TV Movie: The Night Stalker (1972)

When a series of bizarre murders grip Las Vegas, enterprising newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) suggests that a vampire is at work. Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins and Charles McGraw also appear in 1972's The Night Stalker, the most watched TV movie up to that time.

Jeffrey Grant Rice's The Kolchak Papers

The Night Stalker was based on the unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers by Jeffrey Grant Rice. Following the airing of The Night Stalker, Rice's novel was then published as a TV tie-in paperback by Pocket Books in 1972.

Screenplay, Director, Music

Produced by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows (1966-71) fame, The Night Stalker was brilliantly written for television by Richard Matheson, with uncredited assistance from Max Hodge.

John Llewellyn Moxey directed, with Robert Cobert providing the film's original music.

The Night Stalker Cast

Darren McGavin starred as Carl Kolchak. Other principal cast members included Carol Lynley (Gail Foster), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Ralph Meeker (Bernie Jenks), Claude Akins (Sheriff Warren A. Butcher), Charles McGraw (Police Chief Ed Masterson), Kent Smith (District Attorney Tom Paine), Elisha Cook Jr. (Mickey Crawford), Stanley Adams (Fred Hurley), Larry Linville (Dr. Robert Makurji), Jordan Rhodes (Dr. John O'Brien) and Barry Atwater (Janos Skorzeny).

Filmed in Las Vegas

The Night Stalker was filmed in a scant 18 days. Las Vegas was the principal filming location, with the Samuel Goldwyn/Warner Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles used for many of the interior scenes.

As originally scripted, Darren McGavin's character was to be dressed in Bermuda shorts and a loud Hawaiian shirt. McGavin nixed that idea, opting to go with an old 1950s white summer suit with dark pinstripes and a vintage straw hat to match.

Barry Atwater was outfitted with red contact lenses for his role as vampire Janos Skorzeny.

Carl Kolchak, Las Vegas Vampire

The Night Stalker centers on former big city reporter Carl Kolchak, who has hooked up with his old editor Tony Vincenzo at The Daily News in Las Vegas. Kolchak has hit town just in time, as Sin City is experiencing a series of ghastly murders whose young female victims bear strange bite marks and a shocking loss of blood.

The abrasive Kolchak soon becomes a thorn in the side of law enforcement, as he expounds on the theory that a modern-day vampire is on the prowl in Las Vegas. Following a wild brawl at Old Towne Hospital in which an intruder steals blood and makes quick work of several orderlies and the arriving Las Vegas Police Department, the cops get a line on their suspect.

Interpol has identified the man as one Janos Skorzeny, born in Rumania in 1899, who has left a trail of carnage during his previous travels in Europe and North America. Although still skeptical, the cops and the DA are fast becoming true believers when Skorzeny, now in his 70s, makes yet another incredible escape -- this time after being shot 30 or 40 times.

With the help of an informant, Kolchak later locates the lair of Janos Skorzeny -- coffin, Transylvania dirt and all -- creeping in at night armed only with a crucifix, a mallet and a wooden stake.

Air Date, Ratings Success

The Night Stalker premiered over ABC-TV on January 11, 1972. A huge success, The Night Stalker scored big with A.C. Nielsen, earning a 33.2 rating and a 54 share of the viewing audience. It was the highest rated made-for-TV movie up to that time, drawing in an estimated 75 million viewers.

Sequel, Television Series

Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland returned one year later in a sequel titled The Night Strangler (this one set in Seattle), telecast over ABC-TV on January 16, 1973.

McGavin and Oakland then teamed up for a subsequent television series titled The Night Stalker (1974-75). Set in Chicago, ABC-TV's The Night Stalker produced 20 one-hour episodes.

In 2005-06, a TV remake series titled Night Stalker starring Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak generated only 12 episodes.

The Night Stalker DVD

The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler TV movies are available on DVD as a double feature from MGM (2004).

"This nut thinks he's a vampire!" Kolchak tells skeptical law enforcement officials in the original movie.

Correction, Carl: This nut is a vampire...

Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, The Night Stalker

McGavin, Barry Atwater, The Night Stalker

McGavin, Jordan Rhodes, The Night Stalker

Meeker, McGraw, McGavin, Akins, The Night Stalker

The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler DVD

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