"The Hypnotic Eye" was a 1960 Allied Artists release resembling an American version of Michael Gough's "Horrors of the Black Museum," a similar shock opening as a young lovely begins to wash her hair, only to find that her head was lowered over a flaming stove. Unfortunately things fall apart almost immediately, as the dimwitted investigating cop (Joe Patridge) fails to put two and two together once he learns that all the victims were among the audience members for a smarmy stage hypnotist (Jacques Bergerac) and his gorgeous assistant (Allison Hayes). Compared to lurid color items such as "Black Museum" or "Circus of Horrors" this seems more tame in black and white, lacking a dynamic central performance to compare with Gough or Anton Diffring, yet there are images that linger on, particularly one sad case where the woman clearly has no eyes, which was the initial murder from "Black Museum" (shades of "The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus" aka "Eyes Without a Face"). Theater patrons were promised a William Castle-style gimmick called HypnoVista (as did "Black Museum" with Hypnovision), to be mesmerized like the film audience, though all the viewers received was a balloon with the Hypnotic Eye depicted on it. Blonde beauty Merry Anders as Dodie remained a television fixture into the early 70s, with later genre efforts like "Beauty and the Beast," "House of the Damned" "The Time Travelers," "Women of the Prehistoric Planet," and her last film "Legacy of Blood," starring John Carradine. Allison Hayes would only have one minor role in "The Crawling Hand." before winding down her brief career on the small screen.
Review of The Hypnotic Eye
