The Beast with Five Fingers – Warner Archive (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1946
Director: Robert Florey
Writers: Curt Siodmak, William Fryer Harvey, Harold Goldman
Cast: Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. Carrol Naish, Charles Dingle, John Alvin, David Hoffman

Release Date: October 29th, 2024
Approximate Running Time: 88 Minutes 53 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $21.99

"Hillary Cummins (Lorre), the devoted secretary to wheelchair-bound piano virtuoso Francis Ingram (Victor Francen), has a passion for the occult. Pouring through every book on the supernatural he can find in Ingram's vast library, Hilary begins to imagine strange and terrifying things. But after Ingram's tragic death, the line between reality and unimaginable terror is blurred as the severed hand from Ingram's corpse begins killing everyone in the villa!" - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "New 4K restoration from the original camera negative."

The Beast with Five Fingers comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 26.6 GB

Feature: 24.1 GB

The source looks excellent; image clarity and compression are solid, contrast and black levels are strong throughout, and there are no issues with digital noise reduction.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in English with removable English SDH subtitles. The audio is in great shape. The dialog comes through clearly and everything sounds balanced. Range wise, the audio sounds very good for a film of this vintage.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a theatrical trailer (2 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with author/film historian Dr. Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nar, and two Looney Toons cartoons: The Foxy Duckling (7 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and The Gay Antics (6 minutes 26 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles).

Summary:

The Beast with Five Fingers was directed by Robert Florey, whose other notable Murders in the Rue Morgue, Daughter of Shanghai, and The Face Behind the Mask.

An eccentric old man's hand comes to life and exacts revenge when his heirs try to go against his last wishes.

The Beast with Five Fingers is told in a straightforward way that lacks the style present in many classic horror films by Universal and MGM in the 1930s. The narrative in the second half takes on a more Gothic feel than the first half, which introduces us to all the players with a more dramatic approach. That said, the moments with the disembodied hand are very effective.

Though the old man and his disembodied hand play a significant role in the story that unfolds, there are a few subplots involving other characters.  One of these subplots revolves around the old man’s nurse and his fear that she’s leaving with her hustler boyfriend. Another subplot revolves around the old man’s greedy brother and nephew. Rounding out this cast of characters is the old man’s personal assistant. Who of these characters benefits most from the old man's death?

Though most of the performances are satisfactory, there are a few that stand out. Victor Francen (J'accuse!) is menacing in the role of Francis Ingram, a crippled old man whose disembodied hand exacts his revenge, and J. Carrol Naish (Sahara), whose portrayal of a bumbling police commissioner provides comic relief. That said, as good as these two performances are, they pale in comparison to Peter Lorre’s portrayal of Francis Ingram’s assistant Hilary Cummins.

The Beast with Five Fingers reteams Peter Lorre with Robert Florey; they had previously worked together on The Face Behind the Mask. As mentioned before, the one performance that stands out head and shoulders with the rest of the cast is Peter Lorre's portrayal of Hilary Cummins, a neurotic character who has his own obsessions and is willing to do anything to protect them. He most excels during the scenes involving the disembodied hand. His knack for playing deranged characters most likely led to him being the type cast for most of his career. Very few actors have the skill that he did, which is capturing the essence of madness. Ultimately, The Beast with Five Fingers is an entertaining horror/thriller that features another solid performance from Peter Lorre.

The Beast with Five Fingers gets an excellent release from Warner Archive that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a trio of entertaining extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer