[3] Journalist Matt Corbin (Elliott Reid) is traveling through Wisconsin on a fishing trip and comes across a nearly deserted town where the few inhabitants left are secretive and hostile.

A shifty lodge owner named Steve Loomis (Raymond Burr) warns Matt away, claiming all the fish died off mysteriously years ago.

[1] In the original story the villains were escaped German Nazis involved in a plot to hide Adolf Hitler, portrayed by Bobby Watson.

[4][1] Wheeler W. Dixon writes that "The Whip Hand compels the viewer's attention through the sheer visual frenzy of its violent, aggressive camera work, coupled with its nightmarish, forced-perspective sets, which seems to overpower both the view and the film's protagonists.

[2][1] A review of the film at Cinema Sentries described it as "a Cold War paranoia flick about those darned Communists" and a "fun Red Scare outing" that "isn't really bad," although at the box office it "flopped about like a germ-infested trout out of water before being doomed to a life of late night television obscurity.