The Complete Night Stalker, Part Five

With Halloween less than a week away, we come to the end of the line for the original "Night Stalker" television series. Sadly, it went out not with a bang, but with a wimper.

Episode Eighteen: The Knightly Murders
Director: Vincent McEveety
Rating: Nine of Stars

A string of murders--all committed with authentic weaponry dating from the Middle Ages--have the police baffled. When Kolchak notices the victims are all involved in a venture that will convvert a small museum into a discoteque, he first suspects the curator of being being the killer. But maybe it's the exhibits themselves are resisting such humilation?

This is one of the best episodes of the series. The danger to Kolchack seems very real during every encounter with the supernatural, and the humor is top-notch, both that evolving from a self-important, publicity-hungry cop that Kolchak deals with, as well as that coming from some of Kolchak's investigation of and confrontation with the killer. If all the episodes had been been this good, maybe Darren McGavin wouldn't have hated working on the series so much.


Episode Nineteen: The Youth Killer
Director: Ron McDougall
Rating: Two of Ten Stars

Unknown senior citizens are found dead in Chicago parks and streets. Kolchak's investigation turns up that they were young only days before, and they were all using an exclusive dating service run by a woman of epic beauty. Naturally she's Helen of Troy who is sacrificing young victims to the Greek gods to maintain her youth, and only Kolchak can stop her!

From lame plot conveniences, to story problems so huge that even the fact characters comment on them doesn't make them less problematic, this is one of the very worst episodes of the series. It also doesn't help that Kathy Lee Crosby (as Helen) can't act worth a damn.


Episode Twenty: The Sentry
Director: Seymour Robbie
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

When surveyers at a super-secure underground storage facility recover some strange rocks from a new section that's under construction, murder and mayhem breaks out. Kolchak discovers that a lizard creature that's trying to protect its young is responsible.

The final episode of the series looks and feels like just that... the final episode of a series. It's got a cheap feel about it, and the thing that'll stick with viewers more than anything is Carl driving around in a golf cart. The introduction of a woman police LT who has everyone but Carl wrapped around her finger is the one high note of the episode--her banter with Carl is some of the funniest dialogue in the entire series. Still, it wasn't the best of notes to end on.

The Complete Night Stalker, Part Four

"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" is a show that many people my age think fondly of, half-remembering episodes that scared the bejeezus out of us as kids. Viewing the entire series as an adult, I found that there were many episodes that warrant those warm feelings. However, as I continue my survey of all 20 episodes in the series as part of the 31 Nights of Halloween, I it is clear that today's batch represent the series at its height.

If the majority of the show had been as good as Episodes Thirteen through Sixteen, and if ABC and Universal  Television executives had dealt more fairly with star Darrin McGavin (instead of reneging on promises of creative control and co-producer status of the series), maybe it would have earned a second season.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
(The Complete Television Series Reviewed, Part Four)

Episode Thirteen: Primal Scream
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Director: Robert Scheerer

A trail of brutal dismemberment murders that start at a research lab analyzing core samples retrieved from the North Pole brings Kolchak face-to-face with savage man-apes that have spontenously regenerated from thawed-out cells.

This episode is pure scientific nonsense of 1950s monster-movie variety. In think even in the 50s, audiences would have rolled their eyes at the notion of life-forms as complicated as a meat-eating primate regenerating from a few single cells. What makes this episode fun is Carl's interaction with the incidental characters and the supporting cast back at the INS office. Ron in particular gets to shine in this episode.

The monster here is lame, and Carl's heedless pursuit of a creature that is so plainly dangerous to whomever it comes across is pure idiocy (even by Kolchak Standards) but the non-monster related interaction definately saves this episode.


Episode Fourteen: The Trevi Collection
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Director: Don Weis

Before a source can give Carl a promised scoop, the source is murdered. As Carl investigates, he uncovers disturbing facts about the House of Trevi, a ritzy fashion design studio: The lady it's named after is witch, and deadly curses are being tossed left, right, and center... at anyone who seems to threaten the supremecy of Trevi. And that includes Our Man Carl.

This is one of my very favorite episodes, despite the somewhat dubious way Carl is drawn into the situation. I love the way the story's many twists and the way Carl's gung-ho monster-hunting attitude (where he blazes ahead without having all his facts straight) ends up making the situation far more deadly. A subplot about mobsters chasing Carl for information also adds a lot to this episode.

The episode is also enlivened by a guest appearance by Lara Parker as the fashion designing witch who will let nothing stand between her and success. She is so good that I may down the "Dark Shadows" movies she starred in.


