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The Hands of Orlac [1961]
Country
of Origin: France / UK
Year of Production: 1961
Running Times: 95 mins 105
mins
Format: black and white 35mm
Ratio:
Sound: mono
CREDITS
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE VERSION CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Riviera International Film /
Pendennis Films Ltd
Producers: Stephen Pallos, Donald Taylor
Production Manager: Ben
Arbeid
SCRIPT
Script: Edmond T. Gréville, John Baines, Donald Taylor
French Script: Max Montagut
Novel: Les mains d'Orlac by Maurice
Renard
DIRECTION
Director: Edmond T. Gréville
Assistant Director: Basil Rabin
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Desmond Dickinson
Camera Operator: Harry Gillam
EDITING AND POST
PRODUCTION
Editor: Oswald Hafenrichter
MUSIC
Music: Claude Bolling
Lyrics: Ilona Kabos, Stanford Robinson
Conductor: Claude Bolling
Concert Music Conductor: Stanford Robinson
Concert Music Arranger: Ilona Kabos
SOUND
Sound: Buster Ambler, Bob Jones
MAKE UP AND
COSTUMES
Make Up: Stewart Freeborn
Hair: Barbara Barnard
Wardrober: Jackie Breed
DESIGN AND SET
CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: John Blezard
MISCELLANEOUS
Choreographer: Hazel Gee
CAST
Mel Ferrer [Stephen Orlac]
Christopher Lee [Nero]
Dany Carrel [Régina]
Lucile Saint-Simon [Louise Cochrane Orlac]
Felix Aylmer [Dr Francis Cochrane]
Basil Sydney [Maurice Seidelman]
Peter Reynolds [Mr Felix]
Campbell Singer [Inspector Henderson]
Donald Wolfit [Professor Volchett]
Donald Pleasence [Graham Coates]
Yanilou [Emilie]
David Peel [pilot]
Anita Sharp-Bolster [Volchett's assistant]
Edouard Memme [Auge]
Mireille Perrey [Madame Aliberti]
Arnold Diamond [dresser]
Janina Faye [child]
Manning Wilson [Inspector Jagger]
Walter Randall [waiter]
Gertan Klauber [fairground attendant]
Peter R. Hunt [Pleasants]
Franca Bellj, Anne Clune, Vicki Woolf [cell whores]
Pierre Ferrari [ambulance attendant]
Jean Fountaine [French waiter]
Beulah Hughes, Tallulah Miller, Katya Wyeth [pub whores]
Charles Lamb [guard]
Philip Ryan [police constable]
Ann Way [seamstress]
Molly Weir [maid]
ALTERNATE
FRENCH LANGUAGE VERSION CREDITS
PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Riviera International Film /
Société Cinématographique des Studios de la Victorine
PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Jacques Lemare
EDITING AND POST
PRODUCTION
Editor: Jean Ravel
DESIGN AND SET
CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Eugene Pierac
CAST
Antoine Balpetre [Professor Volchett]
SUMMARY
Pianist Stephen Orlac
loses his hands in a near fatal plane crash. Professor
Volchett, a talented surgeon, is called in by Orloff's
wealthy fiancée Louise to sew new hands onto his wrists.
But Orlac becomes convinced that the hands belonged to an
executed strangler and that, somehow, they're beginning
to take him over. Driven half mad, Orlac takes up with
Nero, a sinister illusionist who tries to blackmail the
anguished musician.
CAPSULE REVIEW
A strong international
cast, a director who studied under the great French
directors Dupont and Rene Clair, and an oft-filmed novel
combine in a curiously muted and unsatisfying thriller.
Ferrer is badly miscast in the pivotal role, thus robbing
the film of much of its impact - contrast his poor
showing here with the amazing performance of Conrad Veidt
in the 1924 version of the same story, Orlacs
Hände. Similarly, Greville - a talented French
ex-patriot kept busy in the UK during the 1950s, showed
no affinity for a horror subject, and his handling of the
film is clumsy and unatmospheric. Only Lee comes out of
this undistinguished effort looking good, once again
using his considerable talents to rescue a below par
movies.
AVAILABILITY
UK
Theatrical Distributor: British Lion Films Ltd
USA
Theatrical Distributors: Continental Distributing;
Reade-Sterling Inc
Video Distributors: Sinister Cinema; Something Weird
Video
CENSORSHIP HISTORY
Finland
Rating: K-16
TIMELINE
1962
March
30: Finland - theatrical release
April
Day Unknown: UK - theatrical release
1964
May
13: USA - theatrical release
POSTER TAGS
The frightening nightmare of a man who
finds himself with hands which he can't control!
ALTERNATIVE TITLES
Hands of a Strangler
Hands of the Strangler
Les mains d'Orlac - French version title
LINKS
REMAKE OF
Orlacs Hände [1924]
Mad Love [1935]
KEYWORDS
book into film, surgery, transplants, musicians,
pianists
Last Updated:
6 March, 2007
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