Hand of Death

Hand of Death (1962)

No one dared come too close!

A scientist spills a new serum in his lab, accidentally inhales its fumes, and turns into a murderous monster who kills anyone he touches.

Date of release
1962-03-01
TMDB
4.4 / 10 (17)
Runtime
58m
Genres
Science Fiction, Horror
Director
Gene Nelson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California

Hand of Death is a low-budget 1962 American horror film directed by Gene Nelson and written and produced by Eugene Ling. The film stars John Agar, Paula Raymond, Stephen Dunne, and Joe Besser and Butch Patrick in cameos. The film was made in black and white CinemaScope. The narrative follows a scientist who develops a military nerve gas. After accidentally exposing himself to it, he not only turns into a grotesque monster, but anyone who touches him dies.

Production

Screenplay writer Harry Spalding said that 20th Century Fox initially refused the project but passed it on to Robert L. Lippert's Associated Productions, which had made low budget movies for them previously. Ling was assigned to write the script for Hand of Death because Maury Dexter, a producer/director himself, said that Lippert "owed him a favor." According to Dexter, they could not find an experienced director for the film because the script…

Filming took place in Malibu and Santa Monica. Raymond said in an interview that "shortly after completing" Hand of Death, she had a serious car crash which severed her nose and resulted in multiple plastic surgeries. At the time of interview, she said she had never seen the film.

The working titles of Hand of Death were Five Fingers of Death and The Death Walker. The film was shot in black-and-white CinemaScope with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

Theatrical posters for the film were headlined "He Experimented in HORROR!", "No One Dared Come Too Close" and "DOOM Was Always In His GRASP!"

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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