A nasty old man, Francis Ingram dies. When it comes time to read his will, the two remaining family members arrive and automatically assume that the man's fortune is now theirs. They are a nasty pair and they're in for a nasty surprise when the will is read, as the fortune is left instead to his nurse. The pair plan on using a crooked attorney to contest the will but soon after they make this plan, folks start dying--and it looks as if the dead man, or perhaps the dead man's hand is doing the killing! I never watched this film until recently because I thought I'd already seen it. After all, Peter Lorre is in this film and "Mad Love"--and both films are about possessed hands that kill! Fortunately, the two movies sound very similar but are different enough that it's worth seeing both. However, unlike "Mad Love", "The Beast With Five Fingers" suffers late in the film because the ending goes on a bit long AND is a bit dumb. After all, when the identity of the killer is known, the person who realizes it TELLS the killer and then admits that they haven't told anyone!! Duh! Despite this, the effect of the crawling hand is cool and the film engaging.

Following the death of their charge, a group of friends staying in his Italian villa become convinced his disembodied hand is committing a series of gruesome murders around the house and try to stop it before they're all killed.This here was quite an enjoyable and fun effort. What really gives this one a great feel here is the exceptional build-up here to the actual revelation, which comes off really nicely here without giving off a really boring pace. The early part of this one is a great build-up of the mysterious death of their boss and the general resentment of everyone towards his intentions following the reading of the will which gives this a really solid base once it moves to the haunting stages. These here are all quite fun as the hand gets quite inventive here with some spectacular scenes of the disembodied hand coming out from around corners, behind curtains and statues to attack without warning only to disappear without a trace and then to immediately begin playing the piano makes for some creepy times here, and several other big stalking scenes that come about showing it walking about which give off a really fine touch. There's even a great deal of detective work on display here as the middle parts here revolve very nicely around determining the course of actions within here which follow through the group exploration of the tomb where they find the initial disturbances where the hand has gotten loose and left the evidence of its disappearance as well as bringing about the start of the regular investigations. The scenes of the group wandering around the house following each of the attacks where the earlier clues here about trying to get to the other will while trying to solve the murders leads to the secret room in the library and the further realization of the tricks used to pull it off are revealed given the introduction of the hoax at the center of it all. It's a strong enough concept here that this one is indeed good enough here that there's a lot to like over the film's few problems. The biggest issue here is in fact the film's final twist, something which not only renders what's going on here completely arbitrary but also is revealed in a really clueless way, unfurling it without much suspicion by the sole member of the household who has been informed the least by what's happening and really taking a lot of sting out of the film. It's not really as clever as it thinks it is because of this, and really tends to downplay a lot of what happened here. As well, there's also the endings' jokey nature tends to really conflict with the more serious efforts here in the rest of the film, but it's more the twist here holding this one down.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

OK this movie might not excel in originality, in fact it is more of a whodunit mystery than outright horror. The horror moments all come from the cut of hand from the deceased pianist Francis Ingram. When he dies all of his fortune goes to his caretaker Julie much to the displeasure of Francis' nephew Donald and brother-in-law Raymond Arlington who are sure there must exist a previous will which stipulated all possessions went to Donald. Several people who want the heritage get suspicious of each other when a murder takes place. Things get really weird when bookkeeper Hilary, masterfully played by Peter Lorre says it was Francis' cut of hand responsible for the murders. Is it only in Hilary's imagination or not, the scenes with the living hand are brilliant. This might be where the maker of the Addams Family got his inspiration from to create the living hand named "Thing". Robert Alda who plays Francis' best friend Conrad kind of resembles Gomez Addams.

The real stars of the film are the art director (Fleischer) and the set director (Tilford). That cavernous house is one spooky nightmare with its swooping staircase and elaborate décor. Gloom hangs over the mansion like a big suffocating blanket. I'm thinking the lighting bill couldn't have been more then a dollar-fifty. No wonder Hilary (Lorre) goes mad, imagining all sorts of strange things as he caresses his sinister old books.To my mind, the movie's biggest horror is when Hilary threatens to knife the beauteous Julie (King). Was there ever a Hollywood actress with more aristocratic cheekbones than Andrea King. I suspect she was a little too icy-looking for real stardom. Nonetheless, catch her strong presence in Ride the Pink Horse (1947).It's a florid production, heavy on atmosphere along with Hilary's growing madness, but especially on the thunderous Max Steiner score that was apparently recorded at the bottom of a deep well. The creeping hand effect is well done, along with the striking long shot of it pounding the ivories like a concert from heck.But why give the whole gimmick a real world solution when the supernatural alternative is so much more fun. And what genius was responsible for the wink-and-nod last frame, with the Commisario (Naish) showing us it's really only a movie. Did some studio producer think we really needed convincing. Too bad since breaking character harms the carefully crafted atmosphere. My advice is to enjoy the good part before switching off the last ten minutes.