Episode Fourteen: Chopper
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Director: Bruce Kessler

Aging, former members of an outlaw biker gang are being murdered, all decapitated by an impossibly strong killer. Kolchak investigates, and then he becomes the next target of a headless ghost biker who has come back from the dead for revenge.

This is one of the great "Night Stalker" episodes. There's plenty of horror and plenty of laughs in this excellently written episode. The tension remains high until the very moment--there hasn't been such a strong sense of danger for Kolchak since "The Zombie".

This could have been a Ten-Star episode if not for the absolute laziness with which the headless biker was created. I realize it was the 70s, they didn't have the sort of computer effects we have today, and television budgets and shooting schedules were tight, but there MUST have been a better way to do the biker ghost than just have a stunt driver pull his jacket over his head. In life, the biker just have been known as "Johnny Long Torso" because his chest is about one-head length too big.

This bit of shoddiness undermines what could have been a truly great episode.


Episode Fifteen: Demon in Lace
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Director: Don Weis

Young men are being frightened to death on a college campus. Kolchak traces the cause back to an ancient tablet and the demon who dwells within it. Will anyone believe that a priceless historical treasure must be destroyed before any more lives are lost?

This is a solid, middle-of-the-road episode. The story is okay and well thought out--it even provides a reason for why Carl isn't fired and/or locked up for good at the end--and there's a nice balance of humor and horror as a frustrated Kolchak battles not only the police and college campus bureacrats, but also has to contend with a journalism student who shares many of his worst personality traits. It's funny to see Carl get a dose of his own medicine.


Episode Sixteen: Legacy of Terror
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
Director: Don McDougall

Someone armed with a dull blade has been cutting out the hearts of physically-perfect men and women, killing each victim is found on a higher and higher prime numbered flight of stairs. Kolchak's investigation puts him at odds with bizarre Aztec cult seeking to revive their mummified god at the correct celestial alignment. To prevent the mummy's resurrection, Kolchak must prevent the sacrifice of their fifth, "perfect" victim on the highest flight of stairs in Chicago.

This is one of the better episodes as it features a high creepiness factor, high humor factor, and there's a strong sense that Kolchak may be in over his head during the climax, but the lengths to which the writers go to make their story believable (by filling the viewer in on details regarding Aztec mythology) sometimes gives it a feeling of a doctoral thesis gone waaaay of the rails. Still, it's an etertaining, fast-paced, and exciting episode. The cult/conspiracy angle it takes also strengthens it immensely; the supernatural monster doesn't appear until the very end.

(Speaking of the monster, the final shot of the mummy shows its eyes flicker a bit. I'm not sure if that's sloppy editing or intentional, but it was certainly startling, since Carl was certain he'd prevented the gods resurrection... at least until the stars align again.)










Please join me again next week, as I finish the trip through all 20 episodes of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", just in time for the monster explosion that is Halloween!

The Complete Night Stalker, Part Three

With episodes Nine through Twelve, some of the inconsistent quality of the first few episodes is seeming to creep back into the series. Nothing is as bad as the worst of those, however, and some of the greatest moments of the entire series can be seen in these episodes.

But the ups and downs quality-wise will continue to be a problem.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
(The Complete Television Series Reviewed, Part Three)

Episode Nine: The Spanish Moss Murders
Director: Gordon Hessler
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A bizarre string of muders that are linked only by the presence of spanish moss at the crime scene has the police baffled. Kolchak eventually discovers at additional link--hot-tempered Cajun transplant Paul Langois. He has a sure-fire alibi, in that he has been kept asleep in a lab while the murders have been happening. When Kolchak attempts to get Langois awakened, he becomes the next target of the moss-dripping monster. How will one reporter stop a nightmare monster?

This episode has some really tense moments, and the use of a "dream monster" is pretty clever. Keenan Wynn also joins the cast as one of the many homicide officers that Kolchak drives up the wall--one of the few unfortunate enough to have to cross Carl's path more than once. It's not one of the best, but it's pretty good.


Episode Ten: The Energy Eater
Director: Alexander Grasshoff
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

While covering the opening of a newly constructed, state-of-the-art hospital on Chicago's lakefront, Kolchak experiences some bizarre electrical overloads in its basement, which is also unbearably hot. After exhausting all the possible natural causes for the troubles, Kolchak tracks down a Native American shaman who was part of a workcrew who quit the construction project shortly after it began. From him, he learns that an ancient, hungry spirit--the Bear God--has been awakened, and that if it isn't returned to its state of hibernation, much more than just the hospital will be destroyed. The shaman is too scared to face the creature, so it's once again up to Carl to solve matters on his own.

