Well, It Was Better Than "The Beast With A Million Eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                                     This film was ground out by AIP in 1955.  Roger Corman had a lot to do with it.  The most interesting thing about this film was the title.  As you can see, this creature barely has two eyes, much less a million.  The title was its best feature.

                                                         It was about a dysfunctional California family running a date farm, who are menaced by an alien from space.  Kid of "John Steinbeck Meets 'Alien.'"

                                                          All of which is to let you know that Svengoolie's screening of "The Beast With Five Fingers," while not quite the camp Gothic Warner Bros. had hoped for, was at least better than the above 1955 film.  Warner Bros. achieved camp Gothic success two years later, in 1948, with its adaptation of the Wilkie Collins classic, "The Woman In White.."  It starred Alexis Smith and Eleanor Parker, but they were upstaged by Sidney Greenstreet at his campiest.  I am telling you, girls, you have got to see him, in this.  He is a hoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                             As for 'Five Fingers,' all I will say is the moment he came on screen, I knew something was wrong with Peter Lorre, who gives a wonderfully understated performance.  What else would one expect from Peter Lorre?  I never thought things would turn out the way they did, darlings, because everyone was upstaged by a menacing, disembodied hand, who, more than twenty years later, went on to play Thing on the TV series "The Addams Family."  It is hard for disembodied organ parts to find work, in Hollywood!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                               If you watched it, you know what I am talking about.  If you missed, I am sure it will turn up again, somewhere.  It is worth catching.

                                                                When Peter Lorre died, on March 23, 1964, the editor of "Famous Monsters Of Filmland," Forrest J. Ackerman, paid tribute to him in a subsequent issue, which I had, that said, in part, "With weird wide eyes, and strange voiced lips./His unique face launched a thousand grips."

                                                                    Get a grip yourselves, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!