The Crawling Hand

The Crawling Hand is a 1963 American science fiction horror film directed by Herbert L. Strock, and starring Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren, Alan Hale and Allison Hayes.^[3] It was later featured on the television shows Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and The Canned Film Festival.^[4]

The Crawling Hand
One-sheet
Directed by	Herbert L. Strock
Screenplay by	Wm. Idelson Herbert L. Strock
Based on	from an original story by Joseph Cranston Malcolm Young Wm. Idelson
Produced by	Joseph F. Robertson[1]
Starring	Peter Breck Kent Taylor Rod Lauren
Cinematography	Willard Van der Veer
Edited by	Herbert L. Strock
Music by	Marlin Skiles (uncredited)
Production company	A Joseph F. Robertson Production
Distributed by	Donald J. Hansen Enterprises
Release dates	September 4, 1963 (1963-09-04) (Hartford, Connecticut)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100,000 (estimated)[2]

Plot

An astronaut, coming in for a crash landing, makes odd statements over the radio, including "my hand... makes me do things.... kill.... kill!" Strangely, by then, ground control was under the belief that he was already out of oxygen.

Later, Paul Lawrence, a naive medical student, discovers a disembodied hand near the crash site and takes it home as a grisly souvenir. He is not aware that the hand is possessed by a strange, murderous alien.

The hand murders Paul's landlady. The sheriff suspects Paul, who begins to act more and more strangely as the hand begins to have more and more influence over him. The fictional federal agency responsible for space flight is called to the small town because fingerprints found at the first crime scene match the missing, dead astronaut.

Paul, now under control of the Crawling Hand, attacks other people around the town, including his own beloved girlfriend Donna. Horrified at what he's been doing, Paul attempts to take the hand to the beach to destroy it, where he's confronted by federal authorities. The hand, now wounded, is held down by cats who try to eat it. Authorities capture the hand.

Paul, recovering in the hospital, appears to be forgiven.

Meanwhile the federales charged with transporting the offended appendage open the box used to confine the apprehended hand. The film ends with a quick zoom to the inside of an empty box as the words "the end" appear on black.

Cast

• Peter Breck as Steve Curan
• Kent Taylor as Dr. Max Weitzberg
• Rod Lauren as Paul Lawrence
• Alan Hale as Sheriff Townsend
• Allison Hayes as Donna
• Sirry Steffen as Marta Farnstrom
• Arline Judge as Mrs. Hotchkiss
• Richard Arlen as Lee Barrenger
• Tristam Coffin as Security Chief Meidel
• Ross Elliott as Deputy Earl Harrison
• G. Stanley Jones as Funeral Director
• Jock Putnam as Ambulance Attendant
• Andy Andrews as Ambulance Attendant
• Syd Saylor as Soda Shop Owner
• Ed Wermer as Prof. Farnstrom
• Beverly Lunsford as Patsy Townsend
• Les Hoyle

Note: character names are not indicated in on-screen credits.

Home media

Drive-in advertisement from 1963 for The Crawling Hand and co-feature, The Slime People.

The Crawling Hand was featured in Episode 6 of Season 1 of the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. This episode was released on VHS by Rhino Home Video in October 1999 and on DVD in June 2002, including the uncut film as a bonus feature.

In other media

Rick Moody's novel The Four Fingers of Death, released in July 2010 by Little, Brown and Company, is a metafictional novelization of an imagined 2025 remake of The Crawling Hand (which means that Moody's fictional 'novelization' is set in a future very different from that of the 1963 film).^[5]