[78-L] Cylinder machine sighting

[David Lennick]

Okay, we watched it last night. Great fun, pure camp but not Roger Corman-Ed 
Wood shlock by any means. The title "The Beast with Five Fingers" gives the 
wrong impression, and considering that it comes from Warner Brothers, that's 
surprising. Nice little murder mystery with plot holes you could drive a camion 
through. We've already supplied a couple of major spoilers so I don't want to 
add too many more, but placing the time frame is a bit difficult..the opening 
title says that the story happened "almost 50 years ago" and the film was made 
in 1946, but the nephew is said to have been born in 1882 and appears to be in 
his mid 20s, which puts it more around 1906. I won't presume to guess whether 
the Edison Standard was around at this time but I see something that says "last 
patent 1905".

This is definitely worth seeing for Peter Lorre, whose performance in this is 
probably the basis for Paul Frees' imitation in Spike Jones's "My Old Flame" 
the following year. "I can't stand it!"

dl

On 1/22/2011 3:11 PM, victrola78s at aol.com wrote:
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> I suppose they used an Edison Standard phonograph inside that suit of armour because they knew a Victor V wouldn't fit the space. The leading man(Robert Alda) refers to it as a "gramophone"-which is not only wrong but ironic, since for years people have always referred to a gramophone as a phonograph. Turn about is fair play, to steal the old Vox slogan. Notice how deftly the cylinder was removed from the mandrel. Certainly a less trembling hand than the one belonging to "Shakey Jake" on YouTube, where the guy drops the cylinder onto the TechTV studio floor with a resounding shattering noise. You know, the video where the guy, after dropping the cylinder, starts to say "Oh, fu...", then settles for "sh.t" instead. And J. Carroll Naish getting "strangled" by the hand at the end was fun. Also ironic is the fact that Peter Lorre is in this "crawling hand" film after playing Gogol in "Mad Love" eleven years before-where that time Colin Clive had the hands problem.
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> Dennis "Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes" Forkel
> ___________