One small connection between the two films is Kubrick's Paths of Glory. Ralph Meeker (The FBI guy in The Night Stalker) and Richard Anderson (the killer in The Night Strangler) were both in it. Meeker as one of the condemned men and Anderson as the prosecutor.
I've just stumbled upon your channel. Great content. I have a soft spot for _The Night Stalker_ as it was written by Richard Matheson, plus I also remember seeing it in the Seventies. Sure it's a TV movie so the violence is dialed back, but it still has some chilling moments, as does _The Night Strangler_ made the following year. You must remember, TV movies were not gory or violent back in the early 70's. We'd have to wait until the end of that decade for _Salem's Lot_ to push TV censors further.
@@FilmJournal the TV show is much the same and 1 episode is a sequel to the first film. It does lose the charm as it goes on because of the behind the scenes nonsense
80s low budget horror recommendation: "Without Warning" from 1980. The link to this particular video is Ralph Meeker. It was his final role and utterly insignificant. He plays some lush at a dark country bar and barely says a word. I'd be curious to know how he wound up in such a film at all. It's not a great movie, but somewhat creepy and full of well-known names to those who know them: Jack Palance, Ralph Meeker, Martin Landau, David Caruso, and the great star of F-Troop, Larry Storch. Also from 1980: "Mother's Day."
I am an old timer who has an entire history with Kolchak - dating back to the night the first movie premiered 1972. I watched it with my dad. It set the bar for TV movie terror! It was a huge hit -- all the kids on the playground the next day were talking about it. 1973 the Night Strangler was great - however - the villain was weaker (Janos Skorzny was an ANIMAL !) and Karl's "female co-star" was WAY weaker than Carol Lynley in the first movie. Karl needed a "soft shoulder" and also needed one in ..The Series. Lastly , on ...Strangler: the cameo stars were brilliant and that "underground city' concept was VERY CREEPY ! (The REAL underground city looks NOTHING like that did ) . LOL .Fast Forward: Late Spring 1974. TV Guide had a blurb "....Kolchak The Night Stalker will be a series on ABC this Fall ". WHAT !? (Heart palpitations) . Now- for some reason - they did NOT mention that it was to be "Monster of the Week" with the series. Thus: in my head- with my imagination RUNNING WILD - here was MY TAKE on the series. Karl was going to be tracking down all the Vampire "victims" created by Skorzny in movie number 1. He would be traveling all over the USA to find them (Like David Banner in The Hulk TV show or the Fugitive TV show from the 1960s). BOY was I glad it was "Monster of the Week" for kids with short attention spans . Even though, NOTHING could save this poor series ! (END OF PART 1)
FALL 1974. This was a BIG and NERVOUS year for me. First year of Junior high School and the premieres of both Kolchak The Night Stalker AND the Planet of the Apes TV series...BOTH on Friday nights !! The Apes Tv show was pretty bad and was off the air by Christmas. Kolchak made it ....thru the year and into Spring at least. The episodes were good and bad . TOP episodes being The Ripper, The Zombie, The Vampire and the Spanish Moss Monster . BOTTOM episodes being Mr. R.I.N.G. . Energy Eater , Werewolf (horrible make up !) and the Cathy Lee Crosby episode (Succubus?) . Oddball episodes I enjoyed were the Reptile and the Headless motorcycle rider. regardless: that year Kolchak was MY HERO and could do no wrong! (END OF PART 2)
Kolchak was "on ice" and just a footnote in Horror TV History ...until...1979. CBS Late Night (Fridays at 11:30) picked up the series and actually , brought it to a new younger audience (I guess the ones who would be about 5 or 10 years younger than me (BUT still -- all of us were much older than you Admin Guys if you are reading this !) . It got GREAT RATINGS and the network was ALMOST going to open their mouths and offer Darren McGavin his old typewriter back ! Yes: CBS was thinking about RENEWING the series for prime time. But that was not to be.
EPILOG : Early 1980s . For some weird reason; they took 2 sets of Kolchak episodes and strung them together for "fake made for TV movies" shown at like 2AM . One of them was called "The Demon and the Mummy". The other one ; I cannot recall the name. And we kinda remember that they actually hired McGavin to dub some connective links to the episodes (!). I kinda recall seeing footage of Carl driving and the voice over may have been like "As soon as that Mummy case was all wrapped up -- Venchenzo had another assignment for me ...." Not sure if that was my 2am imagination or not. At the same time (early 1980s) The Night Stalker and Strangler movies were STILL playing on local ABC affiliates on Saturday nights (right BEFORE they did that 'Haunted Hollywood" thing). At this time: I got my FIRST VCR and taped the both of them ! I now had my "film library" starting on a single book shelf. 🤓
PART 5: late 1980s / into the 1990s : Kolchak reruns on Sci Fi channel . Only problem was the prints looked like they were filmed thru MILK and the sound was pretty bad too. As well as "clipped for more commercial time" . And I think MCA / Universal released OFFICIAL epodes on TAPE via the "one mailed to you house per month" mail order deals. LAST STOP: The DVD set with NO EXTRAS . What a SHAME.
Imma save this video and watch it later. I watched both of these classic a month ago and loved it. Gonna watch the series too.
One small connection between the two films is Kubrick's Paths of Glory. Ralph Meeker (The FBI guy in The Night Stalker) and Richard Anderson (the killer in The Night Strangler) were both in it. Meeker as one of the condemned men and Anderson as the prosecutor.
