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The Night Strangler TV Movie (1973)

Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Richard Anderson Star in Horror Film

Jun 3, 2008

Darren McGavin, The Night Strangler DVD, (C) 1998 Anchor Bay Entertainment

Darren McGavin is gritty reporter Carl Kolchak, who is on the trail of a 19th century serial killer in ABC's The Night Strangler. Simon Oakland and Jo Ann Pflug co-star

Grizzled newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) returned in 1973's The Night Strangler. This time, Kolchak is in Seattle where he investigates a series of murders that occur every 21 years. Simon Oakland is back as the hard-boiled, milk-drinking Tony Vincenzo, with Jo Ann Pflug, Scott Brady, Richard Anderson, Wally Cox and John Carradine in support.

The Night Stalker Sequel

The Night Strangler was a sequel to the popular TV movie The Night Stalker, which first aired on January 11, 1972. An estimated 75 million viewers tuned in to The Night Stalker, making a sequel all but inevitable.

Screenplay, Director, Music

Like its famous predecessor, The Night Strangler was written with wit, humor and horror by Richard Matheson. Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows (1966-71) horror fame served as producer and director. Bob Cobert dished up the film's spooky, subterranean music score.

The Night Strangler Cast

Darren McGavin (1922-2006) headed the 90-minute TV movie as Carl Kolchak. Other cast members included Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Jo Ann Pflug (Louise Harper), Scott Brady (Captain Roscoe Schubert), Wally Cox (Titus Berry), Margaret Hamilton (Professor Crabwell), John Carradine (Llewellyn Crossbinder), Al Lewis (Tramp), Nina Wayne (Gladys "Charisma Beauty" Weems), Virginia Peters (Wilma Krankheimer) and Richard Anderson (Dr. Richard Malcolm).

Filming Locations

The Night Strangler was filmed in Los Angeles and Seattle.

L.A.'s famous Bradbury Building on Broadway was prominently featured as Seattle's architectural showcase in the film.

Also used to great effect was Seattle's Space Needle. In the Space Needle elevator, Kolchak memorably tells Louise Harper of his grisly encounter with vampire Janos Skorzeny in Las Vegas, much to the dismay of fellow passengers.

Seattle Old Town, Dr. Richard Malcolm

Run out of town in Las Vegas, crime reporter Carl Kolchak has now surfaced in Seattle, where he is hired by his old editor Tony Vincenzo. Llewellyn Crossbinder, the venerable publisher of the Seattle Daily Chronicle, personally warns Kolchak that there will be "no carnival or hoopla tactics on this paper."

Kolchak's first assignment is the investigation surrounding the murder of Ethel "Merissa" Parker, a belly dancer at Omar's Tent. Here he makes the acquaintance of dancer/college student, Louise Harper.

After another young woman, 26-year-old cocktail waitress Gail Manning, is found strangled in the Pioneer Square district, Kolchak visits the Daily Chronicle's archivist, Titus Berry. Old newspapers are then produced that carry reports of a similar series of murders stretching back to 1952 and beyond.

The intrepid Kolchak eventually pieces the puzzle together. He believes the killer is one Dr. Richard Macolm, a Union Army Civil War surgeon who surfaces from beneath Seattle's Old Town every 21 years in order to take blood from his victims for use in his immortality elixir.

Kolchak later descends into the unknown depths of Seattle's underground via a hidden passageway located beneath Dr. Malcom's old stomping grounds, the former Westside Mercy Hospital. Here he encounters the 114-year-old alchemist himself, who has been murdering Seattleites for their blood since the 1870s.

TV Release, Additional Footage

The Night Strangler -- complete with a raucous scene in which the Civil War's last surviving veteran mops up Seattle's finest in a wild street brawl -- premiered over ABC-TV on January 16, 1973.

Additional footage exists in which Kolchak tracks down an old reporter named Jimmy "Stacks" Stackhaus (George Tobias), who fills him in on the "rotting corpse murders" from previous decades.

The Night Strangler DVD

The Night Strangler, along with The Night Stalker, is available on DVD from both Anchor Bay Entertainment (1998) and MGM (2004).

"I just saw your 'so-called killer' wipe up the street with your so-called police force!" Kolchak tells Captain Roscoe Schubert.

That's our Carl, never one to mince words...

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