Vincent Price plays a Shakespearian actor Edward Lionheart, who re-enacts murder scenes penned by the famous bard, in order to gain revenge on the nine theatre critics who have denied him the Best Actor of the Year award. His accomplice is his devoted daughter (Diana Rigg) and together they seek revenge in a most bloody and violent way: one critic is decapitated in his bed, one is made to murder his own wife and another is forced to eat his beloved dogs.

Donald Pleasance stars as the notorious Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, the monstrous Edwardian murderer eventually hung for killing his wife.