Heffernan - Hypnosis Horror

The Hypnosis Horror Films of the 1950s: Genre Texts and Industrial Context
Author(s): KEVIN HEFFERNAN

Source: Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 54, No. 2/3 (SUMMER/FALL 2002), pp. 56-70
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of the University Film & Video Association
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The Hypnosis HorrorFilmsof the 1950s: Genre Texts and

IndustrialContext
KEVIN HEFFERNAN
horror fans of the baby-boomgeneration

were excited in1998when VCI Home Video
VHS and laser
released fullyrestored,letterbox
disc editions ofHorrorsof theBlackMuseum
originally
(i960), a psychologicalhorrorfilm
distributedto theatersand televisionbyAmeri
can International
Pictures (fig.1).Of particular
interestto fanswas the restorationof a twelve
minute prologue,missing foryears fromtelevi
sion prints,featuringa lectureon and demon
strationof hypnosisby "renownedpsychiatrist"
Dr. Emile Franchel.1Francheltalksabout hyp
notic suggestion,and thenhe speaks with a
youngwoman underhypnosis,who giggles and
states thatshe "feltfine,"while the camera
focuses on threehypodermicneedles inserted
intothe fleshypartof herarm. Finally,the doc
torturnsto the camera, inorder to place the
filmaudience undera hypnotictrance.All of
thiswas to demonstrate"HypnoVista,"
which
a
trance
terror
the
into
of
audience
places
througha carefulorchestrationof color, light,
music,
and sound.
Inreality,
HypnoVistawas yetanother
threadbaremarketinggimmickused bydistrib
kevin
heffern
ma-Television
an
teaches
in the Meadows
Southern Methodist
in the Division
School
of Cine
of the Arts at
University. His essays
have
Reviewof
Quarterly
appeared inCinemaJournal,
He is co
Film and Video, and other publications.
screenwriter and associate
producer of the docu
mentary feature Divine Trash, which won the Film
makers'Trophyat the1998 Sundance Film
Festival. Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold, his book on

horror films of the 1950s and 1960s, is forthcom
ing from Duke University Press.
56
utorsof low-budgethorrorfilmsboth to differ

entiate theirproductfromitshost of competi
torsand to exploit the public's fascinationwith
the unprecedented?and since unequalled
technological innovationscharacteristicof Hol
lywood inthe 1950s. Otherexamples of this
kindof hype include"Psycho-Rama," inMy
WorldDies Screaming (1958), an effortby How
co International
to cash inon themid-1950s
over
subliminaladvertising;"Hyp
controversy
no-Magic,"
an extended
audience-hypnosis
sequence inAlliedArtists'TheHypnoticEye
(1959); and "Percepto," themost famous of
producerWilliam Castle's gimmicks, inwhich
viewersofColumbia's The Tingler(1959)were
wired
subjected tomild electricshocks from
theaterseats. Inaddition to these hypnosis
themedpublicitystunts,these films,and doz
ens of others, fromShock (1947) to Invasionof
theBody Snatchers (1955), from/Ufasa Teen
age Werewolf{i^si) toHouse on Haunted Hill
(1958) and Peeping Tom (1959), replaced the
traditionalevilmanipulatorof the thriller
and
themad scientistof the horrorfilm,
with the
schemingormisguided psychiatrist.
Why did popularized discourses of psychiatry

coalesce around the narrativesand publicity
effortsof the low-budgetshocker inthisperi
od? One explanation isofferedbyMark Jencov
ich inRationalFears: AmericanHorrorin the
1950s.2
Jencovich argues
that a crucial
compo
nentof 1950s horrorinboth fictionand film is

the fearof the increasingtop-downmanage
ment of both economic and psychic lifeinratio
nalized, postwarAmerica.RationalFears offers
a persuasive rangeof evidence to support this
JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO
54-2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
productto play. Inaddition, both the star sys

temand thegenre filmwere undergoingsignifi
cant changes: many aging stars of the studio
erawere not being replaced byyoungerones
able to bringaudiences intothe theaters,and
filmswithout stars soughtotherelements to
emphasize intheirpublicity.Similarly,the tele
castingof several studio's pre-1948film librar
ies, includingUniversal's horrorhitsof the
and
1930s
had made
1940s,
younger moviego
with genre con
ers familiar, even over-familiar,
for
ventions thathad sustained the horrorfilm
outlandish plots and
decades. The increasingly
publicitystuntscharacteristicof the hypnosis
filmswere a response to both of these develop
ments. Finally,the hypnosisfilms'use of the
figureof the evil psychiatristand the incorpora
tionof hypnosisand magic intopublicitydis
courses
represent
a particular
inflection of nar
rativeand stylisticelements of the horrorfilm

present fromitsverybeginnings.
"The Horror?The Horror": Film Exhibition
and Distribution in the 1950s
*CnemaScop?
?. COLOR
Figure .The 1998 video release of Horrors of the

Black Museum showcased art and ad copy inspired
by American International Pictures' i960 publicity
campaign
for the film. Blair and Associates,
Ltd.
thesis and draws supportingexamples fromall

sub-genres
of horror and
science
fiction. Jen
covich concludeswith an analysis ofPsycho

(i960), resituatingHitchcock'sfilmas a culmi
nationof, ratherthana break from,1950s dis
courses on psychic lifeand criminalpathology.
Ithinkthis isonlypartof a largerexplana
tion, however.
As would
from the low-budget,
many
genre
other examples
cinema
of the peri
od, thiscycleoffilmsofferssignificantinsight
of theaesthetic,
intothe complex interweaving
and
economic
historiesof
technological,social,
American filmduringthe industry's
precipitous
and sustained decline inbox-officeattendance
afterthewar. Thiswas a timewhen themajor
studios cutback drasticallyon production,and
theatersoftenfoundthemselveswith little
54-2-3
The success of the low-budgetgenre cinema in

the 1950s was
due,
in large part, to the curtail
ment of productionby themajor studios. Ac

cordingtoGaryEdgerton,the period between
1953 and 1968 saw a consistentand sustained
decline inmovie attendance intheUnited
States.3As a result,themajors produced fewer
featureseveryyear,and more of these films
were
expensive
nology
blockbusters
such as widescreen,
showcasing
stereo
sound,
tech
and
color.Productionfellsteadily:479 features in
1940,379 in1950, 271 in1955, and an all-time
lowof 224 in1959.4The effortsof exhibitorsto
withstand thisperiod of fewerreleases and
decliningattendance includedstrategiesas
diverse as cultivatingtheyouthaudience,
financing
their own productions,
and
sensa
tionalizingtheiradvertising.
Both exhibitorsand distributorsactively
courted theyouthaudience, bymid-decade the
most loyalbox-officepatrons. By the summerof
1957,movie attendance byyoungadults and
middle-aged patrons had drasticallydeclined.
/ SUMMER/FALL
2002
57

