The Crawling Hand (1963)

"No rats, not allowed!", 28 June 2007

A space capsule is destroyed upon re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere sending a shower of wreckage across a Southern California beach. A teenager finds the astronaut's dismembered arm and (inexplicably) takes it home. How could he possibly know that the arm is possessed by a killer force or that he too will come under its influence?

I've watched a lot of really bad movies lately, but The Crawling Hand is far from the worst. In fact, it's almost "good" in comparison with dreck like Monster A Go-Go and The Starfighters (yes, I've been on something of a MST3K binge lately). The movie has its share of problems (hit and miss acting, obvious budgetary constraints, a ridiculous premise, etc.), but there are some nice moments mixed in here and there. Chief among them is the scene in the malt shop when the owner is attacked. The action, lighting, sound, and cinematography found in this scene far exceed anything you might expect to see in a movie with the reputation of The Crawling Hand. The two biggest problems I have with the movie seem to rarely get mentioned – the shift from the hand of the movie's title to "teen angst" movie and the amount of padding used to extend the film's runtime. So while I may never think of The Crawling Hand as a masterpiece, I certainly see it in a better light than the majority of comments I've read.

As The Crawling Hand is from the first season of MST3K, it suffers from the same lack of consistent riffing that plagues most of the early episodes. But in comparison with the other first season episodes I have seen, it's among the best. There is a bit involving a telephone that is very funny. Overall, I'll give this episode of MST3K a very generous 3/5 – a wishy-washy average rating.

3/10