Magie noire

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.

"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.

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!

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.

I wish someone would re-release this, or TCM or somebody would show it. It was just another really bizarre offering from the late fifties/early sixties. It used to be a regular on the lat Saturday night TV horror show in my hometown (in Houston the show was called Weird) and this one fit the bill--really weird.

Cinematic excellence? Surely not. But it was offbeat enough to keep your attention. Even had a debunker who explained away a lot of the "magic" for the police (and the viewers).

The plot does have an interesting twist with the hypnotist's girlfriend. Sure it didn't win any academy awards but few movies do.

I give it a seven because it falls within the genre of movies that are so bad they are actually good.