Very early body horror from director Robert Wiene. The Hands of Orlac is the first film adaptation of Maurice Renard's novel (others include Mad Love starring Peter Lorre) The Hands of Orlac focuses on a pianist who receives a new pair of hands after losing his own in a train crash. Only problem is that the new hands once belonged to a murderer! Just what does rule the body - the head or the hands? This film succeeds mainly thanks to its atmosphere, which is oppressive and severely off kilter. Conrad Veidt gives a masterclass in facial expressions while the soundtrack really sets the tone - meandering between melancholy, mysterious and outright nightmare. The story twists and turns and often…

Conrad Veidt plays Orlac - a renowned pianist who loses his hands in an accident and becomes increasingly convinced his grafted ones are
murderous/corrupt. Veidt is the perfect silent screen actor. He uses his entire body to express his emotions. Just as his sinuous body portrayed the angular, jerky somnambulist Cesare so effectively in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Veidt uses his hands - distorting fingers, straining veins, flexing muscles to convey his character's dissociation, his horror of his new appendages. These hands are vital. Right from the opening shot it is made clear how important his hands are not only to his career but to his marriage. Mrs Orlac is like a drug addict - she's fetishized her husband's…

Film 11/32
1 Robert Wiene film

Well, hi there.
I have to be really honest right now. Over the time on this app I learnt that I appreciated silent films more than I actually liked them so I was a bit nervous going into this and while it's too long for my liking I thought it was pretty solid.

Due to an accident pianist Paul Orlac loses his hands. Fortunately, Dr. Serral has leftover hands to replace Orlac's hands. Unfortunately, they belong to a convicted murderer. And they want to kill!!!!!

This is such a wild concept for the 1920s and I thought it was executed very well. Conrad Veidt constantly looks scared or shocked, very melodramatic, very entertaining. Of…

Hooptober 11: From Texas with love 💘

♩♫ You need hands… ♪ ♬

A famous concert pianist is involved in a train disaster and comes away alive, but without the tools of his trade.

Back in the 1920s, successful transplants were somewhat of a minor miracle, so when our man’s bloody stumps bond with his new digits, the future looks promising. Only trouble is, these new hands have a criminal history from a very bad man indeed. 

Soon enough the inevitable happens and the hands begin to take control, directing the actions of this previously decent young man in ways he didn’t imagine were possible. 

There have been a few versions of Robert Wiene’s wild imagining over the years, with…

These are the hands of a killer, Bella

Of course not even Robert Wiene himself could top the masterful work he presented in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari four years earlier, but never the less, Orlac's Hands is an early example of a well done psychological horror which only now I realise turned a century old this year!

Even if the first half seems to go on for too long with not a lot happening (or maybe it's because I watched this at 7:00 am) once the movie stars playing with Orlac's mind making us wonder DID HE ACTUALLY KILLED HIS FATHER?!? DID THE HANDS DID IT?!? WHO THE FUCK DID IT?!? is when the real good stuff starts and…