By CRYSTAL GUILLORY

Oh man, I found out the hard way that my editor is not the most forgiving soul when it comes to April Fool's pranks. I received this very cryptic (do I receive any other kind?) email from Renfield stating that my next assignment will be hypnotic and painful.

I was dismayed by this message but intrigued at the same time.

Soon enough, a mysterious package (do these assignments come here any other way?) arrives at my crypt, and I discover that my next assignment is the "HypnoMagic" classic, The Hypnotic Eye, from 1960.

Well, this was indeed a surprise! This is one of the few times I was familiar with one of Renfield's assignments, and that doesn't happen too often. Years ago, I was the second in command of a film festival that featured movies such as this. (I didn't get this gig because of my stunning looks you know!) While we were deciding on which movies to get for the festival one year, the title of this movie was mentioned.

We did not know much about this movie but the plot and the fact that it had Allison (Attack Of The 50-Foot Woman) Hays intrigued us. What really interested us was the "audience participation" moment this flick was supposed to have. We decided to try the film and it was a hit amongst the attendees that year.

Right about now some of you are wondering about the "audience participation" moment, but that bit of information will come later in the article.

There is some fascinating background information on this movie which I will share with you now. As I mentioned before we have the lovely Allison Hayes who starred in such classic fare as The Unearthly. Another one of the leads is Jacques Bergerac, who had the distinction of being Ginger Rogers's fourth. Years later, he left show business and became an executive with the Revlon cosmetics company in France.

Now, if these were the only names of interest in this movie, it would be your typical B-movie, but that is not the case here. For starters "the Poet Laureate of the Beatniks," Lawrence Lipton, makes an appearance in the movie. He was a beat poet who wrote books such as Bruno In Venice West And Other Poems and The Holy Barbarians.

Providing the technical advice for the movie, the "hypnological director" or the "hypnotic technical adviser" (as the credits list him) is Gil Boyne. Boyne was one of the greatest names in hypnotism, so he was a natural for this job. Boyne coached Bergerac and hypnotized the actresses so it would look more realistic when they were put into a trance on film. Sometimes Boyne stood behind Bergerac as the actor appeared to put the ladies in a trance.

As interesting as those previous names the most unusual name to associate with a movie like this is one of a complete imposter, and that is Fred Demara. Fred Demara was known as "The Great Imposter" and he could pass as an expert in different jobs. A movie was made about his life starring Tony Curtis--and Demara was on the film set. Some people say that is why he was included in this movie as a "doctor" (a role which he played in real life as well) since that movie was filmed in the same studio as this one.

Our movie opens on a lovely young woman who is getting ready for bed. As she is doing so she puts some sort of fluid on her hair and bends over an open flame. I'm no beauty school graduate (or dropout, for that matter) but I really don't think a hot oil treatment is done that way. Soon we hear sirens, which means that a tough policeman will be on hand to take down the details. We are right because we see the hardboiled inspector Dave Kennedy trying to get all the details from the doctor and the victim.

From the brief bits of dialogue we discover that there has been a rash of women disfiguring themselves in horrific ways and they can't remember why. Well, it doesn't matter that this gal can't remember what made her do this for she joins the choir invisible and becomes an ex-beauty.

Kennedy is pondering this bizarre case later as he chats with his colleague, the police psychiatrist Dr.. Hetch. While Dr. Hetch uses the game of darts to come up with a topic for his speech (great professional method, Doc!) they have a discussion about the strange happenings. The topic then turns to Kennedy's plans for that evening since he is going to take his lady friend, Marcia, to see this hypnotist called Desmond.

It is at that moment where Hetch expresses his dislike of the hypnotists who use hypnotism for entertainment purposes. He thinks that power could be misused.

Later on that evening, Kennedy is on a romantic evening with Marcia and her friend Dodie (the third wheel) as they see Desmond's act. As we are tuning into Desmond's production we see him do the mandatory humiliation tricks that a hypnotist does. Soon it is time for his finale and he is looking for three volunteers. It looks like he getting signals from his assistant, Justine, could this mean something? Well, Dodie volunteers and she's chosen. Desmond tells the audience that someone is going to defy gravity tonight and that someone is Dodie.

He gives a hypnotic command to Dodie again and again (she's blonde, you know) telling her she's light as a feather and stiff as a board. After that, he instructs the other women to pick her up, and soon he orders them to release her. Well, rather then seeing Dodie land on her posterior she stays levitated for a minute and that amazes the audience (except Kennedy of course). Desmond brings her back to her feet, whispers something mysterious in her ear (I wonder if that's the same thing Bill Murray whispered in Scarlet Johansen's ear in Lost in Translation?) and wakes her up.

Marcia begins to ask her about what happened but Dodie has no clue (because she's a blonde) and begs off getting a cup of coffee with those two. Sometime later we see her in her apartment as she is about to wash up, but she adds a special ingredient to her beauty treatment--acid. Needless to say, Dodie now looks like she could play the role of Kharis' love interest and she has no idea what made her do that. Naturally. Marcia is suspicious and she thinks that suave rat, Desmond, has something to do with it! At that moment Kennedy pats the little lady on the head and reminds her that Desmond may be a crackpot, but he's no heinous fiend.

Kennedy is paged by Hecht so they can discuss the case, so Marcia asks to be dropped off at the theater. Marcia attends another Desmond show and, thanks to a nod from Justine, she's selected as a volunteer in the final act. Desmond uses his prop, the Hypnotic Eye, to hypnotize our heroine but she resists with all her will.

