THE HAND (1981)

Director: Oliver Stone

Writers: Oliver Stone adapting Marc Brandel’s novel The Lizard’s Tail

Producer: Edward R. Pressman; Cast: Michael Caine, Andrea Marcovicci, Annie McEnroe, Bruce McGill, Mara Hobel, Viveca Lindfors, Rosemary Murphy, Charles Fleischer, Pat Corley, Nicholas Hormann, John Stinson, Ed Marshall, Richard Altman, Sparky Watt, Oliver Stone, Tracey Walter, Brian Kenneth Hume, Lora Pearson, Jack Evans, Scott Evans, Randy Evans, Patrick Evans 

When comic strip artist Jon Lansdale (Michael Caine) loses his right hand in a freak driving accident, he not only loses his drawing ability; he also is losing the bond with his family and may be losing his mind. Lansdale has blackouts and hallucinations of hand imagery. He also senses that his missing hand has a life of its own and that it can kill those who offend him. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

The response that writer-director Oliver Stone’s second feature film usually gets from the audience is the sound of one hand clapping, but The Hand gets a hearty round of applause from me. It has fine performances from a small cast in a story dealing with the mental turmoil of its main character. When none other than Michael Caine plays that character, it results in a moving, intriguing, and gripping film. 

The spectacle of a severed hand scuttling about to kill people is what the audience was probably primed to see, yet it is also a phenomenon that we are constantly challenged to decide just how literally to accept. We experience the story almost completely from the viewpoint of the Michael Caine character of Jon Lansdale. He would qualify as the cinematic version of the unreliable narrator in prose fiction. He has suffered an injury that has not only cost him his right hand; it has ruined his career as a comic strip artist and is a blow to his male ego. He is no longer as complete a physical man as before, he is self-conscious of his appearance and lack of dexterity, and his ability to earn a living is now hindered. Since his wife, Anne (Andrea Marcovicci), was driving the car when his maiming accident occurred, that can only exacerbate Lansdale’s resentment of her in their troubled marriage. All of these stressors take a toll on Lansdale’s temperament, and we are left to ponder if Lansdale’s sanity is also damaged. 

Jon Lansdale’s comic strip, Mandro, was about the fantasy world adventures of a sword-wielding barbarian. Lansdale seemed to be venting his own single-minded and macho tendencies through his art. Once he loses the hand he needs to draw his Mandro stories, his inner barbarian has nowhere to go. This sudden handicap would traumatize anyone, but Lansdale’s own sense of his manhood and control in his family is the chink in his psychological armor that has been breached. In a great performance, Michael Caine brings an appealing humanity, vulnerability, and intensity to his role as Jon Lansdale. We always identify with the poor guy’s plight, even if we are unsure of his grip on reality and whether he can be blamed for the horror he senses. 

While we also ponder the responsibility that Jon Lansdale has for the dysfunction in his relationship with Anne, it becomes clear that she is not being entirely upfront with her husband about what she really wants to do. She says that she has discussed things with him, but one always gets the feeling that there is something more she has in mind that she won’t tell her unreceptive husband about. Anne is not just a one-note victim or a bitch. She seems like a reasonable person that is probably afraid to be completely open with Jon about her dissatisfaction in their relationship. In her defense, Anne tries to be comforting to Jon after the loss of his hand, but it also seems that she is ready to move on. 

Once the Lansdale couple separates so that Jon can move to California to take a teaching job for a community college art class, we can appreciate Jon Lansdale trying to make a new life for himself. We still hold out hope that he can mend his relationship with Anne, who is staying in New York City with their daughter. However, it becomes more apparent that his family is drifting apart. 

Therefore, we can’t help but be happy for Lansdale when he gets the chance to fool around with Stella Roche, one of his sexier students. We don’t find out a lot about Stella, but Annie McEnroe’s performance makes us care about this directionless and impulsive young lady. She may just be a free spirit doing what ever feels good in the moment, but she is also just the ego boost the estranged Jon Lansdale needs. It probably helps that Stella seems to fetishize Lansdale’s prosthetic hand during their lovemaking. Lansdale seems to develop an immediate bond with Stella, but whether this can ever approach real love or is just Lansdale’s possessiveness is uncertain.

One of Lansdale’s fellow faculty members, Brian Ferguson (Bruce McGill), teaches psychology at the community college. Over beers at the local bar, Ferguson hands out insight on Lansdale’s mental blackouts. Of course, this does nothing to dispel Lansdale’s concerns, or ours, about his mental state. Drinking pal Ferguson also soon becomes another antagonist in Lansdale’s lonely existence. 

The pattern in our one-handed hero’s life seems to be that no one ever really gets close to him. The one person we ever saw Jon Lansdale mutually, truly happy with was his daughter, Lizzie (Mara Hobel), before his estranged wife separated her from him. Once the family reunites in Jon’s cabin in the woods for the yuletide season, it becomes clear that Anne is making other arrangements for her life and Lizzie’s. This ends up being one of those unbearable, just-going-through-the-motions, Christmas family get-togethers. They better crank up the carols and keep spiking the eggnog. 

