Aristocrat Dave Emerson (legendary madman/actor Klaus Kinski) has been found guilty of murder, by way of insanity, and is promptly hauled off to the local insane asylum as he proclaims his innocence.…
This is followed by an opening montage set to a jazzy score featuring more bongo than may be recommended… and oh what a montage it is; just filled to the brim with skeletons, a prone man in a suit of armor, and a peepshow, which is rather close to a snapshot of what is going on in my mind at any given moment…
After approximately one hot second in captivity, Davey escapes from the asylum and hoofs it back to his ancestral family home, in which his mother, siblings, and hell even a twin brother (because having Kinski on set more than the absolute minimum seems like a dandy-as-fuck idea)… a twin brother Dave starts impersonating as he begins a quest to clear his name.
Things get more complicated for our hero when a madman with an indigo gauntlet (wisely named Blue Hand) starts upping the body-count, and the long arm of the law starts giving the clan static.
Will Dave be able to solve the case, or is he indeed The Blue Hand?!
Based on Edgar Wallace’s 1925 novel The Blue Hand, Creature with the Blue Hand is an entry in Rialto Pictures long running krimi flick adaptations of Wallace’s works, and it is an absolute blast of a motion picture that proves why that series had such longevity!
Director Alfred Vohrer fills the sinister screen with a twisty tale full of those classic Old Dark House tropes that always seem to hit just right. We get dark family secrets, an ornate and ancient abode, red herrings a-plenty, murder, madness… but the tried and true proceedings are spiced up with the aforementioned eclectic, horn and percussion heavy score, horror comic book imagery, a villain that would be right at home in a movie serial (or again, a comic book), some “mod” late ‘60s fashion flourishes.
The acting here is pretty damn solid as well, with Kinski giving a suitably melodramatic performance in an early leading (and dual!) role, and Albert Bessler steals many scenes as the Emerson’s droll butler, Anthony (and what would a picture like this be without one?!).
Adding to all that groovy ghoulishness, the fine fiends over at Film Masters have stacked this Blu-ray with a veritable ass-load of extras (feel free to use that in all promotional press for the release)!
Starting things off we have an informative, conversational, highly-listenable audio commentary featuring writer/editor Stephen Jones and novelist/critic Kim Newman that takes us through the film’s origins, creation, and it’s legacy within the krimi genre.
Following that we get featurettes on Wallace (featuring Hellraiser II: Hellbound screenwriter Peter Atkins) and Kinski’s legacy in the Wallace/krimi genre (featuring C. Courtney Joyner, who wrote a bunch of classic Full Moon features such as Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge, Trancers III, and Doctor Mordrid), and two trailers for the film (both the original, and re-edited version).
We also get The Bloody Dead, a 1987 re-cut of Creature with the Blue Hand courtesy of prolific producer Sam Sherman (Satan’s Sadists, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Blazing Stewardesses) that adds in ‘80s-lensed gore (rando asylum sequences that you will spot immediately whether you’ve seen the ‘67 version or not). This version is also available with an audio commentary courtesy of Sherman (an amazing listen that details not only his involvement with the film, but his experiences within the heyday of grindhouse distribution and it makes for a fun and engaging listen), and a collection of raw footage and behind-the-scenes material for the additional footage.
This release also contains an additional Blu-ray containing 1971’s remake of 1964’s Castle of Blood (Danza Macabre) by the same director, Antonio Margheriti (Yor: The Hunter from the Future).
Brash American journalist Alan Foster (Tenebrae’s Anthony Franciosa) takes a bet from Edgar Allan Poe (better sit down for this one… Klaus Kinski) and Lord Thomas Blackwood (Enrico Osterman) to spend All Soul’s Eve in Blackwood’s empty, reportedly haunted, ancestral mansion.
Except, the castle is not empty and is home to the comely Elisabeth Blackwood (Michèle Mercier, the Angélique film series), whom our hero has sex with nearly immediately as is the customary greeting of those times, as well as scientist/animal cruelty aficionado Dr. Carmus (Peter Carsten), a hulking brute, and an entire ballroom of dancers… it’s a real standing room only sort of abandoned haunted house.
Of course the dwelling’s denizens are more than they seem, so our hero will have a ball busting (and draining) time winning that wicked wager!
While the 1964 version was a moody, erotic thriller with plenty of Gothic ambiance, this version ups the budget and presents the events in color which lessens the creepy-factor a bit… but overall this tale remains well told (if a tad redundant).
Unfortunately carrying over from the original is an on-screen, real snake death that is, as always, completely and totally unnecessary… but such are the chances one takes when rollin’ the demonic dice with an Italian genre pic.
Of course the real draw here is seeing Kinski portray Poe… he looks nothing like the author (he at least tried to grow a Poe-accurate mustache, but unfortunately undertook the challenge in what appears to be about 10 hours before camera’s rolled), but his manic energy transfers well to the character of the troubled author and is entertaining to watch even if his screen-time is limited.
As with Creature with the Blue Hand, this film also has some supplemental material to enhance your viewing experience including another top-shelf Jones/Newman commentary track, a re-imagined trailer for the film, and an English-language trailer for Castle of Blood.
Two Gothic thrillers with a dash of that ol’ Kinski magic make this release irresistible to lovers of Euro-horror and the works of Poe alike!
