to pull apart their clasped hands and sit up from a crouched position. This kind of interactive participation is a fun idea, but it brings the entire narrative to an abrupt halt, delaying the inevitable res- olution in which Desmond and his sin- ister showgirl Justine (Allison Hayes) are unmasked and punished for the at- tacks. Just in case viewers weren’t im-
pressed with the awkward Hypnomagic scene, director George Blair stacked The Hypnotic Eye’s deck with addi- tional gimmicks. He gives a cameo to Fred Demara, the infamous “Great Im- poster” who wrote about his escapades pretending to be doctors and chaplains in the ’50s. Movie theatres also gave away balloons printed with a “hypnotic eye” logo that figures prominently in the onscreen action, providing a vital clue when Steve spots one of the same balloons in a victim’s purse.
You’re getting creepy
THE HYPNOTIC EYE (1960) DVD Starring Jacques Bergerac, Joe Patridge
and Marcia Henderson Directed by George Blair Written by Gitta Woodfield and William Read Woodfield Warner Archive
You won’t be getting sleepy, very sleepy
when you pop in Allied Artists’ The Hypnotic Eye (1960), one of the most lurid thrillers of its day. This B-movie treat from Warner Archive is one of the studio’s wildest releases, a gruesome tale that makes good on its promise with elab- orate makeup effects and stark, cramped cin- ematography. Police detective Steve (Joe Patridge) is having
a tough time cracking a strange case; almost a dozen women can’t explain why they gave them- selves disfiguring injuries, from drinking lye to sticking one’s face in a whirring metal fan. To get his mind off this brutality, Steve takes his best gal Marcia (Marcia Henderson) to see a performance by Desmond (Jacques Bergerac), a hot new hyp- notist in town. Marcia’s delighted when Desmond calls her pal Dodie (Merry Anders) to the stage and makes her levitate while hypnotized. The next day, though, Dodie is found curled up on her bathroom floor after washing up in a sink full of flesh-searing acid. After Steve realizes that the other disfigured victims were also called up to assist Desmond,
RM48 R E I S S U E S The story seems to be missing a few impor-
Marcia decides to go undercover. When called on, she only pretends to be put to sleep by Desmond’s “hypnotic eye,” a hidden, palm- sized blinking light, but still follows a post-hyp- notic suggestion for a midnight rendezvous in his dressing room. Steve follows them on their date and, as he watches Marcia start to fall under the mad Svengali’s spell, worries that she too will be se- riously injured. An apparent inspira-
tion for H.G. Lewis’ The Wizard of Gore (1970), there’s not much mys- tery or suspense to The Hypnotic Eye – it’s a pure exploitation picture that relies on vivid, self- mutilation scenes and its touted “Hypno- magic” gimmick, in which Desmond crudely demonstrates the power of suggestion. For eight minutes he loudly commands the theatregoers (and by extension, the movie’s audience) to do simple parlour tricks to illustrate the power of “mind over body.” Desmond’s stage audience laughs and shakes their heads as they struggle
tant elements – such as a logical motive for the attacks! – but The Hypnotic Eye succeeds in other ways. Watching the film is strangely eerie – it seems infected with a claustrophobic, off- kilter feel. From the shad- owy Desmond posters plastered in dark alley- ways to the bright lights of the hypnotism show, the film constantly as- saults viewers with un- comfortable close-ups of the villain and his blink- ing “eye” that are just as unnerving as the film’s sadism. Besides Dodie’s scarred face, the makeup effects can be startling; for example, Blair shows the dark pits and scar tis- sue of one woman who clawed out her own eye- balls. Released as part of
Warner Archive’s burn- on-demand program, The
Hypnotic Eye is another almost-forgotten gem that has been fully remastered. More impor- tantly, it’s one of the rare gimmick films that succeeds on its own merits; it actually works better without the over-the-top showmanship. PAUL CORUPE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72