Hypnotism Confidential

A hypnotist, masked to protect his identity, addresses the film's audience and explains that he intends to lay bare the true facts about hypnotism and also attempt an unusual experiment--the regression of a subject to twenty-four hours earlier, unusual in that most subjects are regressed much farther back in time. The hypnotist then introduces dancer Zee Zee Martine and proceeds to hypnotize her. Under hypnosis, he tells her to speak the names of the principal cast and crew members of Hypnotism Confidential . After wakening Zee Zee, the hypnotist asks her if she can tell him about a film she saw the night before. She remembers that the film begins in a bar: Customer Ed Derk shows Sylvia, a waitress, a book he has discovered on the use of hypnotism in the alleviation of pain, as well as in psychiatry and psychology. Another patron, Tony Anthonelli, is intrigued and wants to hypnotize Sylvia, but the bar's owner, Mrs. Hillary, refuses because she is aware that hypnotism can be used in unscrupulous ways. Anthonelli then succeeds in hypnotizing a young beer deliveryman by using his fountain pen as a "trigger" to induce a deep trance and gives him some post-hypnotic suggestions. Later, Anthonelli also hypnotizes his aunt, from whom he has been borrowing money, and tells her that when she wakens she will write him a check for five thousand dollars, then forget that she has done so. On another occasion, Anthonelli lures Sylvia to his apartment on the pretext that friends will be joining them there and that they will all go to a nightclub to celebrate his sister-in-law's birthday. Using the fountain pen trigger, Anthonelli hypnotizes Sylvia into believing that she just wants to be alone with him. Some time later, the district attorney's office begins an investigation into how Sylvia has, mysteriously, become pregnant. Ed and Mrs. Hillary assist in the inquiry and Sylvia remembers accepting a ride home from Ed after working late, but has no memory of the rest of that night. Ed suggests that she may have encountered someone else after he dropped her off. Meanwhile, Dr. Vincent, a psychiatrist, has examined Sylvia and reports that she definitely has a complete loss of memory regarding the night in question and theorizes that she may have been hypnotized. After Ed tells the doctor that he loaned Anthonelli the book about hypnotism, Vincent claims that by re-hypnotizing Sylvia he can unlock her subconscious and arrive at the truth. When, under hypnosis, Sylvia remembers being attacked by Anthonelli, a warrant is issued for his arrest. Meanwhile, at a striptease club in San Francisco's former Barbary Coast district, Anthonelli is watching dancer Flame Kelly and planning to hypnotize her into having sex with him. Slightly drunk, Flame invites Anthonelli to her apartment. On the way there, they meet the beer deliveryman and Anthonelli hypnotizes him into guarding the door while he and Flame are inside. However, when she resists being hypnotized, Anthonelli knocks out Flame, then drinks some more and passes out. When Flame recovers, she phones the police, who arrest Anthonelli. The film ends with the hypnotist-narrator's admonition to the audience to "Beware the hypnotist, beware the charlatan. Beware the faker because this is a power that could menace the well-being of all of us."