The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

Horror, Mystery, Romance

88 min    -    Rating: 6.5

Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre…

Rich, iron-willed, disabled Francis Ingram lives in a musty, turn-of-the century Renaissance Italian mansion where he maintains his virtuoso piano skills despite having only one hand. Wheelchair-bound Ingram has a strong belief in the occult and uses neurotic Hilary Cummins to maintain his massive library of books on spiritualism and the supernatural. Ingram displays a luridly possessive interest in another assistant, his beautiful nurse Julie Holden, who tries to break away from her employer's obsessive control. She finds herself attracted to Bruce Conrad, a charming local musician who cons wealthy tourists. He maintains an amicable relationship with Ingram but recommends that Julie leave her manipulative employer. When Ingram is murdered after writing his last will and testament, greedy relatives swarm to the estate and the list of possible suspects lengthens.