Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Complete Series/Original 1974 – 1975
Season (Region 4 PAL
Import/Madman DVD Set/Australia)
Picture: B- Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: A-
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated
on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Four/4 PAL
format software and can be ordered from our friends at Madman Entertainment at
the website address provided at the end of the review.
Also note that we
previously reviewed the Universal NTSC DVD release of the series and you can
read more about the show and that set at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2888/Kolchak:+The+Night+Stalker+(1974-7
Since its release back
in 2005, Universal Home Video’s U.S. NTSC DVD set of the classic Kolchak:
The Night Stalker has been a big seller for a back title, is still in
print, continues to assure the show is rediscovered by old and new fans alike
and broadcasts on Universal’s Chiller cable network have inspired further
interest. A PAL Region Two set in the U.K. with
essentially the same content and cover, has also sold well overseas. Now, Madman Entertainment in Australia has
issued the series, but it features some interesting differences when compared
to the Universal U.S. set.
For one thing, they
have decided to make five one-sided DVDs instead of the three double-sided DVDs
the U.S.
set offers. There are more chapter stops
on each episode, but you cannot access them from the fun menus. The prints have some differences, especially
in picture and sound in early shows and those who thought the U.S. set was
too dark will want to check this set out immediately if they have a
multi-region DVD player.
As noted before, the
series resulted in the huge success of two telefilms: The Night Stalker
(1972) and The Night Strangler (1973, both reviewed as a double feature
from MGM elsewhere on this site). As in
those films, the late, great Darren McGavin played Carl Kolchak, a once
on-the-verge-of-big-time success and still-great reporter who was almost one of
the top newspapermen in the country. He
had fallen from grace years ago and in trying to get the next big story, had
been fired from many newspapers nationwide.
No matter what, whether it was police interference or threats from
potential subjects of his writing, Kolchak would stop at nothing to get all the
facts. It is not known how crazy this
made his career up to the early 1970s, but coming across a vampire in old Las Vegas changed his
life forever. He continues to get
rehired by his old friend and always editor Tony Vincenzo, played brilliantly
by the late, great Simon Oakland from the original TV movies to the end of this
series.
Originally, a third
Kolchak telefilm called The Night Killers (which was just
published only recently) was planned where robots (or aliens) would replace
politicians or other figures of interest.
The other telefilm idea that was suggested involved Jack The Ripper, but
the great Richard Matheson refused to write up that one since good friend
Robert Bloch (of Psycho fame) had just written a book featuring the
legendary serial killer. With the series
in the hands of new producers, Matheson and producer/director Dan Curtis left
for lack of interest and on September, Friday the 13th, 1974, the
series made its premiere. What follows
are the episodes that changed TV, Horror and even Comedy forever as the shows
that followed has a great tradition of casting comedy actors on purpose.
When the show began, it
was simply entitled Night Stalker,
but Universal renamed it early on and the new title was Kolchak: The Night
Stalker, reflected in newer credits.
While Universal later replaced the earlier episode’s Night Stalker-only credits with the newer,
longer title on many prints and the U.S. DVDs, Madman has actually retained the
original titles on the earliest shows.
As a result, the first two episodes also have sound effects with a
slightly different version of the instrumental theme song that has shown up on
TV theme CD compilations. Then the old Night Stalker-only title plays with the
revised instrumental theme song minus the sound effects starting on the third
show. Finally, that theme minus sound
effects is retained with the new titles and they are what appear on the rest of
the show and all 20 U.S. DVDs. Those
differences alone make this set as collectible as the Universal set.
For the benefit of all
our readers, here again is our episode guide so you can see what you are
missing or should see again. Note these PAL Australian edition prints do not
use the alternate U.K.
titles noted below after their original U.S. titles:
1)
The Ripper – This debut episode went for the infamous
Ripper, somehow alive and stalking the streets of Chicago three quarters of a century
later. The great Beatrice Colen plays
Jane Plumm, a terrific, neurotic reporter for a rival news publication that is
a bit more of what we now know as a tabloid.
She quickly went on to play Etta Candy in the Lynda Carter Wonder
Woman series for ABC. The tone of
the show is remarkable and though they had less time than a telefilm, Rudolph
Borchert’s teleplay and Allen Baron’s directing made for the perfect launch of
the series.
2)
The Zombie – Sopranos creator David Chase was
the story consultant for the series and co-story editor with Borchert wrote a
quarter of all the teleplays for the show and this was the first. Needless to say, it involves organized
crime. Italian mobsters are being killed
off in gruesome ways that are not typical of gangland-style or execution-style
killings. Black numbers operators are
suspected, but it turns out a Jamaican man the Italians killed has come back
from the dead. Kolchak has to find out
who is pulling his strings before he becomes the next victim. This show introduced a regular that lasted
(John Fiedler as Gordon “Gordy The Ghoul” Spangler) and one that sadly did not
(Carol Ann Suzi (the unseen mother on Big
Bang Theory) as Monique Marmelstein), and also features Charles Aidman,
Joseph Sirola, Val Bisoglio, J. Pat O’Malley, Antonio Fargas and Scatman
Crothers in great supporting roles.
