An elderly alcoholic called Charlie Taplow (Harold Scott) who claimed to have had his right hand amputated in exchange for £500 is found murdered. Two more deaths follow and Inspector Munyard (Ronald Leigh- Hunt) links the crimes to three ex-servicemen; Corporal George Adams (Bryan Coleman), Private Mike Brodie (Reed de Rouen) and Captain Roberts (Derek Bond) who served together in Burma during the Second World War. They got captured and, whilst being interrogated by a sadistic prison officer at a Japanese POW, they had their right hands severed for refusing to talk. Yet, it appears that one of them may have cracked under pressure and, as a result, was spared the fate of his fellow men. Could the murders be a revenge plot?Grisly semi-horror story that marked a change of pace for b-pic specialists Butcher's Film Service who usually made run of the mill crime dramas. It has some effective moments such as a reasonably passable Burma-set prologue in which the interrogation and amputation scenes are reasonably unsettling and carry some tension. There is a good suspense sequence set on board a London-Norwich express train in which a little girl with a doll she calls Belinda innocently gives the killer away to his travelling companion by noticing that he has half a button missing from his raincoat. The other half was found at the scene of a murder by the latter who is the victim's brother: "Would you like Belinda to sew one on for you?" asks the child before her mother tells her not to pester the gentleman before leaving the compartment and unknowingly leaving his fellow passenger's life in danger.It is competently acted and the most notable performers are Ronald Leigh-Hunt as the Scotland Yard man, Reed de Rouen and former 1950's matinée idol Derek Bond as the villain. Director Henry Cass directs with brisk paced efficiency, but the whole thing is let down by a confused narrative - either due to a poor script or a botched editing job. This seriously hampers what is otherwise an above average film for its type. It was produced by Bill Luckwell, a former publicist, who made seventeen b-pics in ten years!

Despite the lurid title, THE HAND is nothing more than a stodgy British attempt at a krimi film; these were a sub-genre of German crime films, invariably based on the works of Edgar Wallace or his son. In them, the streets of London were inevitably prowled by masked killers, while criminal gangs extorted the innocent and dogged detectives gradually closed in on their prey. I thoroughly recommend the krimi film, which provides a neat comparison to the Italian giallo genre that was developing around the same time.Sadly, THE HAND turns out to have little in common with those films. The narrative is painfully slow, aside from an arresting opening set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. There are way too many similar characters here, half of them extraneous, and any incident in the film has seemingly been excised so that we're left watching characters discussing what they saw rather than seeing it for ourselves. There are neat flourishes of style and horror and touches of atmosphere here and there, but for the most part this is a waste of time.

I am extremely indebted to the other reviewers of this Butchers B Movie since i realised after viewing it that i had rather lost the plot.I just could not fathom out what was happening.Mind you when a film starts with the subtitle "Burma 1946" and starts with scenes set in the Second world war you are bound to be a bit mystified.As has been stated by other reviewers the best part of the film is the opening 7 minutes set in Burma.The rest of the film rather lets it all down.The climax in particular is extremely badly handled.The ending is predictable and ironic but there is a total lack of suspense.You would think that with just an hour to tell a story that it could be kept fairly straightforward,but alas the producers of this film failed to achieve that.

When I first saw this movie in the 1960's, it seemed an interesting little piece, which stood up quite well as a double-bill feature (with Village of the Damned, maybe?). However, now it just comes across as a rag-tag effort with not much substance, and virtually no style whatsoever. The opening scenes are quite effective, and are by far the best in the film. What follows is largely disappointing, and the storyline has more holes in it than a colander - it just barely makes any sense. This isn't helped by the poor direction & editing, as well as the stilted acting, especially by the lead detective played by Ronald Leigh-Hunt, who seems to hesitate, in thought, every time a line is to be delivered. The transfer to DVD is also poor and, all in all, the end product is a big let down.