Our gruesome little feature begins with a woman lathering up her hair with shampoo. We assume since she's not in the tub, or a shower, she's must be at a sink -- but then why is she turning her gas stove on? More importantly, Why is she sticking her head into the open burner?! The woman's head is soon engulfed in flames and she screams in agony. As her screams dissolve into police sirens, we cut to several patrol cars roaring across the screen. We reflexively squirm, wary at these familiar cop cars, and worry that this might be an Ed Wood movie, but the credits follow and he's nowhere in sight. *whew* We come back and find the victim wrapped in bandages. As the paramedics strap her to a gurney, the the police try to break up a crowd of gawkers. Detective Steve Kennedy (Joe Partridge) arrives on this disturbingly familiar scene. For it seems there's been a rash of self-inflicted mutilation cases plaguing this particular city. All the victims were beautiful young women -- and this one brings the total to eleven. The first stuck her face into an electric fan. Another thought a razor blade was an eyeliner brush. While yet another drank a cocktail of lye thinking it was a gin and tonic. 

One also had some trouble with a "vibrator" -- and even though the film later reveals that it was some ersatz "neck massager" I'm still not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. I wouldn't dare. Back to the review...

Each victim has no recollection as to how -- or why they hurt themselves. The scenarios are too bizarre to be ruled as accidents, so foul play is suspected, but none of the clues add up. Kennedy tries to talk to the burn victim, but she also remembers nothing, and then succumbs to her wounds. She's only the third victim to actually die, while the rest are disfigured for life. Returning to headquarters, Kennedy consults with Dr. Phillip Hecht (Guy Prescott), the resident criminal psychologist. They arrange to meet and discuss the case, but it will have to wait until morning because Kennedy has a date with his girl, Marcia (Marcia Henderson), to see Desmond the Great -- a famed stage hypnotist. Hecht bristles at this and rants that people like Desmond are fakers and phonies that are prostituting the science of hypnosis. He believes hypnosis is useful tool in his line of work, but in the wrong hands, it can also cause great harm. (Yes, kids, that's called ominous foreshadowing.) Kennedy agrees with him. To him, it's all a load of crap.

So we soon find the dour -- and scoffing Kennedy sitting alongside Marcia and her friend, Dodie (Merry Anderson), in the audience as Desmond hypnotizes four volunteers. On stage, Desmond (Jacques Bergerac -- and yes, he's very, very, very French) goes down the row of enthralled volunteers and runs them through the hypnotic-hoops. (Now make them cluck like a chicken!) How the entranced participants can decipher his thick French accent and obey his orders is beyond me, though. Marcia and Dodie are enchanted by the act -- and soon grow frustrated with Kennedy's belligerent skepticism. At the show's grand finale, Desmond calls for three more, female volunteers from the audience. We notice he seeks the approval of his assistant, Justine (Allison Hayes), before selecting a victim -- whoops, I mean volunteer. He selects two other women, and then with Justine's ominous nod, picks Dodie last over Marcia. While Dodie joins the others on stage, Desmond promises a spectacular finish because -- before our very eyes -- someone will defy gravity tonight. He puts the hypno-whammy on Dodie by basically bellowing commands at her -- that magically have reverb, and must be repeated at least five times before it works. Dodie becomes enthralled as Desmond convinces her that she's as light as feather and stiff as a board. (Now make her cluck like a chicken!) Desmond then orders the other volunteers to pick her up. One takes her feet, the other her shoulders, and soon enough, Dodie is prone and parallel to the floor in between them with astonishingly minimal effort. Then Desmond commands them to let go -- and when they do, Dodie magically stays afloat in the air. The audience roars in applause -- except for Kennedy, who claims it's only an old magician's trick. As Desmond gets Dodie back on her feet, he secretly whispers something in her ear. He then snaps his fingers, and Dodie wakes up.

