THE PSYCHIC (1968)
Article #1679 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-19-2005
Posting Date: 3-18-2006
Directed by James F. Hurley
Featuring Dick Genola, Robin Guest, Carol Saenz

A man develops psychic abilities after he injures himself falling from a ladder.

James F. Hurley was the writer/producer of Herschell Gordon Lewis’s SOMETHING WEIRD. According to the blurb on the back of my copy of this movie, he was less than thrilled with the way Lewis handled his story, and decided to direct this one himself, hiring Lewis as a cinematographer only. One can see the movie attempting to be a serious drama, but with most of the acting on the same level as that of a movie by Lewis himself, ludicrous dialogue and bad sound, the movie was doomed. Furthermore, by trying to make a serious drama in an exploitation filmmaking environment, he found it impossible to sell the movie until some softcore porn footage was added. The movie was even retitled COPENHAGEN’S PSYCHIC LOVERS despite the fact that it doesn’t take place in Copenhagen. I suspect this title was used to make you associate the movie with some of the sexy movies coming from Scandinavia at the time. Needless to say, the result is an awkward mess, but, like Ed Wood’s GLEN OR GLENDA, you can see something more substantial trying to glimmer through. Still, the oddest thing I found about the movie is that the child actors are fairly good, which I found rather strange, since he seemed unable to coax decent performances from the adults. This one is definitely an oddity.