In a moody, noir-tinged tale set against the neon-lit streets of Los Angeles, the story unfolds over a tense 72-hour stretch that feels like a citywide nightmare. Charles "Butcher" Benton, Lon Chaney Jr., a convicted robber and murderer who was executed in the gas chamber, becomes the focal point of a ghastly experiment when his body is illegally sold to a scientist hoping to push cancer research into human subjects by reviving damaged tissue.
Benton's corpse is subjected to chemical injections and brutal high-voltage jolts as the researchers push the boundaries of tissue revival. He is re-stimulated and comes back to life, though his vocal cords are damaged, leaving him mute. What follows is a transformation: Benton grows immensely powerful, his cells proliferate at an accelerated pace, and his skin proves nearly impervious to trauma, bullets, and even bazooka shells. The revival unleashes a vengeful, almost unstoppable force.
After killing Robert Shayne as Dr. Bradshaw and his assistant, Benton turns his attention to the two henchmen and his unscrupulous attorney Paul Lowe, played by Ross Elliott. Lowe had colluded with the henchmen to steal Benton’s loot, and Benton’s return is driven by a brutal need for revenge. The chart of Benton’s revenge is swift and merciless, a countdown that drags the city into his coastal-tinged nightmare.
Before the scientists’ scheme fully unravels, Benton had left the stash’s location with his stripper-girlfriend, Dorothy Ford, who has since gone straight and begun dating the detective who brought Benton to justice, Max Showalter. The film tracks how this uneasy alliance—between a reformed stripper and a weary police force—pulls the threads of fear, loyalty, and guilt through the city’s nightscape. As reports of a wave of mysterious killings multiply, the police begin to suspect a resurrected culprit moving through the sewer system Benton used to evade capture and to hide the stolen money.
The tension tightens as Lowe, fearing for his life, finally confesses the plot to the department, revealing Benton’s abnormal resilience and the long-hidden route that leads to his cash stash. The pursuit orders tighten, and the city’s detectives race to intercept Benton before he can strike again. In a climactic confrontation, Benton absorbs a direct bazooka hit to the solar plexus and is then scorched by a flamethrower. Weakened, he flees to a power station, climbs onto a gantry, and inadvertently nudges the gantry toward the main transformer. A cascade of sparks erupts as hundreds of thousands of volts surge through the equipment, and Benton is reduced to ashes before the city’s eyes.
In the quiet aftermath, Lt. Richard Chasen finds a moment of peace and, in a small, hopeful scene, proposes to his girlfriend at a drive-in hamburger stand, signaling a rare note of personal triumph after a nightmarish ordeal. The story leaves viewers with a stark reminder of how swiftly science and superstition can collide, and how fragile the line between restoration and ruin can be in a city that never truly sleeps.
