Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Leofwine_draca My first exposure to the whole character of Kolchak and I'm left sufficiently impressed. What comes as most impressive is the way in which this film manages to work up a whole lot of chills and eerie moments even though it's a television movie. The plot follows that of a typical mystery yarn, with a string of murders and the identity of the killer being gradually revealed, but so much occurrence is packed into the ninety-minute running time that the pacing never flags or the film become boring. Richard Matheson's script manages to bring stock characters to life and the film achieves a fine balance between humour and horror and pulls it off successfully.Darren McGavin is excellent as the intrepid newspaper reporter who will never take no for an answer, and his character is impossible not to like. He's also frequently funny and displays a fine comic edge, if you like a light in the midst of all the darkness in the film which makes it easier to watch. McGavin is supported by an exemplary cast of character actors, many of whom were familiar from '70s television. Particularly good are Simon Oakland as McGavin's stressed-out, slightly psychotic boss; Jo Ann Pflug as a pushy belly dancer (!); and Scott Brady as the disgruntled chief of police. Familiar faces like Margaret Hamilton and the seemingly immortal John Carradine pad out minor roles and are fun to watch, and I can't go without mentioning Wally Cox's turn as twitchy research man Titus Berry, who aides McGavin's quest a great deal. Sadly this was to be Cox's last role before his death; a shame, as he would have been great to have around in the subsequent television series.The horror elements in this film may be predictable, but are given a breath of fresh air; thanks in part to Dan Curtis' assured direction (previously he had directed the horror television series, DARK SHADOWS, so he knew his stuff). Things start off with stalk-and-slash sequences in which the Ripper-like killer follows his victims through murky alleyways before strangling them. The film's highlight, though, comes when McGavin himself ventures into an eerie, buried streets underneath Seattle and comes upon the killer's lair, packed with mouldering corpses seated around a dinner table. This whole idea of a secret underground dwelling echoes the frankly terrifying concept of 1972's DEATH LINE and is one of the film's most imaginative and chilling touches; you never know what might be lurking out of sight in the shadows and that's where the film's power comes from. The predictable ending sees the killer reverting to his own age (think Dorian Grey) yet is fun in a tacky kind of way. This above average production leaves me eager to see more of Kolchak and the cast alone make it worth tracking down.

Coventry As you can probably derive from the title, the movie poster and the brief plot synopsis, "The Night Strangler" is almost identical to its predecessor "The Night Stalker". Is that bothersome? Perhaps a little… But can you blame writer Richard Matheson and producer/director Dan Curtis for copying themselves? No, of course not, because the original was such an unexpected but prompt and tremendous success that a sequel had to come and it had to come fast! And besides, the plot and atmosphere of the first film were so terrific that watching a rehash of the same story isn't irritating at all. Quite the contrary, "The Night Strangler" is once again a very entertaining and reasonably fast-paced combo between horror and detective, with cool humor and delightful characters. One year after he was unjustly chased out of Las Vegas, sewer journalist Carl Kolchak is wandering around in Seattle. He bumps into his old editor Vincenzo in a sleazy bar and – out of pity – gets offered a job. His first assignment is to report the bizarre murder of a showgirl, but the obsessive Kolchak quickly discovers that several Seattle unsolved murders are related and that the same type of crimes plagues the city of Seattle every 21 years. Once again Kolchak digs up classified police information, once again he doesn't stick to reporting the facts and one again every authority figure in town aims to shut him up! The best (and only innovative) thing about Matheson's script here is the wonderful usage of its filming locations. The culprit – an alchemist that keeps himself alive through murdering young women – has his hideout underneath the ground, in the old Seattle that was destroyed by a tremendous fire. A few years ago, I visited Seattle as a tourist and also took the underground tour, so I can confirm that it forms a unique and authentically creepy filming location for a monster like this! If you're still not convinced yet, the sequel features the awesome John Carradine as a furious and loud-shouting newspaper owner! The end sequences pave the road for a third movie entry that never got made, although apparently Matheson had the script ready, and instead the legendary TV-series were unleashed.

