COVER GIRL KILLER

In London, a cover girl model is found dead, dressed and posed as she appeared on the front cover of Wow magazine. The police uncover the connection, and learn from the magazine's owner, Johnny Mason, an archaeologist who has just inherited the magazine from his uncle, that another recently deceased girl also posed for the magazine. Investigating, the police discover that three cover girls have died, and find that each died of an overdose and dressed in the same outfit in which they appeared in the magazine. All the women have died from overdoses, put down as suicides, but the police discover an injection mark under the latest girl's fingernail. They try to contact the young model from the following edition, but it is too late, the killer has already arranged to meet her to photograph her for an advertising campaign. However, he loses control when she begins to suspect something is wrong, and strangles her.

This is "Mr Spendoza", a middle-aged man who wears very thick glasses, a toupee and a raincoat, so his conspicuous appearance makes him memorable but, without the glasses and toupee, makes him hard to identify.

The police try to track down the killer and have several suspects. Posing variously as an advertising executive and a film and TV producer, the murderer eludes capture whilst continuing to lure his victims to their deaths one by one. He is motivated by what he sees as the moral corruption of the girls.

Spendoza goes to the police giving his name as Fairchild and gives them a false lead which he says connects to one of his tenants, Mr Spurling. He gives a description close to Spendoza, emphasising his need for glasses. Fairchild does not wear glasses.

Johnny tells the police the models are refusing to pose for the cover due to the murders. When Inspector Brunner, in charge of the case, says that the killer will not stop murdering, and will be harder to catch if they don't have the magazine connection to help them, June, Johnny's girlfriend, volunteers to model, with the police covertly guarding her, in order to catch the killer. They plan to lure him to a theatre and burlesque show.

Meanwhile, Spendoza (without glasses and under another alias) goes to a theatrical agent and hires someone who looks like his alter ego to further throw the police off track by turning up at the theatre for an appointment with June. Believing they've caught the killer, the police take him to the police station, leaving one officer to guard June but he is attacked by the murderer and June is alone with the killer.

The police attempt to trap the killer using June as bait, but the killer attacks her after misleading the authorities. The confrontation leaves June alone with the murderer.

The climax underscores the killer's cunning use of disguise and deception, as well as the police's desperation to stop the murders by risking one of their own. The final confrontation heightens the danger faced by women in the modeling industry while exposing the killer's obsessive motives. The ending is a tense resolution fitting the film's proto-slasher mechanics.