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Fresh and Exciting

Admirable film.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

John Agar stars as Alex Marsh, a researcher working on a combination nerve gas and hypnotic drug. However, there's an accident in the lab and instead of killing Marsh, the poisonous gas turns him into a giant toxic monster. Just touching him kills folks...yet he somehow is immune to it. Can they stop him or turn him back into the handsome researcher?There are many problems with this film. First and foremost, there's enough material for about 30 minutes worth of film. As a result, the film is heavily padded and you see many, many scenes of Marsh running about town evading the authorities. Second, the weird costume they put on Agar didn't allow him to talk or act. In fact, it could have been ANYONE inside the ridiculous looking getup. Third, it just wasn't interesting...in fact, it was pretty boring...which means it's a pretty typical John Agar film.By the way, when the monster came upon a gas station attendant played by Joe Besser, I sure was hoping to see him touch him! I never could stand Besser and his naughty little boy shtick back in the 50s and he was probably the worse guy to try playing Curly's part in the Three Stooges...even worse than Joe DeRita!!

First of all the only reason I watched this movie all the way through was because it was short (about 90 min with commercials, on AMC). If it had been any longer, I wouldn't have bothered.This movie is bad in so many ways, it's hard to know where to begin. The script is awful. The acting is bad, even for a B movie. The pacing is REALLY slow, especially in the first twenty minutes or so. The stupid banter of the girlfriend complaining that she doesn't get enough attention from her scientist boyfriend seems to be padding out this non-existent story.That's really my biggest complaint: NO STORY! A story requires a beginning, middle and an end. But once the "scientist" (Agar) turns into the blackened Thing (from Fantastic Four), there are no further developments; he simply runs around like an idiot. This movie has an ending about as bad as "Jurassic Park," where everyone just runs away. Here, the Agar character is just killed.This movie is not even enjoyable on a "guilty pleasure" Ed Wood type of level. I don't understand how this ever got released by a studio. Don't they usually demand re-shoots on something this bad? Film students ought to be required to see Hand of Death, as a lesson in how not to make a movie: Don't start filming without a finished script, and make sure to tell a whole story! And don't pad out the first act with stupid banter -- just get on with the story!If you're not a film student, don't waste your time with this one. If you want really good B movies, look at the works of Val Lewton. The original "Cat People" is atmospheric and excellently noir-ish, and "The Curse of the Cat People" is a fantasy disguised as a horror film, and is magical and poetic. And "Bedlam" is a downright classic about the famous insane asylum in England. Check those out if you want to be entertained and touched, not this piece of drek, which left me wondering why I bothered. The best thing to say about Hand of Death is that it's short.

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.

*** WARNINING: SPOILER ***I hadn't seen this movie before, much less heard of it, until Fox Movies channel started showing it. I'm a big fan of the 60's B-movie scene and this movie didn't surprise me nor show me anything new. But it was, nonetheless, enjoyable despite the very dark print and crazy music.It's taken the typical storyline from that era - man messes with nature and creates a monster. In this case, government scientist Alex Marsh (John Agar), is creating a nerve gas and is exposed to it which converts him into a black, bloated mass of burned flesh with the touch that kills. In his insanity, he looks for a cure from other scientist friends but leaves a trail of accidental deaths behind him (he does intentionally kill one cab driver, though!)Since I hadn't seen this movie before, I found myself thinking that maybe he would be cured and no charges would be filed - hey, it's a sci-fi/horror flick from the 60's! At one point, I was even thinking the ocean water would cure him but alas, there is no cure but a single shot from a police gun as he was lunging to attack.Running less than an hour, I do have to say, it did keep me watching and was a nice appetizer. You have to remember that these kinds of movies from the 60's didn't usually last more than an hour. The acting was wooden and Agar, the little of it he had to do, was not as impressive as he was in "Revenge of the Creature" and "Tarantula". I thought that the guest appearance of Joe Besser (Three Stooges fame) as the gas station attendant was the most memorable with his comical one liners like "It doesn't pay to get out of bed sometimes". Another good, but expected scene, was the little boy on the beach (who happens to be Butch Patrick of the Munsters fame) encountering the "blob".Overall, this movie is okay if you don't mind the short, typical, 60's B-movie. Would I buy it on DVD if released? Probably, but I wouldn't spend over $10 for it.As a side note, if anyone with cable or satellite that gets the Fox Movies channel should Favorite it as they have been showing some really great movies.