Description
As professor Jonathan Drake (Franz) contemplates a shrunken head, he has a vision of three floating skulls. After recoiling in fear, he instructs his adult daughter Alison (French) to dispatch a telegram to his 60-year-old brother Kenneth (Paul Cavanaugh), to say that 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 his lips sewn closed, like a shrunken head's, pokes Kenneth with a bamboo stiletto, barely breaking the skin. Kenneth dies. The man, Zutai (Paul Wexler), attempts to behead Kenneth but is interrupted.
Police Lt. Jeff Rowan (Richards) is called. He meets Dr. George Bradford (Howard Wendall) - Kenneth's physician - and sinister archaeologist Dr. Emil Zurich (Daniell), a friend of Kenneth's. Not knowing of the attack on Kenneth, Bradford determines the cause of death of be cardiovascular disease. But he casually mentions that 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 doesn't think so. However, Zurich, apparently not saddened by Kenneth's sudden 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 having finished the task. Zutai brings Kenneth's head to Zurich, who calls it "payment for the evils of your ancestors" and begins the process of shrinking it. He says that 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 men and boys. Wilfred also died. He was 60. The tribal witch doctor, Zutai, cursed the male Drakes. Jonathan says that each Drake in the crypt died at 60 and each body is headless. The crypt's locked closet contains two skulls. Neither he nor Alison know how they got there.
After Zurich sends Zutai to the crypt to deposit the third skull, Kenneth's, Alison explains the curse to Jeff. He is skeptical. At the crypt, Alison and Jeff discover the third skull. Zutai attacks Jonathan. He pokes Jonathan but is again interrupted and can't behead him. Jeff sees Zutai fleeing and shoots at him, but Zutai escapes. Bradford declares Jonathan dead. But Jeff has a sample of Jonathan's blood analyzed at the crime lab, where Lee Coulter (Frank Gerstle) finds curare in it. Jeff tells Bradford to administer an antidote, which revives Jonathan. He has another vision of floating skulls, but instead of the three he saw earlier, 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, although he still discounts Zurich's suggestion of supernatural involvement. After Jeff leaves, Zurich and Zutai go off to kill Jonathan. But they can't as Jonathan has been taken to hospital after again seeing a vision of 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. He displays the now-shrunken head of Bradford and says that Jonathan is next. Jonathan unexpectedly leaves 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. But Jonathan has Zutai's curare-laden stiletto and tells Jeff to poke Zurich with it. Jeff does and Zurich dies. Jonathan decapitates Zurich, forever ending the curse. Zurich's body turns to dust ... but leaves behind the intact fourth skull.
