"Die Blaue Hand" or "Creature with the Blue Hand" or "The Bloody Dead" (really?) is another German Edgar Wallace movie from almost 50 years ago. The director is once again Alfred Vohrer and he made many of these films based on the crime novel author. But there is one major difference compared to most other of these films. This one here has a real star in it, even if Klaus Kinski was not really that famous yet in the late 1960s. And they also took the right approach of making this almost 100% drama. Other Wallace films have many comedic moments and they frequently do not take themselves seriously at all. Not so this one. And I think it was the right creative decision they made. Kinski is not for comedy. However, what they made of Kinski in terms of quality and quantity is underwhelming. It starts off nicely with him getting lots of screen time early on, but he quickly disappears and in the second half he is almost non-existent. Also, when I said quality, I do believe that the way the character was written was not on par with Kinski's skill set. So it was definitely a missed chance. Another somewhat known actress in here is Ilse Steppat, who plays one of the major supporting characters. She also was not too famous at this point, but the fact that she played a villain in a Bond movie shortly before her death elevated her popularity a lot. Also just like with Kinski, I felt she was underused. The actors in here were certainly fine. I also enjoyed the faces where I did not know the name. But the story really isn't. This is never scary, this is never edge-of-seat material. And the final plot twist is really ridiculous in a bad way unfortunately. I give it a thumbs down. Not recommended. The potential here was absolutely not fulfilled. Luckily, the film stays easily under the 90 minute mark.

Although they have a few things in common, I've always preferred the Italian Giallo to the German Krimi which is probably why I'm a bit underwhelmed by many entries. Most krimi were made before the London Mod scene changed a generation's fashion, music, and decor (something the giallo took full advantage of) and were usually filmed in black & white with very little style and even less sex. CREATURE WITH THE BLUE HAND was a typical entry; a convoluted Edgar Wallace murder mystery (which is no bad thing, reely) made at the tail end of the cycle with color to recommend it.Lord Emerson's lunatic twin (Klaus Kinski in a dual role) escapes from a nearby insane asylum and makes his way back home to gloomy Grayson Hall as a series of murders begin to plague both the estate and the asylum. The weapon of choice this time is a piece of ancestral armor, a blue steel glove with razor-sharp blades for fingers a la Freddy Krueger. Jumps scares and red herrings abound and a jazzy, inappropriate soundtrack makes the film feel like an episode of MANNIX at times but I will say one thing- there's always a decent body count in any given krimi. Characters drop like flies and no one cares -least of all the viewer- since the complicated plot's always in perpetual motion, leaving no time for character development.Years later, additional scenes were filmed on the same sets and a re- edited version was released on the U.S. drive-in circuit as THE BLOODY DEAD. It's an extra on my DVD but I can't say I'm all that interested.

I bought this film for $9.99 at my local mall because I was intrigued by the scenes depicted on the back of the box, which made it look like a zombie film (I'm a sucker for those). Needless to say, I was absolutely horrified after I watched the film. Not that the film was scary, mind you, but because it was so dreadfully AWFUL! You should probably be warned that the zombie scenes featured in the film came from a different movie, and said movie has absolutely NOTHING to do with the rest of the film, which is a German film starring Klaus Kinski named "Die Blaue Hand" (The Blue Hand). Well, I no longer own the tape, and I have made it my personal mission to turn you good people away from this film and others like it. On a scale of 1-10, this is undoubtedly a 1!.

Yes, those of you expecting a moovie called The Bloody Dead - you've been ripped off. Instead, you got a re-edited version of a German late 60's horror film called "The Blue Hand", starring a very young Klaus Kinski, with some cheesy 70's American zombie bits edited in and re-released. The original Blue Hand is muddled and cowfusing as it is, poorly dubbed and featuring bad fx; the added scenes are even worse, amateurishly acted, obviously fake, and basically pointless. The two films cowbined create a very poor, boring, hopeless mess. Klaus Kinski, the German John Caradine, plays two roles (sort of!), although it's never very sure who or what role he is in at any one time. Kinski fans may want to see this only to see him at one of his earliest mooments, but true horror buffs will be bored stiff. MooCow says don't even bother. :=8P