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The ultimate conspiracy has been uncovered. The Smoking Man isn’t the father of “The X-Files” Mulder. Reporter Carl Kolchak is. . In January 1972 ABC ran a movie of the week they had mixed feelings about. The promos had received a worthy response and preview audiences rated it as highly as a very suitable theatrical film. “The Night Stalker” seemed like it was slumming since it really was a scare movie about a vampire stalking women in new day Las Vegas. The current day Van Helsing hunting down the vampire is a feeble, cynical reporter in a seersucker suit. Reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) has had many great stories in his day but his sensationalistic style rubs his editor Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) the spoiled design. Kolchak has a habit of ticking off city officials and generally getting the paper in hot water. When Kolchak announces in his memoir that a unusual day vampire stalks the city streets he runs into a city hide up. Kolchak becomes the only person that can end the vampire (Barry Atwater) because no one will contain his extraordinary account.
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“The Night Stalker” really keep ABC’s “Movie of the Week” on the diagram. With an unheard of 54 fragment (meaning over half the audience in the United States were watching the program), it blew away every other TV movie including the well regarded “Brian’s Song” that came before it. Writer Richard Matheson (”The Twilight Zone”, “What Dreams May Near”), producer Dan Curtis (”Dismal Shadows”) and aged TV and movie director John L. Moxey (”Circus of Apprehension”) crafted an fabulous TV event. When it was first shown to gratified preview audiences ABC vice-president Barry Diller realized that they should have turned it into a theatrical feature. McGavin’s Kolchak and the second TV film and 1974 TV series that followed became the inspiration for Chris Carter’s “The X-Files” and “Millennium”. The first TV film holds up very well thirty-three years later. Moxey’s provocative, realistic direction, Matheson’s amusing but no nonsense script and the strong performances from the cast fabricate this that rare TV movie that has the same qualities as a dynamic theatrical movie. At 74 minutes the brief, grand first film is the better of the two. The sequel “The Night Strangler” also situation the industry abuzz with a script that took all the best elements of the first film and crafted another suspenseful record that, if slightly less effective, composed managed to pick the imagination of TV audiences.
“The Night Strangler” takes state in Seattle, Washington. Kolchak was fired at the extinguish of the first film. Vincenzo now the editor of the Seattle Daily Sage runs into a drunk Kolchak showing his clippings about the killer in the first film to any reporter that will sit mild. Vincenzo takes pity on Kolchak and, against his better judgement, hires him again. The lifeless extinguish sage of the assassinate of an exotic dancer suddenly inflames local officals when Kolchak discovers that the same pattern of murders reoccur every 100 years. The circumstances are quite different from those of the first film. The victims all had their necks broken but with 7cc of blood and a puncture tag at the sinister of the skull. Kolchak’s astounding account causes Vincenzo’s ulcer to act up. Suddenly, Kolchak is hunting monsters again very powerful on his enjoy.
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With a strong supporting cast, witty well written script and taunt direction by Dan Curtis, “The Night Strangler” also became a tremendous success prompting ABC to commission yet a third script from Matheson. Instead, the network decided to compose the films into a TV series but then, strangely, dumped it in the TV graveyard on Friday night at 9 o’clock. It was summarily cancelled after only 21 episodes but the inspiration of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” and the rest, as they say, is history.
An exceptional transfer that looks spacious, there’s very few analog blemishes that I can detect. The relate for both “The Night Stalker” and “The Night Strangler” occasionally appeasr a bit soft but, overall, the engrossing images and vibrant color restores these TV classics to the design it should be viewed. The mono sound is faithfully reproduced.
We secure two short featurette/interviews with producer/director Dan Curtis on the history and production of the film. Both include clips from the respective movies but minute more. A bit more on the production and perhaps some of the publicity materials also would have been captivating to include.
This dynamic duo of classic TV movies presented on a single dual sided disc both were overdue for such treatment. The transfers here appear better than the previous Anchor Bay editions. The brief featurettes with Dan Curtis discussing the history of both movies provide a fun inspect into the challenges of producing TV movies in the 70’s. A pity there’s no commentary track from Dan Curtis, Richard Matheson or any of the surviving cast members for either movie.
