The Spell - Production & Contact Info (original) (raw)

A young doctor makes a superficial study of hypnotic suggestion and discovers that he has powers in that direction. He practices upon his sweetheart and her friends. One day a traveling hypnotist comes to town and the girl, Ethel, decides ...See moreA young doctor makes a superficial study of hypnotic suggestion and discovers that he has powers in that direction. He practices upon his sweetheart and her friends. One day a traveling hypnotist comes to town and the girl, Ethel, decides to see what he can do. She and her acquaintances attend the séance and Ethel offers herself as a subject. She proves an amenable medium and her beauty appeals to the hypnotist, who neglects to release her from his influence and forces her to go away with him. On hearing of the disappearance, the distracted doctor hurries to the girl's home and gets a clue from a newspaper clipping. He follows several clues, and finally traces them to a town where he sees her in a store window in a trance. He endeavors to get through the crowd, but the hypnotist influences the police and he is ordered away. He appeals to headquarters and that night attends the performance with detectives. He creates a scene when he invades the platform, but the girl, under the spell, says she does not know him and he is turned away as an impostor. Baffled and heartbroken, but determined still, the doctor pulls himself together and calming down thinks the extraordinary situation out. He keeps in touch with the faker's movements, and remembering his own hypnotic powers, determines to put them to the test. With a friend he studies and practices and finds he has a wonderful will power. He travels to where the girl is on exhibition and taking a position in the audience, concentrates his mind upon the one thing. Gradually he finds the girl uneasy at some foreign influence, turning her eyes toward him. Their eyes meet and when she withdraws her own with a gasp, she knows something is wrong. The professor is unable to get her will bent to his own and gets more and more uneasy as she fails in simple tests. The audience commences to murmur and for once the man's self-possession fails him. He looks around for opposing influence and in time encounters the doctor's penetrating gaze. He falters and is lost, for he faces a will power stronger than his own. Hysterically the man points to the doctor, telling the audience that he is the man who is ruining the performance and the people hold their breath as the doctor goes slowly to the platform and makes the wretch confess upon his knees. The police take charge of affairs, while the doctor gathers the rapidly-recovering girl in his arms. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis See less