The show over, the trio regroups outside the theater. Marcia grills Dodie about what happened, but she really can't remember anything after getting on stage. They decide to go for coffee, but Dodie, entranced with the huge theatrical poster of Desmond, quickly backs out, and takes a cab home. Later, at her apartment, Dodie runs a sink full of water. We assume she's just washing up -- until she adds something to the water. When she puts the container down, the label reads sulfuric acid! Cupping a handful of the corrosive liquid, Dodie proceeds to splash some on her face, and then plunges her whole noggin into the sink. Her nerve receptors finally kick in and register some pain. As she reflexively pulls herself out and knocks the bottle over, acid fumes fill the bathroom -- but she still catches a glimpse of her horribly burned face in the mirror before passing out.

The next day, Marcia and Kennedy come to visit Dodie at the hospital, but she won't see them until the doctor (Fred DeMara) shuts all the lights off -- so they can't see her face. While Marcia tries to comfort her, Kennedy asks some important questions -- like where did the bottle of acid come from? Dodie recalls she got home, prepared for bed by washing her face, but beyond that, she remembers nothing until she woke up in the hospital. Dodie grows distraught, but Kennedy promises that he'll find out who did this to her. While walking back to the car, Kennedy mulls over the case. Dodie's story is similar with all the other victims: They were all alone; they all mutilated themselves; and don't remember as to how or why. Since Dodie was with them all evening, Marcia tics off all the events of the previous night to see if anything rings suspicious. And the only thing that happened to her, and not to them, was being hypnotized by Desmond. Marcia immediately brands Desmond guilty by association, but Kennedy scoffs -- still thinking the hypnotist is nothing but a huckster and charlatan. Our hero is so obtuse that he still thinks Dodie was in on the trick, and besides, what could possibly be his motive? Marcia has no answer, but still thinks Desmond is somehow involved. When they reach the car, Kennedy's radio is buzzing. It's Hecht, and he wants to meet to discuss the case. Kennedy offers to take Marcia home, but she tells him to drop her off at the theater instead. Kennedy, being the dope that he is, humors his little amateur detective and obliges.  Unable to acknowledge the remote possibility that she may be right, and ignoring the fact that she might get herself horribly disfigured -- or even killed, he does promise to pick her up after the show's over. 

Our hero. *sigh*

Marcia sits through the entire show, and is bound and determined to be selected for the finale. Luckily, Justine gives her approval and Marcia heads for the stage. Desmond asks if she's ever been hypnotized before. She hasn't, so he starts bellowing at her, and with a quick, slight-of-hand movement, exposes a ping-pong ball with a pulsing strobe-light attached to it that's secreted in his palm (and be wary those of you prone to epileptic fits with this thing. Wow.) This is the dreaded Hypnotic Eye, and Marcia closes her eyes, tightly, resisting him with all her spunky might. After the show, Marcia meets up with Kennedy and Hecht. She was able to resist Desmond, and tells them about the pulsating ping-pong ball. She also has a date tonight because Desmond whispered in her ear to meet him behind the theater at midnight. (Just like Dodie?) Hecht doesn't think she should go, thinking Desmond might have planted a post-hypnotic suggestion on Marcia and could take advantage of her. Kennedy, still being a dope, thinks she should meet up with him, and then they can tail them and find out if Desmond does, indeed, have anything to do with the mutilations.

Man this guy sure likes to put his girlfriend in harm's way. Freud with have a field day with this dolt.

So at midnight, at her boyfriend's urging, Marcia heads down the dark alley to the back of the theater, and we can actually see the black cat waiting for his cue to spring into action. BOING! After surviving the cat, the overtly ominous soundtrack, and navigating the longest flam-dam alley in existence, Marcia enters Desmond's dressing room through the back entrance. Announcing herself to the empty room, he says he'll be right (of the bathroom.) In true Nancy Drew form, she quickly searches his room and opens up a small case on top of his dresser. Inside, the flashing ping-pong ball strobes away and Marcia quickly succumbs to it's power. Now mesmerized, Desmond appears behind her and orders that even though her eyes will be open, she will be asleep. (Huh?) He then orders her to do what he commands. (Now make her cluck like a chicken!) And then he offers to take her out to dinner (the fiend.) As they leave the theater, we spy Justine watching them from the shadows -- and she ain't very happy.

