The Hands of Orlac (1960)
Directed by Edmond T. Gréville

Film Review

Having started out as an assistant to such illustrious filmmakers as Abel Gance and Augusto Genina in the late 1920s, Edmond T. Gréville became a prolific Franco-British film director in his own right, his rich filmography including such diverse works as Princesse Tam Tam (1935), Menaces (1940), Le Diable souffle (1947) and Port du désir (1954).  His last film, L'Accident (1963), was to prove terribly prophetic, as Gréville died from injuries sustained in a car crash in 1966.  Gréville's films are characterised by a heavy and erotic atmosphere, which shows a remarkable independence of style.  Although he worked successfully in many countries, his work is all but forgotten today.

12th April 1961 saw the release in Paris of one of Gréville's best-known films, an adaptation of Maurice Renard's 1921 novel Les Mains d'Orlac.  Renard is one of the few French authors in the fantasy genre to have entered the international consciousness (the other being, of course, Gaston Leroux, immortalised by his Fantôme de l'opéra).  Les Mains d'Orlac had previously been adapted by the Austrian director Robert Wiene in 1924 as Orlacs Hände, with Conrad Veidt in the lead role, and as an American film Mad Love (1935) by Karl Freund with Peter Lorre as Dr Gogol.  Despite being at the antipodes of his predecessors, Edmond T. Gréville gives Orlac's troublesome hands another good run for their money in this stylish Franco-British production, a rare example of a French-produced horror film.

Horror is a genre which, until recent years, has been virtually non-existent in French cinema.  The fact of the matter is that few French film directors are willing to acquiesce to the conventions of the British horror movie, and this is painfully evident in Gréville's The Hands of Orlac.  Instead of dwelling on the fantastic elements of Renard's story, Gréville prefers instead to focus on the psychological side of things, an approach that is perhaps something of a cop out and not entirely satisfactory.  Atmospheric and suspenseful as the film is in parts, its lack of logic and fluidity prevents the spectator from being totally convinced by the main protagonist's obsession.  Did Stephen Orlac's transplanted hands belong to a guillotined killer?  Where are his sudden murderous tendencies coming from?  Is it real or only in his head?  Too much is left in an unresolved haze of ambiguity.

Even if Gréville's latest interpretation of Renard's novel doesn't quite live up to our expectations, it still serves as cracking good entertainment, especially in the second half where the pace picks up considerably.  One of the film's strength is Jacques Lemare's beautifully atmospheric black and white photography, which is effectively matched with Claude Bolling's jazz-themed score and a jolly Charleston number (C'est parti) performed by Dany Carrel.

Heading a mixed-nationality cast is the popular American actor Mel Ferrer, a surprising choice perhaps for the part of the unbalanced Mr Orlac.  A major figure in Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s (and actress Audrey Hepburn's husband), Ferrer worked with such distinguished directors as Fritz Lang, Richard Thorpe, King Vidor, Anthony Mann, Jean Renoir and Roger Vadim, to name just a few, and was among the impressive cast of Darryl F. Zanuck's The Longest Day.  Ferrer's performance divided the critics - it is up to you to decide whether he makes a decent fist of a complex role or is too weak for the part.

Playing Orlac's classy wife is the ravishing French actress Lucile Saint-Simon, who had a short career between 1953 and 1965 and was one of Claude Chabrol's Bonnes femmes in 1960.  The 6'5" tall British actor Christopher Lee has, as ever, a powerful presence in the film and revels in the role of the wicked Magician Nero.  Oozing vitriolic charm as only he can, Lee is soon revealed to be the real star of the show.  One of few actors of his generation to have starred in around 230 films since the mid-1940s, Christopher Lee is best known for his fantasy portrayals, most notably as various fiends for the British company Hammer - The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959).  Gréville had already made good use of his talents in Beat Girl (1960).

The charming French actress Dany Carrel plays Christopher Lee's assistant with gusto and luscious charm.  Carrel was never a leading lady but she brought delight to the big screen for many years.  The production assembles a supporting cast of mainly British character actors including Felix Aylmer, Donald Wolfit in the small (sadly ridiculous) part of the surgeon Volchett and the sublime Donald Pleasence in a nice (but pointless) cameo appearance.  The Hands of Orlac may not be a masterpiece but it offers an enjoyable romp into B-movie nonsense, and a good inducement to discover one of the sadly forgotten talents of French cinema, Edmond T. Gréville.

Film Synopsis

After a successful concert, the pianist Stephen Orlac is involved in a plane crash whilst returning to his fiancée Louise.  On the way to the hospital, the ambulance must take a detour because no one can pass near the prison where the strangler Vasseur is due to be guillotined that same night.  Six months after an operation on his hands, Orlac is in despair because he can no longer play the piano.  Louise suggests that he should spend time with her at her house on the Riviera.   But, here, Orlac has a nervous breakdown.  Fleeing to Marseilles, he rents a room in a small hotel where he meets Regina, a minor music hall artist, and her partner, Neron.  These two are in fact crooks who know Orlac by reputation and are ready to blackmail him.  One day, Orlac telephones Louise to tell her that he has no control over his hands, which he knows to be the ones taken from the corpse of the strangler Vasseur.  Neron overhears the conversation and conceives a diabolical plan...