Clutching Hand

The second of three serials produced by the Weiss Bros. for low-budget Stage and Screen Productions, The Clutching Hand brought back that eminent detective Craig Kennedy, who had first appeared in Pearl White's The Exploits of Elaine back in 1915. Now played by the veteran Jack Mulhall, another holdover from the early silent era, Kennedy is hired to solve the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Paul Gironda, whose formula for the manufacture of synthetic gold is coveted by a mysterious cloaked villain known only as The Clutching Hand. Along with Dr. Gironda's nubile daughter, Verna (Marion Shilling), and young newspaper reporter Walter Jameson (Rex Lease), Kennedy is aided or opposed in his quest by an impressive array of unemployed former silent screen "names" that include William Farnum, Reed Howes, Mae Busch, Bryant Washburn, Franklyn Farnum, and Snub Pollard, not to mention newcomers like Charles Locher (later known as Jon Hall) and Tom Mix's daughter, Ruth. The best made and most successful of Stage and Screen's three chapterplays (the company had promised six or seven), The Clutching Hand was also released in a 70-minute highly edited feature version.