After dinner, Desmond takes Marcia club hopping -- with Kennedy and Hecht never very far behind them. They wind up in a beatnik bar and we're entreated to a very lame poem by the "King of the Beatniks" entitled "Confessions of a B-movie addict." It, like, could have been heavy, man. You dig? I dig, daddy-o. But this cat was so square, he was a Lego. Crazy, man. Crazy. 

Okay, where were we. Oh, yes, the movie...

After the poem mercifully ends, the house band cranks up a funky beat and Desmond and Marcia start cutting a mean groove. As the enthralled Marcia does the Lambada, Kennedy's jealously perks up -- and then it boils over when Desmond whispers another command into her ear that leads them back to her apartment. Kennedy wants to put a stop to it, right now, but Hecht talks him into letting it play out. It isn't easy, though, as he watches their shadows embrace on the window shade. Inside, Desmond and Marcia are indeed swapping spit. Then the door quietly opens and Justine walks in. She calls Desmond off, saying there isn't much time. She orders him to go but tells Marcia to stay put. (Does she have Desmond under hypnotic control? The movie never makes it very clear.) Before he leaves, he asks Justine how many more will it take. Her reply, while taking Marcia's chin in her palm, is a cold "As long as there are pretty faces like these." After Desmond leaves, she orders Marcia to get ready for bed, and while Marcia starts to take her clothes off, Justine turns the hot water tap on in the shower. As the water grows hotter, judging by the steam, she waits until it's scalding before ordering Marcia to get in the "Cool, cool shower." Marcia, still in a stupor, takes a few steps toward the shower when a knock at the door makes Justine stop her. Shutting the water off, she orders Marcia to remain there and answers the door.

It's Kennedy, he saw Desmond leave and wanted to make sure Marcia was alright. Well, actually, he threw a fit and was ready to leave, but Hecht talked him into going inside and at least make sure Marcia was still breathing. When Justine answers the door, Kennedy doesn't recognize her -- or fall for her Jedi mind tricks, claiming to be an old roommate of Marcia's in for a visit. Demanding to see Marcia, Justine says he'll have to wait a moment because she just got out of the shower. Moving quickly, the villain implants the roommate story in Marcia's entranced brain; then orders her to get rid of Kennedy, and fast. Marcia let's Kennedy in and he demands to know who this mystery woman is. Marcia says it's just Justine and repeats the cock-n-bull, but it doesn't jive: Marcia never went to school, therefore she never had a roommate. Hearing all this in the bathroom, Justine makes her escape out the back window. Just missing her, Kennedy returns to Marcia who suddenly snaps out of the trance, but can't remember anything -- except that she and Desmond had a wonderful evening together.

The next day, Kennedy meets with Hecht at his swanky pad where the psychologist is still in his robe and banging away at a piano (and close your robe, Hecht. We can see the squirrel -- if'n you know what I mean.) Kennedy is upset with Marcia's strange behavior, but Hecht laughs at him. The dope doesn't realize that Marcia was hypnotized the whole time and wasn't in control. Now they're both convinced that Desmond and Justine are somehow behind the attacks, and decide to interview the other victims to see if they saw the hypnotist's show, too. But they can't interview the first victim -- the one who stuck her head into the fan, because she refuses to see them. And they have no luck confirming anything with any of the other victims, until they get to the one who thought the razor blade was her eyeliner. Saying she never saw Desmond's show either, but asks if they have any cigarettes before they leave. Kennedy gives her one, but has no matches left. She has some in her purse, but when he fishes them out, he finds something else and quickly sticks it in his pocket. As he lights the cigarette, the match illuminates her face and we see that her eyes have been gouged out!

