The Skull
1965

19th Century France: A phrenologist has a burial plot opened up. After he hacks the cadaver's head off, he takes it home and cleans it in a bath of acid; he is presented with a clean human skull. Mysteriously, his mistress finds him sometime later lying in the bath, dead, with the skull nearby.

Modern day London: Dr Christopher Maitland and Sir Matthew Phillips, both specialists in the occult, are bidding for some statuettes in an auction room. Phillips bids an exorbitant price for the items but doesn't seem to know why.

That night, Marco, a supplier of occult materials, arrives at Maitland's and offers him a book which details the life of Marquis de Sade. After Maitland purchases it, Marco tells him he has something else that may interest him. When Marco arrives back with a gleaming white skull and offers Maitland a low sum for it, Maitland suspects that he may have stolen it.

When Maitland discusses this with Phillips, Phillips confirms that Marco stole the skull from him and that he does not want it back as it possesses strange powers.