Honored Horror: 'The Night Stalker'

A special series for Halloween on award-winning and nominated horror and suspense films and television programs:

A favorite among fans of small-screen horror for over three decades, the 1972 telefilm "The Night Stalker" began life as an unpublished novel by aspiring writer and actor Jeff Rice, who submitted the manuscript to the agent of acclaimed fantasy writer Richard Matheson. Rice was soon cut out of the picture by the agent, who sold the movie rights to ABC without including him in the deal, and secured Matheson -- whose genre credits included everything from the source material for "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "I am Legend" to some of the best episodes of "The Twilight Zone" -- to pen the screenplay (in subsequent interviews, Rice placed no blame on the veteran writer for the outcome), which won the Edgar Award for best television feature or miniseries in 1972. ABC exec Barry Diller tapped Dan Curtis -- then a producer on the popular, supernaturally themed daytime soap "Dark Shadows" and a future DGA and Emmy Award winner for the miniseries "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" -- to oversee the project, with TV stalwart John Llewellyn Moxey as director. Darren McGavin (a 1990 Emmy nominee for a guest shot on "Murphy Brown") was cast as Carl Kolchak, a dogged, slightly seedy Las Vegas reporter who discovers that a rash of murders in Sin City is actually the work of a vampire (Barry Atwater); Kolchak's reputation prevents the police from believing his story, which forces the seersucker-suited newshound to face off against the monster alone.

The resulting film, which aired on ABC on March 17, 1972, was a runaway success for the network, garnering its highest ratings for the season. Several elements contributed to its appeal, though McGavin's performance was at the top of list; the Kolchak of "The Night Stalker" was sly and charming but also with a touch of the unscrupulous -- one gets the impression that the spirit of journalistic ethics holds more weight with Kolchak than the letter -- which makes his transformation from nonbeliever to vampire hunter all the more enjoyable. Moxey's matter-of-fact direction also helps to sell the concept of a creature from Gothic horror -- Atwater's Janos Skorzeny, though silent, is as darkly handsome as Bela Lugosi and as physically imposing as Christopher Lee -- running amok in the casinos and tract homes of Las Vegas. And the cast is terrifically game, most notably Simon Oakland as Kolchak's hair-trigger-tempered boss but also a marvelous collection of character actors in support, including Claude Akins, Kent Smith, Ralph Meeker, Charles McGraw, Stanley Adams, "M*A*S*H's" Larry Linville, Elisha Cook Jr., and Carol Lynley as Kolchak's cocktail waitress girlfriend.

The success of "Stalker" led naturally to a sequel, also penned by Matheson, and this time directed by Curtis: 1973's "The Night Strangler" took Kolchak to Seattle, where another series of killings have broken out, this time by a human perpetrator who appears to be over a century old. It too was a ratings hit, prompting ABC to cook up plans for a third Kolchak adventure; however, the project was shelved in favor of a weekly TV series starring McGavin, who was reportedly coaxed into participating in the show by earning a producer credit. "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" was launched in 1974, and from the bat, it struggled to match its parent films in terms of quality and suspense. The basic premise was intact -- Kolchak investigated crimes with supernatural overtones and did battle with the monster in the final moments (said creatures included Indian demons, succubi, aliens, robots, werewolves, Aztec mummies, and in an episode deemed "tasteless" by Stephen King, a headless biker). However, the scripts -- many of which were co-penned by future Emmy winner David Chase ("The Sopranos") -- leaned more heavily on the humorous subtext of the TV movies, reducing the impact of the episodes' more frightening moments (which were already on the ropes thanks to the show's limited budget -- the suits on the show's "Monster of the Week" tended to show their seams and zippers at the most inopportune moments). The result pleased few in the critical bullpen and fewer still on the production side, most notably McGavin, who begged for the show's demise. He got his wish after 13 episodes.

However, like the vampires and night creatures Kolchak hunted, "The Night Stalker" enjoyed a small but loyal cult following that remained faithful in the decades that followed. Among their throng was writer-producer Chris Carter, who cited the TV features and the series as a key influence on his own paranormal-themed program, "The X-Files," and even cast McGavin in an episode as a retired FBI agent who investigated unusual cases in the 1950s; Nicolas Cage also cited the show as the inspiration for his short-lived "Dresden Files." Kolchak has also been featured in several novels, short stories and graphic novels, though the less said about ABC's ill-fated attempt at reviving the original series in 2005 (with Stuart Townsend as a decidedly too-hip Kolchak) the better.

All of the McGavin Kolchak productions are available on DVD -- "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler" are on a single disc from MGM, while "Kolchak: The Night Stalker -- The Complete Series" is from Universal. To get the full Kolchak effect, dim the lights and watch the TV movies back to back, then check out an episode or two of the series for a palate cleanser ("Horror in the Heights," penned by Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster, is probably of the best, though "The Trevi Collection," with "Dark Shadows" actress Lara Parker as a witch, has its moments too). 

-- Paul Gaita

Pictured: Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak. Photo: ABC 

Comments

[Sharon Lynn]

One of my all time favorite TV Sitcoms series "The Night Stalker" Starring Darren McGarvin in his fameous role as Investigator of the Supernatural Cal Kolchak. He was mysteriously fearless/Kolchak and many of his colleages thought him quite outthere not realizing many of times KOLCHAK just saved their hinds from a drastic haunting creatures of the Night. Eeeeerie & totally spellbinding "spooky" loved it!