The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave 1971

Lord Alan Cunningham, Anthony Steffen is a wealthy aristocrat who has just been released from a mental institution after the death of his wife Evelyn, Paola Natale. Grief and a sense of revenge drive him to a chilling ritual: he lures red-haired strippers and prostitutes to his mansion, where he tortures and kills them as a twisted way to cope with his loss and to punish those who tainted his marriage by Evelyn’s infidelity before his confinement.

During a séance, the medium contacts Evelyn, causing Alan to faint. George Harriman, Enzo Tarascio, his cousin and his only living heir, offers to move into the mansion to look after him. George takes him to a strip club, and Alan brings home Susie, Erika Blanc, a stripper who barely escapes with her life. On George’s advice, replacing Evelyn with a new bride who resembles her seems to be the cure for Alan’s instability. So the couple relocates to London, and Alan weds Gladys Cunningham, Marina Malfatti, a blonde who represents a fresh start away from the past.

Gladys finds herself haunted by the strange events at the new home and is shunned by Evelyn’s brother and Alan’s invalid aunt, Aunt Agatha, Joan C. Davis. She voices suspicions that Evelyn faked her death to escape with her lover, while Alan’s grip on reality continues to unravel as Evelyn’s brother and Aunt Agatha are felled by a mysterious killer. When he glimpses a zombified Evelyn beckoning from her tomb, Alan’s sanity finally shatters.

Eventually, Alan is taken away for permanent institutionalization. Gladys and George toast their supposed victory, convinced they have driven him mad and that George could control the fortune by posing as Evelyn. Just after the toast, Susie reappears. George reveals that Susie was the one impersonating Evelyn and that the champagne Gladys is drinking has been poisoned. He stands by as Gladys, in a fit of rage, attacks and kills Susie, before succumbing to the poison himself.

In a final twist, Alan returns with Dr. Richard Timberlane, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, the doctor who treated him during his first breakdown. He had suspected manipulation all along and had feigned another breakdown to lure out the conspirators. A desperate chase ends when a bag of sulfur-based fertilizer spills into a pool, turning the water acidic. George is burned and arrested, while Alan manages to get away with his crimes.