The Hands of Orlac
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Mel Ferrer
Christopher Lee
Dany Carrel
Felix Aylmer
Basil Sydney
Lucile Saint-simon
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
The hands of concert pianist Steven Orlac are severely burned and maimed in a Paris airplane crash, and he is taken by his fiancée, Louise Cochrane, to Professor Volcheff, a surgeon famous for his bone-grafting operations. Volcheff gives Orlac the hands of Vasseur, an accused strangler who has been guillotined. During his next piano concert, Orlac appears unable to control his hands. He becomes obsessed by the idea that his hands are now capable only of violence; his cat is found dead, and he even attempts to strangle Louise, who has become his wife. Seeking seclusion, he gives up his Monte Carlo villa and retreats to relative obscurity in Marseilles, where Nero, a second-rate music hall magician, overhears the pianist admit his fear of committing murder. Nero then forces his assistant, Li-lang, to cooperate in blackmailing Orlac by terrorizing him. Orlac returns to London with his wife and is about to strangle her when the police arrive and produce a telegram stating that the executed Frenchman was later proven innocent. His sanity restored, Orlac aids the police in apprehending Nero, who has killed Li-lang to prevent her from confessing their crime.
Cast
Mel Ferrer
Christopher Lee
Dany Carrel
Felix Aylmer
Basil Sydney
Lucile Saint-simon
Donald Wolfit
Antoine Balpêtré
Anita Sharp Bolster
Mireille Perrey
Donald Pleasence
Campbell Singer
Peter Reynolds
Yanilou
Edouard Hemme
Manning Wilson
Arnold Diamond
David Peel
Walter Randall
Franca Bel
Crew
Buster Ambler
Ben Arbeid
John Baines
Barbara Barnard
Bill Bennison
Robert Biart
John Blezard
Claude Bolling
Jackie Breed
Timothy Burrill
Jacques Corbel
Alan Corder
Desmond Dickinson
Jimmy Dooley
Peter Dukelow
George Durant
Henry Emery
Ronnie Fox-rogers
Stuart Freeborn
Hazel Gee
Harry Gillam
Lois Gray
Edmond T. Gréville
Edmond T. Gréville
Oswald Hafenrichter
Ilona Kabos
Jacques Lemare
Cynthia Maugham
Max Montagu
Eugène Nase
Bert Owen
Steven Pallos
Eugène Piérac
Basil Rabin
Jean Ravel
Ted Reed
Yvonne Richards
Stanford Robinson
Donald Taylor
Donald Taylor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Location scenes filmed on the French Riviera. Opened in Paris in April 1961 as Les mains d'Orlac; running time: 105 min; released in Great Britain in April 1962; running time: 95 min. The role of Professor Volcheff is played by Wolfit in the English version and by Balpêtré in the French version. May also be known as Hands of a Strangler. Previously filmed in 1924 as Orlac Hände (Austria) and released in the U. S. in 1928 as The Hands of Orlac; also filmed in the U. S. and released in 1935 as Mad Love.