A poll conducted byAlfredP?litz Research, Inc.,

and presented inMotion PictureHerald re
vealed that"52.6 percentof thosewho attend
movies
a week
once
or more
are 10 to 19 years
of age." The same surveyconcluded thatthe

statistically"typicalfrequentmoviegoer"was
"a teenager inhighschool,who comes froma
well-off,and perhaps
familythat isfinancially
which intendsto send him (orher) to college."5
ofAIP,point
JamesNicholson and Sam Arkoff,
ed out toMotion PictureHerald in1957 thatthe
filmsofferedto theyouthaudience "must not
seem
ever, under any circumstances,
to have
been especially chosen forthem,conditioned

to theiryears,or equipped with special mes
sages." Thus, the formulafortheAIP program
merwas to provide the familiarB-picture
science
genres?horror,
fiction, action-adven
ture?but to present them inways thatdistin

guished themfromtheirtelevision,radio,or
comic
book versions.6
Stars remainedvital to thefilm industryin

thisperiod of rapidchange. However,theaging
stars fromthe studio erawere onlyslowlybeing
replaced byyoungerstarswith box-officeap
peal
to younger
audiences.
In 1956,
the exhibi
tortradegroupAllied States Organizationbe

moaned the lackof "new faces" as an industry
illat leastas devastatingas the cutbacks in
production.7
This "star shortage"
was
seen
as a
criticalcomponentof the "productshortage" of

the 1950s,8
because
without
a star, even
moderatelybudgeted filmwas treated inthe

the
marketplace likea programmer.Further,
abandonment of "B" filmproductionby the
means bywhich
majors eliminated the primary
those studios nurturednew talent.9As Trueman
Rembusch, formerpresidentof NationalAllied,
told theSenate Small Business Committee in
1956, "The lifebloodof themotion picturethe
ater has always been the introduction
of new
attract
that
hordes
of
fans.
Limit
personalities
of
the
ing
production picturespreventedthe
development of new talentand has broughton,
since 1947, the spectacle of thegrandma and
grandpa entrenchedstars acting likeyoung
sters, to the distaste of the important
teen-age
patrongroup.As my 18-year-olddaughter says,
58
'ClarkGable and JoanCrawfordacting like

young
lovers. Ugh!'"10
Sensational contentand wild promotional

gimmicks like"Psycho-Rama" and "Hypno
Vista" were, ineffect,end-runsaround the
absence of stars inthe films.11
Thomas Doher
ty, inTeenagers and Teenpics, quotes an ad
vertisingdirectorfora distributorof horror
filmswho saw the advantages of a movie post
er that was
independent
of stars or even
narra
tivecontent: "This is somethingwe can really

get our teeth into,"said the unnamed ad man:
we have a batch of filmswithout

"Here, finally,
stars.
We can build our ads around the
any big
"horror"angle, the picture itself,ifyouwill.
We don't have toworryabout having the play
ers' names inthe same typesize as the titleof
the picture itself,or about the position of the
star's head inthe ads. It'sall pure punch,with
no dilution."12
Statements likethiswere partof a growing

that itsadvertis
perceptionwithin the industry
ingand promotionaltechniqueswere behind
the times. In1955, an editorial intheScreen
Producers'GuildSPG Journalsuggested, "Mo
tionpictureadvertising is farbehind themotion
pictureparade. To surviveand thrive,films
have to adjust to an ever-changingpattern:but
theiradvertising isstillcut fromthe same
musty mold."13
saw
Consequently,
the 1950s
shooting,
and editing?and,
thegrowthof ad campaigns, exploitable titles,

and poster art thatpreceded the castingor
even scriptingof the films.
An increasedattentionto trailers
was partof
concern.The importanceof
this industry-wide
trailersinthe promotionof featureswas under
scored by national polls taken in1957 and 1958
Al Sidlingerand Co. The
by public relationsfirm
polls foundthat ina 19-weekperiod,35 percent
offilmgoerssurveyed in1957,and 43 percent in
1958, cited the traileras a primaryreason they
had attended a particularfeature.14In1955,
Frank
Whitbeck, head of the trailerdepartment
atMGM, toldMotion PictureHerald thathe and
his departmentfolloweda filmthroughall of its
phases?writing,
when thefilmreached the roughcut stage,

"[sat] downwith the staffand kick[ed]the pic
54-2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
turearound. How arewe going to sell itto the

public?"1*
By contrast,AlP's HermanCohen, freshfrom

the huge success of /Was a TeenageWerewolf,
toldTimemagazine in1958 thatthatfilm'scat
alog of attractionshad formedthebasis forits
publicitycampaign and, later,itsstory."I al
ways thinkof the titlefirst,"he said. "The story
comes last.Afterthe titlecome the advertising
ideas?the gimmick,the illustrations[andpre
sumably,the trailer],forthese arewhat get the
kids intothe theater.Then comes the story?
and everydrop of blood and graveyardshudder
must be as advertised." Cohen, likehis bosses
wore themantle of the
Nicholson and Arkoff,
mountebank showman proudly.Arkoff
defend
ed theiradvertisingpolicywith the assertion
that"the film industryisa carnivalbusiness
and itmust deal thereforeincarnivalterms."16
Ina 1955 lettertoMotion PictureHerald, an
exhibitor
writes, "TraileradvertisingisNo. 1 in
forpublicizinga picture. Itreaches the
book
my
of
those
eye
you've hooked as movie pa
logicalfactorsaffecta person's decision toat

tenda theater";the "clues" uncoveredwould
help exhibitorsachieve "maximumattendance
foreach attractionduring itsrelease."19 In1957,
the advertisingmanager forMGM addressed
theAlumniAssociation of Post Graduate Hospi
tal inNewYorkand suggested thatmoviegoing
should be partof the pharmacopoeia. Accord
ingto theatermanagerWalter Brooks, theMGM
man "stressed the therapeuticvalue ofgoing
out to themovies, and urged thedoctors to
recommendthe tranquilizingscreen and to
prescribepictures insteadof pills."20
"You Must Become Caligari!" Cinema of

Attractions and theMonstrateur
The two figureslurkinginthe paragraphs
above, the carnivalbarkerand the clinicalpsy
chiatrist,have a longand storiedhistoryinthe
horrorgenre.The carnivalbarker,with his direct
address and broad theatricalgestures,pre
dates the cinema; he is the bridgebetween the
normalworld of the spectatorsand theexag
world of the car
gerated and oftenfrightening
trons."17
Thiswishful referencetomind control
and addiction isnot coincidental.By the end of
the decade,
exhibitors
and
trade
journals were
nival attraction.
Madison Avenue had

insistingthatthe insights
gleaned fromclinicalpsychologybe broughtto
bear on themoviegoing public.Of particular
interest to several
exhibitors
and
trade publica
tionswas motivationanalysis, a growingfield

of researchthatattemptedboth to uncoverthe
preconscious
and
motivations
unconscious
behind a person's consumptionhabits and to

design advertisingcampaigns thatwould ap
peal to thosemotivations. In1956, theTheater
Owners
of America,
an exhibitor
trade organiza
tion,hiredpromotionalconsultantClaude Mun
do as an administrative
assistant.
At theTOA's annual meeting inLosAngeles,