Directed by Alex Grasshoff.
3)
They Have Been,
They Are, They Will Be – Also known as
U.F.O., this is one of the most underrated shows in the series. Dead animals are turning up dead in a bizarre
manner. When humans are next, Kolchak
has to figure out why, starting with what made a ton of lead disappear and
police go flying (minus any sound as if in a vacuum) before the situation gets
worse. Mellé’s music is exceptional and
has leisurely stretches that are very rare even in television today. The show was combining comedy and horror in a
way never done before, but this was an existential layer even the telefilms
were missing. James Gregory, Mary Wickes
and Dick Van Patten guest star. Borchert
and Baron build on their success with the first show.
4)
The Vampire – Sometimes confused as being the pilot,
this is a terrific sequel to the pilot, as Vegas authorities missed one body
for cremation, a female prostitute. She
comes to Los Angeles
and when Kolchak hears about it, gets a benign assignment just to go out there
and tie up loose ends. Kathleen Nolan,
William Daniels, Jan Murray, Larry Storch and Suzanne
Charny co-star. Chase adapted Bill Stratton’s story with Don Weis directing
another classic show.
5)
The Werewolf – Chase and early series producer Paul
Playdon came up with this terrific winner about Kolchak going on the last
voyage of a cruise ship, only to find out a werewolf is on board killing the
passengers. The love boat turned death
boat as Bernardt Stieglitz (Eric Braeden) does what he can to stop himself from
transforming, but it will take some quick thinking by Kolchak to stop his more
barbaric half. Henry Jones, Dick Gautier,
Jackie Russell, Barry Cahill and an especially hilarious Nita Talbot guest
star. Directed by Allen Baron.
6)
Firefall – Also known as The Doppelganger,
this is the first of four shows pulled from future broadcast for reasons we’ll
explain later, but is a disturbing show about the ghost of a former gangster
(teleplay by Bill S. Ballinger this
time) trying to reenter the world of the living by taking over living
bodies. Instead, spontaneous combustion
cremates each of them on sight and the famous conductor Ryder Bond (Fred Beir)
is the next big target. Kolchak has
discovered that all the victims were asleep when they were engulfed, so he is
in for a deadly, long night. Very
underrated work by Don Weis and Carol Ann Suzi’s last appearance as Monique.
7)
The Devil’s
Platform – Tom Skerritt is the title
character, a devil worshiper who has made a deal that allows him to cheat death
and eliminate his more popular and able competition. Here’s a way to fix an election no one has
used lately! Jeanne Cooper and Stanley
Adams guest star in this Donn Mullally teleplay that involved several writers
and was nicely directed by Allen Baron.
8)
Bad Medicine – Also know as The Diablero,
Richard Kiel is the title monster and Native American legend (and more
noticeably so in the first of two monster appearances in a row) who goes around
stealing wealth, changing into a variety of animals and killing his victims or
anyone else who gets in his way. In this
case, it is the rich, elderly elite of Chicago. Though Kiel’s
Bond appearances have dated the show in odd ways, it has plenty of creepy
moments, great sound design and more unforgettable moments. Alex Grasshoff directed.
9)
Spanish Moss
Murders – With a Science
Fiction edge, a sleeping experiment brings the legendary Boogie Man to life,
known as the Cajun horror Peremalfait.
Kolchak investigates, which leads him to a lab run by a clever doctor
(Severn Darden) who is at first also oblivious to what is going on. Keenan Wynn is outstanding as the annoyed
Captain Joseph Siska, who knowns Kolchak all too well, and Richard Kiel is
great as the swamp monster. The climax
of the show is also another classic, written by Al Friedman with Chase, based
on Friedman’s original story. Gordon
Hessler, so good at directing this genre in film, helmed this show memorably.
10)
The Energy Eater – Also known as Matchemonedo, this
second of four shows pulled from future broadcast has four writers (teleplay by
Arthur Rowe and Rudolph Borchert) involves people being electrocuted to death
under strange circumstances. The catch
is that they all died at a hospital that was just built on sacred Native
American ground, which is suddenly having all kinds of trouble with its
electric. Though it is uneven at times,
the Native American elements do not date as badly as Bad Medicine
and the last of director Alex Grasshoff’s works has more interesting moments
and twists that work. The guest cast
includes William Smith, Elaine Giftos, Marvin Kaplan (somewhere in this show),
Robert Yuro and even Joyce Jillson before she gave up acting.
