i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Am I Missing Something?

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I saw this movie at a theater as an 8 year old,and was literally scared under the seat. I haven't seen it since 1962, but vividly remember the monster he became. As young as I was, I remember finding it odd that he wandered the streets without garnering more attention. It IS a shame that it hasn't been made available on DVD; I'd grab it up in a minute. It would probably seem hokey now,but, on the other hand,maybe it would still impress, like " The Day the Earth Stood Still" (no insult intended to THAT classic). We don't have AMC available in Canada, so it appears that I'll have a long wait before refreshing my memory of my first REALLY scary horror movie.

First of all the only reason I watched this movie all the way through was because it was short (about 90 min with commercials, on AMC). If it had been any longer, I wouldn't have bothered.This movie is bad in so many ways, it's hard to know where to begin. The script is awful. The acting is bad, even for a B movie. The pacing is REALLY slow, especially in the first twenty minutes or so. The stupid banter of the girlfriend complaining that she doesn't get enough attention from her scientist boyfriend seems to be padding out this non-existent story.That's really my biggest complaint: NO STORY! A story requires a beginning, middle and an end. But once the "scientist" (Agar) turns into the blackened Thing (from Fantastic Four), there are no further developments; he simply runs around like an idiot. This movie has an ending about as bad as "Jurassic Park," where everyone just runs away. Here, the Agar character is just killed.This movie is not even enjoyable on a "guilty pleasure" Ed Wood type of level. I don't understand how this ever got released by a studio. Don't they usually demand re-shoots on something this bad? Film students ought to be required to see Hand of Death, as a lesson in how not to make a movie: Don't start filming without a finished script, and make sure to tell a whole story! And don't pad out the first act with stupid banter -- just get on with the story!If you're not a film student, don't waste your time with this one. If you want really good B movies, look at the works of Val Lewton. The original "Cat People" is atmospheric and excellently noir-ish, and "The Curse of the Cat People" is a fantasy disguised as a horror film, and is magical and poetic. And "Bedlam" is a downright classic about the famous insane asylum in England. Check those out if you want to be entertained and touched, not this piece of drek, which left me wondering why I bothered. The best thing to say about Hand of Death is that it's short.

A lost "classic"? A "long-sought horror gem"? Nawww! This is just a crappy little monster movie shoved out to drive-ins by a confused 20th Century-Fox no longer run by Darryl Zanuck. Fox had the knack back then to put out some of the most miserable, boring little b-films in various genres. Somebody thought THIS was worth making. Then again, at only an hour in length it didn't cost much in film stock. The cast came cheap, too, as did the effects. Poor John Agar could only get star parts in horror films and must've figured it was worth taking any part as long as he was top-billed. Unfortunately for him, he spends the second half of the film encased in a bulging, grotesque Halloween costume and is never seen again (there's not even the cliché deathbed return-to-normal moment). In fact, his voice is gone as well, reduced to a series of muffled, unintelligible growls and cries (for all we know he's yelling "get this monster mask off of me, I can't breathe!" or "I'm calling my agent!") Is it no wonder he virtually drank himself out of the business? And then there's that atrocious score by Sonny Burke, an otherwise successful producer-arranger of contempo music (Sinatra, etc.) Burke wallpapers the first part of the film with shrill organ and theremin noise, then tiring of that, decides to add bongos and bassoon-like honking to the mix, for a combination you could describe as 'Horror-Jazz Fusion.' A lethal cocktail for the ears, unless one is in search of bad scoring just for the laughs.Plotwise it's the story of scientist who unleashes a gas upon himself that makes his touch lethal and his mind insane, and the only response to that is for him to spend the rest of the film running madly around town avoiding medical assistance. Coincidentally, this film's effect upon the viewer is the same as its story: A lethal gas that makes you insane and want to run madly in the streets trying to avoid any further contact with it.

I have long been a fan of cheesy 50s-60s horror / sci-fi, and when I saw John Agar's name on this one, I knew I was in for something. Maybe it would even be as good as "Tarantula"...but alas, no. This movie makes "The Mole People" look like "Casablanca". For me, the only enjoyable moments were seeing a '61 Plymouth Fury wagon peel out, & a '61 Fury and Dodge Dart in police dress.