Kolchak: The Night Stalker

[Rik]

Coming October 2nd on DVD and Blu-ray from Kino Lorber!
Just in Time for Halloween!
The Night Stalker (1972) with optional English subtitles
• Brand New 4K Restoration!
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas
• NEW Interview with Director John Llewellyn Moxey
• NEW Interview with Composer Bob Cobert
• "The Night Stalker: Dan Curtis Interview" featurette
• Limited Edition Booklet essay by Film critic and author Simon Abrams (Blu-ray only)
• Newly Commissioned Art by Sean Phillips
• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase (Blu-ray only)
Color 74 Minutes 1.33:1 Not Rated
An investigative journalist takes a stab at the supernatural - This unforgettable first entry in the Night Stalker series introduced the world to the quirky reporter with a penchant for the paranormal and became one of the top-rated TV movies of all time. Investigating a series of Las Vegas murders, Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin, The Night Strangler) discovers that each victim has been bitten in the neck and drained of blood. Though Kolchak's outlandish theory about the murders gets him nowhere with the police, his initiative to apprehend the killer himself gets him into hot water... with a modern-day vampire. The great John Llewellyn Moxey (Nightmare in Badham County) directed this Dan Curtis (Burnt Offerings) production featuring Carol Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure), Simon Oakland (The Hunting Party), Ralph Meeker (Big House, U.S.A.), Claude Akins (A Man Called Sledge), Charles McGraw (The Narrow Margin), Kent Smith (The Spiral Staircase), Elisha Cook Jr. (I Wake Up Screaming) and Larry Linville (TV’s M*A*S*H). Teleplay by legendary sci-fi/horror writer Richard Matheson (The Incredible Shrinking Man).

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[Rik]

Coming October 2nd on DVD and Blu-ray from Kino Lorber!
Just in Time for Halloween!
The Night Strangler (1973) with optional English subtitles
• Brand New 4K Restoration!
• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas
• NEW Interview with Composer Bob Cobert
• "Directing 'The Night Strangler'" Featurette
• Limited Edition Booklet essay by film critic and author Simon Abrams (Blu-ray only)
• Newly Commissioned Art by Sean Phillips
• Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase (Blu-ray only)

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[Rik]

Hopefully we’ll get a new version of the series with better picture quality than the DVD set next

[Inspector Abberline]

The Ripper...1974

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The opening episode is fairly reminiscent of the stories in the Tv movie versions of Kolchak, but instead of a vampire or a mad doctor terrorizing a city, we have good old Jack The Ripper come back to wreak havoc on the citizens Milwaukee. Everything is set in place with the great Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak and the editor on the verge of a heart attack Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo. The series also introduces a couple of great comedy relief characters in the guise of Jack Grinnage as Ron Updyke a slightly incompetent but good natured comedy foil, and Ruth McDevitt as the Agony Aunt for the newspaper column, although she also appears in this episode, and is credited as elderly woman, but later returns in the series as Emily Cowles...If you enjoyed both of the Tv movies, then you will know doubt get a kick out of this opening episode, as it is a fun and intriguing story, although an occurring Jack The Ripper killer is nothing new. What makes the series stand out, is that it manages to combine a good horror yarn with some great bits of humour, Updyke's queasy reaction to seeing a dead body at a crime scene, and Kolchak being arrested in a police sting at a massage parlour, where he pleads his innocence as he is carted off in a police car, are two great memorable scenes that set the tone for the rest of the series.

[Inspector Abberline]

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In the second episode Carl comes up against Voodoo and a vengeful zombie on a killing spree. This is the sort of episode that could only come out of the 1970s,as it mashes up Sugar Hill style Blaxploitation horror with the other popular genre of the decade the gangster flick. .So we get a sort of watered down version of Across 110th Street (1972) meets White Zombie with just a smidgen of Marvel's Tales of the Zombie. And just to hammer home its grindhouse connections the episode features appearance's from Hong Kong Phooey and caretaker of the OverLook Hotel Scatman Crothers and Huggy Bear Antonio Fargas..We also get John Fiedler as Gordy Spangler the money loving morgue attendant, but people maybe more familiar with his dulcet tones as Piglet in the Winnie The Pooh films. In fact this episode has a great cast with Monique Marmelstein making her first appearance, played by Carol Ann Susi who would later become the voice of Mrs. Wolowitz on the The Big Bang Theory. You do the get the feeling that they wanted to tackle all the major horror icons first before getting into all the weird stuff later on, of course most modern audiences tend to forget that not all zombies were flesh eaters, yes were looking at you Mr Romero...A nicely done episode if a some what over familiar story line...

[Inspector Abberline]

They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be ….

