The Hypnotic Eye

The Hypnotic Eye is a 1960 horror film, released by Allied Artists on February 27, 1960, starring Jacques Bergerac, Allison Hayes, Merry Anders, Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, and Ferdinand Demara, billed as "Fred Demara".

Plot
A young woman enters her kitchen rubbing shampoo into her hair, lights a gas burner on her stove and bends over it as if it were the sink, and sets her hair on fire. Later, doctors and police tend her, and Detective Dave Kennedy asks why she did it. She does not remember and soon dies. In the next months, ten more women mutilate their faces. Dave consults his psychiatrist friend Dr. Philip Hecht, who is an expert on hypnosis and disapproves of its use on the stage.

Dave, his girlfriend Marcia Blaine and her friend Dodie Wilson go to see the stage show of hypnotist Desmond. Dave, however, does not believe in hypnotism. Desmond calls for three women volunteers, and his assistant Justine chooses two of them, including Dodie. Desmond hypnotizes Dodie into becoming rigid as a board and levitates her. Before bringing Dodie out of it, he whispers something in her ear. Dave tries to get Dodie to say she was faking; she denies this, will not accompany them for coffee and returns to the theater when they leave. Later, at home, she pours acid instead of lotion into her washbasin, and applies it to her face. Dave and Marcia question her in the hospital, and find that she forgot how her burns happened. Marcia begins to wonder if hypnotic suggestion from Desmond is the common cause of the mutilations. She returns to the theater to investigate, and is chosen by Justine as a volunteer for Desmond. When beginning to hypnotize her, he uses a device with concentric circles of flashing light. Marcia closes her eyes before he tells her to and is not hypnotized.

Martia reports to Dave and Dr. Hecht that she thinks Desmond is guilty. She mentions Desmond's post-hypnotic command to come to his dressing room at midnight. When she does, Martia opens a box in which the device is flashing, and this time is genuinely hypnotized. Dave and Dr. Hecht follow in Dave's car as Desmond takes her to a restaurant, to a beatnik coffee-house to hear poetry and dance, and back to her apartment. He starts to make out with her, while the two men sit outside, Dave thinking that she is a willing participant and Dr. Hecht wanting more information. Desmond is interrupted by the entrance of Justine, who dismisses him and keeps Marcia under hypnosis herself. Resentful, he asks “How many more?” and Justine replies “As long as there are faces like this.” She turns on Marcia's shower with scalding hot water and tells her to step into the "cool refreshment." Dave and Dr. Hecht enter the apartment and stop this; Justine instructs Marcia to present her as an old school roommate and leaves. Dave sees through this story, knowing Marcia never went to school. The two men become convinced that Marcia was really hypnotized.

They interview past victims, who all deny ever going to Desmond's show or hearing of Justine. Dave eventually finds a balloon with Desmond's hypnotic eye design on it which is given out at the show, in the purse of a woman who blinded herself. Even Dodie denies ever seeing Desmond's show or knowing Justine, but her doctor says that she was terrified of that name when she was brought in.

Marcia, still hypnotized, returns to the show, where Desmond makes demonstrations of mass hypnosis and the power of suggestion. The balloons are for the purpose of a suggestion that they are too heavy to lift. Dave and Dr. Hecht break in, trying to save Marcia, but Desmond tries to stop them with the hypnotic eye. Dave breaks through its power, and the two men get onto the stage. Justine drags Marcia up onto a swinging catwalk and threatens to jump and drag her down. She eventually tears off her mask and shows that she has a mutilated face like Dodie’s. Desmond overpowers Dr. Hecht, but is shot by Dave. Justine then jumps to her death beside him. Dave pulls Marcia up and she comes out of her trance. Dr. Hecht addresses the audience, telling them never to let themselves be hypnotized except under medical supervision.

Cast

 * Jacques Bergerac as Desmond
 * Allison Hayes as Justine
 * Marcia Henderson as Marcia Blaine
 * Merry Anders as Dodie Wilson
 * Joe Patridge as Det. Sgt. Dave Kennedy
 * Guy Prescott as Dr. Philip Hecht
 * Fred Demara (Ferdinand Demara) as Hospital Doctor
 * Jimmy Lydon as Emergency Doctor (as James Lydon)
 * Lawrence Lipton as King of the Beatniks

Production background
Some scenes showing Nord playing bongo drums and Lawrence Lipton as "King of the Beatniks" were supposedly filmed at Nord's beatnik cafe, The Gas House, in Venice, California. But it was done in a studio.

Bergerac was the former husband of Ginger Rogers and Hayes had just starred in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958).

The consultant for the hypnosis used in the film was Gil Boyne. Gil Boyne founded the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners and the Hypnotism Training Institute in Glendale, California. Gil also performed live shows between screenings of the film at the opening at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco and went on a press tour to promote the movie appearing on numerous TV news and talk shows performing live hypnosis demonstrations.

The "Hypnomagic" part of the film although somewhat implied was not a filming process like 3D. "Hypnomagic" was advertised on the posters as an "Amazing New Audience Thrill" and although new to film was a much more organic and time tested approach than 3D. "Hypnomagic" featured the Bergerac character performing segments in the film where he looks directly into the camera and as such at the movie theater audience and performs some hypnotic suggestibility tests with them. One suggestibility test presented in the film involved the use of a balloon with an eye printed on it, when the film was in its original run in theaters each theater goer received an eye balloon to use during the demonstration.

Influence on popular culture
There is a scene in the film where a lady while in the trance state thinks her stove is her sink and washes her hair in the stove, receiving horrific burns and disfigurement. In the 1960s the Kodak film company took that scene and using a then cutting edge process made a lenticular photograph out of it. When moving the photo up and down the girls head would catch on fire. The photograph was a little larger than a business card and used as a giveaway to buyers, to spotlight the new photo process that the Kodak company was promoting at the time.