This episode has some amusing moments--mostly from the womanizing Indian shaman Jim Elkhorn--and the idea of a powerful spirit being reawakened by the interference of modern man is a neat one, but the episode just sort of drags, with repetative scenes of Carl visiting the hospital with different advisors. The truly great moment is when Carl tries to assemble a bunch of pictures he took into the image of Bear God... and realizes that all he got was the unseen gigantic creature's eyeball.

This was an episode with lots of potential, but the creators didn't quite pull it off.


Episode Eleven: Horror in the Heights
Director: Michael Caffey
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

While working on a series of articles intended to call attention to the tragic conditions some senior citizens are forced to live in, Kolchak arrives at the conclusion that something far more sinister than rabid rats is lurking in the shadows of Chicago's run-down Heights neighborhood. But how does one fight an Indian demon that can change shape at will?

This is quite possibly one of the very best episodes in the series. Not only is it populated with a great cast of supporting actors (including one that provides some amusing continuity to "The Spanish Moss Murders", but the script (by Jimmy Sangster, who wrote some great scripts for Hammer Films) features not only some truly scary moments, but we end up with some great insight into Carl Kolchak's character. This episode--and the last few minutes in particular--make him seem like a real human being moreso than anything we've seen since the original "The Night Stalker" movie.

"Horror in the Heights" manages to be both scary and touching, and even serve up a little bit of social commentary without getting too preaching. There is some intended humor that falls flat in a scene in an Indian restraunt, but that's really the only misstep in this episode. This is certainly one of the installments that made the series a "cult classic."


Episode Twelve: Mr. R.I.N.G.
Director: Gene Levitt
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

While working on a puff-piece obituary of a scientist, Kolchak uncovers a government conspiracy to conceal the existence of a highly advanced robot that has developed sentience and a willingness to kill to ensure its own survival.

While this episode has some nice moments--Kolchak struggling to get the story recorded before the drugs he's been administered wipe it from his mind, the robot's efforts to make itself human, and some additional insight into Kolchak's nicer side--it is overall too slow moving to be all that entertaining. It also doesn't even provide the slightest twist to the "robot wants to be alive" plot, nor the Big Bad Government Is Hiding Things subplot. (Although, it could be that in the mid-1970s, the Big Bad Government storylines weren't quite as played out as they are today.)

Not among the worst episode in the series, but also not one of the best. However, it one that very clearly shows how this series was part of Chris Carter's inspiration for "The X-Files." Heck, they probably did an episode of that show that could have been shot from this script.

Please join me again next Monday for a look at another batch of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" episodes.

The Complete Night Stalker, Part Two

With episodes Five through Eight, the "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" televisions series looked like it's finally hit its stride. After a wobbly start--with episodes that ranged from good to downright awful, the series presented a string of decent episodes. I know continue the trip through the 1974 television series, as I review every episode in anticipation of Halloween.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker
(The Complete Television Series Reviewed, Part Two)

Episode Five: The Werewolf
Director: Allen Barron
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When Kolchak is sent on assignment to cover a swingin' singles cruise, he becomes the Reporter Who Cried Werewolf when a murderous beast starts tearing its way through crew and passengers when the full moon rises. Will Kolchak find a priest onboard the ship of sin, so he can get some silver bullets blessed before everyone becomes werewolf chow?

With this episode, the supporting cast at the INS office becomes a major part of the series, and I think the episodes benefit from it--even if Kolchak looks like a total heel with the way he's constantly manipulating and using them. These additional characters coming to the fore heightens the humor of the series, and it gives McGavin recurring actors to play off.

As for this specific story, it's a tense, funny, and fast-paced episode, although the Seventies fashions and "hip" swinger stereotypes can be quite painful to watch. (The couple whose marriage got stronger because they got divorced was pretty funny, though.) The only negative is some of the tall tales Kolchak tells the ship's crew. It's a bit out of character for him to tell such flimsy lies when he knows there's no escape once they're found out.


Episode Six: Firefall
Director: Don Weis
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

When the friends and associates of a celebrated symphony conductor start dying in mysterious fires, Kolchak smells not only the odor of burning flesh, but also a story. However, what he hadn't counted on was that he would become the target of a restless spirit with a love of fires.

This is another excellent episode that balances drama and humor quite nicely. The threat to Kolchak is once again clear and immediate--if he falls asleep, he's likely to spontaneously combust--and he has to put real thought and legwork into saving himself and the main target of the monster in this episode.

