The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

Jonathan Drake, while studying a shrunken head, experiences a vision of three floating skulls. The eerie vision unsettles him and hints at a centuries-old curse binding the Drake men. He resolves to warn his family and protect them from what's coming.

Jonathan instructs his daughter Alison to dispatch a telegram to his brother Kenneth, saying he will visit on Thursday. The telegram sets in motion the family’s impending confrontation with the strange events unfolding. The sense of an approaching family reunion thickens the tension.

A tall man with long hair and lips sewn closed stabs Kenneth Drake with a bamboo stiletto, killing him. Kenneth dies quickly, his death shrouded in mystery. Zutai's attack introduces the arc of a curse tied to the shrunken head.

Lt. Jeff Rowan arrives at the scene and meets Dr. Bradford and archaeologist Dr. Emil Zurich. Bradford attributes the death to cardiovascular disease, noting that three Drake men have died at age 60. Zurich, meanwhile, admires the shrunken head and hints at something else at play.

Zurich proclaims the shrunken head a 'particularly fine specimen' and brushes off conventional explanations. He and Bradford discuss the possible link but remain convinced the head is merely a curiosity. The sense of occult significance deepens.

Jonathan learns that the coffin at Kenneth's has no head—the head was taken by Zutai to Zurich, who shrinks it and calls it 'payment for the evils of your ancestors.' He proclaims that once Jonathan's head is collected, the curse will be finished. This reveals the supernatural plan behind the deaths.

At the Drake family crypt, Jonathan explains that all Drake men have been entombed there with their heads missing. He recounts Wilfred Drake's 1873 Ecuador expedition, the Jivaro attack, and the witch doctor Zutai's curse on the male lines. The crypt contains two skulls in a locked closet, hinting at a larger mystery.

Zurich dispatches Zutai to deposit Kenneth's skull into the crypt, advancing the curse’s ritual. Alison and Jeff remain skeptical of the supernatural explanations. The stage is set for a confrontation that will force them to confront the possibility that the curse is real.

Alison and Jeff discover the third skull in the crypt, confirming the ritual’s progress. Zutai attacks Jonathan but is interrupted and cannot behead him, and Jeff fires at Zutai, though the shots prove ineffective. The confrontation heightens the tension and foreshadows the peril ahead.

Bradford declares Jonathan dead after the crypt attack. Jeff has a blood sample analyzed in a crime lab, where Lee Coulter detects curare in Jonathan's blood. The discovery explains the apparent miracles and adds a deadly element to the Drake saga.

Curare is confirmed in Jonathan's blood; an antidote revives him. He experiences another vision of floating skulls, this time seeing four instead of three. The mystery deepens as their power seems to grow.

Zurich, revealed to be a white-headed Jivaro hybrid, kidnaps Alison and confronts Jonathan in Zurich's laboratory. Zutai is killed when Jeff flings him into an open flame; Jonathan uses Zutai's curare-laden stiletto to pierce Zurich, who dies as his body turns to dust, leaving behind the fourth skull. The curse is broken, but the fourth skull remains as a relic of the immortality ritual.