Disgraced, scandalized plastic surgeon Dr. Schuler murders a cop and flees his country, only to murder a circus owner and...decide to make a fortune by taking over the circus and filling it full of beautiful women, women who were formerly prostitutes or thieves that agree to work in his circus if he performs plastic surgery on them to make them beautiful. As the years pass, he murders any one of his workers who threaten to I'm just going to stop here.
A cop-killer-plastic-surgeon decides to open a circus.
It's probably for the best.
The film does do a nice job of building tension in a couple of spots as performers do dangerous tricks and routines that Schuler has sabotaged. It closely mimics the tension the audience feels at a non-horror circus. It'd be interesting to know if the film was reacting against something in the 1950s, the rise of plastic surgery, the decline of circuses, a sudden surge of ex-plastic surgeon cop killers going into small business ventures.
I should add, the opening scene is quite effective, as one of Schuler's patients that he messed up on loses it, thrashing her bedroom.
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