"Firefall" would rate Eight Stars if several early scenes weren't marred by reall bad, really cheap special effects. The episode would have been far better served if the crew had gone with even cheaper effects--simply jump cuts of an actor to it seem as though he was appearing and dissapearing.


Episode Seven: The Devil's Platform
Director: Allen Baron
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Kolchak is assigned to cover an Illinois State Sentate race where one of the candidates is receiving more than just finiancial contributions from infernal powers. When Kolchak gets too close to the truth, he is faced with a choice between becoming a servant or sacrifice of Satan.

This is one of the episodes I saw a long time ago, and it's every bit as good as I remember it. The strange dog stalking Kolchak after he accidentically takes possession of the evil politician's (played excellently by Tom Skerritt) amulet that is the focus of his demonic power is a particularly effective part of this episode. Another highpoint is the larger part played by the supporting characters in the newsroom. The ending is a bit too easy and pat, though.


Episode Eight: Bad Medicine
Director: Alex Grasshoff
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

While investigating a series of violent gem heists, Kolchak finds himself on the trail of a shapeshifting, dreamwalking Native American sorcerer who has been cursed with immortality and a never-ending quest for precious stones. Will Kolchak find a way to kill someone who can't be killed... or will he end up in that great newsroom in the sky?

This is another episode that balances comedy and suspense nicely, although I'm sure Richard Keil's Indian sorcerer character looks goofier to modern viewers than he did to those watching in the mid-70s. (And his appearance wasn't supposed to be one of the funny bits, I am certain.)

Kolchak has to use his brains to defeat the threat in this one, and that always makes for a more interesting episode than him just blundering around and getting lucky. The ending  is also pretty strong. All in all, one of the better installments in the series.

Carl Kolchak and things that stalk the night

Here are two fine made-for-TV-movies that are nearly 40 years old and still scarier than many big-screen horror movies that are released today. Their stories and the main character are timeless, meaning they are also as fresh today as they were back in the early 1970s.

The Night Stalker (1971)
Starring: Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland and Carol Lynley
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
Steve's Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

When a bizarre series of murders hit Las Vegas, down-and-out crimebeat report Carl Kolchak (McGavin) thinks he might have found his ticket back to the Big Time newspaper business. As he pursues leads, however, he becomes increasingly convinced that the murderer is a vampire. Met with disbelief and scoffing from his editors and a desire to cover up the murders from Las Vegas police officials, Carl goes from crusading reporter to crusading vampire hunter.


"The Night Stalker" is an excellent movie, easily equal to many big-budget theatrical releases despite its humble television origins. The dialogue is snappy, the script and characters are all believable and well-crafted, and the mix of humor and suspense is perfectly balanced throughout.

McGavin gives a fabulous performance as Kolchak, going from a wise-cracking beat reporter (coming across almost as having been transported from the 1930s to the 1970s, yet never seeming out of place) with no goal other than to rehabilite his career, to a man who is willing to risk everything to stop a monster that no one but he seems willing to take on. The supporting cast is also universally excellent, as is the camera work. The only complaint I have is the score. It is downright annoying in its innapropriateness at times.



The Night Strangler
Starring: Darren McGavin, Jo Ann Pflug, Simon Oakland and John Carradine
Director: Dan Curtis
Steve's Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

This is another excellent adventure in humor and supernatural suspense, so well-crafted that you'd never imagine that it was originally a TV movie.

Darren McGavin gives another excellent preformance as Kolchak, who, after losing everything but his life as a result of the events in "The Night Stalker", has drifted westward to Seattle. He gets himself hired on with the city's top paper after promising to not make waves... but when he starts covering another series of violent crimes, a disturbing pattern emerges: Every 21 years since the mid-1800s, there have been a series of identical strangulation murders and what few eye witnesses there were have described the same killer. Kolchak again finds himself in the awful position of uncovering a truth that no-one wants to face or deal with. Once again, he is the only one able and willing to take action and stop the deaths.


"The Night Strangler" is one of those rare sequels that is actually better than the original. The dialogue and wit is sharper, McGavin's performace of Kolchac is even better than before, and the suspense in the story gives way to downright scary on several occasions.

(Trivia: Dan Curtis and Richard Matheson had planned a third "Night Stalker" film, in which Kolchak discovers the vampire he faced in "The Night Stalker" wasn't dead. The film never happened, but in its place was the "Night Stalker" televison series, one episode of which incorporated the story idea that would have been the movie.)