Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Dreadfully Boring

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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.

Not all that bad horror, if you take it for an unintentionally comedy, film with it having a former member of the three stooges as well as the hilarious Stinky Davis of the Abbot & Costello TV show Joe Besser as a gas station attendant as well as one of the "Hands of Death's" victims. "Hand of Death" with it's star John Agar as the obsessed and crazed scientist Alax Marsh who ends up turning into what looks like a overripe avocado. Marsh runs and drives around L.A doing his best to terrorize everyone he comes in contact with but mostly leaving them in a state of total bewilderment trying to figure out just what the hell he, or it, is.Trying to perfect this nerve/hypnotic gas for the US military that would not only knock out anyone who's affected by it but turn them into obedient zombies Marsh working day and night in his out of the way desert laboratory. One day Marsh falls asleep and knocks down a bottle of the nerve agent and gets infected by it. The gas gives him the power to kill by just touching anyone. Later Marsh develops a leprosy-like appearance that even his own mother would run from.Killing everyone he as much as touches Marsh trying to hide his identity, as the killer Avocado Man,just puts on a Humphrey Bogart like trench-coat and fedora hat thinking that would be enough to fool anyone! One of the craziest scenes in the movie is when Marsh pops into a taxi cab trying to communicate to the cabbie ,Fred Korne, where he want's to go, to the beach in order to get a suntan? The taxi driver turning around and seeing this weird and grossed-out guy isn't at all surprised or even scared at how he looks! Is he used to picking up customers like him,looking like vine-ripe avocados,in the city's many farmers markets and fruit and vegetable stores?Trying to contact his girlfriend Carol ,Paula Raymond, so he can take her, I could only guess, to the local drive-in to see someone who looks a lot like him his screen hero "Ceature from the Balck Lagoon". Marsh later gets to where she's hiding from him at her friends Tom Holland's, Stephen Dunne, beach-front home. As he breaks in Carol calls Tom gets the police who both come to her rescue. Marsh running along the beach and trying to take a dip into the ocean, with his heavy and bulky street cloths on, is shot dead and left floating on the waves as the movie finally comes to an end.Hard to believe that anyone would have been insane enough to take, much less pay for a movie ticket, "Hand of Death" seriously back in 1962 when it was released. "Hand of Death" looks like it must have been the final movie that was part of a quadruple feature following even the cartoons and coming attractions where by the time it came on the screen there was almost nobody left in the movie-house to watch it. Which may well have been the best thing that could have happened to the professional careers of everyone unfortunate enough to be in it.

I've heard so many "critics" carp about this movie that it astounds me...Let's remember that this was a LOST movie for many years. Thousands of us grew up with tantalizing pictures of the movie in Famous Monsters and Castle of Frankenstein. Along with Horrors of Spider Island and The Awful Dr. Orloff, it was the Holy Grail of Silver Age Horrors. Don't listen to detractors...this is EVERYTHING you want in a low-budget monster film; the compact running time actually adds to its appeal. I want to join with the fans in getting FOX to release this on DVD, or have them release the rights to some company who would embrace the project.

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.