Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64583 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-11-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 330 minutes

Customer Reviews

"The King of Serials...VCI Entertaiment ~ The Clutching Hand (1936)"
VCI Entertainment and Stage and Screen Productions present..."The Clutching Hand" (1936) (Dolby digitally remastered), aka "The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand" featuring the15 Chapter cliffhanger from a suspenseful early sound serial era featuring an outstanding cast...the plot and story line stems from the International Research Foundation where a book and scientist Doctor Paul Gironda (Robert Frazer) of a rare formula for making synthetic gold have suddenly disappeared....will our hero the well known detective Craig Kennedy (Jack Mullhall) and his sidekick Walter Jameson (Rex Lease) discover the whereabouts of the scientists and his formula...is "The Clutching Hand", the notorious villian who had plagued the entire 15 chapters behind all of the scullduggery....don't leave the theater until the final chapter is over and done with "The Lone Hand"....just remember double thrills, chills, mystery and suspense...hitting the bull's eye with excitement...don't miss a single spine thrilling episode..return next week to this local theater for another episode of action and adventure that will keep you thrilled until the next chapter

Under director Albert Herman, producer George M. Merrick, supervised by Louis Weiss, adaptation by George M. Merrick and Eddy Granemann, original screenplay by Leon D'Usseau and Dallas Fitzgerald, musical score by Lee Zahler, stunts by Yakima Canutt, Carl Mathews and Eddie Parker...the cast includes Jack Mulhall (Craig Kennedy), Rex Lease (Walter Jameson), Mae Busch (Mrs. Paul Gironda), Ruth Mix (Shirley McMillan), William Farnum (Insp. Gordon Gaunt), Marion Shilling (Verna Gironda), Jon Hall (Frank Hobart), William Desmond (Bartender Steve), Reed Howes (Sullivan-private detective), Bob Kortman (Number Six, aka Spike Harvey, a thug), Robert Frazer (Dr. Paul Gironda), Bryant Washburn (Dr. Denton), Gaston Glass (Dr. Louis Bouchard), Robert Walker (Joe Mitchell), Yakima Canutt (Number Eight/garage-owner and chauffeur thug), Joseph W. Girard (Cromwell, the attorney), Frank Leigh (Wickham-Gironda's butler), Henry Hall (Warden), John Elliott (White), Knute Erickson (Captin Hanson), Franklin Farnum (Nicky), Gaston Glass (Louis Bouchard), Richard Alexander (Olaf), Milburn Morante (Marty), Harry 'Snub' Pollard (Snub).......special footnotes, a line up of former silent film stars grace this serial with Mae Busch, William Farnum, Franklyn Farnum, Reed Howes, Rex Lease, Jack Mulhall, Snub Pollard and Bryant Washburn...also well known character actors Yakima Canutt (King of the stuntmen), Robert Frazer, William Desmond, Jon Hall (aka Charles Locher-"Ramar of the Jungle"), Bob Kortman, Tom London, Ruth Mix (daughter of Tom Mix), Robert Walker and Slim Whitaker appeared in B-Westerns and Serials from '30s, '40s and '50s....meanwhile back to our Weiss Serial Production film which is always good till the last drop and this serial is no exception...there is a great deal of entertainment here for the cliffhanger fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features.

CHAPTER TITLES:
1. Who is the Clutching Hand?
2. Shadow
3. House of Mystery
4. The Phantom Car
5. The Double Trap
6. Steps of Doom
7. The Invisible Enemy
8. A Cry in the Night
9. Evil Eyes
10.A Desperate Chance
11.The Ship of Doom
12.Hidden Danger
13.The Mystic Menace
14.The Silent Spectre
15.The Lone Hand

