☆ ☆ ☆ ½
La Main du Diable (1943) – M. Tourneur
Better translated as The Hand of the Devil,
this French horror film reminded me of The Monkey’s Paw, although in this case
the talisman offering good luck is an actual human hand and more than a few
wishes are available – the cost, however, is the loss of one’s soul to the
Devil himself. Pierre Fresnay (from La
Grande Illusion) plays the foolish painter who buys the talisman for one penny
in order to achieve fame and love. Upon
learning more, he contacts the Devil (a cunning old man in a bowler) and learns
that he can sell the hand back for a penny but that each day he delays, the price
will double. Fearing that he will lose
his wife, he dawdles too long and soon owes millions of francs. How he gets out of this predicament is
something of a flight of fancy, involving the invocation of all the previous owners
of the creepy left hand, but the ending still sits right. Perhaps director Maurice Tourneur’s film is
not exactly on par with the output of his son, Jacques, for producer Val Lewton
at the same time but this is still worth a gander if you are in the mood for a
different version of this age-old story.
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