Simply A Masterpiece

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Silly, but entertaining low-budget thriller about series of beautiful women inexplicably disfiguring themselves, washing their hair on a stove burner (that opening scene had me hooked!), using acid like facial cream, and other icky scenarios. As the title would suggest, the film revolves around a stage hypnotist who the police begin to suspect when the wife of the lead detective becomes a potential target. It's all pretty corny and the mystery is not much of a mystery, but it's still good campy overly dramatic fun.

And this is high camp. The 40's and 50's were the decades of great B movies and this one's right up there. Each scene is a little gem. From the various disfigurements to the coffee house poetry reading to the obvious strings holding up the woman "defying gravity" to the doctor in his highly stylized (right down to the choice of dog) apartment playing his piano in a short silk robe open to the waist to the climax when all is revealed. And as others have mentioned, the cops are dumb as rocks. All in all, it's just a hoot!This movie requires just a small investment of time and it's worth every minute of it.

...this brainless cheapie would deserve a much lower rating. Everything from unintentional laughs like the line about the lady who mutilated her face because she thought her electric fan was a "vibrator" to the bogus "Beat" poet at an even more bogus "Beat" nightclub to the obviously closeted psychiatrist to the blatantly misogynistic tenor of the entire proceedings just, shall we say, screams? It's all the fault of a terrible script, of course, one that was apparently written by and for the mentality of the children who were likely the primary audience. The ostensible hero is a clueless dolt, the women aren't much smarter, the central topic of hypnotism is handled with no genuine understanding whatsoever, and the ludicrous plot is rife with gigantic holes and glaring inconsistencies. Still, if you turn off your brain, the film has its charms, mostly for the nostalgia value. Pretty strictly MST3000 viewing only, but one could do much, much worse.

Something weird is happening. Reports are coming from all over town that beautiful young women are mutilating themselves--and no one, even the women, know why. The police are baffled and the trail leads to a stage hypnotist who MIGHT be giving women some sort of hypnotic suggestions to injure themselves! But why? What's all this about anyway? This is one of those films where you just need to accept the premise and go with it. Sure, you can't do evil things like this with hypnosis (I should know, as I have training in hypnosis and WOULD use it for evil if it was possible!). But, ignore this and watch this interesting little horror-suspense film--a film far better than I expected. That's because although it is a low-budget film with a cast of lesser-known actors, the script is exciting and creepy. I also liked the William Castle-style of direction--with the hypnotic eye! Just be warned--it might be a bit too creepy for small kids. Still, it's a dandy horror-suspense film.