If you're into vintage serials as I am, why not pick up a copy of the following titles from VCI Home Video:
VCI CLIFFHANGER TRAILERS:
1. Adventures of Red Ryder (Don "Red" Barry)
2. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (Bobby Jordan)
3. Buck Rogers (Buster Crabbe)
4. Captain Midnight (Dave O'Brien)
5. Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere (Judd Holdren & I. Stanford Jolley)
6. Dick Tracy's G-Men (Ralph Byrd)
7. Don Winslow of the Navy (Don Terry)
8. Don Winslow of the Coast Guard (Don Terry)
9. Drums of Fu Manchu (Henry Brandon)
10.Fighting Kit Carson (Johnny Mack Brown)
11.Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (Buster Crabbe)
12.The Green Archer (Victory Jory)
13.Jungle Girl (Frances Gifford)
14.Jungle Jim (Grant Withers & Raymond Hatton)
15.Lost City of the Jungle (Russell Hayden & Keye Luke)
16.Mandrake the Magician (Warren Hull & Dick Curtis)
17.Miracle Rider (Tom Mix & Tony Jr)
18.The Painted Stallion (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
19.The Phantom (Tom Tyler)
20.The Return of Chandu (Bela Lugosi)
21.Riders of Death Valley (Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo & Buck Jones)
22.Secret Agent X-9 (1937) (Scott Kolk & Henry Brandon)
23.Secret Agent X-9 (1945) (Lloyd Bridges & Keye Luke)
24.Sky Raiders (Donald Woods & Billy Halop)
25.Undersea Kingdom (Ray "Crash" Corrigan)
26.Winners of the West (Dick Foran, Harry Woods, Roy Barcroft & Charles Stevens)
27.Zane Greys "King of the Royal Mounted" (Allan "Rocky" Lane)
28.Zorro's Cliffhanger Collection (Reed Hadley, John Carroll & Linda Stirling)

Coming soon January 2006 from VCI Home Video on DVD..."FLAMING FRONTIERS" (1938), Universal Serial with 15 chapters, featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Eleanor Hansen, John Archer, James Blaine and Ralph Bowman..."OREGON TRAIL" (1939), another Universal Serial with 15 exciting chapters featuring Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight, Roy Barcoft and Charles King..."THE TALL TEXAN" (1953), full length feature starring Lloyd Bridges, Lee J Cobb, Luther Adler and Marie Windsor...watch for more details on VCI Entertainment and Amazon your two favorite sites for serials and B-Westerns.

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing "The Clutching Hand" (1936), the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '30s, '40s & '50s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure from the "King of Serials" VCI...just the way we like 'em

Total Time: 308 mins on 2 VHS ~ VCI Entertainment 1729 ~ (11/01/2000)

Highly manicured but not without paper cuts
Jack, Rex, and Mae have a field day, fightin', fussin', faintin'....15 approx. 30 minute episodes right here on DVD! I surmise the serial was apportioned maybe one or two per week, so to watch, say, 5 straight episodes, is a bit of a risk.
The "camp" is all here - especially in the fighting scenes - no jabs, no uppercuts - all roundhouse swings! And all you here is *feet*. These brawlers always arrive on the scene in a three-piece suit and fashionable fedora...no one leaves the fight with even a torn cuff. Great reaction shots by less than great actors.
Jack Mulhall is an understated pip - "Well, you probably didn't know I'll be at the warehouse to catch you by surprise" attitude is irrestible.
Mae Busch just a tad subdued compared to her usual "spitfire" duties as Oliver Hardy's wife, for another studio. She actually melts during one scene with a handsome bad guy - some uncharacteristic feminine vulnerability which comes through in an obviously spontaneous take. (Or maybe, considering the low budget, it was expedient to print this salty little slice o' life. Episode #10).
For Classic Car Collectors, this is a must-own! I'm thinking of saving up for a 1935 Lincoln!

Kitsch Classic
It could just as easily have been 1 star. This is a kitsch classic. I saw it on a tiny tv when I was six or seven years old and found it riveting and scary as all get out. Now it's pure cheese and corn, with interminable phony fight scenes, unending car chases along the same roads and predictably-solved cliffhanger endings. And yet, it's so bad that it's good. It's campy, quaint fun, and for less than ten bucks a lot of entertainment (since it runs for over 5 hours). The renowned detective, Craig Kennedy, is, by turns, thick as a brick and smarter than Sherlock Holmes (particularly in his final explanation of the case). He is a specialist in disguises and, given his doofus antagonists, the same disguises continue to work, even after he's been exposed using them. The Clutching Hand himself (described as Craig Kennedy's arch-enemy) has the most fiendish of cackles, which he lets loose at inopportune moments. The serial has the kind of cast that Johnny Carson (as teatime movie host, Art Fern) used to describe and the clips that Johnny/Art showed could have come straight out of the fight scenes here. The plot is endless. I've seen reference to a 70 minute feature version. The editor would have had little trouble in reducing the 15 20-minute episodes down to a short feature. Having said all that, it's still great fun. I could imagine a well-oiled fraternity party in the wee hours, with the members stamping their feet and saying, "One more episode, one more episode . . . " The scenes of mid-30's L.A. are worth the price of admission, as is the use of television as the villain and crimestopper's cutting-edge technology. Many of the actors are from the silent screen days. As such, they specialize in long reaction shots and big-eyed leers. This one's delicious.