THE HYPNOTIC EYE

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.

Marcia 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, Marcia 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. Justine 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.

Marcia is hypnotized and nearly harmed, but Dave and Dr. Hecht intervene in time. Justine's role is exposed, and the connection between the stage show and the victims is confirmed.

The film’s finale exposes the manipulative power of stage hypnotism and its devastating effects, reinforcing skepticism about entertainment masquerading as harmless fun. By unmasking the true orchestrator and rescuing Marcia, the story warns of the dangers of unchecked psychological influence, while giving the detective’s investigation a satisfying resolution.