Mundo asserted, "Mentalmanipulation iswhat
the industry'sshowmen need."18 JuliusGordon,
ownerof the Jefferson
Circuitof centralTexas,
that
this
be a fertilefield,and
would
suggested
trade journalpublisherMartinQuigley called
for"a studybyone of theorganizationsspecial
would at
izinginmotivationalanalysis [that]
tempttofindout preciselyhow these psycho
54-2-3
At a crucial moment
early
in
TheCabinetofDr. Caligari, the evilmountebank

exhortsthe fairgoersto enterhis tentto see the
somnambulistCesare: "Step up! Step up! The
cesare,
amazing
years,
is about
who
has slept
to awake:
for twenty-five
this!" He
Don't miss
pulls back the tentflapwith his cane togesture

the audience inside (fig.2). Insidethe tent is
yetanotherdoorway,beyondwhich stands an
box: using an identicalges
upright,coffin-like
ture,themountebankopens the coffinto reveal
Cesare and points to himwith his cane. Cali
barker, isalso themaster of
gari, the fairground
the asylum; thefinal imprisonment
of the pro
tagonist,Francis,followsa parallel succession
of diminishingspaces: fromtheyardof the
asylum, to the halls inside,to Francis'cell, and
finallyto his straightjacket.
These interlocking
and diminishingspaces
are mirroredinthefilm'snarrationalspace.
Within the space opened by the intertitle
that
introducesthefilm,"A tale of themodem re
/ SUMMER/FALL
of an 11th century myth,"
appearance
2002
59

exists
Inhiswork on the preclassical cinema,An

dr? Gaudreault has writtenof the two "diver
gent
remained
that have
regimes"
co-present
throughoutthe historyof film.The first,"exhi

bitionist
by a
is characterized
confrontation,"
seeminglyunmediated rapportbetween the

viewer
the onscreen
and
re
This
spectacle.
gime is the basis of the cinema of attractions,

which, according to Eisenstein and others,
was capable of elicitingan immediatephysio
logical response fromthe spectator inthe
Figure 2. The sinister mountebank Caligari, flanked
by a poster depicting the somnambulist Cesare,
pulls back the flap of his tent to usher fairgoers
inside. Werner Krauss inCabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1919). G. William Jones Rim and Video Collection,
Southern Methodist University.
manner
of a fairground
tury. The
psychiatrist's
face. Werner
considerably
more menacing
Krauss'
look almost
directlyintothe camera suggests yetanother

space, the space of the theaterand the audi
ence, and the lookthat linksthese spaces is
than Kracauer's
descriptionof "allmildness."21 Infact,this look

intothe camera replaysfortheviewerone of
moments inFrancis'story:
themost frightening
the revelationthatCaligari is the head of the
asylum,a factcommunicatedby a direct look
intothe camera thathad been cued to Francis'
the look intothe
subjectivity.Inthe horrorfilm,
camera
is the inverse of the genre's
other cen
tral icon,the unseen threatbehind thedoor.

The lookextends the paranoidworld of thefilm
forwardintothe space of the audience; the
closed door extends the threatbehind the
60
regime,
"diegetic
absorp
con
by spatio-temporal
sistencyand by the use of active narrative

and
forms such
from narrative
familiar
the novel
as
the short story.23
For Tom Gunning,
one of the strongest
mark
ers of the cinema of attractionsis the direct

lookof a character intothe camera, nota look
of a subject caught unaware but a lookof inten
tion, a gesture
with brio."24 As a
"undertaken
matterof fact,as earlyas M?li?s' magical films,

the look intothe camerawas oftenassociated
with an onscreen
master
in Gaudreault's
strateur,
of illusions
(ormon
This suggests
phrase).
thatthe propertyof showing,ormonstration,

was often inscribedintothediegeticworld of
thefilm itselfinthe formof a figureor charac
ter,likeCaligari,who controlsand changes the
space around him (such figureswere virtually
alwaysmale). Of course, the direct lookat the
audience suggested theontological impossibil
itythatmonstrateurand audience could share
the same
Thus,
spatial
and
temporal
continuum.
of the cinema
the co-presence
of attrac
tionswith the cinema of diegetic absorption

often
involved
a complex
reciprocal
relation
ship betweenmonstrateurfigures inthe dieget

icworld
and
narrational
the overarching
and
stylisticprocesses of thefilmas a whole.

In the horrorfilm, many
features
of a presen
tationalmode thatpredates the cinema (the

emphasis
on the narrative's
status
as a tale,
of the pro
thealmost ritualizedforegrounding
cesses
screen.22
second
is characterized
tion,"
agents
Francis'snarratedtale of the hypnotistCaligari

and themurderofAlan byCesare. On thisdi
egetic level,Caligari isbothmountebank show
man and insanepsychiatrist.Insideof thisnar
rativeisCaligari's diary,which tellsof his own
hallucinationthathe "mustbecome Caligari"
and provokeCesare to commitmurder.At the
end of the film,Francis is revealedas a patient
intheasylum,and Caligari is revealed to be the
benevolent psychiatrist.
The doctor thenan
nounces thathe "now know[s]how to cure"
on the
Francis,and the filmends with an iris-in
Exhibition
spectacle.
was the dominantmode of

istconfrontation
the preclassical cinema of the turnof the cen
of narration,
even
54.2-3
the embodiment
of
/ SUMMER/FALL
2002

these
the classical
of attractions,
"theatrical
empha
of shock or sur
the direct stimulation
sizing
In an
of unfolding
prise at the expense
a
universe."25
ating
diegetic
a story or cre
mirroring of the space
The direct address's
of
the storyand the space of the spectator,with a
inWarning
Shadows
program
in the 1930s
"masters
of ceremonies"
in the 1950s.
These
and
1940s,
and
for the
of E.C. horror comics
the horror genre's
eruptions
in Richmond,
run forAIP's
The zombie
the film's premiere.
eyes.27 The
had hollow
fly's green
eyes.
In addition,
the theater manag
from a local exterminator,
borrowed
me out! Let me out!"28

A similar principle
tralized
the more
governed
used
promotion
trailers and one-sheet
the theatrical
artwork for the releases
horizontal?We
voice
who
magician,
erup
determines
were
in "We control the
(as
control the vertical")
is also
fair,William
us with
Castle,
itinerant sorcerers
Arkoff, and other
their stare and
of the film's highlights,
3). Gunning
remain
closed
diegesis
spective
the attempt
space
used
strategies
to break open
of the screen,
of the main
to extend
tiveness,
age
dressed
as Dracula,
models
Frankenstein,
and
implicit sadism
l/l/erewo/f
producer
Herman
the gruesome
Cohen
doubt
and misogynis
ticmurderset pieces ofHorrorsof theBlack
the film's
Museum,
or actors
or other
54?2_3
youth parlance,
lessly conceived
frontedby "displays consistingof skeletons,
coffins and gravestones,
(1924).29
of the horror
distributors
of theirpromotionsfora timefaroutstripped
anythingattemptedby themajor studios. Teen
the en
lobby, or street. Pro

of horror films were often con
inBen-Hur
attractions
filmhad so refinedthistropethatthe sugges
by
into the theater,

viewers
of a
Boston theaterthatactuallyposted a timetable
of the
exhibitorsto promotethe horrorfilm
1950s was
cine
mesmerize
their inviting gestures.
common
in the classical
ma:
he gives
an example
from the 1920s
Samuel
Mountebanks and Monstrateurs: Horror

Gimmicks in the 1950s
of the most
that currents of the cine
has noted
ma of attractions
By the mid-1950s,
One
Filmgroup,
distributors
called the "fourSEEs approach" (fig.