Pretty danged gruesome for 1960, I'd say. Hell, pretty danged gruesome for today.

After they leave, Kennedy shows Hecht what he found. It's the exact same balloon that Desmond hands out to the audience members at his show. Blowing it up, Desmond's logo grows bigger as the balloon expands. It could prove the break they need, and they can cinch it by talking to Dodie. If she denies ever seeing Desmond, they'll have proof of a post-hypnotic suggestion shenanigans. When they question Dodie, sure enough, she denies ever being hypnotized by Desmond. Kennedy asks if the name Justine means anything to her, but Dodie says no. The doctor pulls them aside and says that when Dodie was first brought in, she kept repeating the name Justine, over and over, and whoever it was, the girl seemed to be terrified of her. So they have the who, but not the why. Hecht suggests that they ask Desmond. They try to round up Marcia, but she's not home. Fearing that she's back under Desmond's spell, they head to the theater.

At the theater, Desmond is in the middle of another performance. The film is then padded out for a good ten minutes as Desmond puts the hypno-whammy on the audience, wanting them to participate -- along with the audience watching this movie in the theater. He does the citrus lemon trick, the lead hands trick, the knee slapping trick, and then whips out the balloon, but frankly, it just isn't working on me. He then breaks out the Hypnotic Eye and dares you to look into it; but I'm telling you, there's nothing to the blinking ping-pong ball and...and...

...cluck...cluck...bwauckak!

Bwauck-bwauck-bwauck-bakawk...cluck...cluck...bwauck-bwauckak

Bwauck-bwauck--bakawk...cluck...cluck...bwauck-bwauck-bwauckak.

Whoa, eyegitty-eyegitty-eyegitty, what the? The hell?

Anyway, we spy Marcia in the audience and Desmond calls her up for the grand finale again. She's back in a trance and clomps on stage just as Kennedy and Hecht burst upon the scene. Turning the Hypnotic Eye on them, Desmond commands them to stop, but it has no effect. Justine grabs Marcia and drags her up to the catwalks, high over the stage. The two detectives quickly overpower Desmond and seize the Eye. From above, Justine yells and orders them to let Desmond go -- or else: the else being pushing Marcia to her doom . Kennedy draws his gun, but she warns that if he shoots her, she'll take Marcia with her when she falls. Leaving Desmond with Hecht, Kennedy starts up after them. Hecht tries to reason with Justine, saying it's not worth dying for. Justine raves that she has no life with a face like this. Clawing at her cheek, a latex mask falls away revealing a horribly scarred visage underneath. This -- less than shocking revelation allows Desmond to break away. Kennedy sees Hecht's in trouble and blows Desmond away. Calling for her lover, Justine leaps off the catwalk -- pulling Marcia with her. Kennedy dives and just snatches Marcia by the arm. As Justine plummets to her death, Kennedy desperately hangs on to his girl. The shock of the near fall snaps Marcia out of her stupor, and after a few harrowing moments, Kennedy manages to haul her up to safety.

Now that the bad guys are dead and the heroine is safe, Hecht turns to the audience and brings us all a word of warning about hypnotism: It can be a wonderful tool -- unless it's used for dubious purposes by unscrupulous people. We must be wary to maintain our safety because they can catch us anywhere, and at anytime. Even during a motion picture. He then gives the audience a wink and nudge and we fade to black.

Wait! Isn't anybody gonna cluck like a chicken?! 

What do you mean I already did?

The End

Taking a page from the ultimate cinema huckster, William Castle, producer Charles Bloch tried to cash in on the horror film's gimmick and audience participation phase with this nifty little genre piece for Allied Artists. As I stated at the beginning, when you consider when the film was released, it is a very gruesome and very graphic little potboiler -- and that scene with the victim who gouged her own eyes out made me squirm despite the less then stellar make-up job.

