In this tense noir thriller, a lonely man (Arthur Franz) experiences a psychotic break and begins targeting women for death, baffling Lt. Frank Kafka (Adolphe Menjou) -- the detective assigned to the case -- until a police psychologist (Richard Kiley) puts the man's psychosis into perspective. Director Edward Dmytryk makes excellent use of his San Francisco locations to symbolize the fears, obsessions and misogyny that drive a wretched man to murder.