-Simon Christopher Lee Felix Aylmer Mireille Perrey
Cinematography	Desmond Dickinson
Edited by	Oswald Hafenrichter
Music by	Claude Bolling
Distributed by	Brittania Films (UK) Continental Films (US)
Release dates	December 1960 (1960-12) (UK) 13 May 1964 (1964-05-13) (U.S.)
Running time	95 minutes
Countries	France United Kingdom

The Hands of Orlac (also known as Hands of the Strangler and Les Mains D'orlac) is a 1960 British-French horror film directed by Edmond T. Gréville, starring Mel Ferrer, Christopher Lee and Dany Carrel. It was writen by Gréville, Donald Taylor and John V. Baines, based on the novel Les Mains d'Orlac by Maurice Renard.

Plot

The renowned pianist Stephen Orlac is injured in an aeroplane crash, and he believes his badly damaged hands have been replaced with those of a strangler.

Cast

• Mel Ferrer as Stephen Orlac
• Christopher Lee as Nero the magician
• Dany Carrel as Régina / Li-Lang
• Lucile Saint-Simon as Louise Cochrane Orlac
• Felix Aylmer as Dr. Francis Cochrane
• Peter Reynolds as Mr. Felix
• Basil Sydney as Maurice Seidelman
• Campbell Singer as Inspector Henderson
• Donald Wolfit as Professor Volchett
• Donald Pleasence as Graham Coates
• Peter Bennett as first member
• George Merritt as second member
• Arnold Diamond as dresser
• Janina Faye as child
• Gertan Klauber as fairground attendant
• Mireille Perrey as Madame Aliberti
• David Peel as airplane pilot
• Walter Randall as waiter
• Anita Sharp-Bolster as Volchett's assistant
• Manning Wilson as Inspector Jagger
• Yanilou as Emilie
• Edouard Hemme as Auge
• Charles Lamb as guard

Production

The film was shot in both French and English versions.

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Limping version of Maurice Renard's lurid horror novel, filmed by Robert Wiene in 1924 with Veidt and Krauss, and remade some ten years later by Karl Freund and M-G-M as Peter Lorre's Hollywood début, Colin Clive playing Orlac and Lorre the mad doctor. Updated, shorn of essential suspense and hallucinatory splendour, this shoddy little piece throws away its chances by substituting a moth-eaten magician for the surgeon as its villain, and by casting a chronically stolid actor as Orlac. The dialogue is inept, the mounting and technical credits (the work of an entire French unit for the Riviera scenes, and a British one for the London backdrops) lacklustre. Edmond T. Gréville's direction is banal, featuring as it does that battered old box of tricks – crazed laughter, upside down reflections of embracing couples on piano lids, bizarre masks – which he has been carting around with him for the past 30 years."

Derek Winnert found it "intriguing and partly enjoyable if sometimes strained and lethargic".

External links

• The Hands of Orlac at IMDb