Watch Hands of a Stranger For Free

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Hands of a Stranger is nothing more than another version of "Hands of Orlac" (1924/1960). It's a pretty good version of the story.A murderer dies and concert pianist looses his hands in a car wreck around the same time frame. A policeman is still solving the case of the murderer and the pianist's surgeon has given him the murderers hands. Somehow the hands have a mind of their own and murders people while the pianist seems to black out or block out in a way as he takes on the personality of the murderer and the murders taking place from his new hands.it's odd but still makes for a decent horror story.6.5/10

This low budget Allied Artists thriller boasts some very unique camera work and a nice and edgy performance as a Van Cliburn like concert pianist whose hands become horribly mangled in a car crash by Paul Lukather.The film opens with someone killing and then being killed and it's those hands that are grafted on to Lukather when he's brought into the hospital. James Stapleton plays the surgeon whose hubris leads him to using Lukather as an experimental guinea pig for a new surgical transplant technique. Who knows if eventually it might have worked, but imagine asking Van Cliburn to put his career on hold around this time for several years. Lukather is not that patient and several fatalities result because of that, most tragically the death of child prodigy Barry Gordon.Though the film holds up pretty well for such a low budget product with limited production values in 1962 no one would have mistaken the lead for anyone else other than Van Cliburn. That dimension is lost to today's generation.Doesn't mean they can't enjoy a good low budget shocker.

What strong hands. My hands. What about my brother's hands? Transplant the hands. Who's hands are those? Enough about the freaking hands! After about thirty minutes I wanted to take this movie out of my DVD player and skeet shoot it in the yard. They say that brevity is the soul of wit. Something this movie sorely lacks. There are no yes a no answers in this film as every reply resembles more a college dissertation than a retort. If these actors got paid by the word than surely they became millionaires after filming this. What's so frustrating is all the words spoken to advance such a thin plot. I can summarize this movie in one sentence. A skilled pianist has his hands replaced after a car accident and becomes resentful of his new circumstance. That's it. Why he chooses to lash out on the very people who tried to help him, especially the doctor who gave him hands, is never really explored and makes him appear as an ingrate rather than a victim. Without the operation he would have NO hands at all. By the way, what kind of insurance plan covers trips to the amusement park with your doctor? That's gotta cost a pretty penny. No doubt he has one of those "Cadillac" insurance plans the current administration wants to tax so desperately. There is also a detective who constantly questions the doctor about a murder case that he clearly has no involvement with. At one point the "interrogation" takes place as both the cop and the doctor lean on the same side of a desk about six inches apart. Just kiss him and get it over with flatfoot! A mouthy and unsuspenseful limb replacement thriller that has been done far better by other films. Toss a couple of shekels Jeff Fahey's way and watch Body Parts instead.

(Some Spoilers) Obvious re-make of the Peter Lorre 1935 classic "Mad Love" the movie "Hands of a Stranger" deals with the loss of world famous concert pianist Vernon Paris, James Stapleton, most precious asset his hands. Hands that by tickling the piano keys with creates the kind of music that brings the roof down every time that he preforms.Going home after his greatest performance, that he practiced for six months,the cab driver Tony Wilder, George Sawaya,loses control and smashes into the oncoming traffic blinding himself and causing Vernon to lose both his hands in the accident. At the hospital emergency ward Vernon's agent George Britton, Michael Ray, begs the presiding surgeon Dr. Gil Harding, Paul Lukather,to save his hands. The doctor is told that Vernon would be as good as dead without them. Dr. Harding using the hands of a corpse, suffering from gunshot wounds that he just operated on and graphs it's hands onto the stumps of Vernon. Later their accepted by his body making the operation an amazing success, a success until Vernon attempted to play his beloved piano. It turned out that the hands grafted on Vernon were that of an extremely strong person who also happened to be a brutal murder. Not as bad as you would think with the acting and script far superior then most low-budget horror movies that were made back then in the early 1960's. Vernon even though he became an uncontrolled killer showed glimpses of his previous personally as a talented and sensitive artist. You could really feel for Vernon as you saw everything that he loved and cared for like his ability to play the piano and his girlfriend Elaine, Eileen Hunter, desert him at the time of his greatest need. Vernon was a bad guy in the movie but you could well understand why he was that way and not be that critical of him. Vernon just couldn't control both his hands and emotions that made him do the terrible things that he did in the film. "Hands of a Strager" followed the usual scenario with Vernon destroying everything, and everyone, that he came in contact with. In the end he destroyed himself as he tried to murder Dr. Harding who he held responsible for his new found lot in life. What really struck me about the film was the conduct of it's star Dr. Gil Harding who was anything but the mad doctor that you would have expected him to be. Concerned and understanding he didn't even want to operate on Vernon's hands at first. Dr. Harding had to be talked into it by his friend George who felt that without his hands Vernon would lose his will to live. Vernon's sister Dina, Joan Harvey, who sacrificed her personal live to care for and help Vernon become a success and was by far the most sympathetic person in the movie fell in love with Dr. Harding. Dina at first greatly disliked Dr. Harding for what he did to her brother not realizing that it wasn't his idea to operate. Which also showed that he was anything but the unstable and maniacal lunatic that's always portrayed in moves like "Hands of a Stranger".