Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966 film)

Scenes from Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966 film)...

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966), AKA Fingers of Fate, The Lodge of Sins

This is also a sequel, Manos Returns (2016)....

Summary

"A cult of weird, horrible people who gather beautiful women only to deface them with a burning hand!" While on a desert excursion, a family gets lost on the road and stumbles upon a hidden, underground, devil-worshiping cult symbolized by red hands, led by the fiendish Master and his satyr servant, Torgo.

Details

• Release Date: 1966
• Country/Language: US, English
• Genres/Technical: Horror
• Setting: 1960s Texas
• Runtime: 1 hr 10 min
• Starring: Tom Neyman, John Reynolds, Diane "Mahree" Adelson, Harold P. Warren, Jackie Neyman-Jones
• Director: Harold P. Warren
• Writer: Harold P. Warren
• Producer/Production Co: Harold P. Warren, Norm-Iris, Sun City Films, Emerson Releasing Corporation; Debbie's Manos, Roux-Ga-Roux Productions, Skullface Astronaut
• View Trailer: (link)
• Film Website: (Debbie's Manos Blog), (Manos in HD Restoration), (Manos Returns)
• View Film: (link) (believed to be in the public domain)
• TVTropes: (link)
• IMDB Page: (link), (sequel)

Ratings

MPAA Ratings

• Rated: (not rated) (perhaps equivalent to a G or PG for very mild violence and adult content)

Tentacle Ratings

A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:

• Ss___ (One and a Half Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone)

Warren's script seems to be an attempt at a vaguely Lovecraftian story set in the desert outside El Paso, Texas, but, like his filmmaking and acting, the execution was a bit inept.

Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.

Reviews

Review Links:

• Review by David Becker at the 2500 Movies Challenge (Link) - "Would it make my Top Five (or maybe it's Bottom Five) Worst list? Oh yeah, it's definitely on there. No doubt."
• Review by J. P. Roscoe at Basement Rejects (-1/10) (Link) - "Manos: The Hands of Fate is a must see for fans of bad cinema."
• Review by Richard Scheib at The Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Reviews (-1/5 Stars) (Link) - "Certainly, one has covered films here that are far more technically inept, mind-bendingly stupid or filled with unintentional dialogue howlers than anything in Manos. Manos’s unfortunate distinction is that it is never bad enough in that extreme way to warrant such celebration."

Synopsis (SPOILERS)

 Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
The film's plot revolves primarily around a vacationing family who lose their way on a road trip. After a long drive in the Texas desert, the family finds itself trapped at a lodge maintained by a polygamous pagan cult, and they attempt to escape as the cult's members decide what to do with them.

