One should take the title of 1946’s The Beast With Five Fingers literally. It exists in the specialized “disembodied hand” genre of horror.

Set circa the turn of the 20th century, wheelchair-bound concert one-handed pianist Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) lives in an Italian mansion along with his assistant Hilary Cummins (Peter Lorre). When Ingram dies under questionable circumstances, the fascination with the occult shared by both Ingram and Hilary comes to the fore.

In particular, Hilary’s remaining hand becomes severed from his arm and appears to take on a mysterious life of its own. This marauding mitt causes havoc as it takes revenge for Ingram’s death.

Maybe. No spoilers here, but Beast leaves open the question whether or not Ingram’s digits go on a rampage or if something else comes into play.

In the opening paragraph, I referred to “disembodied hand” as a genre. While Beast certainly doesn’t act as the only entry under that umbrella, this nonetheless exists as a limited collection of movies.

Oliver Stone’s directorial debut, 1981’s The Hand provided a surprisingly effective thriller, and a few other flicks embrace the topic. Of course, the Addams Family franchise prominently features an isolated hand called “Thing” for comedic purposes.

Whatever the case, it remains a modest genre, and a pretty absurd one. It really doesn’t seem like it should become that difficult to avoid Death By Chopped-Off Hand.

Despite the inherent oddness of the topic, Beast manages to create a moderately effective little thriller. While not a classic, it comes with enough terror and suspense to keep us with it.

Though it takes a while to get into gear. The opening act devotes a lot of time to character exposition, a domain that normally I would welcome.

A fair amount of this material here feels a bit like padding, however. The film seems like it could introduce the characters and situations more efficiently than it does, particularly as it explores the dreary romance between composer/con man Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda) and nurse Julie Holden (Andrea King).

Still, Beast doesn’t waste its time. Even though I feel it could become more efficient, I don’t think it bores or loses its way.

Once the disembodied hand starts to do its thing, the movie picks up – well, to a degree. We don’t launch head-first into action, as the film prefers to stay on the spooky side.

Nonetheless, it delves into this aspect of the story in a reasonably creepy manner. We find a tale with ominous overtones that manages to maintain our attention.

And that seems good enough for me. Beast never completely overcomes the goofiness of its basic concept, but it nonetheless delivers a generally engaging thriller.

The Beast With Five Fingers appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer held up well over the years.

Sharpness mainly came across well, with images that largely appeared accurate and well-defined. A few slightly ill-defined elements materialized, but most of the movie showed nice accuracy.

Beast lacked moiré effects or jagged edges, and edge haloes also remained absent. The presence of grain implied that the image didn’t suffer from notable digital noise reduction.

Blacks looked taut and dense, while low-light shots demonstrated appropriate smoothness and clarity. Contrast also appeared well-developed, as the black and white photography showed the expected silvery sheen.

Print flaws failed to become a factor, so we got an image without specks or marks. This turned into a pleasing presentation.

I thought the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack seemed dated but adequate. In terms of dialogue, the lines remained intelligible and offered reasonable clarity.

Neither music nor effects boasted much range or dimensionality, but both appeared clean and accurate enough, without distortion or problems. This mix felt more than acceptable for its vintage.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from film historians Dr. Steve Haberman and Constantine Nasr. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific view of the source and its adaptation, cast/crew, story/characters, themes and interpretation, production notes and their view of the film.

Though the discussion leans a bit more heavily on Freudian domains than I’d prefer, this still becomes a solid commentary. In particular, I like that Haberman and Nasr dig more deeply into the careers of cast and crew than the usual “glorified IMDB reel” we often get.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get two circa 1947 animated shorts. The disc includes The Foxy Duckling (7:35) and The Gay Anties (6:26).

For the first, a fox attempts to fix brutal insomnia with a down pillow he creates from a duck he attempts to murder. Its “predator tries to kill prey” theme exists in skillions of other cartoons, and this one brings nothing unusual to the table.

As for Gay, it shows ants who ruin a picnic in the 1890s. Minor mirth results.

A horror flick with an unusual ‘villain’, The Beast With Five Fingers can’t completely overcome the silliness of its basic concept. However, it does pretty well with its tale and becomes a reasonably effective thriller. The Blu-ray boasts appealing visuals, appropriate audio and a few supplements. Beast mostly succeeds.