Alan Hale Jr.'s Sci-Fi Horror Movie Streaming On Tubi Is A Fun '60s Throwback

Anyone who grew up familiar with the comforting aura of "Gilligan's Island" might not like the idea of seeing The Skipper caught up in a sci-fi horror wherein a severed hand goes on a murderous rampage. But despite being best known as Captain Jonas Grumby, Alan Hale Jr. had a prolific career outside the shores of Gilligan's Isle, making hundreds of shows and films, not all of which were quite as genial and inoffensive as his beloved sitcom.

1963's "The Crawling Hand" sees Hale Jr. play a sheriff in a story about an alien life form that inhabits the body of an astronaut before he's blown to pieces 70,000 feet above Earth's surface. Thereafter, his severed arm embarks on a killing spree. "Gilligan's Island" was unapologetically nonsensical, finding new ways to have various guests visit the island and for Bob Denver's Gilligan to bungle innumerable escape attempts. But even the castaways never faced such an outlandish threat.

"The Crawling Hand" was co-written and directed by Herbert L. Strock, a B-movie maestro who previously oversaw 1957's "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" and 1958's "How to Make a Monster." He'd also directed episodes of some of the best classic Western TV shows, including "Maverick" and "Cheyenne," both of which hosted Hale Jr. at various points. In fact, Strock and Hale Jr. worked together for the first time on a Western series, when the latter appeared in a 1960 episode of "The Alaskans," which Strock directed. They re-teamed for "The Crawling Hand," and if you're curious how their second collaboration went, the movie can be seen for free on Tubi.

It's unclear whether Herbert L. Strock had Alan Hale Jr. in mind for the role of Sheriff Townsend in "The Crawling Hand." But with how prolific the actor was, it was only a matter of time before he and Strock crossed paths again following their "Alaskans" collaboration. Oddly enough, while Hale Jr. had an extensive filmography that had even seen him work with John Wayne, "The Crawling Hand" was his first sci-fi B-movie.

The film begins with an astronaut seen only from behind as his ship plummets back to Earth. He pleads with ground control to push the red button and destroy his ship, which they eventually do, detonating it. Scientists Steve Curan (Peter Breck), Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor), and their assistant Donna (Allison Hayes) then discover that the astronaut was actually carrying some sort of alien life-form and had begged ground control to destroy him before he could bring it to Earth. Well, too bad because it turns out even an exploded astronaut body can still host the alien in question. Thus, when science student Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren) discovers the spaceman's severed arm on a beach, he has no idea that the appendage will soon embark on a murder spree, killing his landlady and drawing the attention of Curan and Weitzberg as well as Sheriff Townsend, who's played by Hale Jr.

"The Crawling Hand" premiered a year before Hale Jr. made his debut as Captain Jonas "The Skipper" Grumby on "Gilligan's Island." Needless to say, Strock's B-movie wasn't as high-profile a gig as that CBS sitcom turned out to be. Still, "The Crawling Hand" is a charming early-'60s sci-fi B-movie that represents a departure for the actor, who was mostly guest-starring in TV Westerns at the time.

Whereas Alan Hale Jr. became well known for playing the lovably irascible Skipper on "Gilligan's Isle," "The Crawling Hand" allowed him to play a villain of sorts. Sheriff Townsend is nowhere near as threatening as the titular appendage, but he's trigger-happy and more than willing to shoot down the young Paul Lawrence, whom he suspects of the murders. It's sort of funny to see The Skipper earnestly making excuses to kill a teenager, but that alone arguably makes this one of Hale Jr.'s best projects. It might not have involved him working with the kind of esteemed actors with whom he collaborated on projects such as "The Gunfighter" or "The Big Trees," which starred Gregory Peck and Kirk Douglas, respectively. But "The Crawling Hand" is one of his more unintentionally amusing films.

It's also one of two Hale Jr. movies to feature on "Mystery Science Theater 3000," the other being his bizarre cult sci-fi movie "The Giant Spider Invasion." It was rare to see the actor pop up in sci-fi fare, despite the fact he was a working actor in the 1960s when the genre came to prominence. In fact, "The Crawling Hand" and "The Giant Spider Invasion" are the only two sci-fi movies Hale Jr. ever made. His only other sci-fi adjacent projects were the "Gilligan's Island" spin-off "Gilligan's Planet" and an episode of "Alf." Of course, in the mid-'60s, he was busy with the castaways, but even after "Gilligan's Island" wrapped up in 1967, he mostly stayed away from sci-fi. As such, "The Crawling Hand" is an interesting watch for any Hale Jr. fan, if only because it's one of only two times he tried his hand at a sci-fi horror B-movie.