When Freud abandoned hypnosis as a means of accessing the unconscious in 1909, he forgot to tell the motion picture industry. The evil mesmerist became the regular villain of one-reelers of early cinema. Hypnosis signified loss of control, its dark powers preying upon the innocent. It could be performed by ‘foreigners’ such as Dr Fu Manchu (in over 15 films), but most hypnotists were well-heeled professionals. Any dramatic impact of the unmasking of these charlatans was heightened by giving them trusted medical status. The crossover with psychiatry was established early: Dr Mabuse from Dr Mabuse the Gambler (1922, six remakes) is credited as cinema's first psychoanalyst.
Hypnotists stole and defrauded (The Magician, 1926), but ‘taking advantage of the ladies’ was their central activity, beginning with Under the Hypnotist's Influence (1897). Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Germany, 1919; pictured) was at once a horror show and Nazi metaphor – the director spiked it with verbatim quotes from Mein Kampf. The Nazis' detestation of both this film (banned as ‘degenerate art’) and psychiatry are documented elsewhere. In the decade ending 1939, three-quarters of screen hypnotists were either evil or mad, and mostly both. Though hypnosis helped Fred Astaire's love life and dancing in Carefree (1938), it framed an innocent woman in Whirlpool (1949) and facilitated low espionage in Masterplan (1955) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962).
Given this popularity and its appearance in children's animation, Jungle Book (1967) and Robin Hood (1973), hypnosis is probably the most (mis)represented of all ‘psychiatric treatments’ on film. It remains a popular narrative ploy, mostly in thrillers – Dead Again (1991) and the Bourne trilogy (2002–07) – where no smart money is bet on the integrity of the hypnotist. In Stir of Echoes (1999) and countless dissociative identity disorder films, hypnosis is the catalyst for libidinous mayhem. Movie hypnosis is seldom used for good (Inner Sanctum/Calling Dr Death 1943) – as with the television news maxim, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’. Its power is ferocious – in Silence of the Lambs (1991), psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter is able to induce suicide in a detested fellow prisoner whom he cannot see, separated by several layers of bars and glass. Go figure.
Still of evil Dr Caligari on left; somnambulist (centre) is Conrad Veidt, with Jane on right; image courtesy London Features International.
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