Curse of the Stone Hand (1965)

Two obscure Spanish language films have been shoved together with newly cheap film footage to try and create a new movie. The 40's footage of two movies from Chile look expensive but dated compared to the cheap new film added featuring John Carradine. Attempts to tie the two films together are unsuccessful and the the result is boring. With American International successfully producing modern frights on a budget, this looks like paper machete to their Styrofoam like sets that could be torn down and put back together to resemble whatever location castle the writers chose to set the story in. The first story us a loose re-telling of The Suicide Club, the second a weak attempt to create thrills for what appeared to be original. Carradine narrates both tales in what appears to be the only new footage with bad dubbing covering up the obvious Spanish by the original actors. This appears to have been barely released at all, although I did locate a few pictures of actual posters and lobby cards. At least there is a nice title sequence that reminded me of Charles Addams drawings. Not really horror, this barely has any chills and any attempts to create a proper Gothic setting are destroyed by the obvious theft of two long forgotten films.

Other reviews here indicate that the pilfered film footage in this "effort" by schlockmeister Jerry Warren comes from legitimately *good* Chilean movies, but you wouldn't know it from Warrens' bungling. He manages to make this assemblage of footage pretty dull and uninteresting. It still has some appeal for people channel surfing in the wee hours of the morning, and is not without atmosphere. "Curse of the Stone Hand" only really comes to life in scenes where the legendary John Carradine, one of Warrens' repertory players (and seemingly a man who could never say no to *any* script), appears. (However, that's because of Carradines' grandiose screen presence, not because of anything Warren does.)The first tale is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevensons' "The Suicide Club", in which a young man, desperate to rid himself of debts, enters a club where he thinks he can gamble his way to good fortune. The second story is derived from the 1945 feature "The House is Empty", regaling us with the experience of two brothers tormented by an older sibling. Warren attempts to tie all of this together with his "stone hand" nonsense, which has something to do with a curse on the residents of a house, and removes the dialogue from his source material in favour of narration.Even at only 68 minutes, this is a little tough to get through. In compressing / editing the footage from the two Chilean features, Warren and company rob them of their effectiveness. There's still the entertainment value from the revelations provided, in any event. If you're a Carradine fan, you may feel let down from only seeing him in the brief additional scenes. Another of Warrens' regulars, Katherine Victor, also appears here.At the very least, seeing this exercise in dullness may motivate one to see the Chilean films in their proper context.Four out of 10.

"Curse of the Stone Hand" bears a 1964 copyright, but this two-part anthology consists of footage derived from a pair of atmospheric Chilean titles made by Argentine directors nearly two decades earlier. The first half is taken from 1946's "La Dama de la Muerte" (The Lady of Death), from director Carlos Hugo Christensen, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1878 3-part anthology "The Suicide Club" (roughly half its original length), while the second half (at the 34-minute mark of this 57 minute feature) consists of 1945's "La Casa esta Vacia" (The House is Empty), from director Carlos Schlieper, reduced to about 30 percent of its footage. The final product was created by schlock director Jerry Warren, with himself and 'Hugo Christensen' listed as co-directors. Warren tied these stories together through some newly shot sequences depicting a stone hand, which supposedly signifies a curse. John Carradine was no stranger to Warren ("The Incredible Petrified World," "Invasion of the Animal People," "House of the Black Death," "Frankenstein Island"), but for his three brief scenes, received second billing under actor 'Ernest Walch,' an Americanized pseudonym for Ernesto Vilches (from "La Dama de la Muerte"), who not only died in 1954, but was also listed ninth in the cast list, under the more simplified moniker 'Ernest Vilche.' Carradine, along with Katherine Victor and Bruno Ve Sota, only appears in the final reel, as 'The Old Drunk,' relating how he spied on a married woman cavorting with her husband's brother, totaling less than two minutes screen time (Victor gets one additional scene, confronting the husband, conveniently seen from the back). Warren's butchery makes for very dull viewing, even worse than "Invasion of the Animal People," another waste of Carradine's exceptional talents. "Curse of the Stone Hand" made its only appearance on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater May 4 1968, followed by second feature "Frankenstein-1970."

I saw this film once, on the late, late show, when I was in high school. The only part that stays with me is an interesting segment that suddenly makes the previously dull movie come to life, when a group of men are holding a meeting of some kind. I remember exclaiming out loud, " Wait a minute, this is Robert Louis Stevenson's story The Suicide Club!" It was the only part of the movie that actually made any sense, and held my interest, as it was based on a strong literary source, and professionally acted and directed, in contrast with the typical Jerry Warren goofiness of the rest of the picture.My impression of Jerry Warren is that his movies were just one slight step above the level of Ed Wood's productions. The hilarious sequence in Invasion of the Animal People, where a psychiatrist solemnly questions Katherine Victor about the argument that led to her daughter leaving the house in a snit, and later encountering a UFO, is like something you'd see on Saturday Night Live, along with the bit where the police surgeon demonstrates to his colleagues the structure of the inner ear, using a Halloween prop skull.