THE NIGHT STALKER Jan 11th 1972
Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Carol Lynley, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins Written by Richard Mathesan.
Here’s the IMDB Summary; Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he's reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas. It's here he gets the story of his life. But will the local sheriff, or the D.A., or even his own boss, let him print it? He has an ally in the FBI agent (Ralph Meeker) brought in to investigate this strange case. It seems someone is biting the necks of young girls and draining their blood. Can this killer with supernormal powers really be a 70-year-old Romanian millionaire? Can he really be a vampire? And can an aging reporter do anything to stop him?
The TV Movie was the highest rated of all time, which led to a sequel the following year.
Produced by Dan Curtis, who brought us DARK SHADOWS a few years earlier, it’s equal parts THE FRONT PAGE and DRACULA.
Darren McGavin, who plays Carl, was 50 when he starred in this, which is refreshing. It gives him a seasoned flair and they never would have done this today. McGavin played Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer in a late 50s TV series and Ralph Meeker, who plays the FBI agent, also played Hammer in the outstanding 1955 Robert Altman movie KISS ME DEADLY.
McGavin was approached to play the character after a literary agent had brought Jeff Rice’s unpublished novel, THE KOLCHAK PAPERS to producer Curtis thinking it would make for a good TV Movie. McGavin plays the role nearly the same way he approached the Mike Hammer character. Like Hammer, Carl narrated his adventures to the viewers usually starting with a post climax setting with him reviewing the story for publication.
Regular KOLCHAK viewers are yelling “yuck” over this rare bit of romance in a Kolchak adventure- McGavin with Lyndley.
Kolchak is confident both in his reporting and with his girlfriend played here by Carol Lynley as Gail Foster. Lynley would play the lounge singer in the big budget POSEIDON ADVENTURE the same year. The TV Series which would follow would push against the idea of Kolchak romances and we all can say thanks for that.
The film established a few elements that would later become part of the Kolchak mythos when it was developed as a series. In Rice’s novel Kolchak wears loud Hawaiian shirts, but McGavin balked at the idea and chose instead Kolchak’s fashion sense which consisted of cheap seersucker suits.
But there’s clearly more of Mike Hammer than Carl Kolchak in this as evidenced by the romance and Carl’s hard drinking habit;
Carl Kolchak drinking beer in a polo shirt?? What madness is this?
The bottom line of this movie in comparison to the show that will follow is that Kolchak is far less likable here than he will be in the series. He’s cantankerous in the show as he is here but he verges on outright arrogance too and that makes him far less interesting.
Oddball Characters
Much of the charm of KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER is the secondary cast that would appear in various episodes, including some well known character actors of the time, and that format is lightly started here with this first movie;
Vincenzo’s appearance in this introduction is odd in that he’s dressed very casually throughout the movie.
Simon Oakland makes his debut as Carl’s overworked boss, Tony Vincenzo, who is always getting Kolchak out of trouble while trying desperately to keep his blood pressure down.
The Vampire stealing from a blood bank— creepy and brilliant!
As the vampire, Barry Atwater is intimidating and menacing, far from the usual charm we usually see with such characters. Atwater made a career out of playing tough characters and he passed away just a few years after this came out.
Producer Dan Curtis had made a name for himself with another vampire, namely Barnabas Collins from DARK SHADOWS, but unlike Collins, this vampire is not played in a sympathetic manner, rather he’s presented as a brute unspeaking monster.
Elisha Cook Jr, who was The Fat Man’s bodyguard in 1941’s THE MALTESE FALCON starring Humphrey Bogart makes an appearance here. Cook would also appear in 1978’s SALEM’S LOT which fits into the Kolchak universe in many ways.
There’s also a doctor informant but he’s way too normal for what will be the established lore.
Kolchak would always be at odds with the authorities in these stories, many of them fighting against his desire to get to the truth at the expense of general panic and here we have several Las Vegas city leaders up against him.
City leaders argue about whether to throw Carl out of town or throw him in jail.
Larry Linville appears as a smug condescending doctor who would be Kolchak’s foil if Atkins wasn’t in it. Linville went on to play the same type of character in an episode of the TV Series which will be known as KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER as well as a regular on MASH as Major Frank Burns.
Claude Akins is the Sheriff who wants to run Carl out of town. Akins was an imposing actor with little range but he’s effective in the roles he takes on. The next year he would be playing a killer gorilla general in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES. Akins would go on to many roles in TV and B Movies over a long career.
As mentioned above Ralph Meeker is an FBI Agent and friend to Carl (a rarity) who works with the city bosses.
HOW’S THE MONSTER: Vampire looks great!
HOW’S THE SEASONED COP (OR AUTHORITY FIGURE) WHO HATES KOLCHAK: Claude Akins is not a fan of Carl.
KOLCHAK RATING 3.5 - It’s very good and it establishes a lot of what we like about the series but it lacks enough oddball characters and Kolchak himself is a bit too irritating, plus the love interest? Yuck.
Next up: The Second TV Movie