P_Cornelius (I haven't looked, but somebody else surely must have done a similar play on my summary title. I apologize in advance for stealing his or her thunder.) What a tremendous movie! And how different in tone from the first made for TV movie. This is the true pilot for the series, incorporating a comedic undertone and the full blown banter between Kolchak and Vincenzo. Still, it creates chilling scenes, too, especially the finale, with the descent into old underground Seattle. BTW, another motif that will play often in the series is revealed in the scenes with Wilma Krankhamer (what a name!!!). While Carl will laugh at and ridicule people like Wilma throughout, at their moment of being most vulnerable (in this case, where Charisma Beauty is killed), he will often express sympathy and compassion. Thus Carl never appears "mean" or hard hearted. It lifts his character and makes him noble, I think. Meanwhile, the dialog is quite special, from the staccato delivery of Carl's hardboiled narrative, with its wit and humor, to the constant play on words and phrases. Good stuff. And the casting is simply overwhelming. Kolchak enters the creepy old environs of underground Seattle and the first person to pop out of the shadows is . . . Grandpa Munster! Need advice on ghouls, warlocks, alchemists and the like, what better expert than Oz' Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton as the so aptly named Professor Crabwell! And, in a carryover effect from the first movie, John Carradine's Llewellyn Crossbinder operates as the most sinister and unsympathetic figure in the movie, just like Kent Smith's D.A. Tom Paine in The Night Stalker. In comparison, even Richard Anderson's Strangler emerges with a bit of sympathy at the end, a semi-tragic figure of sorts. And, yes, every time I run across Wally Cox, I realize how much I miss his performances.

drmality-1 Carl Kolchak is my favorite TV character, hands down. So yes, I am pretty biased towards anything Carl appears in. This pugnacious misfit was an anachronism even in the 1970's...he would have been much more comfortable in the wild-and-woolly journalistic days of the 20's and 30's. He's clumsy...tactless...socially inept...and completely fearless in pursuit of the truth. He gets beaten up, but never beaten down. Plus, I like his hat.Following the humongous success of "The Night Stalker", it was only natural that a sequel be commissioned. With Dan Curtis and Richard Matheson teaming up on the creative end, there were no worries that "The Night Strangler" would be second-rate or inferior. Even though in many ways it is a virtual remake of the first film, the sequel manages to be even eerier and more frightening, while containing many humorous touches and character bits.Kicked out of Las Vegas after the Janos Skorzeny "vampire" debacle, Kolchak makes his way to Seattle...just in time for a rash of mysterious murders of young women to break out. The victims have had their throats crushed by a man with incredible strength and a small amount of blood has been syringed out of the base of their skulls. Obviously more than just a typical serial killer is at loose. Digging through the moldy archives of the local newspaper (with the help of Titus Berry, played by the great Wally Cox), Kolchak discovers that every 21 years since 1889, six women have been strangled during a period of 18 days. In each case, the killer was described as having superhuman strength and in some cases looking like a corpse.When Carl proposes the theory that the same man is responsible for all the killings going back to 1889, he gets the same response he did in Las Vegas: disbelief, silence and stonewalling. His long-suffering editor Tony Vincenzo is driven almost to a heart attack by arguments with Kolchak and pressure from the police and the powers that be.Kolchak learns that the killer may be lurking in the sinister Seattle "underground"...the remains of the 19th century town buried beneath the modern metropolis. With the help of a sexy belly dancer (cute Jo Ann Pflug), he plunges into the underground in search of the seemingly immortal maniac. The only question is: what will he do when he finds him? The villain in "The Night Strangler" is more interesting to me than the bestial Janos Skorzeny. He is more ghoulish because of his rotted features (depicted in a grisly police sketch) and yet more intellectual, because he is able to speak and articulate his mad reasoning. The scene where Dr. Richard Malcolm, the Night Strangler, converses easily with the mummified remains of his dead family sitting at a cobwebbed dinner table, communicates how utterly insane this genius has become. Richard Anderson, soon to play Oscar Goldman in "The Six Million Dollar Man", gives a chilling performance in his relatively brief scene as Malcolm.As was typical for all Kolchak vehicles, the movie is full of well-known character actors. It's a joy to watch these old pro's in action. Scott Brady is the belligerent police Captain Shubert, cadaverous John Carradine is the publisher of Kolchak's paper, Al Lewis is a drunken bum lurking in the Seattle underground, and, best of all, the Wicked Witch of the West herself, Margaret Hamilton, is a stern college professor who gives Carl information on alchemy and immortality. She has the movie's best line. When Carl asks if everlasting youth was possible, the professor replies "If it was, I'd be an 80 year old sexpot." The scenes in underground Seattle are terrifically spooky and the sequence where the killer bursts through a glass window to get to a victim had me jumping out of my chair. The mixture of humor and horror was never done better than in the Kolchak stories.Yes, the story is very familiar and yes, the shouting between characters gets a little overdone, but "The Night Strangler" is nothing but pure entertainment. Check it out and discover why Carl Kolchak is one of the greatest characters ever to appear on TV.