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The Hidden Hand
USA 1942
produced by
Warner Brothers
directed by Benjamin Stoloff
starring Cecil Cunningham, Milton Parsons, Frank Wilcox, Elisabeth Fraser, Willie Best, Craig Stevens, Julie Bishop, Ruth Ford, Roland Drew, Tom Stevenson, Marian Hall, Inez Gay, Kam Tong, Wade Boteler, George Guhl, Monte Blue, Jack Mower
screenplay by Anthony Coldeway, Raymond L. Schrock, based on the play Invitation to a Murder by Rufus King, musical direction by Leo F.Forbstein
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Lorinda Channing (Cecil Cunningham) is an eccentric old and enormously
rich lady who wants to leave most of her fortune to her secretary Mary
(Elisabeth Fraser), knowing of course that her relatives who all rely on
her would not like this one bit and would not even shying away from
murdering her or Mary. So she invites them all over for the weekend ... What
the relatives of course don't know is that Lorinda has also sprung her
brother, the insane killer John (Milton Parsons), from the loonie bin - to
help her kill her relatives. Employing John as her butler and giving him a
layout of all the secret passageways in her mansion should help. But to
make extra certain everything goes according to plan, Lorinda persuades
her cousin, the surgeon Lawrence (Frank Wilcox), to put her in suspended
animation and this way fake her death. Once (presumed) dead, Lorinda sends
all her relatives on a wild goose chase to find her hidden vault via her
will, a wild goose chase that ends in a deathtrap for many of them. Of
course, cousin Lawrence is just as crooked as the rest of them, and once
he realizes that Lorinda is worth more to him dead than alive, he fails to
give her the infusion that would bring her back to life - but of course,
he doesn't know that John is there to watch over her ... After she and
John have killed off about half of her relatives, Lorinda witnesses Mary
walking right into her deathtrap (for purely innocent reasons), and she
dashes out of her hiding place to save her, even if that means revealing
herself to everyone including the police that has arrived. After she has
confessed to everything though, Lorinda's brother sends her to the
deathtrap before giving himself up ... An old dark house
thriller/comedy that doesn't leave out any old clichée: There's the mad
killer, the eccentric lady and her even more eccentric will, crooked
relatives, secret panels and passageways, death traps, faked deaths and
whatnot. So no, this film doesn't score high on the originality charts,
but all the genre-typical elements are actually assembled in a rather
imaginative way, and the whole thing moves along swiftly, too - so you'll
very probably find yourself entertained.
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find The Hidden Hand at adultvideouniverse.com
