Alex Marsh (John Agar), a scientist working on a nerve/hypno gas combination, accidentally exposes himself to his experiments and finds that anyone he touches dies. As he desperately works on an antidote, he begins to mutate, making it harder and harder for him to communicate, which makes things even worse for him when the police come looking.
When will these scientists learn not to make dangerous chemicals out in the middle of nowhere without any kind of decent containment? And when will our government learn not to have its secret, powerful, and deadly military weapons devised by one guy and his minimum wage assistant far away from government scrutiny? Hey, wait a second. I think the government already knows that last one. Well, not in this movie.
A film remarkable only in how much like other films it is, Hand of Death is run-of-the-mill mad scientist fare. It is a perfect film to use as an example of lesser, horror, drive-in flicks of the time.
For a low-low-budget, early 1960s film, nothing is terribly wrong. The sets are few and claustrophobic and the camera tends to stick to a single side in each room (almost as if they were using cheap, three-walled sets and…), but there are plenty of similar films from the time that look worse, with even smaller sets and a more static camera. The sound is muffled and crackles, but that is likely a problem with the print I saw, not the original picture. However, I don’t think a better print exists, at least for public display.
The actors go through their paces with clichéd expressions and movements to match the clichéd lines (Paula Raymond is particularly at fault as the expression she uses to telegraph “fear” is the same used by a hundred other actresses in a hundred other films.) However, I’ve recently watched a string of modern, direct-to-video, horror releases, and Agar, Raymond, and supporting player Roy Gordon are significant improvements over their modern counterparts. While they do nothing original, and come off as cardboard cutouts, they never make me feel embarrassed for the filmmaking profession.
The reason to skip Hand of Death isn’t that it is particularly bad, but that it has nothing to offer. There’s nothing special, nothing interesting, nothing engaging, and nothing entertaining. The biggest compliment I can give it is: I’ve seen worse. Well, I suggest you only see better.