The film's poster art warned that all who saw the film would become part of a hypnotized army of zombies -- so watch at your own risk. The vital balloon was also part of theatrical promotion, given out so the audience could mimic what Desmond has his audience members doing. But I'm sure most of the balloons were either popped, launched, or used as impromptu whoopee-cushions and flatulence-simulators long before the film asked you to use them properly.

Bloch heavily promoted that the film was shot in Hypno-Magic -- and that audiences could actually be hypnotized just by watching the film. I have no real problem with the segment when Desmond speaks to the audience directly, and puts the old hypno-whammy on us, I just object to where it was placed in the film. It should have been inserted a lot earlier, like when Marcia returns to the theater for the second time, right before Desmond gets his hooks in her. Where they actually do have it, right after Kennedy and Hecht get the break they need and rush to the theater to rescue Marcia, really torpedoes the film's momentum. And the audience gets a ten-minute padding penalty before the climax, so we can all flap our arms around for awhile.

Now cluck like a bunch of chickens! 

Gil Boyne was an actual practicing hypnotist and served as the film's "Hypnotic Technical Advisor." He helped train Bergerac, and for the theater scenes, Boyne actually put people under and gave them post-hypnotic suggestions for the film. Standing just off camera, he worked his stuff behind Bergerac to add to the film's authenticity.

This whole idea of using hypnotism to take advantage of people and causing them to bodily harm to themselves is creepy -- and it could have even been terrifying, but Bergerac sinks it. I can understand them wanting someone European for the part, to add an air of mystique to the character, but Bergerac lays it on so thick it becomes laughable to the point that it is the film's undoing in my opinion. Allison Hayes, on the other hand, makes a fine screen villainess. But the film is a little coy with us and will cause some frustration: Was Justine in charge of the whole thing? The scene in Marcia's apartment almost suggests that she's got Desmond under some kind of spell, too. Does she? How did she become disfigured? Is Desmond somehow responsible, and now must make penance to her by helping woo these women to their doom?

Am I missing something? I could be. This is another film I have saved that I taped off of TNT's 100% Weird, almost fifteen years ago, during the glory days when basic cable actually showed movies during the overnight instead of the same damned infomercials for Girl's Gone Nekkid or reruns of America's Funniest Home Whatevers ad nauseum. So there's a chance something might have gotten edited out for compressed time. Caught as part of a triple feature with The Giant Behemoth and Confessions of an Opium Eater, you'll never get anything like that anymore. Instead, you get an entire weekend block of the same Steven Seagal movie repeated to infinity.

A few other things of note about the film include director George Blair's other contributions to the genre -- most notably directing a slew of episodes of the old Adventures of Superman TV show. As a fan of the show, his TV roots shows through in the film. Heck, turn Marcia into Lois Lane, Kennedy into Jimmy Olson and Hecht into Clark Kent, and have Superman fly in and save the day in the end and The Hypnotic Eye is basically just one long episode of the show. And if the name Fred Demara -- the man who played Dodie's doctor -- rang a few bells for any of you, but you can't quite place him, let me help you out. Demara was "The Great Imposter." He wrote a book about his exploits where he managed to fake and bluff his way into a being a ship's doctor, a lumberjack and several other occupations that he had no real business being in. The book was turned into a film with Tony Curtis, and a similar character appeared in an episode of M*A*S*H, and is the basis for the TV show, The Pretender.

The Hypnotic Eye is by no means a great movie, but it is entertaining and would make a fine addition to anyone's film library to set beside the other, more well known, gimmick flicks -- like The Tingler and House on Haunted Hill. It's greatest asset is that it's watchable without the gimmick, unlike, say, 13 Ghosts. It's got a great hook with the gruesome mutilations, and if you can get past Desmond's accent and tendencies to ham it up, you'll have little or no problem looking straight into the Hypnotic Eye without flinching.

Posted:  06/04/03. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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