THE SEVERED ARM [1973]

 HERE'S A MOVIE I'VE OWNED SINCE PROBABLY AROUND 2002 AND HAVE NEVER WATCHED! 

It was in one of those cheap-o horror movie collections with 6 movies or so in it -- looooooooooooooong before Mill Creek -- and for some reason never watched it.  It was only with my intention of watching previously-unwatched horror films for the Countdown to Halloween as well as the super-duper new Vinegar Syndrome release of THE SEVERED ARM on blu ray with a spiffy slipcase that prompted me to watch that sucker!  And, again I'm singing the same ole tune I've been singing this month, that it was much better than I expected!  

A group of men decide to go spelunking in what looks to be some old abandoned mine (WATCH OUT FOR THE MINER 49'ER!!!!!!) and get stuck in a cave-in.  Days and days go by with no food and almost no water and, before you can sing "Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go!", they decide to draw straws.  But it's not the usual "We'll eat ya" scenario as it's decided that the guy with the "short straw" will only have to lose a "piece"; an arm, a leg, loser decides.  That way he can still live and, when they get hungry again, they'll draw for the next short straw and so on.  Our unlucky guy is Ted, who pleads with the men to wait a little while longer but the men are at the end of their rope and hold poor ole Ted down and cut off his arm with a hunting knife.  Before the men even get a chance to have lunch, though, they hear the noise of rescue coming from above.  Talk about bad timing!  Ted's out cold (understandably) and the men decide to say that the arm was crushed in the cave-in and they had no choice but to amputate.  Ted wakes up in the ambulance and informs his "friends" that he begged them to wait and he won't forget this.  After spending 5 years in a mental institution, Ted is allowed to return home.  However, one of them men receives a package containing a severed arm and it looks like ole Ted is out for revenge as Dr. Sanders (one of the spelunkers) is attacked by an axe-wielding maniac in his home and has his arm hacked off.  Dr. Sanders lives but the next victim isn't so lucky.

THE SEVERED ARM is a nice little revenge/axe murderer film with an original twist in the "an arm for an arm" scenario.  The mystery is the "is it Ted or isn't it" angle which is fairly well-done and, while you may guess what's going on, you may not guess exactly how it's going on.  The cast does a good job with the material and there are some familiar faces here.  Deborah Walley as Ted's daughter is probably the most well-known cast member from her continuing role in TV'S "THE MOTHERS-IN-LAW" with Eve Arden and Kaye Ballard through classic family film BENJI.  Also filling out the cast are Paul Carr  (BEN, THE BAT PEOPLE), veteran Hollywood actor John Crawford (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, THE TOWERING INFERNO and uncredited roles in films noir like THE BIG HEAT, MYSTERY STREET, and the Abbott & Costello film THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES) and familar face from TV and film Marvin Kaplan as Mad Man Herman (ADAM'S RIB, FREAKY FRIDAY, THE GREAT RACE and DARK AND STORMY NIGHT).