Scott LeBrun
What could be driving various beautiful young women to mutilate themselves? What do they all have in common? Could it be the devilish hypnotist Desmond (Jacques Bergerac) and his mysterious assistant Justine (the 50 foot woman, Allison Hayes)? A skeptical detective (Joe Patridge) becomes personally involved when a friend (Merry Anders) becomes the latest victim, and his own girlfriend (Marcia Henderson) falls under the spell of the hypnotist.As with other movies from the era, this originally came complete with a gimmick designed to lure people away from their TV sets and into the theatres. In this case, that would be "Hypno-Magic". Overall, the movie is pretty amusing, with the suave, handsome Bergerac doing a fine job of taking centre stage. The makeup effects are fairly good for the time this was made, and some of the methods of self mutilation are a hoot, even if we don't see all of them: flammable shampoo, lye cocktail, face pressed into fan blades, etc. One has to wonder if Herschell Gordon Lewis was somewhat inspired by this one when he made "The Wizard of Gore" 10 years later.The cast keeps it watchable, particularly the striking Ms. Hayes, who does have a (not terribly surprising) twist in store for us right near the end. The filmmakers also get some credit for not over explaining things; for example, not giving us a back story for Desmond and Justine. The movie takes a brief detour into beatnik culture at the start of the second half, showcasing poet Lawrence Lipton and bongo drummer Eric Nord. Jimmy Lydon plays an emergency doctor, and in another doctor role the real life "Great Impostor" Fred Demara is cast."The Hypnotic Eye" is agreeable goof ball entertainment for people looking for a vintage "shocker".Six out of 10.
JoeKarlosi
Involving story starts out with separate reports of young and beautiful women intentionally disfiguring themselves. Investigators come to think they may be linked to a suave hypnotist (Jacques Bergerac) and his sexy female assistant (Allison Hayes in one of her best roles), so one of the detectives decides to use his own girlfriend as bait. This is a consistently interesting film, even if you have to suspend a good deal of disbelief in accepting how easily the culprit can get away with his schemes. The whole concept feels ahead of its time for the period and there are some surprises, especially in a reveal at the end. Good movie. *** out of ****
dphelan-1
I just heard Michael J Weldon of Psychotronic Video talk about this on a podcast interview. It reminded me of the first time I saw this on television ( sometime in the 1960's I guess) on the late night Friday Chiller show. The woman burning herself, her hair catching fire, etc. was really terrifying. The film is kind of a B-Movie horror-noir with the oily continental Jacques Begerac performing that Hypnotic Eye thing and causing all manner of mayhem and mutilation. Then there was the wonderful Allison Hayes just 2 years past The Attack of the 5o Foot Woman giving another great performance and of course, my favorite, Merry Andrews from TV's How to Marry a Millionaire. They just don't make them like this anymore. A campy horror classic!
mrb1980
In this surprisingly watchable chiller from 1960, a hypnotist Desmond (Bergerac) gets his entertainment by having beautiful young women disfigure themselves in pretty graphic wayssetting their hair on fire, washing faces with acid, drinking lye, putting their faces in fanswell, you get the idea. With all of this going on, the local police send a detective and a police psychologist out to solve the cases.This movie features undoubtedly the dumbest duo of police officers ever, detective Steve Kennedy and Dr. Philip Hecht. These two guys are such idiots that their incompetence is fascinating to watch. At first, they can't decide whether all of these disfigurement cases are related (duh!) and spend the rest of the movie tryingsort ofto catch the perpetrator.The many unintentionally funny scenes include Steve's girlfriend (Henderson) being kissed and groped by Desmond (while Steve blankly watches from a distance), the first hypnosis scene ("You are the meanest of all the dogs!!"), the beatnik bar scene, and the final scene at a theater, where the "secret" is revealed, but only after the audience is mesmerized into doing pretty outrageous thingslike bad acting.Released during the hypnosis and beatnik crazes of the early 1960s, this bizarre movie is an interesting time capsule and stars cult actress Allison Hayes. Be sure and catch Hecht's (Guy Prescott) jaw-dropping closing line
it's guaranteed to leave you speechless.
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