Rent The Hands of Orlac (1924)
3.6 of 5 from 67 ratings
1h 33min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Based on a novel by medical-horror novelist Maurice Renard, it charts the mental disintegration of a concert pianist Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt) whose hands are amputated after a train crash, and replaced with the hands of an executed murderer. When Orlac's father is murdered by the dead man's hands, Orlac begins a steady descent towards madness.
- Actors:
- Conrad Veidt, Alexandra Sorina, Fritz Strassny, Paul Askonas, Carmen Cartellieri, Hans Homma, Fritz Kortner
- Directors:
- Robert Wiene
- Producers:
- Karl Ehrlich
- Writers:
- Louis Nerz, Maurice Renard
- Aka:
- Orlacs Hände
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
- Collections:
- The Last Laugh: The Film That Changed Cinema, Top 10 European Remakes
- Countries:
- Austria
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 14/06/2021
- Run Time:
- 93 minutes
- Languages:
- German LPCM Mono, Silent
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Feature length audio commentary with author Stephen Jones and author/critic Kim Newman
- Extremities - Video essay by filmmakers David Cairns and Fiona Watson
- Alternate presentation of 'The Hands of Orlac' (SD, 110 minutes) - Courtesy of the F. W. Murnau Foundation, a presentation of the film struck from a different print source, featuring alternate takes of certain scenes. Includes a musical score by Paul Mercer
- Version comparison featurette
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Reviews (2) of The Hands of Orlac
Killer hands! - The Hands of Orlac review by LC
As far as I am aware, this is the first movies to launch an entire sub-genre of horror movies about possessed hands with minds of their own. The melodramatic plot creaks a bit around the edges, but it has some effective and atmospheric moments, and the blu ray restoration looks fantastic. I'm not sure about the score however, which is relentlessly dissonant and unmelodic for the entire running time - as much as I enjoy experimental music, it doesn't leave much scope for light and shade. [3.5 out of 5]
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Disrturbing - The Hands of Orlac review by sb
AKA The Hands of Orlac- after the success of Dr Caligari director Weine and actor Veidt re-united for a slice of body horror.
Veidt plays Orlac a concert pianist who is on the way home to his wife when is is involved in a horrific train crash.
The surgeon saves his life but cannot save his hands and its revealed they are the transplanted hands of a convicted murderer.
Orlac realises that not only can he no longer play but becomes obsessed with the fact that the hands retain some muscle memory of the lethal instincts of the previous owner.
He refuses all contact and even keeps his wife at a remote distance for her safety - meanwhile a mysterious stranger seems to a strange power over the maidservant and soon begins to ensnare Orlac in his web - is he who its implied he is?
Its been remade serveral times but never as powerfully as this - as always Veidt is electric using the hands as almost reptillian beings that must be destroyed and his eyes are endless pools of despair as his mind fragments under what he must endure.
The set design is remarkable - all art-deco rooms far larger than than they need be with minimal furniture and dark shadows that seen to trap Orlac with no-where to hide and a constant strident atonal score that becomes more and more disorintating as the film progresses.
Ok you can see the ending as a sleight of hand (pardon the pun) but then its revealed that its far more than that - a truly remarkable film - 4/5
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