Maos Sangrentas translates to Bloody Hands in English, and that’s just what this gruesome Brazilian melodrama delivers. The story begins when a gang of dangerous convicts escape from a penal colony. With the police in hot pursuit, the escapees cut a gory swath through the countryside. As his comrades are killed off one by one, the leader of the group descends into gibbering madness. In contrast to this, a subplot develops involving the least dangerous of the escapees, who murdered his wife in a peak of self-righteous rage and is now seriously in doubt about the wisdom of his deed. Principal scenes reworked in 1962 to make the film The Violent and the Damned (q.v.).
Length 82 minutes
Arturo de Córdova | Sadi Cabral | Carlos Cotrim | Jackson de Souza | Manoel Pera | Tônia Carrero | Heloísa Helena | Lizete Barros | Oswaldo Louzada | José Policena | Ramiro Magalhães | Claudiano Filho | Gilberto Martinho | Aurélio Teixeira | Antonia Marzullo | Lídia Mattos | João Zacarias | Mário Costa | Allan Lima | Arnaldo Montel | Milton Marcos | Wilton Franco | Cirilo Dacosta | Paulo Montel | Armando Camargo | Lajar Mar | Edson Vilas Boas | Milton Leal