El ojo diabólico

Okay, I realize that's not saying much. However, this is probably the best movie Allison Hayes was in (however, I do very much enjoy the Unearthly, but Hayes is terrible in that).

Plot concerns a hypnotist (Desmond) who is having beautiful young women mutilate themselves. I won't give it away, but the suspense is good and the movie isn't gory even though the mutilation methods would lead you to believe so (washing hair in fire, washing face with sulfuric acid, brushing face with fan blades, etc).

Hayes plays the evil assistant to Desmond and you're really not sure why she and Desmond are evil until the Climax. Not to be missed!

"The Hypnotic Eye" is a fairly effective B movie about a spate of self-mutilations by beautiful women who appear to be in a trance when they do the deed. A detective tries to unravel the link between the victims and a stage show that features a hypnotist that they have all attended.

A lot of what appears in the movie is fun, although "The Hypnotic Eye" is barely 70 minutes long, and a lot of this is padding, featuring several needlessly long looks at the "hypnosis" act, as well as a very tiresome sequence set in a beatnik bar where we have to watch the whole show of beatnik music and poetry. It's a shame, because these really slow down the action. Surely it would not have been to difficult to make the actual storyline events take up some more time.

The acting is ok, although a little hammy. The story actually has a really brutal side to it, as the methods the ladies use to self-harm are all pretty twisted. We don't witness many of them happening, but seeing somebody screaming with their hair fully ablaze is quite something for 1960 (even if it's not very realistic). Some of the "after" make up of the others victims is also pretty good.

If all the padding was stripped out, this would rattle along and be a lot more fun, but it would be over in less than an hour! The plot really is tiny and there is barely any quality time given to the climax, in fact events dash to the closing credits with far too much haste...a little time spent on a proper ending and explanation would have been nice. Still, it's pretty entertaining while it lasts.

A previous entry says, in so many words, "this movie is not to be missed." Try FINDING this movie. Until it's released on DVD, a decent copy is impossible to find, even on Ebay. There are some there but they are cheap bootlegs.

The film opens up with a women washing her hair over a lit gas stove.Naturally her hair catches fire and she has the hairdo from Hell.This isn't the first case of self mutilation in the big city.Many women have been doing this for weeks.Some have washed their face with sulfuric acid, stuck their faces into fans etc.Is there a connection?

Well if you're the police department with a collective IQ of minus six it is tough to figure out.This force couldn't find a donut shop with a road map.Yes there is a connection. All of the women have been to see a show by Desmond a well known hypnotist.

Desmond hypnotizes woman picked by his va va voom assistant(Allison Hayes). He also whispers something to them just before he breaks their trance.Hmm, wonder what that could be?Then he hypnotizes the crowd and makes them do foolish things which is a giggle.Everybody goes home happy.

Sensing a connection before her idiot police detective boy friend does a young woman allows herself to be put under Desmond's spell.When she goes home that night Desmond's assistant tells her to take a shower in scalding water.Luckily old slow on the uptake shows up before she does.

There is a bit of twist ending to this movie.The disfigurements are done "tastefully"(no gore after all this is 1960).Much is left to the imagination. The acting is par for this genre.

The police are portrayed as such morons you wonder how any crime gets solved in this city.The movie is padded with lingering scenes of the audience under hypnotic commands.Even so it is above average.

You will look deep into the Hypnotic Eye.You will open your wallet/purse and send me your money.Told you I had a better use for hypnotism!

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!