A very entertaining and spooky murder mystery. Peter Lorre is at his best as moony-eyed, nutjob astrologer secretary to the cadaverous Victor Francen's Ingram. The mansion, with all its medieval flourishes, exudes character. A fine supporting cast; although I found Andrea King's Julie a bit wooden. Playing opposite so many guys, she adds little, except perhaps in her last scene with Lorre. As many have pointed out, after a long lead-up, the pace picks up steam after Ingram's death. His severed hand becomes a character, as a sort of ghost/delusion.We are left with a fairly logical explanation of the apparent supernatural stuff: Lorre, not quite all there initially, goes over the verge of sanity. Cleverly, his delusion of the hand's 'revenge' is an outgrowth of his own plot to scare off and eliminate those who would toss him and his books aside. Robert Alda's Conrad is an interesting character too. He's sympathetic, yet hardly above-board. He has even less claim on Ingram's estate than Lorre/Hilary, but also much to lose. Of course marrying Julie represents his trump card. His outsider quality gives us a window, so to speak, to the goings-on at the mansion. Like the Commassario, he functions as both a witness and a participant.I'd like to have seen more exposition of Lorre's relationship to Francen. It might've been more interesting if Francen/Ingram shared Lorre's fascination with the New-Agey stuff. That could've enhanced the supernatural explanation of subsequent events. At a more basic level, it's hard to see why the hand goes after Lorre, whether it's appearing of its own volition or not. When he was alive Ingram tried to kill Hilary; if anything, it should then be Hilary who goes after him. Hilary does try to 'kill' the hand, but only after it has gone on a 'murder' rampage. Maybe there's too many supporting characters to allow for fleshing out the principals with more scenes.I usually don't like campy stuff tacked onto a dark atmosphere, but it works here. The Commassario seems to go out of his way to drop a hint, with his final enigmatic laugh at the audience, that there's yet more to the story. His dropped glove surely is just a tease, but how is it that Ingram's ring is on his finger now?Even with a few false steps, The Beast With Five Fingers is an engaging experience.

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.

**SPOILERS** After having a stoke which had him lose the use of his right hand world famous pianist Francis Ingram, Victor Frances, became the left handed wounder of the music world. Ingram was now able to master and even improve the very difficult Bach Chaconne in D minor with one hand tackling the ivories. Ingram after months and months of tireless practice was single handedly able to accomplish this amazing feat better the most concert pianists could do with both their hands.It's when Ingram got on the outs with his creepy secretary Hillary Commins, Peter Lorre, that strange things began to happen at the Ingram Mansion. One of those things was Ingrm falling or being pushed down a flight of stairs and ending up dead with a broken neck! It's when Ingram's last will and testament was read that friction developed between Hilary and Ingram's only living relatives Mr. Arlington, Charles Dingle, and his son Donald, John Alvin. Not that Hilary and the Arlington's were disputing what the late Ingram left to them but the fact that he left all his worldly possessions to his nurse Julie Holden, Andrea King!It wasn't much later that the lawyer in the Ingram estate proceedings Durex, David Hoffman, was found strangled with the murderer's fingerprints belonging to the dead Francis Igram's left hand!Was it Ingram's hand that somehow detached itself from his body that did Durex in or was somebody using Inram's had to do his dirty work in murdering the now deceased lawyer! That job, finding Durex's killer, was left up to both Julie's boyfriend American con artist Bruce Conrad, Robert Alda, and local village police commissioner Ovidio Castiio,J Carrol Naish.***SPOILERS*** It soon becomes apparent to everyone watching that "The Hand" is the real McCoy in seeing it crawl all over the mansion and even play the piano, playing Bach's concerto, in its spear time. The secret to "The Hand's" strange powers is known only to the creepy Hilary who in his study of the black arts has found, or thinks he has, the secrets of both life death and the workings of the vast and mysterious universe in the books left to him in Ingram's secret occult library! As"The Hand" gets more and more daring in coming out into the open Young Donlad Arlington sufferers a complete emotional breakdown. The last we see of a terrified Donald, when he's confronted by "The Hand", is him running out of the Ingram Mansion stark raving mad and screaming hysterically at the top of his lungs! In the end it's Bruce Conrad as well as Police Commissioner Castanio who cracks the secret of "The Hand" and what exactly it had to do with the case of Duprex's murder and Donald's insanity. Something that the by now completely out of his skull Hilary, who was manipulating "The Hand" since his boss Imngram's death, was soon to find out the hard way. By him trying to put "The Hand" out of commission before, with "The Hand" now turning on Hilary, it did a job on him!