The Beast with Five Fingers

The Beast with Five Fingers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Florey
Produced by	William Jacobs
Written by	William Fryer Harvey (story) Curt Siodmak
Starring	Robert Alda Andrea King Peter Lorre
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	Wesley Anderson
Edited by	Frank Magee
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	December 25, 1946
Running time	88 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Beast with Five Fingers (1946) is a mystery/horror film directed by Robert Florey and with a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on a short story written by W. F. Harvey and first published in The New Decameron (1919). The original music score was composed by Max Steiner. The film was marketed with the tagline "A sensation of screaming suspense!"

The film was Warner Bros.' sole foray into the horror genre in the 1940s, and as Peter Lorre's last film with the studio. Siodmak had originally written the film for Paul Henreid, who turned it down. The piece much played throughout the film is Brahms' transcription for left hand of the chaconne from Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Partita in D minor, performed by Warner Bros. pianist Victor Aller.

The hand of pianist Ervin Nyíregyházi is shown playing the piano.

Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) is a noted pianist who lives in a large manor house near a small, isolated Italian village. Ingram suffered a stroke which left his right side immobile, and he has to use a wheelchair to get around. He has retreated to the manor house for the past few years—seen by only a few close friends. These include his nurse, Julie Holden (Andrea King); a musicologist (and amateur astrologist), Hillary Cummins (Peter Lorre); a friend, Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda); and his sister's son, Donald Arlington (John Alvin). Ingram has fallen in love with Julie Holden, and has changed his will so that she receives the vast bulk of his enormous estate when he dies. But Julie is secretly in love with Conrad. The change in the will disinherits Arlington and Cummins, and Cummins tries to expose Holden's affair. Ingram, outraged at the slander on his beloved's good name, tries to choke Cummins to death. Only Julie's arrival (after meeting Conrad in the garden) saves him.