Notes

Comments, Trivia, Dedication

• "Manos" is the Spanish word for "hands", so the title of the film is literally "Hands: The Hands of Fate".
• The film was infamous as an example of how NOT to make a film, and Warren's small crew became so bemused by his amateurishness and irascibility that they derisively called the film Mangos: The Cans of Fruit behind his back; the film disappeared almost instantly into obscurity shortly after its release, until rediscovered by the bad-movie-fueled Mystery Science Theater 3000, where it became one of the most popular bad movies lampooned by the show, turning Manos: The Hands of Fate into a virtually household name among bad movie fans.
• The film was shot in two and a half months with a budget of about $19,000. In the new documentary included with the recent print restoration release, Tom Neyman claims that the entire movie was edited in 3 to 4 hours.
• Producer/Director/Writer Harold P. Warren only did two takes of each shot. If things didn't go well, he reassured the novice cast that the "magic of Hollywood" would fix any errors in post-production.
• The entire film was shot with a hand-held camera that could only record 32 seconds of film at a time. It was also shot without sound; all the lines were dubbed later by two men and one woman. Child star Jackey "Debbie" Neyman Jones cried when she first heard her dubbed voice.
• Lighting was limited for the film, which explains the infamous scene in which two cops literally take two steps to investigate, then turn back.
• The endless driving sequences at the beginning were supposed to have the opening credits over them; the film was released without credits or even a title screen.
• During filming, Warren knew that presenting starring actress Diane "Mahree" Adelson as the Texas Beauty Queen would generate good publicity for his movie, so he signed Mahree up for a regional West Texas beauty pageant that would lead to Miss Texas and then to the Miss America pageant, but he neglected to tell her about it until she was accepted as an entrant. She went along with it, and soon found herself onstage as one of the finalists. Mahree would later assert that Warren urged her to remove her top for filming the window-peeping scene where Torgo observes her before declaring his love, but when she refused he quickly backpedaled by claiming the suggestion was a test.
• Warren contracted with a modeling agency to provide the actresses who would play the Master's wives, including Joyce Molleur. Molleur broke her foot early in production, so to keep her in the film, Warren rewrote the script to include a young couple making out in a car on the side of the road who are seemingly completely incidental to the film's plot. Warren would find the modeling agency, Mannequin Manor, difficult to work with, as it refused to let the women to be "too skimpy"; the red sashes they wear were supposed to be tails, which the agency objected to.
• Despite the film's failure in pretty much everything, Harold P. Warren did manage to win his bet with Stirling Silliphant, as he was able to make an entire film on his own, and Warren was so proud of it that he began wearing the Master's robe every Halloween. His son Joe Neal Warren has carried on the tradition.
• The only cast members who were paid for their performances were Jackey Neyman Jones, who got a bicycle, and the Doberman, which got a bag of dog food. The rest of the cast was supposed to receive a cut of the movie's profits, which never materialized. Warren also gave the crew shares, instead of a salary.
• Tom "The Master" Neyman's daughter, Jackey Neyman Jones played Debbie. His wife, Jacqueline Neyman, made the Master's robes and wives' ethereal costumes. The Neyman family dog played the demon dog. Tom Neyman, also helped John Reynolds make Torgo's knees and hand-themed staff, painted the portrait of the master and his dog, and crafted the hand-themed metal sculptures. Tom Neyman wrote The Master's soliloquy ("Manos, god of primal darkness!...") himself, as the script only required the character to stand still silently in the scene.
• Peppy, the family's dog, actually belonged to Harold P. Warren. Its corpse was actually a stuffed toy animal that had been cut up and covered with stage blood.
• According to most accounts, "Torgo" was meant to be a Satyr, and special prostheses made from wire coat-hangers and foam, combined with prosthetic hooves, were designed to give the character goat-like legs; according to film legend, Torgo's actor John Reynolds was on LSD during filming, explaining his confused behavior and incessant twitching in virtually all of his scenes, he never wore the hooves, and he accidentally wore the prostheses backwards, resulting in a permanent injury to his legs; he ultimately committed suicide in obscurity before the film was released. Tom Neyman, who created the prostheses, would later claim that Torgo (originally named "Igor") was actually meant to be a deformed hunchback-like character with deformed knees, as the early concept of a Satyr would be too difficult to create effects for.
• The ranch which served as the Master's "lodge" was a real home of a Texas judge that Warren had somehow convinced to open to filming, and the strange pillars and altar stone were also a real location somewhere in the desert; until recently, the pillars and altar still existed, but the "lodge" was a burned-out, graffiti-covered ruin.

Associated Mythos Elements

• deity: Manos, the Primal Darkness
• cult: Cult of Manos
• race: Lich
• race: Satyr
• race: Vampires
• race: Hellhound
• race: Human Cultists
• race: Ghosts (in sequel)
• artifacts: red hand-themed robes, staves, sculptures, etc.; painting of the Master and his hell-hound
• location: Ye Olde Standing Stones
• location: Valley Lodge outside of El Paso, Texas
• "Manos Soliloquy": "Oh, Manos! Thou of primal darkness! Thou who dwelleth in the depths of the universe in the dark chasms of the night! Thou bestoweth of your darkness upon thy faithful, to live eternally in your keeping. Thou doth make him most blessed forever! And thou who doth curse with eternal burning life those whom transgress against thee! Holy art thou, holy art thou, holy art thou! Manos' will be done! Thy priesthood remains steadfast, thy priesthood remains constant, thy priesthood remains righteous. Thou hast taught us, O Manos, and we hath listened. Give ear to our words, O Manos, and hear us! Hear us! Hear us! For we are faithful and thou art our god. Arise, my wives, and give ear to the will of Manos! Manos, god of primal darkness! As thou hath decreed, so have I done. The hands of fate have doomed this man. Thy will is done!"

Keeper Notes

• (YSDC Forums) - "Inspiration Comes from the Strangest Sources", a description of a home-brew scenario inspired by this film