THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE

While contemplating a shrunken head, professor Jonathan Drake has a vision of three floating skulls. Recoiling in fear, he instructs his daughter Alison to dispatch a telegram to his 60-year-old brother Kenneth, saying he will visit Kenneth on Thursday.

But before Jonathan can arrive, Kenneth sees a shrunken head outside his window. A tall man with long hair and lips sewn closed pokes Kenneth with a bamboo stiletto, barely breaking the skin. Kenneth dies. The man, Zutai, attempts to behead Kenneth but is interrupted.

Police Lt. Jeff Rowan is called. He meets Dr. George Bradford - Kenneth's physician - and archaeologist Dr. Emil Zurich, a friend of Kenneth's. Not knowing of the attack on Kenneth, Bradford determines the cause of death of be cardiovascular disease. Apparently, three generations of Drake men have died from cardiac problems at age 60. Jeff asks if there is a connection between the shrunken head and the death. Bradford does not think so. However, Zurich, apparently not saddened by Kenneth's demise, proudly calls the shrunken head a "particularly fine specimen."

At Kenneth's, Jonathan learns of his death and demands that his closed coffin be opened. The body inside has no head. Zutai took it to Zurich, who calls it "payment for the evils of your ancestors" and starts shrinking it. He says once he has Jonathan's head, "the curse will be finished."

At the family crypt, Jonathan tells Alison that all the Drake men are entombed there except Capt. Wilfred Drake, who in 1873 led an expedition to Ecuador. There, the Jivaro tribe killed Wlifred's "Swiss agent" and as revenge, Wilfred massacred the Jivaro. The tribal witch doctor, Zutai, cursed the male Drakes. Wilfred died at 60. So did each Drake in the crypt, where each body is headless. The crypt's locked closet contains two skulls. Neither he nor Alison know how they got there.

Zurich sends Zutai to the crypt to deposit the third skull, Kenneth's. Meanwhile, Jeff is skeptical about the curse. At the crypt, Alison and Jeff discover the third skull. Zutai attacks Jonathan, poking him, but is again interrupted and cannot behead him. Seeing Zutai fleeing, Jeff shoots at him, to no avail. Bradford declares Jonathan dead. But Jeff has a sample of Jonathan's blood analyzed at the crime lab, where Lee Coulter finds curare in it. Jeff tells Bradford to administer an antidote, which revives Jonathan. He has another vision of floating skulls, but instead of seeing three, he sees four.

Lee dusts the three skulls in the crypt for fingerprints. The prints are the same person's - even though Jonathan's grandfather, father and brother died many years apart - and each print contains a tiny picture of a skull. Alison clears up the tiny skull mystery by showing Jeff a book about "The Cult of Headless Men", who achieved immortality and branded their fingertips with images of skulls. As the immortals needed no food or oxygen, they had their lips sewn closed.

Jeff goes to Zurich's to interview him, despite still discounting his suggestion of supernatural involvement. After Jeff leaves, Zurich and Zutai go off to kill Jonathan. But they cannot, as Jonathan has been taken to hospital after again seeing four skulls. Jeff surreptitiously returns to Zurich's house, finds his secret laboratory, and discovers Dr. Bradford's head. Bradford had gone to Zurich's to discuss the unusual occurrences.

Lee discovers that Zurich was the "Swiss agent" on the 1873 expedition but somehow still lives. Zurich kidnaps Alison. Displaying the now-shrunken head of Bradford, he says Jonathan is next. Jonathan leaves the hospital and, arming himself, goes to Zurich's lab. He reveals that Zurich is a creature with a "white" head attached to a "brown" Jivaro body. Jonathan raises his revolver to his head to kill himself so that his soul will escape from his skull, thus breaking the curse.

Jonathan and Zutai grapple for the pistol. Jeff bursts in and during a fight flings Zutai into an open flame. Zutai explodes. Having Zutai's curare-laden stiletto, Jonathan tells Jeff to poke Zurich with it. Jeff complies and Zurich dies. Jonathan decapitates Zurich, forever ending the curse. Zurich's body turns to dust, leaving behind the intact fourth skull.

Zurich is revealed as the architect of the curse's continuation, using Zutai to kill and decapitate the Drake men. The curse is ultimately broken, and Jonathan survives after an antidote revives him from apparent death.

The ending ties the supernatural horrors back to the colonial sins of the Drake family, with Zurich acting as avenger through occult and scientific means. Jonathan's escape from the family fate serves as a break in the cycle of inherited guilt, blending horror with late-50s rationalism and providing closure to a long-standing family nightmare.