The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936) ch15 – The Lone Hand

I was expecting Clutching Hand to have a bad ending. It was inevitable. But I didn’t expect them to entirely ignore one of the major plot threads. If Clutching Hand has two plot threads, which it spends fourteen chapters suggesting are intricately connecting, The Lone Hand entirely ignores one of them. It’s astounding. Especially since the chapter uses visual motifs from the plot thread only to forget about their existence moments later.

It’s incredible.

And bad. It’s incredibly bad.

Sadly, it seemed like it wouldn’t be so bad. I mean, the final twist is really dumb and it’d be hard to not make it terrible, but I thought they’d spend the chapter with fisticuffs. They start with a lot of fisticuffs. It seems like they’re going to focus on them and not rush to “wrap” everything up in the last nine minutes.

But rush they do. There’s some weird romance implication at the end, just because they need to keep the cast around perhaps, and there are two or three subplots entirely resolved in ninety seconds of exposition. Now, at least one of those subplots wasn’t clearly a subplot until the the last scene in Clutching Hand. Fifteen chapters, five hours, not a subplot until the last two minutes. The writing is excruitatingly, unimaginably bad.

Real bad acting from Rex Lease here. It’s amazing how bad the actors have gotten as the serial’s gone on. Clutching Hand could be a case study for a film overstaying its welcome. Immediately overstaying its welcome.

The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand has been an awful serial. But The Lone Hand is a particularly awful end to that awful serial. Nothing between the first chapter and the last one matters. They couldn’t even pretend the subplots had heft.

I’m so glad it’s over.

The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936) ch12 – Hidden Danger

Not only is twelfth time the charm for Clutching Hand as far as chapter title matching content–there is a real Hidden Danger–this chapter also has master detective, constant cosplayer, and general goof lead Jack Mulhall actually solve a crime. And the solution is really, really clever. The reveal sequence isn’t particularly great–it’s not like director Herman all of a sudden got infused with competence–but it’s actually clever. It’s a shock.

Then there’s a terrible, tedious car chase so Clutching Hand immediately gets away from the competence and embraces its badness.

The chapter opens with Mulhall and Robert Walker escaping a boat. They’ve both been shanghaiied. Later on, after the escape and a showr, Mulhall talks about palling with the captain. He couldn’t possibly have known about the shanghaiing. It’s a little thing, but it’s dumb and draws attention to itself. The serial really wants to remind people about the young guy pretending to be an old man in a wheelchair who’s supposedly the guy kidnapped in the first chapter but not. Only Mulhall never investigates the guy in the wheelchair. Because he’s a bad detective and Clutching Hand has a bad script.

Also, it’s got a confusing amount of bland white guys walking around in suits and hats. Despite being in the serial from the first scene, I confused Walker with some other guy last chapter and didn’t realize he’d been the one shanghaiied. Luckily it matters not when considering the lousy narrative. Nothing matters when considering Clutching Hand, except wondering why one is bothering consider it.

Other than the murder solution this chapter. It’s so clever it must have come from the source novel. I can’t believe Hand’s screenwriters came up with it. Especially not considering the godawful cliffhanger they use at the end here.

The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936) ch07 – The Invisible Enemy

The Invisible Enemy does indeed feature an invisible enemy. Sort of. It’s the shadow of the Clutching Hand, who despite being the villain for the entire serial, is mentioned with surprise when Jack Mulhall reads another of the Hand’s threatening notes. On one hand (no pun intended), it’s a reminder to the audience. On the other, the serial’s called The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand so if the filmmakers think they need to remind the audience the Clutching Hand is part of the serial… well, that level of condescension is concerning.
The previous chapter ended on a not terrible cliffhanger (for Clutching Hand), but the resolution here messes it up immediately. It’s a fast, trick solution, with some bad editing from Earl Turner, bad director from Herman, and terrible sound design. The opening action set piece is just as incompetent as the fight scenes, which is saying something because the fight scenes in Clutching Hand are a special kind of bad.

The story in Enemy has to do with the board members meeting at presumed widow Mae Busch’s estate so they can go over some reports. The Clutching Hand wants to steal their paperwork. Then at some point the Hand attacks Mulhall, which I think has happened before, and even though they’re arch enemies, the Hand leaves Mulhall alive. Unfortunately.

There’s a bad chase scene–on foot–and some more danger for sidekick Rex Lease. Not much to do for the rest of the cast. I mean, Mulhall gets to muck up some scenes, but Busch, for instance, just gets to hint at her own subplot before coming back in for the main stuff. Only the main stuff is those mysterious Clutching Hand attacks and Busch is background at best for them. Clutching Hand isn’t big on characters or character development. Or being mysterious. It’s a not mysterious mystery.

The serial’s still about the missing pages of the missing gold formula–though there’s one minor development regarding its ownership–and everyone just changes locations when trying to find them. Enemy is almost halfway through and master detective Mulhall has still made zero progress in solving the case. It’s going to get beyond tedious, no doubt.

Especially since Enemy‘s cliffhanger is a repeat of a previous chapter’s cliffhanger. Yawn.