Professor Sam Constable (Ray Milland) is a leader in the cybernetic industry and is married to Lenore (Gene Tierney). The couple’s only daughter, Mary (Pamelyn Ferdin) died a few months ago. Sam visits his daughter’s grave regularly. One evening, on his way home from the cemetery, Sam hears his dead daughter’s voice. He then sees her image standing in the middle of the road. He swerves and wrecks the car. His daughter’s ghost tells him that she hates being dead. She then disappears.
Dr. Alex Lauder (Don Murray) is a paranormal psychologist and expert in ESP research. His boss, Dr Frank Ferguson (George Macready), is a friend of Sam’s. Frank asks Alex to investigate Sam’s story. Alex visits the Constable home and meets Lenore and the family housekeeper, Helga (Virginia Christine). While he is there he is also introduced to Lenore’s doctor, Dr. Paul Cryder (Ivor Barry) who has been treating Lenore’s arthritis. Later he talks to Cryder’s daughter, Tina (Barbara Dana) to see if she can shed any light on the strange happenings. He spends some time gathering data.
Alex finds out that Sam is being watched by U.S. counterintelligence agent, Saul Wiener (Edward Asner) and his team. It turns out that the work that Sam is doing is being used by the government for defense. Saul is concerned that a foreign government may be looking to stop Sam from continuing his work by messing with his mind.
The Constables are contacted by Arnold Bessmer (William Beckley) and his wife, Devi Bessmer (Cecile Ozorio). Arnold tells Sam that his wife is a medium and can contact their dead daughter. The Constables allow Arnold and Devi to have a séance in their home. During the séance Mary’s spirit manifests. She tells her father that the spirits won’t let her visit her father anymore because of the work he does. Sam begins to wonder if he should defect to equalize the power struggle between the two superpowers in order to be able to continue to have visits from his daughter.
Alex finds himself in the position of either exposing fakery or proving that there is life after death.
“Daughter of the Mind” was released in 1969 and was directed by Walter Grauman. It is an American made-for-television horror-thriller and was one of the ABC Movie-of-the-Week offerings. The movie was based on the 1964 book “The Hand of Mary Constable” by Paul Gallico.
I’m hesitant in calling it a horror movie since there really isn’t much in the way of horror about it. There are some dark parts, and the séance adds some color to the film, but it ended up being more of an espionage mystery than anything else. A decent one for sure. It starts out creepy, with some horror aspects but when the secret agents and the spies start showing up, it changes into a mystery with some cold war elements. It made for an interesting twist.
John Carradine has a cameo as Mr. Bosch, a man who debunks phony psychics.