The Hands of Orlac (1928)

Very well executed

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

After watching and loving the movie Mad Love which is a new adaptation of the story in this movie, I really wanted to see the original movie too. In Mad Love the doctor is the protagonist who is lusting after Ms Orlac, Orlac himself is there less important even less important than his wife. Orlacs Hände focuses clearly on the man in the title role (wonderfully played by Conrad Veidt who also played Cesare in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) with Ms Orlac (Alexandra Sorina) in a good supporting role. The doctor's role is here minimal and not really that important to the story. More important roles are there for servant Regine (Carmen Cartellieri) and the bad guy Nera (Fritz Kortner). OK, the movie is slow, very slow in its movement, focusing on the dark atmosphere and expression by gestures and facial which was common for these German expressionist films. However I do think it is rewarding though when we see how the story and mystery around Orlac's hands unfolds to a surprising and really clever and satisfying end result. Very neat how they could do this with a minimal of dialog. Great performances from the full cast. I must say this one wins over Mad Love.

Flirting with a (then) science fictional theme of body part transplantation, the film explores the feelings of a concert pianist, who having lost his hands in a train wreck, receives a new pair of hands that belonged to an executed murderer. Austrian director Robert Weine, who created the landmark 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1919) here reunites with and directs its star, Conrad Veidt, as the tormented pianist Paul Orlac.The camera focuses on Veidt's many moods and reactions to his plight -- his hands are not capable of his concert abilities, and he feels that they are taking him over with thoughts and deeds of crime and murder. He does an outstanding job, but too much of the film is slowly paced. From the beginning extended train crash rescue, on through scene after scene of Orlac's, his wife's and the maid's over the top Expressionistic gesturing, the scenes seem to go on too long. This slow pace is exaggerated by the lack of camera movement (everything is mostly wide shots with little tracking), the wonderfully and effectively spooky new musical score (on the KINO 2008 version), that sometimes lacks verve and variety, as well as the extensive time spent on the actors' Expressionist movements.The film certainly has its high points. It's great to see an entire film shot in shadows and low light, all with Gothic sets. This is great German Expressionism. If you can relax and just go with the pace of the film, you can really enjoy the acting of Conrad Veidt-- whose hands keep getting creepier and scarier.If it were cut to about sixty minutes to pick up the pace, it would be easier to enjoy and to see the great care that went into its creation and execution. I'll have to give it a six.

I saw Orlacs Hände at the Ghent filmfestival this year with a live score. I must say I thought it was very good, although I didn't agree with the new score all the time... The story is both simple and ridiculous (like any good scare movie): A world renown pianist loses his hands in a trainaccident and gets a transplant from a convicted criminal. The hands of course take over or do they. This film does not excell in great acting or storytelling but more in the subtle building of an atmosphere that becomes so haunting that it nearly becomes unbearable. If you like horror movies from the silent age, without blood or gore but with loads of atmosphere, then this is an absolute must-see.

One of the real classics of Expressionism -- even the Americans think so, to judge from the fact that they've remade it (badly) several times. To be sure, the premise won't stand examination (but then, it's horror), and a modern viewer may find it hard to adjust to the actors' Expressionist grimacing. However, the movie is consistently suspenseful due to its heavy dark atmosphere and communication of mental torment. The fear of one's own body is a dynamite theme if it's as well presented as it is here.