HAND OF DEATH (1962)

Mike the mailman is driving down a rural route and passes a small house with several dead sheep lying on the ground. He stops to investigate and as soon as he enters the yard, he falls to the ground. Two men in hazmat suits come out of the house and take the mailman in and resuscitate him. Scientist Alex (John Agar) and his grad student assistant Carlos tell Mike that they are conducting military experiments with a knockout gas made from cactus derivatives. When they walk Mike back outside, the sheep are up and alive. Later, Alex goes to visit his mentor Dr. Ramsey to tell him about his success. The nerve gas will paralyze its victims, then hypnotize them to follow commands. Alex thinks this is a humane way to reduce wars; Ramsey is less enthusiastic but urges him to keep working. Meanwhile, Alex's girlfriend Carol is also not happy about the gas, but especially not happy about the slow speed at which their relationship is developing. Back at the rural house, Carlos worries that Alex is moving too quickly, getting in over his head, and sure enough, when Alex knocks over a beaker filled with the gas in liquid form, he gets some on his hands. He has a seizure and passes out, as visions of beakers and mice race through his head (pictured at right). The next morning, his arms are covered with what look like dark burn marks, and when Carlos touches him, he collapses and dies. Soon Alex's entire body is encrusted with dark scabs (he looks exactly like the Thing from the Fantastic Four) and he discovers his touch remains deadly. Ramsey and his assistant Tom work on an antidote, but once you've tampered in God's domain, it's difficult to patch things up.

This one-hour B-film was once thought lost, and honestly it's no neglected masterpiece, but it has an outsized impact on some of us baby boomer monster movie fans because an image of the Thing-ish monster was published in some of the monster movie magazines, wearing a hat and trenchcoat, and I've always remembered that picture. John Agar is known for being a bit wooden in his roles, and because of that, we don't work up much empathy for his character (also because we don't know anything much about him or his relationship with Carol). But really, that's OK here, because it's the monster we're waiting for. The opening scene is fairly effective, though a bit too short to really set up the creepy mood it should. The guy who plays Carlos, John Alonzo, went on to become a respected cinematographer on movies like Chinatown and Scarface. Stephen Dunne (Tom, Ramsey's assistant who plays a part in the finale) looks and acts a bit like Gene Nelson (Will Parker in Oklahoma!). Paula Raymond suffices as Carol but her character feels inserted because they figured they needed a damsel in distress. Butch Patrick, who went on to play Eddie Munster on TV, has a short scene as a menaced boy on the beach. There's an OK score with some theremin music here and there. Because it's fairly slow paced and predictable, it's hard to recommend this except to fans of early 60s monster movies. [YouTube]