This blog was begun on the night of April 13th, and completed the following day :
Elizabeth, your drawing of Buster is excellent! Your technique is impeccable, but at the same time you've captured his doggie spirit. I can feel it and I haven't even met him. From your description he sounds just the slightest bit irascable, and in that respect - and because of his size and breed - he reminded me a little bit of the late great Kobi, Pearl's dog who was such a good friend of mine. I have to tell you about one thing he used to do because it still cracks me up to this day. Like Buster, Kobi liked to sleep late, and when he was sleeping you couldn't wake him up (though he was probably faking it, lol). But what was funny was that, when Kobe got tired, he sometimes didn't make it all the way into his bed. He had one of those round padded beds like you get at the pet store, and when he was really wiped out after a long day of eating, jumping up and down and barking, he'd sometimes crawl into his bed, but only make it halfway. And so you'd see him sound asleep, but only with his upper half in the bed. His rear end and back legs would still be sticking out on the floor, and I always found that to be a riot. I used to call him a "Four Wheel Drive Dog", and from Kobi I learned that small dogs are definitely not wimps. In your drawing of Buster I can see the same is true for him!
Man, I've gotta get me another dog. As I've said to Pearl, "you gotta have two, a Small and a Big. The Big One to do all the dirty work (like stealing pizzas) and the Small One to boss him around".
Right now I am grateful for the kitties in my life, and can't wait to see them again. They must wonder what happened to me, at least I hope they do. Our Governor is supposed to make an announcement tomorrow about the re-opening of California's economy, which will hopefully begin by May 15th or maybe sooner. Fingers are crossed. /////
Well, on the motion picture score we fared a little better this evening - only marginally so, mind you - but anything would be a step up after the execrable experience of "They Saved Hitler's Brain". Seeing John Agar's name in the cast, I cued up a film with the rather unimaginative title of "Hand of Death". I mean......whataya think? To me, it conjures up a Kung Fu flick, and while there is a Hand of Death in this movie (belonging to Agar), it isn't separated from it's owner, as Horror Movie Hands usually are. Think of the Hand in "The Hand", for instance, the 1981 fright fest that was written and directed by Oliver Stone. That Hand was most definitely not attached to anyone. But let me not get off on yet another tangent, because - like Brains - I could talk about movie Hands all day. On with the plot, then.
Agar is a scientist working on a new type of nerve gas at his laboratory in the desert. He has mixed in a hypnotic drug, and he tells his government bosses that the resulting concoction will make nuclear war obsolete. If deployed, it would first knock people unconscious (the nerve gas element), and when they woke up they'd be hypnotised by the additional drug, and therefore highly susceptible to suggestion. Agar reports the good news that in future wars, there needn't be any casualties. "All we'd have to do is spray this gas and the enemy would be knocked out! When they came to, we could send them back to their own country, merely by hypnotic suggestion! Don't you see? They would simply walk away! Isn't it brilliant"?!
Well, yes.......on paper it sounds wonderful. But Agar also has direct evidence. He's tried the gas out on a local sheep farmer and it worked as advertised. But his immediate superior, one Dr. Ramsey, isn't so certain. "As you know, I'm sitting in this wheelchair because of a previous and similar experiment".
"Yes, Doctor......but we have stricter controls now. I realise the need for further testing, but I'm telling you the gas is safe. I've seen it myself! When that farmer woke up, he got back in his truck and drove away, all because I directed him to, and he's had no ill effects".
"All the same", Ramsey replies, "until we try it out en masse we cannot be certain of a 100% success rate, and for that, you will need to stabilise the gas to apply to a myriad of different physical characteristics, including the variance in body weight among soldiers and the general population".
Agar is frustrated but agrees to Dr. Ramsey's wishes, in part because, as per usual in these Mad Scientist movies, Ramsey's daughter (Paula Raymond) is his girlfriend. You don't wanna tick off the potential father-in-law, so Agar begins work on homogenizing his new gas. And that, my fellow monster movie fans, is where everything goes to hell.
