THE NIGHT STRANGLER - "Every 20 Years He Must Kill...To Live" (1973)

 

 The first tale of Carl Kolchak, "The Night Stalker" was made in 1972, and that was followed up by tonight's Saturday Night Special from 1973, "The Night Strangler."

 

 

 Of course this film again stars Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, and Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo, but the new female co-star of this movie is the amorous Jo Ann (The Fall Guy) Pflug as the belly dancing Louise Harper. She tries to help Kolchak as much as she can.

The basic ingredients of "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler" might not be that much different, but the odd casting of classic characters is, and has a lot to do why it's so much fun to watch.

You've got Scott (Journey To The Center Of Time) Brady as the perennial frustrated and angry police captain.

Funny little guy Wally (The voice of Underdog) Cox, is the research expert named Mr. Berry who helps out Kolchak immensely! Wally Cox was one of the most incredible talents on the planet, although many people only know him as a square on "Hollywood Squares." He was best friends with Marlon Brando, and their cremated ashes were actually scattered together, and one of the most incredible and unbelievable things about Wally was that he was a soul singer in the 1960's, and when you listen to this song, you will not believe your ears! Yes, that's really him!

Wally Cox - "This Man"

Any child who has ever seen "The Wizard Of Oz" will immediately recognize Margaret Hamilton as the woman who was The Wicked Witch Of The West.

Dungeon Mega-Hero John Carradine is also in there. With 354 acting credits, John was probably in more horror movies than anybody even knows were made.

Al (Grandpa Munster) Lewis has a small role as a tramp living in the underground city beneath Seattle that burned down in 1889. Modern Seattle was built on top of it, and to this day, there are still guided underground tours of the streets and tunnels.

Nina (Dead Heat On A Merry-Go-Round) Wayne is the younger sister of blonde bombshell Carol Wayne, and is another one of the dancers in the club with Louise Harper.

Virginia (Ratboy, My Demon Lover) Peters is Charisma Beauty's husband and bodyguard Wilma!

Much like "The Night Stalker," and "Ripper," "The Night Strangler" starts off with a series of women being murdered, but it's not in Las Vegas this time, it's Seattle, Washington, where Kolchak has moved to after being fired in Vegas. Little does he know that his old boss Tony Vincenzo was also fired and relocated to Seattle, and is Carl's boss again.

One female victim after another is being strangled in what is now the world famous Pioneer Square area of Seattle.

Not only have they been strangled, but they also have been drained of blood, and Kolchak with the help of Mr. Berry, has deducted that it's been going on for 144 years, so of course nobody believes him!

I don't know how many 'Strangler' films there are total, but here is a list of some of the 'Strangler' titles we've featured here on this site! It's very possible that the 'Strangler' concept is probably more popular than ghouls, fiends, and demons all put together!

So here you go, "The Strangler," "Santo Vs. The Ghost Of The Strangler," "Strangler Of The Swamp," "The Hollywood Strangler Meets The Skid Row Slasher," "Santo Vs. The Strangler," "The Night Of The Strangler,"  "Invisible Strangler," "Teen-Age Strangler,"  "The Haunted Strangler," and "The Strangler Of Blackmoor Castle."

 I think you get the picture!

Adding to the mystery, some of the witnesses say the killer looks like a dead man, while others say he looks very handsome!

In an elevator, Kolchak explains to Louise Harper the whole story of the vampire in Las Vegas.

His story doesn't have much affect on Louise, but in a pretty funny moment, we see how it shocks the rest of the passengers on the elevator when her and Kolchak exit. If this isn't a perfect WTF?! shot, then I don't know what is.

It's a long story, but the murdering bastard is a hallowed name in the city, which makes it even more difficult of a story for Kolchak to sell! Richard (Forbidden Planet) Anderson is the almost immortal Doctor.

 

At least his story is finally printed despite the odds, but then he finds out there were only twenty copies printed before they stopped the presses and ran the story as you will see below instead!

 

To make things even worse, Kate (Switchblade Sisters) Murtagh as Janie Watkins, a woman Kolchak can't stand, rubs it in his face. Kate was also in the episode pf "The Twilight Zone" called "Mr. Garrity And The Graves,"

 As expected, Kolchak is fired once again, and so is Tony Vincenzo, but that's okay, because after this, they get their own show!

ULTRAMAN / "Terror On Route 87" - 1966

In this episode, a giant bird-monster is attacking motorists on Route 87 in the mountains near Omuro Park. The Science Patrol guys go out to investigate what seems to have some supernatural link to it's mystery.

Science Patrollers take the easy way up the hill to the park.

