In the year 1828, the loathsome Jaffrey Pyncheon (George Sanders) uses his father's death to accuse his brother Clifford (Vincent Price) of murder. Clifford is sentenced to life in prison, but in a bizarre quirk of legal fate, the house is left in the care of Clifford's fiancée Hepzibah (Margaret Lindsay). Twenty years later, the arrival of Hepzibah's cousin Phoebe (Nan Grey) and Matthew Holgrave (Dick Foran) gives her the idea to open the now crumbling family house as a business. When Clifford is finally released from prison, he returns home to a touching reunion, but Jaffrey (still obsessed that there is gold hidden in the house) plots to have his brother committed. However, Clifford has some plans for his evil brother...

A fine adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale, Vincent Price gets his first meaty role since his debut in Service De Luxe and it really shows..