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Episode three,and this is the start of the series where some of the episodes get bat shit crazy, also the start of the science fiction angle creeps into the series big style, this episode alone shows that the X-Files were taking its inspiration from this series...Its an interesting episode, in that we never see the alien lifeforce..(budgetary restrictions or clever writing by its writers, both probably).Also as pointed out by some one else I hastened to add, one of the few episodes that Carl does not manage to thwart his nemesis at the end..(opps spoiler alert)….Basically we have a bone marrow sucking alien killing animals at the zoo and leaving behind some sticky black residue, not only that the creature is stealing lead to repair its space craft and seeking directions to get back home. While its not one of my favourite episodes from the series, it still has a lot to offer, the actual story about proving the existence of an alien is pretty well worn, even back then...But its McGavin's screen presence, coupled with a witty script that keeps this episode bouncing along. This was a good indicator that some of the stories later on will get super weird and bizarre, its just a shame that some of the special effects do not always do the stories justice, as some later episodes will show...

[Inspector Abberline]

Episode 4: The Vampire .

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For me personally this is my favourite episode, it pretty much encapsulates what Kolchak is all about, unfortunately not all the episodes are as good as this one, but your gonna get that with any series, they set the bar high with the two films, but I think budgetary restrictions and maybe apathy from the TV studio is what killed the series in the end, either that or Carl was carted off to the funny farm with Vincenzo shouting down his ear, mean while a zombie Ron Updyke keeps popping up in unusual places to scare Carl, of course no one but Carl can see him. But I digress...This is a marvellous follow up to the film The Night Stalker (1972),as a victim of the original vampire Janos Skorzeny,drags herself out of her grave, a marvellously filmed scene reminiscent of a euro style vampire flick, and equally as creepy...So its Kolchak versus a female vampire, who not only looks rather attractive but has super human strength as well...Its a great episode with Carl getting to do some Van Helsing like antics towards the end, and Suzanne Charney as The Vampire, could give Ingrid Pitt a run for her money in the sexy vamp stakes.

[Inspector Abberline]

The Werewolf.# 5
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This almost constitutes as a Christmas episode, where Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) is about to go on a sea voyage for his Christmas break, needles to say the best laid plans and all that, so Kolchak ends up going on the cruise, and is instructed to write a piece on the swinging singles scene that these cruises attract. And I use the word attract in its loosest sense, anybody sane would throw themselves off the boat if they shared a cabin with these people. Luckily there is a werewolf on board and he is eating his way through the passengers, and to be honest he is welcome to them. I would think all those polyester Hawaiian shirts would probably of given him indigestion to say the least...In theory this is a great episode, the idea of werewolf stalking a cruise ship has some good possibilities, and up to a point it does work, that is until you see the wolfman in all his hairy glory. Obviously a mid 1970s tv show will not have the budget for state of the art effects, but even by telly standards the end result is a bit lame, luckily the episode is saved by Kolchak and fellow passenger Nita Talbot trying to find who has hairy palms..

[Inspector Abberline]

Episode 6: Firefall .

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This is one of those episodes that I never really warmed to first time round, but on several re-watches later it kind of grew on me. At first the story seems a little ludicrous as the spirit of a dead arsonist and classical music fan Frankie Markoff, is killed in an arcade. His then restless spirit gets cut up by a car while being taken to the cemetery, the car in question has conductor Ryder Bond inside, so the spirit of Markoff tries to take over the body of Bond, mean while people are spontaneously combusting.. Once you except the premise, of the story, its kind of a fun episode, with some great dialogue, especially between Carl and Maria the gypsy who he obviously double crossed before in the past. While the series was never ever explicit, the aftermath scenes of burned bodies is pretty effective, although they cutaway from the burned corpse's pretty quickly, whether that's due tv censorship or not we will probably never know. There's also some rather creepy scenes where the spirit who now resembles Bond keeps popping up through windows etc grinning inanely, waiting for Bond to fall asleep so he can take over his body...As episodes go its pretty good, and any story that ends up with Carl digging up a corpse cant be all bad now can it..

[Inspector Abberline]

Episode 7: The Devil's Platform

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The Devil's Platform sees a young and up coming politician rise to power, and anyone who might get in his way, ends up dead due to a bizarre accident or just mauled by a bloody great vicious looking dog...With a youthful looking Tom Skerritt as politician Robert Palmer, this episode shares a few minor similarities with the Omen series, death by elevator, an evil looking dog and a politician with some satanic leanings. While the episode is entertaining enough pot boiler latching onto the satanic and evil dog moral panic that gets thrown up by mainstream media every decade or so, the story does loose momentum midway through, there just is not enough meat on the story to keep it interesting. Yet again its the chemistry between Carl and his editor Tony Vicenzo, that saves the day,
Carl " What don't you like about this hat?"
Tony "What's under it."
And while I understand the budget limitations of a tv series from the 1970s,I have to say that the crypt Palmer does all his satanic blaspheming in, looks like the set from a school play, one good gust of wind could blow over the so called stone walls, of his dungeon/wine cellar. The ending is pretty weak, Carl throw's some holy water and dissolves an amulet that seems to be the source of Palmers power...If Carls not digging up a grave by the end I always feel a little cheated....