The Hands of Orlac (1960)

The Hands of Orlac is a French-British horror film first released in 1960, directed by Edmond T. Gréville.  The film is based on a novel by Maurice Renard and stars Mel Ferrer, Christopher Lee, Dany Carrel, Lucile Saint-Simon and Felix Aylmer.  It has also been released under the title: Hands of a Strangler.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


After a successful concert, the pianist Stephen Orlac is involved in a plane crash whilst returning to his fiancée Louise.  On the way to the hospital, the ambulance must take a detour because no one can pass near the prison where the strangler Vasseur is due to be guillotined that same night.  Six months after an operation on his hands, Orlac is in despair because he can no longer play the piano.  Louise suggests that he should spend time with her at her house on the Riviera.   But, here, Orlac has a nervous breakdown.  Fleeing to Marseilles, he rents a room in a small hotel where he meets Regina, a minor music hall artist, and her partner, Neron.  These two are in fact crooks who know Orlac by reputation and are ready to blackmail him.  One day, Orlac telephones Louise to tell her that he has no control over his hands, which he knows to be the ones taken from the corpse of the strangler Vasseur.  Neron overhears the conversation and conceives a diabolical plan...

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