As Agar is mixing chemicals, a beaker starts to bubble over. He removes the cork to allow the contents to settle, but in doing so, he gets a big whiff of the new, supposedly stable gas. The next thing you know, he has fallen to the floor unconscious. When he wakes up, there doesn't seem to be any problem. He still feels fine, so no harm's been done and he gets back to work. Then an assistant enters the lab, and I must butt in to say that for some reason, the assistant is played by the legendary cinematographer John A. Alonzo, who looks like Joe Schmo here. I must further add that we have another Two Night Motif on our hands, as we were dealing with gas and a famous cinematographer (Stanley Cortez) last night in "Hitler's Brain". In this case, the legendary lensman (Alonzo) is acting rather than working the other side, but he is very young, so perhaps he hadn't yet moved into camera work.....but good thing he did, eh? Had he not become a cinematographer, he might've spent his whole career acting in movies like "Hand of Death", lol.
Back to the plot, it is unfortunate timing for Alonzo to have entered the laboratory at this moment, because Agar is not as fine and dandy as he thinks he is. For one thing, he looks a little.......darker than usual. Alonzo notices the change : "Hey Dr. Marsh......have you been out in the sun all day? You look like you've gotten a tan". Right then, Agar grabs his forearm to show him the beaker and things go downhill very quickly. Alonzo falls to the floor screaming and within seconds he is not only dead but charred to a cinder.
The Hand of Death has claimed it's first victim.
Agar knows he can't call the cops - how would he explain? So instead he torches the lab with Alonzo's body still in it. For the rest of the movie he will be on the run, his appearance ever worsening, and by the time he goes back to the home of Dr. Ramsey, he looks like a relative of the Elephant Man, if EM were African-American. Folks, even though Agar is obviously wearing a mask (and at some angles you can even see the neck strap), the look of it is so grotesque that had I seen this film as a kid, it would have (altogether now) : Scared the Living Be-JEEzus Out Of Me. It's a Horrifying Mask, I tell you!
The trouble is, there isn't much of a story to go with it. You know how in some short-duration Film Noirs, we've marveled at the screenwriter's ability to pack a jillion sub-plots into the script? That doesn't happen in "Hand of Death". It runs a mere 58 minutes, but the interesting part of the plot peters out after the first 25. The rest of the movie is basically Agar running around trying to escape his fate, which he can't of course. Even if he avoids the cops, he's gonna keep getting uglier, and he's gotta maintain social distancing - he can't touch anyone lest they die - so he's doomed to a life of terrible loneliness no matter the outcome.
Paula Ramsey will plead with Agar to go to a hospital for help, but it may be too late. The screenplay can no longer be altered and the budget appears to have run out as Agar staggers forlornly down Santa Monica beach, past little Butch Patrick playing in the sand in a pre-Munsters role. Had the filmmakers had more dough they might've had a better picture because the intent is there. Agar even forgoes his usual smugness to put real pathos into his plight (although it must be said that in the early scenes, pre-mask, he still has that Indelible Agar Smirk where it looks like he's trying not to laugh at his dialogue). Another problem was the print I watched : soft and low contrast. A restoration would improve things greatly, especially the horror, which is the movie's main drawing card. Imagine seeing that mask in a crisp transfer with full grey scale! Holy smokes, the Beejeezus would be scared right out of you guaranteed, no matter your age. So yeah, with an improved print my rating would be higher, but I'm still gonna be generous and give "Hand of Death" Two Solid Thumbs Up, even with it's anemic story and bland interiors. It's one of those super-cheapies that looks like it was filmed in someone's living room, with the lab scenes outsourced to a motel. But it tries hard, and for that reason I will recommend it, and also because it is brief in length. We will continue to try for better movies, in content and picture quality, but if the Science-Fiction/Horror Well does run dry, as it looks like it may be doing, we'll switch over to Noirs (oh, but I'm having so much fun with sci-fi!....sigh). /////
That will be all for the moment, unless you have anything else that needs to be brought to my attention. If not, you may go and I shall depart for my walk, to meet up back here at the Usual Time. :):)
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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