A guard who saw a luminous glow from the mountain top describes all the details of what took place that night.

It looks like this place is for real, that's one Hell of a monument there! The statue is of the supernatural bird named "Hydra."

And in the museum at the park there's a painting of the creature that seems to be what drivers saw, yes, Hydra!

That night all Hell breaks loose, Hydra emerges from inside the mountain overlooking the park!

The Science Patrol guys fire away at the giant bird...

But all that does is piss it off!!

The next day Hydra is up to its old tricks, attacking the motorists on Route 87 for some unknown reason.

The monster seems most interested in destroying trucks!

Hayata has crashed in his plane but gets away from the crowd to change into Ultraman, and boy, just in the nick of time!

So, the two tussle around for a while, like this hand to hand combat here. Ultraman is giving Hydra the old Three Stooges nose pull...

Our hero resorts to his most lethal attack, but the big bird just keeps coming.

Then, Hydra heads off into the sky, with a transparent child on its back.

Fuji communicates with Ultraman to let him know that Hydra is the protector of children that have been run over by cars on Route 87. Ultraman ceases fire and watches as the giant bird flies off into the sky with the child on its back.

Hydra reminds us of how important it is to take care of our children!

THE NIGHT STALKER - "A Real Horror Story" (1972)

 Before the TV series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" premiered in 1974, there were two Kolchak movies made for TV, "The Night Stalker" in 1972, and then, "The Night Strangler" in 1973.

Welcome to the Wild Wednesday version of life in The Dungeon.

It doesn't take a lot of thought to know this film was shot in Las Vegas!

"The Night Stalker" is very similar to the first episode of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." A lot of women are being murdered on a regular basis, but the big difference is that instead of Jack The Ripper, the culprit in this story is a real-life vampire.

Lucky Carl Kolchak, he has a beautiful girlfriend named Gail Foster, and she's played by lovely Carol Lynley who was exactly 20 years younger than Darren McGavin.

 

 

"Why can't I figure this out?"

The dead bodies just keep piling up, and nobody wants to hear about Kolchak's vampire theories.

"The Night Stalker" has a great cast that includes Claude Akin there in the middle as Sheriff Butcher. Claude Akin probably played more Sheriff's than almost anybody in his career, including Sheriff Elroy P. Lobo. He was also in two episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," and "The Little People." 

Kolchak has a tendency to get frustrated and take it out on himself!

How often do you get to see two guys that played the same character in their careers acting together? Well, that's what you have here. Both Darren McGavin and Ralph Meeker were also Mike Hammer at one time or another. Ralph was Mike Hammer in the epic "Kiss Me Deadly" in 1955, and Darren McGavin was Mike Hammer in the TV series of the same name in 1958 to 1959.

Here Ralph plays Kolchak's buddy, FBI agent Bernie Jenks.

This is about as sexy as Carl and Gail's relationship gets, but before it's over, he actually asks her to marry him.

Yet another body drained of blood with big chomp bites on her neck!

A witness is finally able to give a description of the slayer.

Looks like a vampire to me! Barry Atwater is the vampire known as Janos Skorzeny. Barry Atwater was also in "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," and was in an episode of "The Outer Limits" called "Corpus Earthling." Barry was the kind of actor that could be in five episodes of "Gunsmoke" as characters with colourful names like Paw Yewker, Harp, Ed Eby, Jesse Daggett and Mr. Bowen.

The vampire needs a lot of blood, and since he can't kill everybody, he sometimes has to make a withdrawal from the local blood bank.

The cops were ready for him this time, but despite getting shot something like 30 times, he still gets away! Maybe Kolchak is onto something with this vampire business.

Another Dungeon hero Elisha (House On Haunted Hill, The Black Zoo) Cook Jr. has a small part as Mickey Crawford.

How many times can they catch this guy, and how many times can he possibly get away? The opportunities are endless!

Just like in the tale of "The Ripper," Kolchak discovers where the villain lives, and decides to go it on his own, but this time he comes armed to the teeth with a crucifix and a wooden stake and mallet!

It's just before dawn, so Kolchak is able to fend him off, and buy himself a little time.

Kolchak is just a reporter, not a policeman, and if they would have just believed him, he wouldn't have found himself in such a precarious predicament!

The sun comes up, and Carl Kolchak has to take business into his own hands!

He gets the story, and feels like this is the one that he will be able to retire on, but instead, the story gets squashed, they send Gail out of town and won't tell him where, and he's told that if he doesn't get out of town immediately, they are going to press murder charges against him.

Sounds about right! What a way to treat a hero!