Review of The Hypnotic Eye

I am truly surprised to see the high level of approval this film has among the few voters who have rated it. To me it is an obscure piece of overinflated melodrama that deserves its obscurity. Granted, it does start well enough, with a shocking scene of a woman deliberately setting fire to her own hair. But that's the end of anything even mildly well-conceived or crafted. Silly, illogical or even unbelievable things happen without any concern or explanation. Example - the cop investigating all this fails to recognize the hypnotist's assistant (Allison Hayes) when she answers the door at his girlfriend's apartment, even though he's seen her on stage with him, twice. I find Jacques Bergerac as Desmond a jarring screen presence in any case, and his participation in a frankly misogynist psychodrama like this especially so. As if to make an obvious point - that vaguely European gigolos of the type Bergerac often played are vicious woman haters at heart - even more obvious. The special effects are crudely done, even for the period. Add to this a ludicrous attempt to hypnotize the audience. Sum it all up to get a crude piece of ill-conceived exploitation trash that has rightly all but disappeared from notice.