uelArkoff
the
of the horror film's publicity and promo
the Holstenwall
smaller
by hyperbole and a
a method Sam
often characterized
catalog
tion. LikeCaligaristandingoutside his tentat
and
International,
Interna
of American
Crown
see and hear
Strong
lyinfluencedby the traditionof the fairground

showman,
tive both to impel and

tions. This sideshow
cen
by distributors.
tional, Allied Artists, Astor Pictures,
what we
one of
which pleaded througha tape recording,"Let
and spec
those
of a
the impression
light, creating
tacle and, on the other, the efforts of the narra

to contain
Vir
Voodoo
er displayed twooversizemodels of houseflies
on the one hand,

of shock
a healthy
in the display
a green
was
carnival barkers, warlocks,

psychiatrists,
of the
and hypnotists, can be seen as emblems
between,
feature of horror
Theater
RitzTheater inTiffin,
Ohio, promotedTheFly
(1958) byenclosing thebox officeexcept forthe
speaking hole inthe front.Insidethe box office
ously
forces that mediate
before
woman
figures, vari
Caligari-like
displays.
week
(1922), Mystery
of theWaxMuseum (1933),Dead ofNight

(1945), and Curse of theDemon (1957). Italso
provided theorganizingprincipleforArchObol
er's highlysuccessful LightsOut! radiohorror
often a prominent
The Booker
stimulated
charac
the eyes of the mon
ster were
ginia,
in horror films over the next several
recurred
decades,
of the direct address
Woman (1957) by using a life-sizeddisplay a
in between,
standing
hypnotist-monstrateur
instance
teristic of the horror genre,
display
the serving of
cocktails.'"26
'courage
over narrative absorption,
dominates
and
with first-aid equipment,
that
has argued
Gunning
system.
in the cinema
fictionalfiends,nurses stationed inthe lobbies
or trickster)
in a magician
textual features
continue to existalongside (and often in

mode of
conflict
with) themore self-effacing
/ SUMMER/FALL
before
as well
as
the screenplay
its HypnoVista
was written.
gimmick,
"It actually
putsYOU inthe Picture.Can you stand it?"

screams thevideo box inad copy inspiredby
the film's one-sheet
2002
poster.
6l

Below
this, iswrit
ûm^^s^s^
ÎfPIsssg^^^^Kj
ten "HypnOvista,"
with a sinister,hypnotizing
eye inthe centerof the "o." Then, below this,a
breathless
elaboration
of the film's attractions.
"SEE-the
Vat of Death!
See-The
Bin
Fantastic
ocularMurder! Feel?The IcyHands! Feel?The

TighteningNoose!"
This ascendancy of the cinema of attractions
at the expense of the cinema of narrativeinte
grationwas to become one of the strongest
markers
of the genre's
low-cultural
status.
The
hypnotisthucksterwas nota welcome figureon

the American
cultural scene.
Concurrent
with
thefilm industry's
attemptto reachout forau
diences (pun intended)throughbaroque stunts
and outrageous gimmickswas the controversy
over subliminaladvertising,partof a larger
concernover the increasingly
sophisticated
means
of alleged
mind
control and brainwash
ingused by both ad agencies at home and to

talitarianregimesabroad. Many filmsof the
period attemptedto exploit the fearof hypnosis
and the dissolutionof personalitythroughthe
characterof theevil psychiatrist;at
recurring
the same time,Vance Packard, inTheHidden
Persuaders,was outliningthe extenttowhich
the desires
of consumers
were
being manipu
62
?jj^î
?oml?:?rLeagTt
Ce?ter
(195^'w,sdcoj|sin
latedby the "depth psychologists"employed

by ad agencies.
Packard topped the 1957 bestseller listswith

his expos? of the advertising industry'scynical
manipulationof consumers throughtechniques
learnedfrompsychologyand psychiatry.Itwas
"depth psychology,"the studyof preconscious
and unconscious
fears and desires,
that provid
ed the scientificbasis formotivationanalysis.30

Accordingto Packard,by theearly1950s, adver
tisingagencies and marketingfirmshad begun
to retain large numbers
of clinical
over a modern
ismore
and academ
icpsychologistsas consultants intheirefforts

to develop ad campaigns thatbypassed the
rationaland criticalfacultiesof consumersand
zeroed inon theirhidden, even unknown,fears
and desires. Packard's portrayalof depth psy
chologistsand advertisingexecutives lordingit
Bedlam
than metaphor
ic:early inthe book, he describes a "research

director of a major
ad agency,
a tense
tweedy
man [whohad] once worked as an aide inan

insane asylum!"31
InPackard's demonologyof Caligari-likehyp

notists,themain villain isDr. ErnestDichterof
the Institute forMotivational
54-2-3
Research,
Inc.,
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
one of the so-called fathersof depth analysis.

Packard portraysDichter's lairas a gothiccas
tle,completewith a panopticonworthyof Fritz
Lang's Dr.Mabuse: "His headquarters,which
can be reached onlybygoing up a roughwind
ingroad,are atop a mountain overlookingthe
River, near Croton-on-the-Hudson.
Hudson
It is
a thirty-room
field-stonemansion where you
are apt to see childrenwatchingTVsets. The TV
roomhas concealed screens behindwhich un
seen observers sometimes crouch,and tape
recordersare planted about to pick up the chil
dren's
happy
or scornful
comments."32
The carnybarkersof themovie business

were described by the popular press interms
similarto Packard's condemnationof Dichter.A
i960 article inTime refersto Nicholson and
ofAIP as "the leadingmagicians inthe
Arkoff
field"and claims thatNicholson,Arkoff,
and
Cohen are "the threeMerlins."33A1958 Variety
headline asked, "Is theCarnyCome-OnNeces
of hucksterismand magic
sary?"This linking
has a longtraditioninAmericanculture.Jack
son Lears, inFables ofAbundance: A Cultural
HistoryofAdvertisinginAmerica, refersto the
emergence
of advertising
in nineteenth-century
Americaas "themodernizationofmagic," and

traces the riseof the itinerant
patent-medicine
salesman and his carnivalbarker'saddress to
buyers:
prospective
"The desire
(1958) containedelements of theBrideyMur

phymotif(derived, inthiscase, fromits literary
source,D'Entre lesMorts, byBoileau/Narcejac).
In1957,AIP used BrideyMurphyelements in
TheUndead, She Creature,and /Was a Teenage
Werewolf.The psychiatristineach of these nar

rativeswas looselybased on Caligari.
In1958, small distributor
Howco Internation
al released a double featureof the showbiz
melodrama Lost,Lonely,and Vicious and the
William Castle-derivedshockerMy WorldDies
was an attemptto capital
Screaming. The latter
izeon the controversy
surroundingsubliminal
perception inadvertising,and itclaimed to
their companies.
appeal
part of con
America."
By the 1950s, pop culturehad transformed

barker intoa psy
theelixir-wielding
fairground
chiatricsorcerer.Many horrorplots of themid
1950s contained a centralmotifeitherof rein
carnationor of the regressionof the protagonist
intomonstrosity.The immediatesource of this
plotwas the best-sellingTheSearch forBridey
Murphy,which recountedthe supposed regres
sion of a youngwoman to a past life.34
The
Search forBrideyMurphy (1956)was broughtto
the screen by Paramount,and many topical
exploitationfilmsadopted the reincarnation
motif.Even prestigepicturessuch as Vertigo
54-2-3
Productions
contract
The productshortage,
nationaldistribution.35
which affectedboth first-run
and subsequent
runtheaters,had led to calls forexhibitorsto
financetheirown productions,enough fora
in nineteenth-century
Howco
ed with Hollywood independentsforfeaturesto

fillitsown theaters'schedules and foreventual
for a magical
tradition, and an essential
sumer goods'
hidden
imagesdesigned to triggerthe audience's emo

tional responses. Howcowas formedin1951,
when J.Francis
White, ownerof theConsolidat
ed Theaterchain of 31 houses inNorthCaroli
na, South Carolina,and Virginia,and JoyHouck,
ownerof the 29-house Joy'sTheaters chain in
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, merged
of the selfwas keyelement in

transformation
the continuingvitalityof the carnivalesque ad
vertising
of "Psycho-Rama,"
feature the process
/ SUMMER/FALL
year-round
supply,
and
several
regional
and
national circuitsattemptedto do so.

Howco's attemptto linkhorrorand sublimi
nal perceptionwas rightinstepwith the con
cerns of many
social
critics, who
saw
the
entertainment
and themyste
growthof horrific
riousmentalmanipulations of the culture in
dustryas fundamentallylinked.Forexample,
the 1957meeting of theNationalAssociation of
Radio and TelevisionBroadcasters' Code Re
view Board issuedwarnings to broadcasters
thatboth the use of subliminalperceptionand
the "use of horrorforitsown sake" by late
nightmovie programswere to be eliminatedby
subscribersto theCode. Ina similarspirit,the
NewYorkAssembly twiceconsidered legislation
banning the commercialuse of subliminalper
ception,once in1958 and again in1959.36
ProducerWilliam Edwardsgave a trade
2002
63

ScreeningofMy WorldDies Screaming inApril

1958 inwhich alternatescenes showed the
filmfirst
with its"subliminal"messages and
then with
and
the exaggerated
noticeable
"su
praliminal"symbols. (Thisdemonstrationwas
latermade intoa prologue forthefilm.)Of
this was
course,
pure hype and
hucksterism,
andMotion PictureHerald had a month earlier

sarcasticallypredicted that itwould soon be
possible "fora showman to tellhis patrons
they are seeing
a second-feature
the top-feature
consciously_Look
un
picture
consciously,at the same timetheyare seeing

much
man
running time, a show
film rental, and

could
save
how
that way."37
Film and Video Collection, Southern Methodist
of the pro
With itstherapeuticinvestigation
tagonist,Sheila, the narrativeofMy WorldDies
Screaming
mirrors the subliminal
moss-covered
house, as an eerie theramin

melody plays on
the soundtrack.
In a bargain
version
University.
lying on a psychiatrist's
shown
messages
aimed at theviewer.The filmbeginswith the

credits over an abandoned,
relives a re
Figure 4. Sheila (Cathy O'Donnell)
trauma
childhood
under
pressed
hypnosis inMy
World Dies Screaming (1958). G. William Jones
of the be
trauma
screen, we
ways
And through the branches of the old trees, I

can see the house again. Itsits there waiting
forme, silent, malignant,
able horror. On a mailbox
a place of unspeak
at the side of the
Ican make out the name of the people

lived there once. Tierney. But the Tier
neys must have gone away a long time ago.
And the house stands like a mouldering
house
who
tombstone
to a world
that died.
In one of the horror genre's
most
common
A
figures,the frontdoor swingsopen by itself.
handheld camerawalks up the stairsas the
voice-over
continues:
"I go up the stairway
to
findthe answer towhat has always draggedme

here." The ever-diminishing
interlocking
spaces
of the house continueas she proceeds up the

stairs,
into an alcove,
The camera
stops,
and
up to the attic door.
and Sheila
says,
"I know
why Ihad to come to thisplace."

A shock cut rendsthe soundtrackand the
visual: Sheila screams and a hypnotist'sspiral
spins itsvortex incloseup (fig.4). Sheila is
64
in her unconscious.
hidden
memory,"
voice:
coming
"Whenever
something is too unpleasant, too shamefulfor
ginningofRebecca (1940), the camera begins a

of the house. Off
slow zoom intothe front
hear Sheila's
couch,
out of a hypnotictrance.The psychiatristtells

her thatthe dream isa symptomof a terrible
us to entertain, we
reject
it,we
erase
it from our
he tells her, "but the imprint is al

there, nothing is ever really forgotten."
Here thefilmcomes as close as possible to

explaining
the Precon
process
to the viewer.
The nameless dread fromSheila's past, buried

deep inherunconscious,mirrorsthefilm's
whichwill remainbelow
subliminal"imprints,"
the levelof theviewer's consciousness yetwill
cause
nevertheless
dread
palpable,
unexplainable
and horror.
Sheila suffersfrom
memoryblackouts and
she plans to leave Switzerlandto go back to the
UnitedStates with her new husband, Phillip.
The film'scentralenigmaswill be drawn from
twodistinctbut relatedgenres: the psychologi
cal thriller
provides the neuroticprotagonist
whose unconsciousmust be probed forthe
traumaresponsible forher symptoms;and the
female gothic
furnishes
the mysterious
charac
terof Phillip,the husbandwho may ormay not

be attemptingto driveher insane,? laGaslight
(1944). The two returnto Phillip's ancestral
home inFlorida,and Sheila isparalyzedwith
fearwhen she discovers thatPhillip's house is
the house
from her nightmare.
54-2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
At the end of the film,Phillip is revealed to

be a benign hypnotist,havingbroughtSheila
back to the house where she witnessed, as a
small child,theaxe murdersof Phillip's siblings
(thesimilaritiestoMamie [1964]are striking).
The murders,we learn,were committedby Phil
initially
lip'shalf-brother,
presented as the
gothicheroine's helperand confidante.Thus,
ofSheila's unconscious
the film's investigation
an
her
with
unknown
"past life"to
provides
which she can regressunder the threatening
but beneficenteyes of Phillip.The audience is,
supposedly, subjected to series of emotional
joltsvia the "subliminal"Precon images,which
manipulations to
parallel the two trance-like
which Sheila issubjected, the hypnoticpull of
Phillip'sancestralmansion, and thepsychia
trist'svortexwheel, which begins thefilm's
present-day
narrative.
The spoken prologuewas repeated inThe

William Castle
Tingler(1959),when director
explained
that "certain
audience
members"
would experiencea tinglingsensation during

thefilm'shorrific
Then, ini960, AIP
highlights.
used theHypnoVistaprologuewith Emile
FranchelinHorrorsof theBlackMuseum. This
filmfeaturedMichael Gough as EdwardBan
who drugsand hypno
croft,a pop criminologist
tizes Rick,his youngassistant, intocommitting
a series ofgruesomemutilationmurders (the
film'sopening featuresa woman's eyes being
puncturedby spring-loadedneedles hidden ina
pairofbinoculars),which thepsychologistthen
analyzes
in books
and magazine
articles.
The
highlightsof thefilmare several highlysexual

izedmurdersthatevoke theprologue's imageof
woman with needles inherarm:
theattractive
one woman ismurderedwith icetongs inher
throat, and Bancroft's
drunken mistress
Figure 5. Caligari and his murderous somnambu

list, circa 1959. Bancroft and Rick (Michael Gough
and Graham Curnow), fromHorrors of the Black
G. William Jones Rim and Video Collec
Museum.
tion, Southern Methodist University.
out of the cabinet to injectRick,Bancroftrhap

sodizes, "It's likeeverythingelse in life.Flow
erswitherwithout sunlight,humans perish
withoutfood.Thewish to serve unquestioning
ly,thegiftof trueobedience, these too need to
be nourished,
Many
of these murderous
props
"black museum"
sinister monstrateur
Bancroft
a Teenage
54-2-3
physically
as well
as mor
Werewolf.
Bancroft'sentreatyforRicktomurder the
fianc?ewho threatenstheirrelationshipisal
most identicalto the linesspoken byDr. Bran
don to theyoung teenagewerewolf: "Rick,do
you rememberhow itwas the lasttimeand the
timebefore that?The freedom,the strength,
the black terrorinothersbut not inyou?The
masteryyou sharedwithme? [...] All thiswill
be ours once
again."
The film climaxes,
natural
ly,at a local carnival,with Rickmurderinghis

fianc?eAngela inthe tunnelof love.Trapped
likean animal on the stilled Ferris
wheel, he
as the
from
his
and
stabs
Bancroft
leaps
perch
are taken
over which
presides
Roll
ally regresses underhis spell, is identicalto the

BrideyMurphymotifs inShe Creatureand /Was
is de
as mas
terof ceremonies inseveral privatescenes with

theyoungRick (fig.5). The Caligari-Cesarerela
tionshipbetween Bancroftand Rick isgener
ously lardedwith both sadomasochistic and
homosexual overtones: takinghis hypodermic
Rick, look at me.
Extend your arm." His sway over
the young man, who
guillotine.
capitated inherbed bya jerry-built
from the secret
reinforced.
up your sleeve.
police
look on.
These motifsachieved theirmost floridand

freakishexpression inan unusually luridhorror
TheHypnoticEye (i960). The film
programmer,
was made independently
forAlliedArtistsby
/ SUMMER/FALL
screenwriter
2002
and producer William
65

Read Wood
field,who told filmhistorianTomWeaver of his

forthe filmina 2000 interview:
inspiration
I'm driving along and
I'm seeing
the white
lineon the road. I lookat thewhite lineand I

say to myself, "You know, you could make a
movie about this!" People would come into
the theater...
the picture would start...
and it'sjusta white line,just liketheone on

the road. A voice would say, "All right, every
?
just relax. Keep your eye on the white
body
line."...
[A]nd we'd keep getting them un
der deeper and deeper hypnosis. Ultimately

we'd tell them itwas the greatest movie they
eversaw intheirlifeand to tellall their

friends. Goodbye! The post-hypnotic
tion would be, "Talk itup!"38
sugges
TheHypnoticEyewas an attemptto capitalize

on thegimmicksinnovatedat AA byWilliam
Castle and on the cycleof hypnosisand mind
controlfilms Ihave justdescribed. The filmstars
JacquesBergeracas theGreatDesmond, a stage
women ina
who places attractive
hypnotist
trance onstage.
themselves
These women
at home
later mutilate
in gruesome
the film's central attractions.
"accidents,"
One woman
rinses
herhair inthegas burnerinsteadof the sink,

another
lowers her face
into an electric
ran, and
a third
washes her facewith sulfuricacid.39
A police detectiveand his partner,a criminal
psychologistfromthedepartment,investigate
themutilations,while thedetective's girlfriend
of herown afterher
begins an investigation
best friendisdisfiguredafterappearing on
stagewith Desmond. Near theend of thefilm,a
five-minute
sequence
juror'strick:theveryproducts thatDesmond's
femalevictimsare conditionedto believewill
make thembeautifulare transformedintotools
of scarificationand self-mutiliation
through
Desmond's hypnoticpower.The punishment
visitedon thesewomen isextremeeven by
modem standards (fig.6), and themutilation
scenes
are staged
beauty-care
in a manner
commercials
identical
to
of the late 1950s.
The precreditssequence of TheHypnoticEye,
inwhich
a woman
her hair in the
"washes"
flamesof gas stovetop, isa grislyparodyof a

1950s televisioncommercialforcosmetics. Like
many of the horrorfilmsfromthisperiod, the
imagesand icons inTheHypnoticEye thatsug
gest the horrorsofmind controland thedisso
lutionof personalityare strikingly
similarto the
tropesof hypnosisand thrallthatcharacterized
both advertising'stradediscourse and the
warnings about thatdiscourse inTheHidden
Persuaders. A1962 tradead inVarietyby the
CBS Television networkshows a youngwoman
peeringout froma televisionscreen as she
applies mascara to her lefteye. Infrontof the
television
set sits a young woman
with an
iden
ticalhairstyleapplyingmascara to herrighteye,
inperfectsymmetry
with thewoman onscreen,
as ifshe were looking intoa mirror(fig.7). The
tag line reads,
"A reflection of television's
er over women."41
Two of the film's most
pow
strik
ing images,the acid-scarredDodie lookinginto
similar to the "Percepto"
stunt inTheTinglershows monstrateurDes

mond inhis stage act hypnotizingboth his live
audience and presumably,by staringdirectly
intothe camerawhile speaking his incanta
tions, the movie
audience
as well.
The name
AlliedArtistsused to promotethisgimmick,
"HypnoMagic," condenses themotifsof hyp
nosis
and sorcery
into a single
phrase.40
Like theAlP's horrorfilmsof regressionand

TheHypnoticEye presents a
reincarnation,
gruesome
mirror
image of Jackson Lears'
idea
of thebuyermagically transformed
by the con
66
You too will do otrango thing* I

? ?'
when vom ??? MTHB HYPNOTIC
I
tnmALUgOAMT/STS-I
wit*Hm
mc/Mv?wM^pM*WC...
Figure 6. Ads for The Hypnotic Eye (i960) portrayed
expanded norms of female attractiveness as a
comic dystopia. Wisconsin Center for Film and
Theater Research.
54-2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
thedamage done,
themirrorand registering
and the entrancedMarcia lookingintothemir
rorat Desmond approaching frombehind, use
identicalcompositions (fig.8).
Writingthreeyears beforeTheHypnoticEye,
Packard
quoted
an unnamed
ad executive
who
pointedout thatwomen who respond to such

advertisements
"are buying a promise.The
cosmetic
manufacturers
are not selling
lanolin,
theyare selling hope."42 TheHidden Persuad

ers tellsof a studyundertakenby social-psy
chologist-turned-adman
James Vicary
to investi
gatewhywomen had drastically increasedtheir

rateof impulsebuying insupermarkets.Using
hidden cameras to observe the eye-blinkrates
ofwomen as theyshopped, Vicarymeasured
the levelof anxietyof these shoppers. Packard
describes the results:
Their eye-blink rate, instead of going up to
indicate mounting tension, went down and
down, to a very subnormal fourteen blinks a
minute. The ladies fell intowhat Mr. Vicary
calls a hypnoidaltrance,a kindof light
trance that, he explains,

is the first stage of
of these women were in
hypnosis_[M]any
such a trance that they passed by neighbors
and old friends without noticing or greeting
them. Some had a sort of glassy stare. They
were
so entranced as they wandered

about
the store plucking things off shelves at ran
dom that they would bump into boxes with
out seeing
Near the end of TheHypnoticEye,Dave at

temptsto rescue the hypnotizedMarcia from
Figure 7. "Expose the ladies to a new product on

television one day, and you can be sure theywill
be looking for it in stores the next." Trade ad for
the CBS Television Network (1962). New York Public
them.43
her lethal participation

