Magie noire

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!

A series of beautiful women are disfiguring themselves while mysteriously hypnotized. Suspicion falls on hypnotist Jacques Bergerac. Soon it appears the girlfriend of the detective in charge of the case is to be the next victim.

Jacques Bergerac is probably best known as being middle-aged Ginger Rogers' ex-gigolo...I mean, husband. He became an actor after their marriage. A couple of years after they divorced, he married Dorothy Malone. He's kind of creepy which works for the part. B movie queen Allison Hayes has the best role as his sexy assistant. Hayes is a favorite of mine. She made every one of the low-budget movies she appeared in better. Joe Patridge is the incompetent and obnoxious detective who couldn't find his ass with both hands and a flashlight. This guy is such a jerk and he's supposed to be the hero! Not to mention he's such a poor detective his girlfriend has to do his job for him. Guy Prescott is his psychiatrist sidekick. He's moderately smarter than his buddy and he seems to be a bit of a voyeur, judging by the stakeout scene. Marcia Henderson plays the girlfriend and amateur sleuth.

Schlocky horror-thriller that's better than it has any right being. The "HypnoMagic" stuff is great. There are also a couple of pretty effective shocks that pushed the boundaries for 1960. A woman sets her head on fire, another washes her face with acid, and something else that happens in the climax. I mean it's not gory but still pretty rough for the time. Love the campy beatnik scene. It's an imperfect but fun movie. A nice way to pass the time but nothing extraordinary. Allison Hayes fans will definitely want to see it.

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.

When a series of strange self-mutilations against women occurs throughout the city, the police investigator assigned to the case worries a big-shot hypnotist is responsible and tries to keep his girlfriend from falling under his spell and becoming another victim.

This here was a fairly entertaining if somewhat slightly flawed effort. The main crux of this one is the fact that there's just as much of a mystery angle as there is a horror angle, almost to the point of that being the film's interest rather than the horror since the mutilations take place before the film starts with us getting involved at the most recent attack while the majority of the film takes focus on the police trying to find the cause of the attacks with little effort before stumbling onto the whole affair at the end. This isn't bad at all despite the change in tactics because the mystery is handled nicely with a rather shocking reveal late in the film that makes it a lot more shocking than expected. The few attacks shown are quite gruesome and graphic for the time-period, with one being quite shocking overall. Coupled with a bevy of attractive women and a rather healthy viewpoint of hypnosis and it's effects, this one isn't all that bad.

Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

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 ****