At long last…the two chilling, thrilling, witty and expertly crafted pilot TV movies to the cult 70’s TV series “The Night Stalker” are finally available on DVD.
“The Night Stalker” pilot telemovie was based upon the short fresh “The Kolchak Papers” written by ex-journalist Jeff Rice, and then adapted to the veil by well known thriller writer Richard Matheson, who has contributed some astonishing scripts to fantasy cinema including “The Astounding Shy Man”, “The Martian Chronicles”, and Steven Spielberg’s first hit movie, “Duel”.
Darren McGavin truly brings alive the character of the crumpled, abrasive, intrusive, but above all lovable newspaperman, Carl Kolchak in these two thrilling explorations into the undead area in recent day Las Vegas & Seattle.
“The Night Stalker” sees our brave hero investigating a series of blood drained bodies amongst the glittering lights of Las Vegas. At first reluctant to fill that the murders could involve the supernatural, the cynical Kolchak is soon led to the conclusion that he is indeed tracking a unique day vampire. Kolchak must battle his long suffering boss, Anthony “Tony” Vincenzo (wonderfully portrayed by Simon Oakland), the local law enforcement headed by Sherriff Butcher & Chief Masterson (Claude Akins & Charles McGraw) and the manipulative district attorney to demonstrate that an right vampire is committing these shocking murders. Further depth is brought to the cast by zany character actor Elisha Cook Jnr as a compulsive gambler, and exquisite Carol Lynley is the cocktail waitress romantically entwined with Kolchak. When “The Night Stalker” originally aired on January 11th, 1972 on ABC, it attracted nearly 54% of the TV audience between 8.30pm and 10pm, and for many years it held the title of the most highly rated telemovie ever aired on US TV! Tightly scripted with fear, wit and humour…this film has not dated in over thirty years!
With the first outing being such a runaway success, another script was written pitching Carl Kolchak against the forces of dismal. “The Night Strangler” sees our glum Carl, after having been rush out of Las Vegas, now calling Seattle home and landing another reporters role with his aged boss, Tony Vincenzo. Before long, there is another series of brutal murders and Kolchak is on the wobble of a mysterious Civil War surgeon with an elixir to cheat death! Suave Richard Anderson ( best known as Oscar Goldman from “The Six Million Dollar Man” ) portrays the malevolent serial killer, Margaret Hamilton (the Disagreeable Witch from the Wizard of Oz) has a delectable cameo as an intimidating professor of the occult, ex-screen vampire John Carradine (House Of Dracula, House of Frankenstein) is Kolchak’s original boss, the tyrannical newspaper owner Llewellyn Crossbinder, sexy Jo Ann Pflug catches Kolchak’s roving peep as belly dancer Louise Harper, and ex “Munster” Al Lewis nearly steals the present as a boozy tramp…plus Wally Cox portrays the resourceful newspaper archive clerk Titus Berry, assisting Kolchak with his repugnant investigations into Seattle’s past!
PlUS, If you are a enthusiastic Kolchak fan…then grab the highly though-provoking book “Night Stalking : A 20th Anniversary Kolckak Companion by Tag Dawidziak. It’s everything you ever wanted to know about the series, but were panicked to ask! Additionally, preserve your ogle commence for the chilling 1973 telemovie “The Norliss Tapes”, another Dan Curtis directed pilot for a supernatural TV series, that unfortunately never took off. Roy Thinnes from “The Invaders” plays a writer investigating groundless psychics, shonky fortune tellers etc. who comes across an artist who has returned from the monotonous with a thirst for human blood. It stars Roy Thinnes, Claude Akins, Angie Dickinson & Slit Dimitri.
After the two successful telemovies, Kolchak became a TV series (total of 20 episodes) featuring an lively line up of guest stars including Jim Backus, Richard Keil, Tom Skerritt, Phil Silvers, Cathy Lee Crosby, Tom Bosley, Carolyn Jones & Keenan Wynn to name but a few!!
There is a staunch chemistry in both the Night Stalker / Night Strangler productions that is gleaming, witty and exhilarating entertainment…if you’ve never seen what inspired Chris Carter to invent “The X-Files”…now’s your opportunity to ogle Carl Kolchak on his two best cases!!









