Hand of Death: Difference between revisions

A particular shot commonly used in action flicks, gangster movies and murder mysteries. All that is shown is [[An Insert]] of a pair of hands, and possibly the murder weapon itself. This gives a sense of building tension without revealing the murderer's identity. Sinister black gloves are optional.

 

 

Common in slasher films. Even more common in [[Giallo|Gialli]],

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[The Pink Panther|A Shot In The Dark]]'' does this with several botched attempts at killing Clouseau.

* ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'' does a fair amount of this.

* Subverted masterfully in ''[[The Sting]]''. The audience knows that an assassin named "Salino" has been assigned to kill Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford). From that point on, there are numerous shots of a pair of hands in purple gloves doing various things. In the final shot they are loading a revolver. It turns out that they ''aren't'' Salino's hands at all. {{spoiler|They are the hands of the bodyguard that Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) hired to keep an eye on Hooker. He shoots Salino.}}

* Gloved in proper classic black in ''Radioland Murders'' before some (but not all) of the titular hits. Appropriate since this was a homage to the radio era.

* Modernized in ''[[Red Dragon]]'' gloved in latex. Traces of talcum powder imply the murderer removed the gloves at the crime scene. Sure enough, a partial print is found.

* Used in ''[[Strange Days]]'', since we see the murders through a recording of the killer's perspective.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Also used frequently when showing the set-up to the murder in ''Whodunnit!''

* A frequent occurrence in the BBC ''[[Miss Marple]]'' adaptations.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

 

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