Vernon Paris (James Stapleton), the recipient of the Hands of a Stranger, is not only ungrateful, he is utterly, irredeemably bummed. You see, he was a world-class pianist still basking in the glow of his greatest concert triumph when a careless cab driver lost control of the vehicle in which he was riding. Before he had even regained consciousness, a brash surgeon convinced his sister and business manager to allow the useless, mangled things that had once been his hands to be replaced with the hands of a unidentified murder victim. Now, weeks later, even though he has full movement in his hands, they might as well be hooks for all the good they do him. They're useless for the one thing he has spent a lifetime trying to achieve -- making the piano keys dance to create beautiful, otherworldly music.
Up to this point, the wretched man seems to be stumbling zombie-like through a waking nightmare, scarcely knowing what he's doing. After the tragedy in the cabbie's home, something in him snaps, and he transforms from a sleepwalker into a very aggrieved man bent on punishing everyone he blames for stealing his life from him. But instead of going after the arrogant head surgeon Gil Harding (Paul Lukather), he picks off low-hanging fruit in the form of the young doctors who assisted in the fateful operation.
This film-noirish version of The Hands of Orlac (Les Mains d'Orlac) by Maurice Renard downplays, but doesn't eliminate, the supernatural idea that the hands of a murderer are compelling their new owner to kill. Shortly after the operation, Vernon's distraught sister Dina (Joan Harvey) demands to know "whose hands he [Dr. Harding] put on my brother's arms!" Dr. Harding defends himself and medical science in his uniquely aggressive, clumsy way: "If you're concerned with the possibility that he [the donor] might have been some kind of madman, let me assure you that psychotic tendencies don't transfer themselves mystically to the physical extremities after death!" Even though Harding has given the police fingerprints from the donor hands, by the end of the film we still don't know the donor's identity, or if he was a solid citizen or a murderer. Part of the film's charm is that it leaves the viewer wondering.
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| The hands of a stranger: pre-op |
"Hands… amazing things when you think about it. A genius device of flesh and bone that can paint a beautiful picture, control a scalpel, press a trigger. And perhaps the delicately lined pictures on the tips of those hands themselves can tell me all I want to know."Or how about this exchange toward the end between the doctor and the demented Vernon:
Doc: "You're interested in nothing but vengeance? Beauty is no longer important to you?"Whew! The filmmakers should have let the great black-and-white imagery do more of the storytelling, and dialed back on the bombastic talk. And yet, when the film is good (and mostly silent), it's very, very good. The title sequence is particularly impressive. A timpani strikes an ominous note over a cityscape at night. Cut to a drainpipe dripping onto a discarded garbage lid on a deserted sidewalk. In the background, a neon hotel light is flashing. A man carrying a briefcase walks into the shot and heads down the sidewalk, away from the camera. Cut to a medium shot of two men in a car, their faces hidden in shadows. We see them glance at each other in close-up-- only their eyes are visible. We see the driver's hand start the car. We see the man continuing down the sidewalk. The car glides down the street as the music builds. The man with the briefcase pauses, looking over his shoulder… then suddenly, he bolts. The car picks up speed and the headlights pop on. Close-up of a hand and gun -- shots ring out. The man collapses dramatically against a streetlamp. The car screeches to a halt, and one of the dark-clothed assassins jumps out. He rifles through the dying man's coat, grabbing his wallet and other valuables. He jumps back into the car and it screeches away from the scene. Cut to the lamppost: the dying man's hands inch their way up the post as he desperately clings to life… the music swells as the main title appears.
Vernon: "On the contrary, justice is a form of moral beauty, or is that too unscientific?"
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| The hands: post-op |
Hands of a Stranger was Newt Arnold's first producing/directing job, and practically his last-- he only directed two more pictures, the Phillipines-based Blood Thirst (1971; he also produced) and Bloodsport (1988), a martial-arts epic with Jean-Claude Van Damme. His resume as an assistant or second unit director is much more extensive (55 films), ranging from The Godfather Part II (1974) to Blade Runner (1982) to A Simple Plan (1998). Given the promise of his directing debut, it's a shame he labored so many years in the relative obscurity of assistant/second unit work. But then Fate doesn't always lend us a helping hand.
A side note: The fictional Dr. Harding was nearly 40 years ahead of his time-- the first successful long-term hand transplantation wasn't achieved until 1999.
Hands of a Stranger is available from the Internet Archive, and on DVD from Alpha Video.
A fun night at the carnival turns creepy and disturbing as ex-pianist Vernon Paris (James Stapleton) is reminded at every turn of the precious gift he has lost:
