(1960)
Dir - George Blair
Overall: MEH
The pieces never properly come together in the hokey, gimmick-laden The Hypnotic Eye, though the film still manages to be fun at times. The opening scene is a good grab where a woman casually lights her hair on fire over a stove top. We actually end up getting a few other properly gruesome and memorable moments like this while the mystery is still hovering over us. Sadly, once it is revealed what is going on, the payoff is about as underwhelming as it gets. It almost seems like large chunks of the script were not filmed to successfully convey what was happening. The movie actually consulted noted pioneer in hypnotism Gil Boyne to stage its numerous scenes where Jacques Bergerac hypnotizes both the people in the movie and the members of the theater audience, looking directly into the camera as part of its "Hypnomagic" gimmick. Unfortunately though, the big moment of this comes near the end and goes on for an excruciatingly boring ten minutes, sucking all of the life out of what was meant to be a heart-racing finale. Elsewhere, the lack of plot development and mostly wooden performances do not help much on the engaging front. Still, director George Blair and cinematographer Archie R. Dalzell do put together a small handful of creepy scenes. James Lipton's real-life beatnik dad Lawrence even shows up in one of them, coming off as pretentious as one would imagine.
(1961)
Dir - Ralph Brook
Overall: MEH
Though it is likeable in several respects, Bloodlust! has a few too many unmistakable flaws to truly stand out amongst the plethora of Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" adaptations. Wilton Graff is distinguished looking enough yes, but his performance as the film's villain is rather stiff, while the rest of the cast who is trapped on his island do not come off any more exciting either. The plot holes though are numerous and large. There are many opportunities to easily thwart Dr. Balleau's diabolical plans which he leisurely explains to them while sitting at his desk with no henchman around and everyone that he announces that he is going to hunt and kill just stand right next to him and listen patiently. Just tackle and beat up the guy already, or at the very least restrain him. Such moments are frequent and it is never NOT silly how nonchalantly everyone just goes along with a lunatic trying to murder them as they are left to rather freely roam around. Surprisingly, the film takes itself somewhat seriously though, is pretty briskly paces, and has some clever design work like the doctor's hidden trophy room, (even if the cave walls are clearly just large sheets of crumpled up paper). The embarrassing aspects of it keep it somewhat fun and it is hardly the worst movie MST3K ever tackled, though tackle it they did.
(1966)
Dir - William Beaudine
Overall: MEH
Filmed in eight days along with Jesse James Meets Frankenstein, (and released on the same day as part of a double bill), Billy the Kid Versus Dracula is the type of B-movie that is clearly designed to spark interest on its desperately hokey title alone. Sandwiching the western and horror film together was not anything new by 1966, yet it still was not a well-mined genre mash-up either. The alluring nature on paper here does not much matter in the end as it is too cheaply made and too flawed to maintain one's interest, let alone become any sort of memorable vampire movie. It must be said though that John Carradine, (back reprising his role as the undead Count for the first time since Universal's House of Dracula twenty-one years earlier), is actually kind of menacing in his early moments. That is before he is given too much dialog and the movie's generous script blunders become overwhelming. The vampire mythos are not clearly defined either as Carradine talks about sleeping all day yet clearly has no problem getting around at night. Also, random townsfolks seem to know vampire lore and the ending is laugh out loud dumb with Billy the Kid throwing a gun at Dracula, knocking him to the ground, and then a bat is scene flying away, (?!?) after Dracula is shown still on the floor where he turns into a skeleton after being staked. Sure, why not?
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