The Eyes of Annie Jones (1964)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
After a woman is murdered and her body hidden, another lady hires psychic Annie Jones (Francesca Annis) to try and find out who the killer is. Annie, a teenaged girl, isn't your typical psychic as she also has a sleepwalking problem, which might help with the case. THE EYES OF ANNIE JONES has a pretty weak story that one would have a hard time building a twenty-minute short around let alone a feature length film. Even at just 73-minutes this film really drags its feet with non-stop boring dialogue and an ending that is pretty disappointing as well. I'm really not sure what they were trying to do with this thing but perhaps they just wanted to make a film around this teenaged character in hopes that more films could follow. Whatever the reason, there's not enough story here to carry the picture and after a good opening sequence showing the murder, we're then treated to a bunch of scenes with people talking on and on about stuff that just isn't all that interesting. This includes the creepy David Wheeler (Richard Conte) and his attraction to the young girl. The Annie Jones character has some interesting things about her, including the sleepwalking, but nothing ever really comes to life. The performances are good for the most part with Conte and Joyce Carey doing a nice job. Annis was very much good in the role and she's certainly watchable but it's too bad she wasn't given more. Director Reginald Le Borg (THE BLACK SLEEP) can also take some of the blame as the film looks pretty flat and there's just no energy to be found in it.
