The Crawling Hand
1963  NR  SCIENCE FICTION  1h 29min
CAST— Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren, Alan Hale, Jr., Allison Haynes, Sirry Steffen, Arline Judge
MUSIC— Marlin Skiles  DIRECTOR— Herbert L. Strock

     Boring tale that wants to be part cosmic The Hands of Orlac rip-off, part teen angst melodrama. For the second time they’ve sent a man to the moon and once again they mysteriously loose contact with him. But wait. Contact resumes this time and the ground crew are shocked to see their astronaut looking ghastly, asking those on the ground below to destroy his rocket for safety’s sake. The detonation button is pressed while the rocket is above California, the only remains being the astronaut’s severed arm, which is found by a frolicking beach-going couple (Rod Lauren and Sirry Steffen). She freaks out and wants to call the sheriff, he wants to wrap it in a shower curtain and keep it on a shelf holding delicious canned preserves (just why he is compelled to do so is unknown). The arm is of course still alive due to radiation or some such and goes hunting victims. Though it kills Lauren’s landlady it only chokes Lauren, transferring its killing instinct to him. Lauren goes through several mood swings but has the self control not to kill. Now to destroy the arm. If you’re still interested in this B-grade blunder whatever but we’re certainly not gonna give it a hand.
OUR RATING— *