The Hypnotic Eye ** (1960, Jacques Bergerac, Merry Anders, Marcia Henderson, Allison Hayes, Lawrence Lipton) – Classic Movie Review 5663

Director George Blair’s nasty but intriguing 1960 horror movie is a slice of bizarre cinematic sleaze. Jacques Bergerac plays the popular stage hypnotist The Great Desmond who delights in hypnotising beautiful young women into mutilating themselves and destroying their beauty in a host of unattractive ways. These include washing in sulphuric acid, brushing a face with fan blades and drying hair over a gas burner.

He also attempts to hypnotise the audience in one of cinema’s most peculiar scenes, involving foot stamping and balloon lifting. Then Desmond focuses on the girlfriend of Detective Sergeant Dave Kennedy (Joe Partridge) who is investigating the case.

There are star cameos from Allison Hayes as Bergerac’s long-suffering wife and evil assistant Justine and Lawrence Lipton as the ‘King of the Beatniks’ spouting poetry, accompanied by bongo-playing ”Big Daddy’ (Eric Nord).

Misogyny abounds amid the silliness, which gives it an unappealing tone, but it is more daft than dangerous, and the result could be fairly hypnotic for students of schlock.

Also in the cast are Merry Anders as Dodie Wilson, Marcia Henderson as Marcia Blaine, Guy Prescott, Fred Demara, Jimmy Lydon, Phyllis Cole, Mary Foran, Molly Harris and Carol Thurston.

It is written by Gitta Read Woodfield and William Read Woodfield.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5663

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