Stan Carlisle, an amoral carnival
roustabout, exhibits a morbid fascination with the geek, a sideshow
drunk who bites off the heads of live chickens in exchange for a
daily bottle of liqour. Stan works with Zeena, a phony psychic
who performs a mind reading act with her drunken husband Pete.
Becoming intrigued when Molly, the naïve young assistant to Bruno
the Strongman, tells him that Zeena and Pete were once vaudeville
headliners who developed an elaborate word code worth its weight in
gold, the handsome, highly manipulative Stan suggests that Zeena
teach him the code so that they can work together. Zeena, who
blames herself for her husband's dissipation, rejects Stan's
proposal until he shrewdly suggests that their new act could fund
the cost of Pete's cure. When Zeena consults her tarot cards
for direction, however, they portend Pete's death, and alarmed,
Zeena balks at making Stan her partner.
Later that night, Stan buys a quart of
liquor from the local moonshiner and stashes it in Zeena's trunk.
When he encounters Pete shaking from alcohol withdrawal, Stan hands
him the bottle, even though he knows that Zeena is determined to
wean her husband from his addiction. The next morning, Pete is
found dead from an overdose of wood alcohol and Stan realizes that
he gave him the deadly drink by mistake.
Weeks later, Stan has absorbed the code
from the lonely Zeena, surpassing the abilities of his teacher.
When a marshal comes to close down the carnival and arrest the
troupe, Stan uses his charisma to play off the gullible lawman's
fears, convincing him to drop the charges. After the marshal
departs, an exhilarated Stan embraces Molly. When Molly
protests that they are betraying Zeena, Stan claims his only
interest in Zeena was in acquiring her code and then seduces the
trusting girl. The rest of the carnival troupe has gathered at
a seedy café, and when Molly and Stan arrive together, Bruno and
Zeena realize that she has been seduced by Stan.
After Bruno's threats force Stan into
marrying Molly, Stan decides to leave the carnival and launch a new
act with his wife. Some time later, Stan, now known as "The
Great Stanton," is performing to great acclaim at an exclusive
Chicago hotel. While attending the show one night,
psychologist Lilith Ritter, suspicious of Stan's tactics, tries to
outwit him by submitting a trick question about the health of her
mother. After Stan replies that her mother is deceased,
Lilith, impressed, invites Stan to her office. When their
interview is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Mrs. Peabody,
one of Lilith's socialite patients, Stan leaves and Lilith proceeds
to secretly record Mrs. Peabody's darkest confidences.
Sneaking back into the office, Stan discovers the recording session
and suggests using the information to bilk Lilith's wealthy clients.
After denouncing Stan's proposal, Lilith throws him out.
Later, following a performance, Zeena
and Bruno visit Stan and Molly, much to Stan's displeasure.
Upon consulting her tarot cards, Zeena foretells disaster if Stan
strays from his present course and Stan, who believes in the cards
though he pretends not to, angrily orders them to leave.
Afterward, Stan is getting a massage when a whiff of alcohol
triggers unpleasant memories of Pete's death. Panicking, Stan
contacts Lilith and pours out his feelings of guilt to her.
Despite Zeena's warning, Stan determines to embark upon what he
terms "the spook racket."
When Mrs. Peabody comes to the show to
ask if she will ever see her daughter again, Stan, drawing on
information he heard on Lilith's recording, responds that her
daughter is dead and after accurately describing the departed girl,
is about to relay a message when he faints. Controversy
follows in the wake of Stan's disclosure, and when Mrs. Peabody
informs her late husband's closest friend, the prominent Ezra
Grindle, that she intends to help Stan bring spiritual comfort to
others, the skeptical Grindle sets up a meeting with Stan to expose
him. Swayed by Stan's charms and the promise of easy money,
Lilith teams with Stan to convince Grindle of Stan's authenticity by
feeding Stan the information from her secret recordings.
Impressed by Stan's acumen, which he cloaks in religiosity, Grindle
gives him $150,000 in cash to build a tabernacle and promises to buy
him a radio station if he can establish contact with Dorrie,
Grindle's long-lost love.
After handing Lilith the cash for
safekeeping, Stan studies photographs of Dorrie, then asks Molly to
impersonate the dead woman's spirit. Declaring the ruse to be
against God's will, Molly threatens to leave Stan who proclaims his
enduring love, thus convincing the gullible Molly to pose as Dorrie.
One evening, in a secluded area of Grindle's estate, Stan produces a
distant illusion of Dorrie. When, entranced, Grindle begs
Dorrie's forgiveness, Molly, unable to bear his anguish, approaches
the distraught man, thus revealing who she really is, and runs off.
Furious, Grindle attacks Stan, and after knocking down the elderly
man, Stan speeds away with Molly and drops her off at their hotel
with instructions to meet him later at the train station.
After Stan informs Lilith about the debacle, she returns the
cash-laden envelope and Stan hails a cab for the train station.
En route, Stan opens the envelope and finds that Lilith has stuffed
it with 150 one dollar bills, thus duping him out of a fortune.
After Stan returns to confront Lilith,
she cunningly tries to convince him that he is mentally imbalanced
and reminds him that she possesses a recording of his confession
about his complicity in Pete's death. When Stan hears a police
siren approaching in the distance, Lilith insists that he is
hallucinating and offers to commit him. Realizing that he has
finally met his match, Stan runs away to meet Molly. Upon
arriving at the train station, a distraught Stan hands Molly their
life savings, exhorts her to find her way back to the carnival, then
kisses her as her train pulls away. As headlines trumpet his
fall from grace, Stan holes up in a cheap hotel room and begins his
descent into alcoholic oblivion.
Reduced to telling fortunes to hoboes
along the railroad tracks, one day Stan comes across a carnival and
asks for a job as a palm reader. Instead, the carnival owner
offers him a drink and the job of geek. As recognition slowly
dawns on Stan, he smiles and replies he was "made for it."
Later that night, word spreads that the newly hired geek has gone
berserk. Alarmed, Molly, who unknown to Stan, works at the
carnival, goes to investigate and to her horror, finds Stan raving
in the carnival yard. Running to Stan, Molly assures him that
she will look after him, and in his alcoholic haze, he gratefully
embraces her.
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