The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand (1936)

• 53%
• 1936
• Adventure
• Mystery
• Albert Herman
• Jack Mulhall
• Rex Lease
• Marion Shilling

This Weiss Serials Production film, ("Presented" by George M. Merrick who also co-wrote the screenplay and was the production manager), with the working title of "The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand" but the actual release title on the film and all the printed material related to it was "The Clutching Hand", was loosely based on a novel by "Craig Kennedy" creator Arthur B. Reeve, and was also released as a feature in addition to the 15 chapter serial, both of which were originally distributed by Stage and Screen Productions, Inc. In Chapter 1, ("Who is the Clutching Hand?"), Doctor Paul Gironda announces he has discovered a formula for the manufacture of synthetic gold. The International Research Foundation agrees to financially help him develop his formula. Just before the Board of Directors arrive at Gironda's laboratory to witness his achievement, he is heard screaming, and mysteriously disappears before help arrives. Newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, who is engaged to Gironda's daughter Verna, calls in investigator Craig Kennedy. Kennedy and Jameson face many perils and cliffhangers, including chapter 8 ("A Cry in the Night") when Gironda's kidnappers use television to show Gironda as still alive and the unseen "Clutching Hand" orders Kennedy to quit the case. The latter finally finds Gironda a prisoner aboard the freight ship, "The Nellie B", in chapter 13 ("The Mystic Menace")and rescues him. He instructs Jameson to return Gironda to his home, but Jameson's car is overtaken by agents of "The Clutching Hand" and the doctor is once again kidnapped. In chapter 15,("The Lone Hand") Kennedy convenes the IRF board of directors and various other people, and exposes "The Clutching Hand" as...