{"id":380,"date":"2014-02-06T16:17:08","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T21:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bmoviemaniacs.com\/?p=380"},"modified":"2014-02-06T16:17:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T21:17:08","slug":"the-devils-hand-1961-by-gillythek-echidnabot-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/the-devils-hand-1961-by-gillythek-echidnabot-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil’s Hand (1961) by Gillythek @echidnabot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rick Turner (Robert Alda) has a problem.\u00a0Despite being engaged to the sweet and lovely Donna Trent (Ariadna Welter), working a job with a future, and wearing a series of hideous sweaters, he has disturbing dreams about a beautiful woman which keep him up every night.\u00a0 During one of his insomnia induced walks through the city, he comes upon a doll shop and spies a doll which reminds him of his dream woman. <\/p>\n

The next day, Rick and Donna visit the shop and meet the proprietor, creepy to the extreme Francis Lamont (Neil Hamilton-Yes! Commissioner Gordon!) who tells Rick he ordered the dream woman doll and must bring it to Bianca Milan (Linda Christian).\u00a0 Rick has no memory of this but brings the doll to Bianca anyway.\u00a0 He falls in lust at first sight and blows Donna off completely.\u00a0 If that weren\u2019t bad enough, poor Donna suffers in a hospital bed with a sudden heart ailment brought on by Francis\u2019 sticking a pin in a doll with her likeness.\u00a0Moments after they meet, Bianca tells Rick he must renounce all goodness and virtue and join her cult which worships Gamba, the devil god of evil.\u00a0 Since he has nothing else planned, he agrees and goes with Bianca to a meeting of the cult in the back of the doll shop.\u00a0I have to say that an evil cult meeting in the back of a doll shop does not surprise me.\u00a0 The Kerry Scale of Creepy rates clowns as the most creepy.\u00a0 After clowns come dolls that look like you, regular dolls, and ventriloquist dummies.<\/p>\n

\"dh2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rick flourishes using Gamba\u2019s evil and soon he has money, a cool car, and a far more fashionable wardrobe.\u00a0 Donna\u2019s still in the hospital with a pin in her doll\u2019s chest.\u00a0 Rick lusts after Bianca and they share a few sexy kisses.\u00a0 The movie hints at sex, but Rick still goes home and sleeps in his little twin bed.\u00a0 Anyway, we get to see a few Gamba Book Club cult meetings where people dance to bongo music and cult members sit on pillows and watch each other tested for loyalty under a knife-filled light fixture.\u00a0 Commissioner Gordon officiates over these meetings speaking with the same voice you use when you\u2019re a kid having a fake s\u00e9ance and wears a natty smoking jacket\/bathrobe over his shirt and tie.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of fun really.<\/p>\n

Obviously the halcyon days of Gamba can\u2019t last forever and since this stuff happens in a movie, it all has to come to a conclusion they\u2019ll love in Peoria.<\/p>\n

I liked The Devil\u2019s Hand.\u00a0 It boasts cool Misirlou-like tunes, weird cult scenes, Isadora Duncan dream sequences, and Commissioner Gordon as a weirdo with a doll shop.\u00a0 Jo Heims, who would go on to write Play Misty for Me<\/strong> and Dirty Harry<\/strong> wrote the screenplay and William J. Hole, Jr. (Highway Patrol, 77 Sunset Strip TV episodes) directed this fairly odd story well.\u00a0 All hail Gamba!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick Turner (Robert Alda) has a problem.\u00a0Despite being engaged to the sweet and lovely Donna Trent (Ariadna Welter), working a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[27,29,66,77,241,277,324,329,361,471],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posters","category-reviews","tag-1960s","tag-29","tag-ariadna-welter","tag-b-movies","tag-jo-heims","tag-linda-christian","tag-neil-hamilton","tag-occult","tag-robert-alda","tag-william-j-hole-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmoviemaniacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}