It starred Kenne Duncan, Duke Moore, Dino Fantini, Jean Fontaine, Harvey Dunn and Conrad Brooks.

Police Lieutenant Matt Carson and his associate, Sergeant Randy Stone, arrive at a crime scene in the local park.

While viewing the body of a young woman in her underwear, they list off similarities to previous murders in the park and suspect a connection to the local "smut picture racket."

In the studio of pornographic director Jaffe, his superior Johnny Ryde brings orders from their boss, Gloria Henderson.

Local businessman Mr. Romaine visits the two officers, asking why taxpayers' money is being wasted on persecuting pornography, which he views as harmless compared to juvenile gangs and violent crime.

Their conversation reveals the woman at the beginning of the film was killed by their lackey Dirk for attempting to blackmail Gloria.

One day she is called to "audition" for a hostile Gloria, who reveals that Mary's debt to her can only be paid off by working for her.

Producer Roy Reid of Headliner Productions was willing to fund the project, though Wood had to revise his script in early 1960.

[2] The film project was influenced by a box office hit of the time, Psycho (June 1960) by Alfred Hitchcock.

[2] Dino Fantini, who played the psycho killer in the film, said Ed Wood picked him for the role at an audition he and the other students participated in at the acting school they were enrolled at (he was only 18 at the time).

Similar positions have since appeared in sociological writings, such as Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1981) by Andrea Dworkin.

The connection between the dark vicarious thrills of a film audience and that of an actual voyeur was both suggested and further explored by Psycho and Peeping Tom (1960).

[2] There is some irony in the fact that the film is apparently meant to decry pornography, since most of Ed Wood's later works, such as Take It Out in Trade, Necromania and The Young Marrieds, were to some degree pornographic.

[2] The cautionary tale concerning aspiring actresses is similar to Hollywood Rat Race (1964), a book written by Wood.

[2] The office of Johnny Ryde is decorated with the movie posters of four previous Wood productions: Jail Bait (1954), Bride of the Monster (1955), The Violent Years (1956), and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959).

[2] Craig finds that the film functions well as an "engaging and coherent" melodrama, as a work of social criticism, and as a treatise against the exploitation of women.

Dino Fantini recalled that the film premiered in Palmdale, California where Wood had some of the actors appear in person and sign autographs for the fans who attended.

[2] In 1960, Wood wrote a screenplay called The Peeper, which was supposed to be a sequel to The Sinister Urge, also starring Kenne Duncan and Duke Moore, but the project never got off the ground.

The same bizarre dialogue, flimsy production values, and sly autobiographical touches ('At one time I made good movies,' complains Johnny, a director reduced to illicit stags) that make Wood's films delirious and endearing are all here.