Captain Collier and his band of sailors arrive in Dymchurch to investigate reports that the locals are involved in the smuggling of alcohol, from France.

Ostensibly a varnish store, this is connected by a secret passageway to the home of coffin-maker Jeremiah Mipps, which serves as the smugglers' headquarters.

That night, the smugglers succeed in transporting a consignment to a nearby windmill for onward shipment, although squire's son Harry, Imogène's secret fiancé, is wounded when he is shot in the arm by the pursuing Collier.

However, on emerging at the coffin-maker's house they run into the mulatto, who has murdered Rash and fatally impales Clegg with a spear before being shot dead by Mipps.

In the film's closing scene, the villagers look on and Collier and the sailors salute as Mipps sorrowfully places Clegg's body in the open grave.

[4] Variety wrote that the film had a "good" screenplay and "savvy" direction, "and the range of technical credits are all on the plus side, especially Arthur Grant's photography.

"[5] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The script is feeble, the acting, apart from Patrick Allen's forceful hero, uninspired, and the obsession with injury, degradation and death more dispiriting than ever.

[8] DVD Talk called the film "a winner that affords opportunities for several Hammer stalwarts to play refreshingly well-defined characters.