HANDS OF ORLAC-1924-Giving his farewell performance renown pianist Paul Orlac (Conrad Veidt) is in a railroad crash that crushes his hands. A doctor seems to heel him and says Orlac will need a "strong will" to play again. Instead of playing Orlac sees a grinning face and dreams a giant fist is attacking him! He then learns the truth: the doctor couldn't save his hands and instead gave Orlac the hands of an executed murderer! He can't get over this and decides never to touch anyone again. This kind of gets in the way of being with his loving wife. After his greedy father in law is killed Orlac meets the supposedly dead murderer who claims the doctor's assistant cut off his head and attached it to a new body with metal hands! It's all a plot by the assistant to get money out of Orlac.
HANDS OF ORLAC is another excursion into German expressionism by director Robert Weine and star Veidt who earlier had the same roles on THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. It's more psychological than horror and Veidt's performance is very off the top even for a silent film. Even though it might seem drawn out to some viewers it's still a classic! It was remade in 1935 as MAD LOVE.
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2 comments:
Veidt is actually one of my all-time favorite actors! I liked this one quite a bit though he's got better films on his resume.
Yes, I think Veidt was a great actor! He's just very over the top in this. It's a shame he died so early!
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