Allison Hayes is a favorite here at the blog. Despite the fact that she didn't exactly star in masterpiece's of cinema, her very presence in a film all but guarantees it's going to be interesting. This is the case with the 1960 hypno-gimmick thriller, "The Hypnotic Eye", a B-movie that has more going on than it's ballyhoo based pedigree might lead you to believe.
The pre-credit sequence is an attention grabber that would make Sam Fuller proud. Through the unblinking steel gaze POV of a stove burner we witness the self immolation of a young woman's head. It's a real punch in the gut start to the picture and a sure-fire (no pun intended) way to get the audience's attention.
Detective Dave Kennedy (Joe Patridge) is investigating a series of female self-mutilations, which currently number eleven. He questions the woman who torched her hair, now wrapped in bandages, who dies on the stretcher in front of him. This truly is a dark little picture.
Despite the protestations of Doctor Phil (no relation, despite the moustache) Hecht (Guy Prescott) -a man who loves dart's, kimono's, pipe's and piano's, but hates hypnotist's- Dave goes to see a hypnotism stage show. Joining him are his girlfriend, Marcia (Marcia Henderson), and her friend, Dodie (Merry Anders). Desmond, the Gallic hypnotist, is played by Jacques Bergerac and Hayes is his leggy assistant, Justine. Female volunteer's are requested from the audience, and Dodie is selected and brought onstage. Using the power of hypnosis, but mostly the power of wires that are clearly visible in Warner Archive's sharp transfer, Desmond causes Dodie to levitate in the air.
Returning home, Dodie decides to wash her face with sulfuric acid and that doesn't turn out well at all. As in the beginning, a POV shot is used, this time through the bottom of the sink. I wonder if a young Scott Spiegel saw this picture and was so impressed that he decided his own movies would be nothing but a series of inanimate object POV's.
After visiting Dodie in the hospital, Marcia again attends Desmond's show, This time, she is called to the stage to be entranced. She closes her eyes in order to avoid being hypnotized, but manages to see the device of Desmond's power, the titular "hypnotic eye" with a blinking light that he holds in his hand. Thinking she's under his power, Desmond suggests to her that she visit him backstage at midnight. Marcia wants to investigate this weirdo so she goes to see him, tailed by Dave and Dr. Phil. Her journey down a dark alley at the witching hour has a Tourneur-esqe spookiness to it, aided by Marlin Skiles' shivering score.
Arriving in the dressing room, Marcia accidentally becomes transfixed by the hypnotic eye. This may be a bit of a stretch, but the shot's of Marcia, a late 1950's beauty, illuminated by the eye's strobe effect, have an almost proto-Lynchian quality to them. Desmond uses his control over the young lass to do what any self respecting hypnotist perv would do: he takes her to a coffeehouse to see a poetry reading by James Lipton's dad, who apparently was a big deal beatnik.
After returning to Marcia's home, Desmond's amorous advances are cut short when he is dismissed by his assistant. Justine, with her star shaped beauty mark, is revealed to be the true hidden Svengali of female self-harm. This should come as no surprise to those familiar with Hayes' oeuvre, as she frequently played powerful, in-control women. She attempts to have Marcia scald herself in the shower, but is stopped when Dave knocks on the door.
Past victim's of these post hypnotic suggestions are questioned, and none of them recalls ever having been put under. Dave finds an official "The Hypnotic Eye" balloon in one of their purses and that gives him all the evidence he needs.
A majority of the end of the picture is Desmond's stage show where he performs his tricks on the entire viewing audience. He stands on the stage, his reverb drenched voice giving orders. There is a silly surrealness to it all when this is combined with the comical reaction shot's of the audience acquiescing.
There's a sadisticness to this picture. Whereas most film's of it's ilk glory in the shock of the moment of violence, this one is more concerned with what happens after, when the victim's have to exist with their future's reduced to a fraction. We see only two of the mutilation's occur, but we meet many of the scarred women living with the aftermath of their deformation. In these scenes there seems to be an empathy at work. It's in the scene of the woman dying on the stretcher, it's in the scene's of Dodie lying in her dark hospital room, it's in the scene of the lonely mother- her children having been taken from her- who's too ashamed to even answer the door. Whether or not it's intentional is unknown, but for a gimmick based B-movie it's something worth noting.
Ostensibly a film that's a vehicle for old timey hypnosis trick's, "The Hypnotic Eye" has more going for it than just the free balloon audience member's got at the box office. Allison Hayes is perfect as the seductress of destruction; arch eyebrowed and fueled by vengeful jealousy, she is a figure of statuesque misogyny. It's a picture about the power of the psyche being harnessed to disfigure the flesh; as nastily interested in deformations of the female form as it is in hypnotism. And lastly, can somebody please make a prop replica of the actual hypnotic eye so I can buy one?
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