The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936/I)

Director:

Albert Herman

Writers:

Arthur B. Reeve (novel)
George M. Merrick (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

18 April 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Mystery

Tagline:

a Craig Kennedy Thriller In Fifteen Chapters

Plot:

A scientist discovers a formula for making synthetic gold.

Plot Keywords:

Serial | Kidnapping | Waterfront Bar | Barroom Brawl | Corporately Controlled Scientific Experiment

Cast

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
Bryant Washburn	...	Dr. Denton
Robert Frazer	...	Dr. Paul Gironda [Chs.1,4,8,13-15]
Gaston Glass	...	Dr. Louis Bouchard
Mahlon Hamilton	...	Montgomery [Chs.1,2,5,6]
Robert Walker	...	Joe Mitchell
Yakima Canutt	...	Number Eight - Garage-Owner and Chauffeur Thug / Bar-Brawling Sailor
Joseph W. Girard	...	Cromwell [Chs.1-3,6,7,15]
Frank Leigh	...	Wickham - Gironda's Butler aka Major Courtney
Jon Hall	...	Frank Hobart (as Charles Locher)

Also Known As:

The Clutching Hand (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

305 min (15 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2102) (Chapter 15) | USA:Approved (PCA #2094) (Chapter 11) | USA:Approved (PCA #2097) (Chapter 14) | USA:Approved (PCA #2096) (Chapter 13) | USA:Approved (PCA #2095) (later: 12) | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #2066) (Chapter 1) | USA:Approved (PCA #2067) (Chapter 2) | USA:Approved (PCA #2068) (Chapter 3) | USA:Approved (PCA #2069) (Chapter 4) | USA:Approved (PCA #2083) (Chapter 5) | USA:Approved (PCA #2084) (Chapters 6 and 7) | USA:Approved (PCA #2086) (Chapter 8) | USA:Approved (PCA #2087) (Chapter 9) | USA:Approved (PCA #2093) (Chapter 10) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Weiss Productions

Trivia:

Chapters: 1) Who Is the Clutching Hand? - 2) Shadows - 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 Peril - 12) Hidden Danger - 13) The Mystic Menace - 14) The Silent Spectre - 15) The Lone Hand.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Warden [Ch.1]: [gives Mitchell a handful of cash] Here you are, Mitchell. You're going out into the world a free man. I hope you become a useful and law-abiding member of society.
Joe Mitchell: Aw, cut out the lecture, Warden.
Warden [Ch.1]: Bitterness won't get you anywhere, Mitchell. Now that you squared your debt...
Joe Mitchell: My debt ain't squared... not by a long shot. I got a lot of collectin' to do.

Movie Connections:

Edited into The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936/II)

clutch someone's throat while you're at it

Three hundred minutes! This ridiculous endless serial runs FIVE HOURS. Why? Why! WHY?!?! A real clutching hand must have used to get cinemas to run this bewildering epic. It is so silly and accidentally hilarious that I am sure even the simplest audiences marooned in suburban fleapits with this drivel must have been hooting at the screen. There is about 800 fights and all of them hilarious. I mean truly laugh out loud knee slapping howlers. They are POPEYE type fights with middle aged men in suits each with hats jammed on their heads fight like pussycats, swinging wide and 'thwapping' each other and missing by a mile. The incredulous bad dude: The Clutching Hand, with his muffled stupid 'orders' to each numbered henchmen over a primitive 1936 pedal TV just needs a good slap in reel 2 and we all could have saved ourselves several months of groan worthy slumping on the lounge. There is a great poverty row mansion with sort-of antiques, scenes filmed at 4.55pm of an afternoon in a hurry, pointless car chases and about 900 guys who all look the same. Lead thesp Jack Mulhall looks and acts like Stanley Holloway from MY FAIR LADY. He is like the praying mantis professor in A BUGS LIFE, rolling his eyes and A-C-T-I-N-G like this is Shakespeare. It's more bad than Bard. I just couldn't believe how this thing droned on and on. Then I saw it was reduced to 77 minutes as a feature in 1937. THAT just goes to show you how much superfluous footage was in this serial.THE CLUTCHING HAND is a 1919 level 'face at the window / Snidley Whiplash" melodrama serial with sound...If you have to watch ANY of it then I recommend Chapter 2 and 14 and 15. That will take up 70 minutes, and that is enough.