A psychopath stalks Paris. Beautiful young women are being murdered. The city is terrorized. And an innocent psychology professor is framed for the crimes of the Phantom of the Rue Morgue. At the dawn of the20th century, a murdering zookeeper (Academy Award winner Karl Malden) uses a savage animal to exact lethal revenge from women who are guilty only of spurning his romantic advances. Now, when handsome professor Paul Dupin (Steve Forrest) tries to use his skills to find the killer, he is arrested for murder by the police--as the real killer targets Dupin's fiancée.