I've just stumbled upon your channel. Great content. I have a soft spot for _The Night Stalker_ as it was written by Richard Matheson, plus I also remember seeing it in the Seventies. Sure it's a TV movie so the violence is dialed back, but it still has some chilling moments, as does _The Night Strangler_ made the following year. You must remember, TV movies were not gory or violent back in the early 70's. We'd have to wait until the end of that decade for _Salem's Lot_ to push TV censors further.
One of my favourite characters ever
One I was totally in the dark about before this review- looking forward to digging into the tv show!
@@FilmJournal the TV show is much the same and 1 episode is a sequel to the first film. It does lose the charm as it goes on because of the behind the scenes nonsense
Great review!
Thanks man!
80s low budget horror recommendation: "Without Warning" from 1980. The link to this particular video is Ralph Meeker. It was his final role and utterly insignificant. He plays some lush at a dark country bar and barely says a word. I'd be curious to know how he wound up in such a film at all. It's not a great movie, but somewhat creepy and full of well-known names to those who know them: Jack Palance, Ralph Meeker, Martin Landau, David Caruso, and the great star of F-Troop, Larry Storch. Also from 1980: "Mother's Day."
McGavin was also good as one of the secondary heavies in The Natural.
Are these guys blissfully unaware that this was a tv series as well? Night Stalker was the pilot.
😦
Shame on you both for not knowing the name of the great Elisha Cook Jr.
I am an old timer who has an entire history with Kolchak - dating back to the night the first movie premiered 1972. I watched it with my dad. It set the bar for TV movie terror! It was a huge hit -- all the kids on the playground the next day were talking about it. 1973 the Night Strangler was great - however - the villain was weaker (Janos Skorzny was an ANIMAL !) and Karl's "female co-star" was WAY weaker than Carol Lynley in the first movie. Karl needed a "soft shoulder" and also needed one in ..The Series. Lastly , on ...Strangler: the cameo stars were brilliant and that "underground city' concept was VERY CREEPY ! (The REAL underground city looks NOTHING like that did ) . LOL .Fast Forward: Late Spring 1974. TV Guide had a blurb "....Kolchak The Night Stalker will be a series on ABC this Fall ". WHAT !? (Heart palpitations) . Now- for some reason - they did NOT mention that it was to be "Monster of the Week" with the series. Thus: in my head- with my imagination RUNNING WILD - here was MY TAKE on the series. Karl was going to be tracking down all the Vampire "victims" created by Skorzny in movie number 1. He would be traveling all over the USA to find them (Like David Banner in The Hulk TV show or the Fugitive TV show from the 1960s). BOY was I glad it was "Monster of the Week" for kids with short attention spans . Even though, NOTHING could save this poor series ! (END OF PART 1)
FALL 1974. This was a BIG and NERVOUS year for me. First year of Junior high School and the premieres of both Kolchak The Night Stalker AND the Planet of the Apes TV series...BOTH on Friday nights !! The Apes Tv show was pretty bad and was off the air by Christmas. Kolchak made it ....thru the year and into Spring at least. The episodes were good and bad . TOP episodes being The Ripper, The Zombie, The Vampire and the Spanish Moss Monster . BOTTOM episodes being Mr. R.I.N.G. . Energy Eater , Werewolf (horrible make up !) and the Cathy Lee Crosby episode (Succubus?) . Oddball episodes I enjoyed were the Reptile and the Headless motorcycle rider. regardless: that year Kolchak was MY HERO and could do no wrong! (END OF PART 2)
Kolchak was "on ice" and just a footnote in Horror TV History ...until...1979. CBS Late Night (Fridays at 11:30) picked up the series and actually , brought it to a new younger audience (I guess the ones who would be about 5 or 10 years younger than me (BUT still -- all of us were much older than you Admin Guys if you are reading this !) . It got GREAT RATINGS and the network was ALMOST going to open their mouths and offer Darren McGavin his old typewriter back ! Yes: CBS was thinking about RENEWING the series for prime time. But that was not to be.
EPILOG : Early 1980s . For some weird reason; they took 2 sets of Kolchak episodes and strung them together for "fake made for TV movies" shown at like 2AM . One of them was called "The Demon and the Mummy". The other one ; I cannot recall the name. And we kinda remember that they actually hired McGavin to dub some connective links to the episodes (!). I kinda recall seeing footage of Carl driving and the voice over may have been like "As soon as that Mummy case was all wrapped up -- Venchenzo had another assignment for me ...." Not sure if that was my 2am imagination or not. At the same time (early 1980s) The Night Stalker and Strangler movies were STILL playing on local ABC affiliates on Saturday nights (right BEFORE they did that 'Haunted Hollywood" thing). At this time: I got my FIRST VCR and taped the both of them ! I now had my "film library" starting on a single book shelf. 🤓
PART 5: late 1980s / into the 1990s : Kolchak reruns on Sci Fi channel . Only problem was the prints looked like they were filmed thru MILK and the sound was pretty bad too. As well as "clipped for more commercial time" . And I think MCA / Universal released OFFICIAL epodes on TAPE via the "one mailed to you house per month" mail order deals. LAST STOP: The DVD set with NO EXTRAS . What a SHAME.