Horst_In_Translation Review of Creature with the Blue Hand

Creature with the Blue Hand (1967)

This could have been a lot better

[4/10 · 28 April 2016]

"Die Blaue Hand" or "Creature with the Blue Hand" or "The Bloody Dead" (really?) is another German Edgar Wallace movie from almost 50 years ago. The director is once again Alfred Vohrer and he made many of these films based on the crime novel author. But there is one major difference compared to most other of these films. This one here has a real star in it, even if Klaus Kinski was not really that famous yet in the late 1960s. And they also took the right approach of making this almost 100% drama. Other Wallace films have many comedic moments and they frequently do not take themselves seriously at all. Not so this one. And I think it was the right creative decision they made. Kinski is not for comedy. However, what they made of Kinski in terms of quality and quantity is underwhelming. It starts off nicely with him getting lots of screen time early on, but he quickly disappears and in the second half he is almost non-existent. Also, when I said quality, I do believe that the way the character was written was not on par with Kinski's skill set. So it was definitely a missed chance. Another somewhat known actress in here is Ilse Steppat, who plays one of the major supporting characters. She also was not too famous at this point, but the fact that she played a villain in a Bond movie shortly before her death elevated her popularity a lot. Also just like with Kinski, I felt she was underused. The actors in here were certainly fine. I also enjoyed the faces where I did not know the name. But the story really isn't. This is never scary, this is never edge-of-seat material. And the final plot twist is really ridiculous in a bad way unfortunately. I give it a thumbs down. Not recommended. The potential here was absolutely not fulfilled. Luckily, the film stays easily under the 90 minute mark.