The Crawling Hand / Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf

 

My latest Halloween double feature began with 1963’s The Crawling Hand. An astronaut goes to the moon and encounters trouble on the way back to Earth. The science team that sent him are baffled, as this is the 3rd time such an incident has happened. The anxious astronaut begs the scientists on Earth to destroy the ship. They do so, but unknown to them, the astronaut’s arm has landed on Earth, and is infected with alien bacteria, causing it to still be alive. It gets found by a teenage couple on the beach, and the boy soon becomes infected with the same bacteria, slowly turning him into a killer.

The movie is a lot of fun, with Alan Hale as a sheriff who’s investigating a murder caused by the killer arm, and the young boy who becomes infected and starts to randomly attack various people. His infection is portrayed by dark circles under his eyes, and really bad acting. The scenes of the arm stalking victims are pretty silly but fun.

The entire affair plays like a classic 50’s sci-fi flick, with lots of funny scenes, over dramatic performances by all involved, and silly science. If these old films are your cup of tea, definitely check this out.

The next flick, 1970’s Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf, was hilarious and so much fun. 

This flick is from Spanish director Paul Naschy (aka Jacinto Molina Alvarez), the guy behind The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman. If you enjoyed that bonkers movie, then you’re sure to love this one as well.

A woman and her boyfriend go exploring at an old cemetery next to a castle. Some thugs appear and attack them, killing the guy. The woman is suddenly rescued by Waldemar Daninsky, who lives in the castle and kills the thugs. He takes her back to help her recuperate. She soon learns that Waldemar is afflicted with lycanthropy, and since the local villagers are determined to kill him before he transforms into a werewolf at the next full moon, the woman takes him to London, where she hopes her ex, Dr. Henry Jekyll, can cure him.

The movie is dubbed in English, and plays like an over the top soap opera with monsters, filled with jealousy, back-stabbing, lustful characters, and all out insanity. Dr. Jekyll attempts to cure Waldemar by injecting him with a serum and turning him into Mr. Hyde in an attempt to get the evil Hyde personality to take over and destroy the werewolf within. Of course the plan fails and chaos ensues. There are some truly hilarious things that happen, including Waldemar getting trapped in an elevator and turning into a werewolf, Dr. Jekyll’s assistant who tries to kill him over jealously that he loves another woman, and Waldemar as Mr. Hyde, proclaiming that he needs lots of women and lots of pleasure, and going on a psycho killing spree. I could not stop laughing at all the ridiculous shenanigans that occur. This flick was outrageous and awesome.

The films of Paul Naschy are considered cult classics, and once you’ve watched one, you’ll understand why. Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf is available to stream on Tubi, while The Crawling Hand is on YouTube. Both are fun flicks to satisfy the b-movie lover in you.