THE CRAWLING HAND

An astronaut, out of oxygen and coming in for a crash landing, somehow manages to re-establish radio contact and tell ground control to activate the ship self-destruction mechanism. After wondering why the astronaut couldn't do it himself, ground control pushes the red button, causing the ship to explode at 70,000 feet (21,000 m); scientists Steve Curan (Peter Breck), Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor), and their assistant Donna (Allison Hayes) discover that the late astronaut was infected by an alien lifeform.

Meanwhile, Paul Lawrence (Rod Lauren), a science student and his girlfriend Marta Farnstrom (Sirry Steffen) find a severed human arm on a beach in California. Recognizing the sleeve as that of an astronaut's uniform, Paul takes it home for study. The crawling hand murders his landlady and possess Paul himself, causing him to attack other people around town including Marta and the soda shop owner.

Upon learning that the late astronaut's fingerprints were found on the corpse of Paul's landlady, Curan and Weitzberg arrive in California to question Paul. Sheriff Townsend (Alan Hale Jr.) believes that Paul is the culprit.

In a lucid moment, Paul captures the hand and takes it to the city dump, where he stabs it with a broken bottle and it is eaten by cats, freeing Paul from the alien influence. Paul and Marta live happily ever after, while Curan and Weitzberg return to Washington.

Meanwhile the federales charged with transporting the offending appendage open the box used to confine the hand. The film ends with a quick zoom the mysteriously empty box as the words "the end" appear on screen.

Paul defeats the crawling hand at the city dump, freeing himself from its influence, but the film ends with the hand mysteriously missing from its confinement box.

By destroying the hand, Paul regains his autonomy and the immediate threat appears neutralized, allowing him and Marta to resume their lives. However, the final scene’s reveal of the empty box implies the menace is not truly gone, leaving the door open for continued horror and underscoring the persistent danger posed by alien contamination.