THE HAND (1960)

The opening shot of a Japanese POW camp in World War II says "Burma 1946" but that seems clearly a mistake because the war ended in 1945. Three captured British soldiers are being interrogated about the strength and whereabouts of their regiment, but refuse to give any information except name and rank. Captain Roberts thinks they should get a fictitious story straight and stick to it, but before they can, enlisted men Adams and Brodie are called in to talk, and when they refuse, their right hands are cut off. When Roberts is questioned, he apparently talks and is spared the amputation. Fifteen years later, a drunk named Taplow is found passed out on a London street, his right hand recently amputated and with 500 pounds in his coat. Taken to a hospital, he says he sold the hand to a man named Roberts who had it cut off at a small rural nursing home. During the night, Taplow is abducted by two men and found dead in the Thames the next morning. The police question Dr. Simon Crawshaw, the man who performed the amputation. Taplow had been brought in under the name Roberts by someone else who then took him after the operation. When the police continue to delve into the matter, Simon kills himself in his office. His cousin Roger shows up and, though the police don’t know this, we know that Roger is Captain Roberts, the soldier who kept his hand in Burma. The police trace a phone call that Simon got just before his suicide to a boarding house where Brodie (from the opening scene), who has a hook on his right arm, lives. 

From here on in, the story absolutely falls apart and despite the many notes I took while watching, I can't give a coherent summary of the rest of the plot. Suffice to say that Roberts is a bad guy who winds up paying for his crimes in an ironic fashion. This movie gets labeled horror quite a bit, but except for the implied grisliness of the amputations (none are shown graphically though we do see at least one disembodied hand) it's not horror as much as a B-crime movie. Ultimately the whys and wherefores of the plot are never detailed so we just have to take it on faith that the Burma segment at the beginning (and reprised at the end) is the reason for all the mayhem. It's also never made clear why it took fifteen years after Burma for all this to happen. The acting is all on a par with that of Hammer supporting players without the star power of a Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing, meaning everyone is competent but bland. For the record, Derek Bond as Roberts and Ronald Leigh-Hunt as the chief inspector are OK. I did enjoy a running gag in which the policeman named Dave (Ray Cooney, who also co-wrote the script with another cast member) complains to his boss about his girlfriend complaining that he keeps having to work nights on this case. Not an awful movie but difficult to recommend. Pictured are Leigh-Hunt and Cooney. [YouTube]