The Devil's Hand

The Devil's Hand (a.k.a. Witchcraft, The Naked Goddess, Devil's Doll and Live to Love) is a 1961 American independent horror film. It was produced by Alvin K. Bublis and directed by William J. Hole Jr. The film stars Linda Christian, Robert Alda, Ariadna Welter and Neil Hamilton. The movie was made in 1959 by Rex Carlton Productions, but not distributed until 1961 by Crown International Pictures. It follows the activities of a group of modern-day Los Angelenos who are members of a cult that worships Gamba, the Great Devil God. Plot Rick Turner has a problem. He awakens night after night seeing visions of a woman in a negligee dancing in the clouds. The visions disturb him. One night he gets up, goes walking and is drawn to a doll shop. In the window he sees a doll that is the exact image of the woman in his visions. He takes his girlfriend Donna Trent there the next day. To his surprise the doll shop owner, Frank Lamont, not only knows his name but insists that he ordered the doll, a likeness of Bianca Milan, whom Rick has never met. Donna spots a doll that looks just like her. Frank refuses to sell it. As Rick and Donna leave, Frank takes the doll into his back room with curtains, open-flame lamps, an altar, a statue of the Buddha. He stabs the doll with a long pin. Donna collapses in pain. Rick takes her to hospital, where a doctor tells him that she has had a "spasm of the heart" and needs complete bed rest. Rick has another vision of Bianca. He tells Donna that he is going to deliver the Bianca doll to Bianca "to get this thing off my back." When Rick returns to the doll shop, Frank hands over the doll, insisting that Rick had paid for it in advance. Perplexed, Rick goes to Bianca's luxurious apartment and is entranced by her beauty. They become lovers that night. Bianca explains that his visions are a "simple process of thought projection or thought transference," which she learned as a member of the cult of Gamba, the Great Devil God. She makes Rick accompany her right then to a cult meeting so that he can be inducted. The meeting is held in the back room at the doll shop, for Frank is the High Executioner of the Gamba cult.