Terror takes the center ring under the big top in his suspense thriller from John Wayne’s Batjac Production Company. After escaping from a mental institution, a homicidal maniac named Dublin O’Malley (Sean McClory) integrates himself among comfortable, familiar surroundings of the past–the famed Clyde Beatty Circus. When a series of accidents and close calls threaten to wreck the show, owner/trainer Clyde Beatty (playing himself) and circus manager Frank Wallace (Pat O’Brien) decide to call in crime expert and celebrated detective novelist Mickey Spillance to help solve the mystery. Spillane’s sleuthing uncovers the apparent target of the frightening mayhem – beautiful aerialist Valerie St. Dennis (Marian Carr), who has become the obsession of the deranged O’Malley. Amid the roar of the lions and melodious tones of the calliope come screams of fear in this taut and exciting drama.