Wednesday, February 8, 2012

BLOOD OF THE VINES - THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS


Blood Of The Vines - The Beast With 5 Fingers

In "The Beast With Five Fingers,"  the severed hand of a dead piano player comes back from the grave to... play the piano some more!  There's plenty of melody in those ghostly tunes, even though the hand appears to be a left hand.  If that were true, wouldn't it just be playing the bass notes?  Aah, I 'm overthinking it, again.  A dead hand plays the piano and all I can think of is "It's the wrong hand!"  Hey, is that a class ring on its finger?

I shouldn't be so quick to point fingers.  The music the hand plays turns out to be Bach's Violin Partita in D minor - but it's Brahms' transcription for the left hand!  Those movie makers think of everything.

The hand actually came back to do more than play a few scales.  It's a dangerous hand, a killer hand - even more killer than aces and eights, known as the "dead man's hand."  That's the hand Wild Bill Hickok was holding when he was murdered in Deadwood, South Dakota - but I fear I'm losing my grip on the article.

When you get your hands on this film, you might want to hold hands - if only to make sure your left hand knows what the right hand is doing.  Then put your hands together for the filmmaker, Robert Florey.  No need to give him a hand, he's already got an extra.  Now, hand me a bottle of wine.

What better wine to pair with the five-fingered beast than Owen Roe's Sinister Hand Grenache?  I could hand you a lot of digits - 70% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 3% Mourvedre, 2% Counoise - but let's just say the label pictures a severed hand.  There's a gruesome story that goes with it, too, if you click their link.

Handing out some more wines:

Two Hands Wines - You'll need both hands to handle this Australian negociant's whopper Shiraz.

Six Hands Winery - The fingerprints of the Sacramento River Delta are all over these wines.

14 Hands - A Washington winery named for the height of the wild horses which once populated eastern Washington.  14 hands is not very tall in horse jargon, but it's a lot of hands by anyone's count.

Sleight of Hand Cellars - You've gotta hand it to Washington - another hand-related winery.  Don't try and palm a bottle on your way out of the tasting room for a five-finger discount.

Purple Hands Wines - This Oregon producer shows what happens when hand meets grape.  




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