Former criminal Dr. Robert Ordway is now a criminologist. Ordway is visited at three in the morning by the mysterious Lois Garland. Lois complains of nightmares, where the theme of suicide keeps recurring. Ordway then decides to stay in her haunted house, located on the Pacific Ocean. Lois receives several mysterious guests and one of them is murdered. Ordway decides to unmask the culprit using hypnosis and begins investigating the dark cellars beneath Lois's house.
A good entry of the crime Doctor series starring the charismatic Warner Baxter who gets involved in murder and strange apparitions. The ambience is certainly classic dark and brooding with lots of nooks and corners with the house overlooking the sea. Loved all the hidden stairways to the cave to the beach. The Gothic elements, headed by Zucco as a suavely sinister uncle and a ghostly apparition dripping wet from the sea, is well done.