The Thrill Killers (1964) Full Movie Summary & Plot Explained

Joe Saxon, an aspiring actor, hosts ostentatious, high-spirited parties and spends with a flash that worries his wife Liz Saxon. Their world is a bright, reckless haze of socializing and screen-test dreams, where the line between ambition and excess begins to blur. The film explores how one man’s thirst for fame can ripple through the lives around him, pulling everyone into a web of danger and desire.

Dennis Kesdekian, a young Greek immigrant, starts his day with a quick goodbye to his wife and family before he offers a ride to a hitchhiker he meets along the road. The moment is misjudged or fated—either way, the hitchhiker shoots him and steals the car, setting off a chain of ominous echoes that will soon touch the people in Joe’s orbit. That night, Mort “Mad Dog” Click, a notorious criminal already hunted by the authorities, becomes the central thread that ties the narrative to a string of grisly crimes.

At Joe’s party, the host hopes to charm the influential producer George Morgan into giving him a break in his next project. The scene crackles with a sense of opportunistic hustle, as Joe and Liz move through a room full of strangers, their nerves and desires on display as much as the champagne flutes. The party’s energy is bright, but the undercurrent is dangerous: the figure of Mort Click lurks nearby, and the radio chatter hints at a killer on the loose who has already claimed another life—the brutal murder of a nightclub dancer/prostitute, Erina Devore, who falls to a knife-like fate in the hands of the killer.

Meanwhile, the couple’s rough patch turns into a wider nightmare as the news of the murders hits with brutal clarity. Liz, exhausted by the chaos at home, decides to leave Joe and visits her cousin Linda’s restaurant up in the hills. Linda, a warm, busy presence in the community, greets Liz with a mix of concern and practical support as friends and acquaintances—Ron and Carol—mark a significant life moment of their own. Ron, who has just married Carol and purchased a new home, beams with pride, and they tour their property with the glow of a freshly secured future. The domestic calm quickly collapses when the truth comes home in the form of three decapitations—committed by the escaped trio of mental patients Keith Rogers, Herbie Click, and Gary Barcroft—whose savage acts fit the film’s lean, pulp energy.

The tension intensifies when Joe and George Morgan bring their own presence into Linda’s orbit, and the escaped killers converge on the same spaces. Herbie’s fate becomes intertwined with a cunning act by Linda, who poisons Herbie’s coffee and ends his presence in the night. Gary, too, stalks Liz, chasing her through the hills, while Joe and Morgan maneuver through the tension of a city on edge. This is a film where every corner holds potential danger, and the lines between ally and threat blur in the flicker of neon and radio chatter.

As events spiral, Joe follows Gary and Liz into the rugged terrain of the hills, an up-close, personal chase that culminates on a windswept mountaintop. A tense confrontation between Joe and Gary plays out under an open sky, while Liz’s fate teeters on a knife-edge as she attempts to seek help. Click reappears in the scene, commandeering a camper and then a horse, pushing the pursuit into a kinetic, gun-slashed chase through the rough landscape. A brutal gun battle erupts, and Mort Click is finally brought down in a blaze of action, his threat dissipating as the immediate danger retreats to the shadows.

The aftermath sees the exhausted, shaken survivors trying to sort through what remains. The story circles back to Joe’s career ambitions, which threaten to swallow any personal stability he thought he had. In a final, telling beat, producer George Morgan reaches back out with an offer: a steady role paying $2,500 a week to star opposite the newest discovery, Linda, a turn of fortune that hints at the uneasy, cyclical nature of fame in a world where violence has left its mark on every participant.

What lingers is a stark portrait of a film industry dreamscape where glittering ambition collides with brutal reality. The suspense is built not only from physical danger but from the moral compromises characters make in pursuit of success, and the way their choices yank victims—friends, lovers, strangers—into a spiraling, inescapable fate. The production’s rough edges, the raw energy of the performances, and the harrowing tempo of the chase sequences combine to create a portrait of a particular kind of exploitation cinema—one that thrills through its audacious pacing while probing the darker undercurrents of celebrity culture.

Joe Saxon Joe Saxon is the aspiring actor whose parties and spending strain his marriage to Liz Saxon Liz Saxon.
Dennis Kesdekian Dennis Kesdekian is the Greek immigrant who meets a deadly end after picking up a hitchhiker.
Mort “Mad Dog” Click Mort “Mad Dog” Click emerges as the brutal killer behind a string of murders.
The dancer Erina Devore Erina Devore becomes a victim whose fate mirrors the film’s brutal mood.
Linda Linda runs a restaurant where Liz seeks refuge and where the story’s more intimate resolutions begin.
Ron Ron and Carol Carol celebrate their new life while danger closes in around them.
Gary Barcroft Gary Barcroft is one of the escaped killers who pursues Liz and Joe.
Herbie Click Herbie Click is another escapee whose actions escalate the violence.
Keith Rogers Keith Rogers is the third member of the murderous trio.
George Morgan George Morgan is the producer whose interest in Joe becomes a driving subplot.
Detective Detective and the police officers First Police Officer, Third Police Officer, and Second Police Officer move through the film’s climactic chase with a steady, procedural presence.