Stage Fright: THE HYPNOTIC EYE (Allied Artists 1960)

Evil hypnotists have been a movie staple since Svengali first mesmerized Trilby in 1911, but THE HYPNOTIC EYE is in a class of its own. This demented little tale is sufficiently creepy enough to overcome its meager budget limitations, and features the Ice Queen of Horror, Allison Hayes, in the pivotal role of Justine, assistant to master trancemaker Desmond.

We start with an opening shot of a woman, thinking she’s washing her hair, sticking her head directly into the flame of a stove pilot. That’ll get your attention! A series of horrible self-mutilations have left a dozen beautiful women disfigured and the police scratching their heads. Detective Dave Kennedy discusses the bizarre cases with police psychologist Phil Hecht: “One of them stuck her face in the blade of an electric fan. Thought it was a vibrator. Another one sliced her face with a straight razor. Thought it was a lipstick brush”.

Dave’s girlfriend Marcia thinks he needs a night out, so along with their friend Dodie they attend the hottest show in town, stage hypnotist The Great Desmond. Dave’s skeptical, but Dodie volunteers to be hypnotized, remembering nothing afterward. Later, she sneaks backstage to visit Desmond, and when she gets home has the brilliant idea to wash her face with sulfuric acid! Marcia has a theory that Desmond is behind all the ghastly mischief, but when Dave interviews the victims, none of them recall going to Desmond’s show… not even Dodie! That proves it! Now Marcia volunteers to be hypnotized by Desmond, and danger takes center stage…

I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen THE HYPNOTIC EYE, but I will tell you about HypnoMagic!  This was part of the ballyhoo campaign for the film, featuring Desmond hypnotizing the audience (both onscreen and off) into doing his bidding by directly looking into the camera, and using a swirling psychedelic hypno disc to control our minds. This is the kind of thing William Castle   was famous for, and I’m proud to say it didn’t work on me. My will is much stronger than The Great Desmond!

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Dave and Phil follow Desmond and the hypnotized Marcia to a beatnik coffee-house, where we get to hear the latest groovy poem from a hipster played by Lawrence Lipton, titled “Confessions of a Movie Addict” :

Crazy, man, crazy! Equally crazy is Allison Hayes as Desmond’s assistant Justine, the catalyst for all the gruesome shenanigans going on, and the star of ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN is in fine bitchy form. Jacques Bergerac as Desmond is quite the charming sleazebag. The former star of LES GIRLS and GIGI (and ex-husband of Ginger Rogers and Dorothy Malone) was on his way down in the Hollywood pecking order, but still gives the role his all . The rest of the cast is nondescript, though I’ll give some credit to genre vet Merry Anders (THE TIME TRAVELERS, WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET) as Dodie. Fred Demara, known as ‘The Great Imposter’ for his 50’s-60’s exploits, has a cameo as a doctor. His life was made into a movie starring Tony Curtis; let me assure you they look NOTHING alike.

This cult classic won’t make any “best-of” lists, and isn’t as gory as what was to come in future sicko 60’s Grindhouse shockers, but it has its moments, and Emile LaVigne’s make-up jobs on the disfigured women is on a par with his work on Zsa Zsa Gabor in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE  . THE HYPNOTIC EYE is slow in parts,  but provided more than enough deranged fun to satisfy the horror lover in me.