Charles Vanel

Suspense classic that influenced the 1960 movie, Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock. Tells the story of a sadistic headmaster of a Parisian boarding school who is murdered by his wife and mistress, whom he has mistreated. The women dump his body in a swimming pool. When the pool is drained, the body has disappeared. Then come reports of sightings, terrifying his killers.

In a small, isolated, hot and dusty Central American village, there's only one thing to do: dream of getting out. An opportunity for escape presents itself, but only to those with nerves of steel. An American oil company has offered to pay big money to get two trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over to a well fire. The catch is that the unpaved terrain contains enough bumps and crags to make the unstable material explode, instantly killing the driver....