The Hand of Borgus Weems - Recap

In San Francisco, executive Peter Lacland is driving down a city street when his hand and foot suddenly work together, accelerating the car against his will and steering it toward a bearded man crossing the street. Lacland hallucinates running the man over and then a series of bizarre incidents. He snaps out of his trance and discovers that he has managed to avoid killing the man, and a crowd has gathered around him where he has gone up on the curb.



Later, Lacland goes to see Dr. Archibald Ravadon. He asks the doctor to cut off his right hand, but Ravadon says that it appears normal. Lacland warns that if Ravadon won’t do it, then he’ll find someone else who can. Ravadon writes down a prescription in Latin, which Lacland says that he doesn’t understand. The executive then explains that his hand has three times tried to kill a different person. Ravadon suggests that Lacland see a psychiatrist, but the executive insists that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally. When Ravadon refuses to operate, Lacland grabs a bust and smashes his hand.



Ravadon has no choice but to operate and surgically remove Lacland’s damaged hand. Later, Ravadon visits his patient and Lacland explains that his company sent him to San Francisco to oversee the company’s local office. He went to see a client, franklin Heller, but ended up going to the wrong neighboring apartment. Instead, Lacland ended up going to the apartment of Susan Douglas. They fell in love and became engaged in three days. However, Lacland informs Ravadon that his right hand soon set out to kill Susan. He first realized something was wrong when he was looking up a phone number and his hand took over and looked up and then dialed a different number. When Brock Ramsey, the man at the other end answered, Lacland said “Borgus Weems speaking,” and then hung up and burned the page with the phone number.

Ravadon suggests that Lacland tells his story to a psychiatrist, Dr. Innokenti, and the executive reluctantly agrees. He then tells Ravadon and Innokenti that Ramsey later came to his apartment. He didn’t know Lacland, but admits that he used to know the man who lived there before Lacland. Lacland’s right hand grabs a letter opener and tries to kill Ramsey, but Peter grabs it and manages to stop it. He tells Ramsey to get out, and as the man leaves, Susan calls to ask to meet Lacland.



Days later, Lacland tries to kill the bearded man on the street, and is shocked to discover that his right foot is now cooperating with his right hand. The day after the incident, Lacland read an article on the incident, which reported that he had gone off the road in an accident. His intended victim was Everett Winterreich, a lawyer. It was after that that Lacland’s hand started plotting to murder Susan. It took Lacland to a gun shop to illegally buy a gun and ignore the waiting period, and then blanked his memory of the purchase. However, at Susan’s apartment, Lacland realized what was going on and tried to kill himself. Susan stopped him, and Lacland told her to get away so he couldn’t kill her. He then went to Ravadon.



Dr. Innokenti recommends that Peter be committed and leaves. Ravadon suggests that Lacland talk to a police detective he knows, Nico Kazanzakis. They go back to Lacland’s apartment and Kazanzakis confirms that the previous resident was Borgus Weems, an occultist who lived in the apartment and was pushed out the window to his death four years ago. When Weems clung for his life, the murderer cut off his hand. The primary suspect was Weems’ niece... Susan Douglas. The police arrested her, but she and her boyfriend Ramsey avoided charges with the aid of her lawyer, Winterreich.

Lacland realizes that the ghost of Weems’ hand haunts his apartment. Ravadon dismisses his concerns and starts writing a prescription. He realizes that he’s writing in Latin, the same as earlier, and Kazanzakis translates it as a poem from Virgil, dedicated to revenge. “Arise my avenger, out of my bones.” Ravadon realizes that since Lacland no longer has a right hand, Weems’ ghostly hand has chosen a new subject to possess and avenge himself on his killers.



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