As Lansdale gets more stressed and offended, he not only has more hallucinations, he also imagines that his severed hand is lurking about and can snuff out his enemies. That lost limb had manifested Lansdale’s machismo by illustrating his Mandro stories. Now that it is no longer attached to Lansdale, that missing hand may be acting out darker aggressions from the frustrated Lansdale’s id. 

Writer-director Oliver Stone’s first feature was his 1974 horror film, Seizure. After this second effort, Stone decided that he wasn’t suited to the genre. I think he does a fine job with The Hand. Stone was probably disappointed with the generally poor reception that the film received. That reception was probably due to the ambiguity that it leaves us with. You may have a handle on what is going on here until you get to the film’s final scene. Then you are presented with a bit of sleight-of-hand that tosses our assumptions back in our faces to make us try to sort things out all over again. Audiences probably found it maddening, but that is the theme running throughout the entire film. I have learned to appreciate it more over time because there are two interpretations one can arrive at, and either one works. The Hand deserves a lot more thumbs up.

DEATHTRAP (1982)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writers: Jay Presson Allen, Ira Levin (original stage play)

Producer: Burtt Harris

Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth, Henry Jones, Joe Silver, Tony DiBenedetto, Rev. Francis B. Creamer, Jr., Jayne Heller, George Peck, Al LeBreton, Perry Rosen, (and as themselves) Jeffrey Lyons, Stewart Klein, Joel Siegel 

Renowned mystery playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) has just witnessed the disastrous Broadway debut performance of his fourth flop in a row and is wondering if his career is over. Sydney receives a first draft of a new play called Deathtrap from Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), one of his writing seminar pupils asking for advice. Sidney sees the makings of a hit in the novice’s script, and his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) suggests that Sidney collaborate with the new writer as a way to get over his slump. However, Sidney also sees a chance to regain his former glory by getting rid of Anderson and claiming Deathtrap as his own. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

With this director and cast adapting an Ira Levin play, Deathtrap was dead certain to be fiendishly fun entertainment. The plot is twisty, the dialogue is witty, and the metastory makes the characters and the audience consider how plotting a play or a crime are interchangeable talents with the same problems to solve.

Most of the action takes place in the Bruhl couple’s picturesque East Hampton home with just a handful of characters. I assume that this is a pretty faithful adaptation of Ira Levin’s original stage play, as one can see that the small cast spending most of the time inside the Bruhl home would suit a stage presentation. This makes us focus entirely on the writing and performances that are the most important elements in any worthwhile drama. Both of these elements make Deathtrap into a terrifically entertaining comedy-thriller. 

Michael Caine is certainly sympathetic in his plight as Sidney Bruhl. He seems to have the ideal life of a famous playwright working in the privacy of his unique country home of a converted windmill. He has a proud display of the many weapons and props used in his hit plays. His lovely and wealthy wife Myra is devoted to him. Yet Sidney sees his prestige and livelihood slipping away from him because of his recent string of failed plays. Our very first sight of Sidney Bruhl is a chilling close up that displays the intensity of the shame and rage he feels watching his latest work dying on stage during opening night. We are immediately convinced that Sidney Bruhl will react drastically. 

Sidney’s initial reaction involves getting really plastered at a Broadway bar. Later he humorously vents his fear and frustration to his supportive wife who fails to reassure him. When Myra gives Sidney the package he has just received containing the terrific first play by one of his former students, it is not long before we see another patented, reptilian Michael Caine glare. This time there is cold-blooded, opportunistic fervor in Sidney’s gaze that even his adoring wife can’t miss. 

Once Sidney agrees that maybe Myra is right to suggest meeting with young Clifford Anderson to discuss a playwriting collaboration, the plot is in full gear. We are sharing Myra’s suspicions about what her husband has in mind; suspicions we are all too eager to believe and that she can’t quite bring herself to accept. 

Dyan Canon is a lot of fun as Myra. She is trying her best to get Sidney to avoid committing murder without directly accusing him of that intention. Sydney’s bread-and-butter for years has been dwelling on such things in his mystery plots. She can’t tell if her husband is just indulging in a what-if flight of whimsy or if he is really ready to regain success as a playwright by killing and claiming his victim’s work as his own. 

Fresh from his success as the title hero of Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), Christopher Reeve is great as the eager and aspiring writer Clifford Anderson. This character is a real change of pace for Reeve, to say the least. He completes the trio of characters that provide most of the conflict in the story. 

Much of the credit for the quality of Deathtrap belongs to Ira Levin who wrote the original hit stage play that this film adapts. The novelist that managed to wring fear, suspense, and irony out of big city apartment life in Rosemary’s Baby and suburban tranquility in The Stepford Wives (both also adapted into fine films) seems to be having even more fun with the idyllic small town life in Deathtrap. At the core of all three of these stories is the pursuit of an ideal lifestyle. Status and success are the goals that lure Levin's characters to commit evil acts. 

I know that director Sidney Lumet is one of those “important” directors, yet I must confess that I have not seen much of his work. However, I love his adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery classic Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Deathtrap seems to be one of Lumet’s less revered films, but it is the most entertaining genre film one could hope for. It has laughs, suspense, surprises, and great performances. As Sidney Bruhl says, “Even a gifted director couldn’t hurt it.” Lumet and everyone else involved really knock ‘em dead with Deathtrap.