Then,
Library.
several
minutes
in Desmond's
stage
feature Desmond,
act.
on
stage inthe theaterwithin thefilm,performing
Figure 8. Stage hypnotist

Desmond works his odi
ous continental savoir
faire on heroine Marcia.
Jacques Bergerac and
Marcia Henderson
in The
Hypnotic Eye (i960). Wis

consin Center forRim and
Theater Research.
54.2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL
2002

67
directly
into the camera
as the narrative
to a complete
stop.44 Inmedium
mond announces
that members
comes
subconscious mind." Lookingpast the camera,

he asks, "May Ihave the house lights,please?"
At thispoint, the projectionistinthe theater
showing thefilmturnsthe house lightsup to
dim. Each of the events thatfollowengage the
audience inhighlyrepetitivehandmotions
while theireyes are fixedon the screen, inat
dizziness.
Desmond
instructs
theaudience to take out the "hypnoticeye bal

loon" theywere given upon enteringthe the
ater. LikeDave, Marcia, Dodie, and Miss Scott
inthefilm,the audience inthe theaterblows
up itsballoons and ties themoff.This phase of
the trickis similarto the child's game of spin
ningaround incirclesand thenbeing bear
hugged frombehind: now out of breathand
light-headed,the theateraudience sees the
house lightsgo suddenlydown and hears Des
mond intone,"Now? Ifyou dare, look intothe
hypnoticeye!" He produces the light,shown in
extreme
close-up,
strobing
on and off and
cre
ating a vertiginousflickeringintheauditorium
as a spectral soprano voice plays on the
soundtrack.
Suddenly, a woman planted inthe theater

screams
in unison with an unseen
member
of
the audience inthefilm,and both the crowdon

the screen and, presumably,the crowd inthe
theater looknervouslyaround forthe fainted
woman. The narrativeis rapidlyre-established
with a close-up ofMarcia, staringahead under
Desmond's spell. Dave and Phil attemptto rush
the stage. Desmond and Justine,his assistant,
are killed inthe rescue attempt,and Marcia is
pulled to safety.
Breathinga sigh of relief,the benign psychi
atristPhilwalks out frombehind the curtain
and addresses the audience inboth the theater
and
the cinema:
Ladies and gentlemen, a word of warning.

Hypnosis, although an important and valu
able medical tool, can be extremely danger
68
used by untrained or unscrupulous

Therefore never allow yourself
tobe hypnotizedbyanyonewho isnotyour
of the audi
ence will now have theopportunityto "cross

the dark,mysteriousthresholdofyourown
tempt to cause
ous when
practitioners.
shot, Des
doctor or who
has not been
recommended
to
look di
you by your doctor [he turns
rectly into the camera], not even in a mo
tion-picture theater. Thank you.
The filmfades to black, and "the end" appears

over theAlliedArtists logo.Thismoment of
directaddress isvirtuallyidenticalto thefinal

shot ofCaligari and echoes the "audience
warning" featuredat the ends offilmsas dis
parate as TheTmgler,Peeping Tom,and, most
spectacularly,Psycho.
Inmany respects,themarginal but commer
ciallysuccessful low-budgetfilmsof the late
1950s and early1960s were prescientabout the
would
changes theAmericanfilm industry
over
next
two
the
decades.
The
promo
adopt
tionalgimmicksof the hypnosisfilmsand the
other featuresof thisnew cinema of attrac
tions, includingthe special effectsof the 1950s
monster and invasionfilms,foundtheirway
intothe diegesis of thegenre filmsof the 1970s
and 1980s inthe increasingly
elaborate special
effectsthatwere, formany films,oftenthe sole
focusof publicity.The "juvenilization" (inTho
mas Doherty'sphrase) ofmovies and theirthe
atrical
audiences,
begun
in the 1950s,
contin
ues to thisday.
Several distributionstrategies innovatedby
smallerstudios fortheirdownscale genre re
leases became increasingly
characteristicof
major-studio strategies intheNew Hollywood:
publicityand promotionalbudgetswould come
to dwarfthe productionbudgets ofmany re
leases. Inaddition, the hugemulti-screen
opening, used forhorrorand sci-fidouble bills
inthe 1950s and 1960s, would be adopted for
major studio releases, and many high-profile
studio filmswould play the largertheatercir
cuits duringfallowperiods inthe release calen
dar. For these
and other
reasons,
the low-bud
get genre cinema of the 1950s and 1960s isan

partof the crucialtransitionfromthe
important
decline of the studio systemto the conglomera
tionof theNew Hollywood.A detailed historyof
54.2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002
the horrorfilminthisperiodmust take into

account the changing relationshipsbetween
the production,distribution,and exhibition
branches of theAmericanfilm industry.
NOTES
. Dr. Franchel had been the host of a live television
program, Hypnosis: Adventure of theMind, in the late
1950s. Eventually, hypnosis performed on liveW was
banned by the Federal Communications Commission.

2. Mark Jencovich, Rational Fears: American Horror
in the 1950s (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1996). A
brilliant analysis of a cycle of hypnosis-themed horror

films from the 1930s is Rhona J.Berenstein^ffac/cof
the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality, and Spectator
ship in Classic Horror Cinema (New York: Columbia
UP, 1996).
3. Gary Edgerton, American Film Exhibition and an

Analysis of theMotion Picture Industry'sMarket Struc
ture, 1963-1980 (New York: Garland, 1983) 18.
4. "Hollywood Today: Pictures and Their Makers,"
Motion Picture Herald
19- "The Case forMotivation Analysis," MPH 25

Aug. 1956:3.
20. "Return toAnalytical Selling is Needed," MPH
23 Nov. 1957:35
21. Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A
oftheGermanFilm(Princeton:
History
Psychological
Princeton UP, 1947) 66.
22. Wheeler Dixon, in It Looks at You: The Returned
Gaze of Cinema (Albany: State U of New York P, 1995),
suggests a broad range of functions that can charac
terize this figure. In the book's final chapter, he likens

the controlling returned gaze to "the Gorgon's mirror"
(173).
23. Andr? Gaudreault, Du Litt?raire au Filmique:

Syst?me du R?cit (Paris: M?ridi?ns Klincksieck, 1988)
25.
24. Tom Gunning, "The Cinema of Attractions: Early
Film, ItsSpectator, and the Avant-Garde." Early Cine
ma: Space, Frame, Narrative. Ed. Thomas Elsaesser
and Adam Barker (London: BFI, 1990) 61.
25. Gunning 59.
26. "Mad, Mad Doctors 'N' Stunts," Variety 23 July
1958:7.
27. "What the Picture Did forMe," MPH 24 Aug.
(hereafterMPH) 22 October
Edition; 230
1955: *3; and "Product Shortage?1960
Features, Only 6 Over 1959," Variety 14 Sept. i960:4.
5. "P?litz Research Study Uncovers theTypical
Frequent Movie-Goer1 as Bright Teen-Ager," MPH 23
Nov. 1957:15.
6. "AIP Heads Set Sights on Teenage Patron,"
MPH 25 May 1957: 20.
1957:31.
28. "Psychology Breaks
Sept.1958:
29. Gunning 57.

30. Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders
York: David McKay, 1957) 27.
Business. Motion Picture Distribution Trade Practices,

1956 (Washington: GPO, 1957) 79.
11. "Ordinary'B' Kaput; It'sGimmick Today," Variety
22 Mar. 1961:19.
12. "Gotta Ballyhoo Horror Films or They Drop

Dead," Variety 30 July1958:4. Cited inThomas Doher
ty,Teenagers and Teenpics: The Juvenilization of
American Movies
in the 1950s (Boston: Unwin and
Hyman, 1988), 168.

13.William R.Weaver,
Richard Gehman, "The Hollywood Horrors," Cosmo

politan Nov. 1958:40.
34. See "Zombie Pix Upbeat and Durable," Variety
9 May 1956:11; and Mark Thomas McGee, Fasterand
Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable ofAmeri
can International Pictures (Jefferson,NC: McFarland,
1996) 54-55.
35. Howco's other productions throughout the
decade included the western Kentucky Rifle and Ed
Wood, Jr.'s,gangster melodrama JailBait (both 1954);
the science-fiction drama Mesa of Lost Women
according to Variety, "on the premise
(1956)?made,
that product-hungry theaters would be forced to book

anything"; the youth pic tandem Teen Age Thunder
and Corman-helmed Carnival Rock (1956); and the
horrorBrain From Planet
JohnAgar alien-possession
"Producers Ask Out Loud
About Showmanship." MPH 23 Apr. 1955: 24.

14. "The Power of Trailers," MPH 30 Mar. 1957:7;
"Say Trailers Attract 43%." MPH 11 Jan. 1958: 24.
15. Ernest Emerling, "An Appreciative Look at Movie

Trailers,'" MPH 19 Mar. 1955: 39.
16. "Is Carny Come-On Necessary?" MPH 4 Nov.
1955:15.
17.Mrs. Anna Bell Ward Olson, "Letters to the Her
ald," MPH 24 Aug. 1957: 6.
18. "RX: Psychodynamics," MPH 21 Apr. 1956:11.
54-2-3
(New
31. Packard 27.

32. Packard 31.
33. "Monstrous forMoney." Time 14 July1958:84.
ForArkoffs humorous description of this process, see
7. "Allied to Ask Producers to Create Stars," MPH 15

Dec. 1956:24.
8. "Indies Need forNew Faces Cited," Variety 25
Nov. 1959:17.
9. "Film Shortage Stems fromStar Shortage,"
MPH 24 Mar. 1956: 26.
10. United States Sen. Select Committee on Small
Into HorrorActs," MPH 6
966.
Arous (1958).
36. "New York Legislature Acts on Subliminal Ads,"
MPH 22 Mar. 1958: 26; "N.Y. BillWould Ban Sublimi
nal Advertising," MPH 12 Dec. 1959:17.
37. "Subliminal Absurdity." MPH 8 Mar. 1958:7.
38. The interview is posted on Weaver's website,
Monster:
Astounding
horror26.html.
/ SUMMER/FALL
2002
http://www.bmonster.com/
69

39? Herschell Gordon Lewis' The Wizard of Gore

(1970) bears a striking resemblance to The Hypnotic
Eye in itsuse of the hypnotist/monstrateur plot and in
itsGrand Guignol violence against the hypnotist Mon
tag^ female victims, it is unclear whether Lewis was

influenced by the earlier film orwhether he was making
use of this figure,which, as Ihave shown, predates not
only the horrorfilm proper but narrative cinema itself.

40. See Allied Artists trade ad, "You too will get the
shock of your lifewhen you see 'the hypnotic eye',"
41. CBS trade ad, Variety 24 July1962:44-45.

42. Packard 8.
43. Packard 106.
44. This scene, along with the interlude in the beat
nik coffee house, was almost always excised by local
television stations when Allied Artists put the film into
syndication as part of its "Sci-Fi for the 6os" package
in 1963.
MPH 23 Jan. i960:18.
70
54-2-3
/ SUMMER/FALL

2002

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The Hypnosis Horror Films of the 1950s: Genre Texts and Industrial Context

Author(s): KEVIN HEFFERNAN

This content downloaded from 198.102.147.100 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:16:14 PM

The Hypnosis HorrorFilmsof the 1950s: Genre Texts and

horror fans of the baby-boomgeneration

University. His essays

makers'Trophyat the1998 Sundance Film

Festival. Ghouls, Gimmicks, and Gold, his book on

utorsof low-budgethorrorfilmsboth to differ

Why did popularized discourses of psychiatry

nentof 1950s horrorinboth fictionand film is

JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO

This content downloaded from 198.102.147.100 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:16:14 PM

productto play. Inaddition, both the star sys

ers familiar, even over-familiar,

rativeand stylisticelements of the horrorfilm

Figure .The 1998 video release of Horrors of the

for the film. Blair and Associates,

thesis and draws supportingexamples fromall

covich concludeswith an analysis ofPsycho

from the low-budget,

JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO

The success of the low-budgetgenre cinema in

in large part, to the curtail

ment of productionby themajor studios. Ac

their own productions,

This content downloaded from 198.102.147.100 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:16:14 PM

A poll conducted byAlfredP?litz Research, Inc.,

of age." The same surveyconcluded thatthe

ever, under any circumstances,

been especially chosen forthem,conditioned

ture?but to present them inways thatdistin

Stars remainedvital to thefilm industryin

tortradegroupAllied States Organizationbe

This "star shortage"

criticalcomponentof the "productshortage" of

moderatelybudgeted filmwas treated inthe

'ClarkGable and JoanCrawfordacting like

Sensational contentand wild promotional

tivecontent: "This is somethingwe can really

we have a batch of filmswithout

Statements likethiswere partof a growing

thegrowthof ad campaigns, exploitable titles,

when thefilmreached the roughcut stage,

JOURNAL OF FILM AND VIDEO

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turearound. How arewe going to sell itto the

By contrast,AlP's HermanCohen, freshfrom

logicalfactorsaffecta person's decision toat

"You Must Become Caligari!" Cinema of

Madison Avenue had

tionswas motivationanalysis, a growingfield

behind a person's consumptionhabits and to

At theTOA's annual meeting inLosAngeles,

TheCabinetofDr. Caligari, the evilmountebank

pulls back the tentflapwith his cane togesture

of an 11th century myth,"

This content downloaded from 198.102.147.100 on Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:16:14 PM

Inhiswork on the preclassical cinema,An

throughoutthe historyof film.The first,"exhi

seeminglyunmediated rapportbetween the

gime is the basis of the cinema of attractions,

directlyintothe camera suggests yetanother

descriptionof "allmildness."21 Infact,this look