Review of The Hypnotic Eye (1960) by Steve C — 03 Jan 2017

Well done cheesy hypno mind control horror B-movie.

The whole thing starts out with a memorable gas stove burner POV shot as a hypno victim washes her hair at the stove with disastrous results.

Jacques Bergerac is rather good as a accented French swave stage hypnotist with a ghastly off stage agenda. He uses a hypno handheld device. It's a flashy light strobish one, not the spiral one as I had remembered from the first time I saw this movie.

His victims are all attractive women. He has a ruthless assistant played by Allison Hayes who also played the 50 foot Woman, but is normal sized in this although just as sick mean, like, "Who's the fairest of them all?" Except she is very unfair.

Anyway, some nondescript handsome guy plays the cop trying to solve the mysterious self mutations of these women, and his girlfriend gets involved. He is assisted by a shrink who gives us a stern warning about messing around with hypnotism at the very end.

One scene has beatniks at a coffee house jazz beat poetry reading. The poem is about the poet's movie going life. Maynard G. Krebs was a much more convincing beatnik.

The production is assisted by a very good musical soundtrack by Marlin Skiles.

There is a pretty funny scene toward the end when Jacques Bergerac makes the whole theater audience do goofy stuff from the stage. Maybe they thought they would actually get people in movie screenings doing this stuff, but this was probably mostly a drive-in movie. Either way it provides a sort of comic relief and bring the plot movement to a halt for what seems longer than it is.

The thing reaches theatrical heights with its gripping ending, literally!