Trama

A doctor's daughter is kidnapped and buried alive, and he is given just five hours to find and rescue her.

A small-town doctor (William Prince) gets caught up in a revenge plot when his small daughter is kidnapped and buried alive as he is given a few short hours to find her before she suffocates. To cover the risk of a heart attack while viewing the film, Producer-Director William Castle provided each member of the audience with an official certificate issued by Lloyds of London to insure them for $1,000 against death by fright. The gimmick worked and Castle was on his way to movie exploitation stardom!—alfiehitchie

Dr. Barrett (William Prince) had only a handful of patients, since the spate of deaths of people closer to him occurred. His nurse (who's in love with him), urges him to leave town with her and his daughter, He refuses, but soon after, the daughter vanishes. He recurves a callIn which he's told his daughter's been kidnapped and possibly buried alive.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Dr. Rodney Barrett has made enemies over the years. When his wife Irene died three years ago, his father-in-law - the powerful Jode Wetherby - blamed him for his daughter's death as did the local Sheriff Jim Tyloe. Today, Jode's second daughter Nancy is to be buried. Now, Rod Barrett's assistant gets a call saying his young daughter has been buried alive and he has only a few hours to find her before she suffocates. He frantically searches for her in the graveyard but most of the characters will die before the killer's identity is revealed.—garykmcd

The film takes place in the small town of Thornton, c. 1958. The film opens to funeral parlor owner Ed Quigley reporting to the police that someone had broken into his parlor and stolen a child's coffin. Police chief Jim Tyloe is not particularly concerned, and refuses to search for fingerprints. Tyloe knows that Quigley is a gambling addict, and accuses the man of trying to pull off an insurance scam to pay off his gambling debts.

Tyloe steps away, and starts threatening local physician Dr. Rodney Barrett. The two men have been enemies since Tyloe dated Alice Weatherby, and Barrett seduced her and convinced her to marry him. Since then there have several strange deaths in town, and the locals blame Barrett about them. Back in 1955, Alice died in childbirth, while Barrett was out drinking. Barret's sister-in-law Nancy Wetherby died a few days before, and Barrett again failed to help her. The two women were the wealthiest heiresses in town, and the town has not forgiven Barrett about their deaths.

Barrett heads to his office, where he learns that only a single patient still trusts him enough to visit. Dialogue reveals that Barrett's loyal nurse Polly Baron has been trying to convince him that they should move out of town. She has an obvious crush on her boss, and is looking out for his best interests. But Barrett is making preparations to marry young widow Sylvia Stevenson, and has no intention to leave town.

The doctor heads home with Polly, where he lives with his 3-year-old daughter Marge Barrett, and loyal nanny Miss Kushins. He learns that Sylvia took care of Marge earlier in the day, and dropped her off. Kushins remembers seeing Marge playing with her teddy bear earlier, but the girl has since disappeared. Nobody can find Marge. Then Polly receives a mysterious phone call. The caller informs her that he has kidnapped Marge, and has buried her alive. Polly faints.

Barrett decides not to report the kidnapping to the police, as he figures Tyloe would refuse to help him. He also asks Kushins to not report the kidnapping to his wealthy father-in-law Jode Wetherby, who is suffering from a heart condition. Barret and Polly search for clues in the local graveyard, since the caller implied that Marge is in the company of the dead. The two are discovered by the graveyard's caretaker who threatens them with a firearm. Mr. Wetherby arrives and disarms the caretaker, but accidentally kills the man in the process.

As the search for Marge's whereabouts continues, an extended flashback explains what happened to Nancy Wetherby. Nancy was born blind, and wanted to live a fast and exciting life. She loved fast cars, casual sexual encounters with men, and traveling abroad. She spend years in Europe. Following her return, she had affairs with both Jim Tyloe and her chauffeur Nick. She turned down a marriage proposal from Tyloe, and shortly later found out that she was pregnant. She did not want to become a mother or wife, and Barrett refused to help her with an abortion. She died suddenly days later, possibly due to a suicide. She did not receive the needed medical attention.

Back to the present, Barrett, Wetherby, and Polly break into the funeral parlor and desperately search the coffins for clues. Barrett uses physical threats to interrogate Ed Quigley, who claims that he knows nothing about the kidnapping. The group is discovered by Tyloe, who forces them to help out with preparations for Nancy's funeral. She is to be buried at midnight.

Barrett and Polly go for another search in the graveyard. They visit Alice Weatherby's grave, and have an argument about Barrett's responsibility in her death. A flashback to 1955 explains what happened to Alice. Barrett kept his pregnant wife isolated at home, while he was drinking with his girlfriend Sylvia Stevenson in her residence. As Alice prepared to give birth, she needed her husband and personal physician to help her out. Polly desperately tried to locate him, but Sylvia denied her phone calls for help. Alice died in childbirth, giving birth to Marge. The next day, Tyloe informed Barrett about the birth and the death. Then he beat up the drunken doctor in revenge. The flashback ends.

The funeral of Nancy takes place at midnight, with only close family and friends in attendance. While Barrett digs in the ground, he discoverers a child's coffin. He opens it and seemingly finds Marge's decayed corpse. Weatherby stares at the apparent corpse of his granddaughter, and dies of shock. Barrett loudly mourns, but is then shot by Quigley.

Quigley explains that the "corpse" is a mannequin, and that he was pressured by Barrett to help him in his plot. The child's coffin was not stolen but used in a fake kidnapping plot. Tyloe then allows the seriously wounded Barett to return to his office, where the doctor explains to Polly the details of his scheme. He was after the Weatherby inheritance for years, and had a hand in the deaths of both Alice and Nancy in order to eliminate the heiresses. He set up the entire kidnapping plot to scare Jode Wetherby to death, and to receive the inheritance. The mysterious phone call was a prerecorded message, and came from within his office. Barrett succumbs to his wounds before explaining where Marge is.

Polly has the idea to search within the doctor's office. She discovers Marge sleeping safely in a secret room. Polly rescues the little girl, and the film ends.