After the show, she meets up with Kennedy and Hecht to tell them about what happened. She then tells them how she pretended to be hypnotized and how Desmond whispered a command to meet him at midnight that night. Obviously, she wants to go so she can investigate and Kennedy thinks this is a swell idea (Hey, readers, am I the only one that thinks Kennedy is a rotten boyfriend?) Hecht (good for him) has reservations about Marcia putting herself in harm's way but he can see he is out-voted. The plan is made for Hecht and Kennedy to tail Marcia that evening.

Soon it’s the witching hour and Marcia arrives at Desmond's place, and being the good little detective, she snoops around. Desmond must be prepared for moments like this for he has a flashing hypnotic eye on his dresser ready for any snooping victim. Desmond

tells her that she will be asleep but appear awake (that sounds like myself on Monday mornings) as they go out on the town. Unbeknownst to them, Justine is watching the two with a very jealous eye. I wonder if that means anything...

Later, that fiend, Desmond, is doing something downright despicable to Marcia--he is treating her to a very rich dinner after midnight. Oh man, can't you just imagine the indigestion she'll have? Watching them from afar is the crime-fighting team of Hecht and Kennedy, and you can imagine Kennedy is not too happy. After that dinner, he takes her to a beatnik place where he subjects her to the bizarre poetry of Lawrence Lipton. Does this man's evil have any boundaries?? I bet her made her drink espresso, too.

The date is ended and its time to bring the young lady home and they share a passionate kiss. Oh that tears it, they kiss on the first date! Kennedy is not too happy with this stakeout and wants to leave but Hecht wants to stay and watch. (Oh, the comments I can make here) Meanwhile, back at Marcia's, the cozy scene is interrupted by Justine who orders him to back away from the girl and tells him to leave. After a cryptic conversation with Desmond in which she reveals her creepy plan to disfigure every beautiful woman, she puts Marcia under her spell.

She then tells Marcia to step into the "cool, cool" shower which is steaming up the bathroom right now. Things look quite dire for Marcia until we hear a knock at the door. Ah, it’s Kennedy to the rescue (only because he was shamed into doing so by Dr. Hecht)! Justine answers the door, claiming to be an old school fiend…ah…friend and roommate. Kennedy seems to accept this so Justine has enough time to implant that memory in Marcia's head and to get him out of there.

Marcia steps out and repeats the same story to Kennedy, but there's a small problem with that lie. You see, Kennedy knew Marcia didn't go to a boarding school and so Justine left the apartment as soon as she heard that. Oops! Marcia wakes up with no ill effects but the memory of a dream date with Desmond which is just the thing Kennedy needed to hear.

Hecht and Kennedy discuss the case and realize that Marcia was on to something, so they decide to interview the other disfigured women. We then see the two go to various women who were horrifically scarred (including one with gouged out eyes, ick!) but who had no idea why they did what they did. When asked if they had ever seen "The Great Desmond," they all denied it. The two then go visit Dodie in the hospital, but she denies going to see Desmond, too! Hmm, do we have a pattern here?

While they are visiting Dodie we do hear from her "doctor" that she will recover from her scars. Ah, I hope for her sakes that he isn't an imposter! Anyway, our duo realizes that they are onto something here and that Desmond is at the center of this mystery. They are about to question Marcia about that night but they discover that she is gone. Gee, could she be at another performance of "The Great Desmond"?

In the next scene, we see Desmond in the middle of his "world-famous act" as he hypnotizes an audience and has them do very silly things. Yep, readers, we have come to the "padding" (and gimmick, since originally patron were given "Hypnotic Eye" balloons) of the movie. I will admit this scene is boring as heck (especially the balloon hijinks) if you are watching it alone, but if one shows it to a crowd of people, it can be hilarious.

I had witnessed this when we showed this movie at our convention as the audience did all the things that the hypnotist on the screen instructed--it was a hoot! Yes, there's nothing like seeing an audience of 100 people blow up balloons, slap their knees, and move their arms around at the orders of a screen hypnotist.

Soon its time for the grand finale and Marcia is brought up on stage once again. However, the act is suddenly busted up by the team of Hecht and Kennedy, but Desmond is prepared--for he pulls out a fully loaded Hypnotic Eye. Ah, unfortunately for him, the duo is immune to his Jedi mind tricks. This gives Justine enough time to drag Marcia out to the catwalk and threatens to jump and take her with her.

Hecht tries to reason with Justine, but she won't hear any of it, since she doesn't want to go on anymore. She reveals her secret and it is the most dramatic mask-removal scene since Lon Chaney's in The Phantom Of The Opera. (Editor’s note: Not!)

At that moment, Desmond gets a choke hold on but that hold is broken by Kennedy's shooting him. This does not make Justine happy, so she drops to her death with the intent of taking Marcia with her, but Marcia is rescued by Kennedy. Just when we thought this was the ending of the movie, they let Hecht pontificate on and on about the power of hypnotism and how it shouldn't be abused (even in a movie).

So there we have the movie which left me with some thoughts toward the end. How did Justine become the way she did? Couldn't a huge amount of therapy and plastic surgery have helped her? Why didn't the family members of the previous victims put two and two together and have Desmond arrested (or worse) sued? Can't you picture the class-action lawsuit against this man nowadays? Did the creators of this movie really think the audience watching it was going to be hypnotized? Sheesh, why didn't they put in some interesting post hypnotic suggestions, like buying more popcorn and drinks at the snack bar instead of blowing up stupid balloons?

Come to think of it, I wonder if this copy of the film has a post-hypnotic suggestion in it. That's a crazy idea, but I suddenly have a sudden interest in watching that stinker, Bride Of the Gorilla…