11)
Horror In The Heights – This episode is also known as The
Rakshasa. Considered by many to be
the peak of the series, written by Hammer Horror veteran and great genre writer
James Sangster, this classic involves a creature that can manipulate the mind
of its victims before literally engulfing them by tearing and consuming their
flesh. In one of the greatest twists of
the series, this takes place in a neighborhood of elderly and often-Jewish
residents, so the sudden appearance of the Swastikas at first suggests hate
crimes. However, the true source is The
Rakshasa, an evil Hindu monster who especially shows up in times of
crisis. This increases its chances of
victims to feed on. Kolchak has to cut
through the anti-Semitism and other unusual problems before its too late. Michael T. Caffey did a great job directing
this one, which is one of the great shows, with a cast that includes Phil
Silvers, Benny Rubin, Abraham Soafer, Murray Matheson, Barry Gordon and Shelley
Novack.
12)
Mr. R.I.N.G. – At a time when Bell Telephone was a monopoly
and there were problems unfolding with U.S. Government policy, this great,
creepy show (written by L. Ford Neale & John Huff) has the provocative
title that makes it sound like the title character is an insider, but it turns
out to be a self-sufficient robot and not one controlled by a darker
force. Not dating too badly, this
intelligent show once again involves Kolchak facing the worst possible forces,
monsters and organizations. Julie Adams,
best known for being the target of The Creature From The Black Lagoon in
that classic, is appropriately the wife of the creator of the robot. Corrine Michaels, Bert Freed, Robert Easton
and Henry Beckman co-star in this gutsy show directed by Gene Levitt.
13)
Primal Scream – This episode is also known as The Humanoids,
in what is the last of a little-acknowledged storyline of Kolchak taking on the
federal government. A new series of
brutal murders starts with a scientist, then spreads to all over Chicago. Despite more comedy, there is darkness like
nothing before or after this show would feature. An oil conglomerate is also involved and the
“ownership” of a missing link is at stake.
John Marley, Pat Harrington, Katharine Woodville, Regis J. Cordic,
Barbara Rhodes, Jeanie Bell and Jamie Farr co-star in this Robert
Scheerer-directed show co-written by Bill
S. Ballinger and David Chase.
14)
The Trevi Collection – Kolchak’s underhanded friend Mickey
Patchek (Chuck Waters) has him meet in Chicago’s
fashion district. Before Kolchak can get
the information to be offered, Mickey “falls” to his death from atop a
building, though its window. When he
decides to investigate, he discovers the fashion season is loaded with
unexpected carnage and someone on the runway is a killer witch. A fine episode with a great cast including
Nina Foch, Lara Parker, Marvin Miller and Bernie Kopell. Rudolph Borchert wrote and Don Weis
directed. Also remembered for its
classic use of mannequins.
15)
Chopper
– This episode turned out to be the first-ever professional sale of a script by
future feature film hitmakers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, focusing on revenge
and bike gangs. Years ago, a young and
now defunct bike gang accidentally beheaded (or “chopped” of the head) of one
of their members. They broke up then and
there, vowing never to discuss the matter and were never sought out or charged
with murder. However, the victim has not
and had returned headless in his leather and denim, riding a vintage chopper
motorcycle, and wielding a sword to return the favor at top speeds. More comical than intended due to some dated
visual effects, it is still effective enough and has its won classic
moments. Steve Fisher and David Chase
wrote the final teleplay with Gale and Zemeckis, directed well enough by Bruce
Kessler. The guest cast includes Sharon
Farrell, Larry Linville, Frank Aletter, Jesse White and Jim Backus.
16)
Demon In Lace – The third of four shows pulled from
individual rebroadcast after the show ended was written by Stephen Lord, with a
final teleplay by Lord, Chase and Michael Kozoll, involving male college
students suddenly dying of heart attacks.
However, they are all in great health and there is no medical reason for
their deaths. It turns out a professor
(Andrew Prine) has brought an ancient tablet back that has demonic implications
attached. In this case, it is a
Succubus, who feeds on the life energy of her male victims. It uses dead (or newly killed) female
students to get to the males, so Kolchak has to stop it before the campus is
wiped out! Directed by Don Weis, in the
last of his great work for the show, the episode co-stars Keenan Wynn back as
Capt. Siska, Kristina Holland, Jackie Vernon, Ben Masters, Donald Mantooth,
Carmen Zapata and Caroline Jones as The Registrar.
17)
Legacy Of Terror – Also known as Lord Of The Smoking
Mirror, this is the last of four shows pulled from individual rebroadcast
after the show ended, though this one is such a hoot as you are about to find
out. An Aztec Cult is on the loose and
they are cutting out the hearts of their victims, but leaving them behind in a
pattern based on some kind of numerology.
Kolchak investigates when one of the victims is a Vietnam hero,
but things get worse. It turns out they
are making sub-sacrifices on track to the ultimate sacrifice. They need a perfect and well-treated subject
to being a very powerful Aztec Mummy Nanautzin to life to take over the
world. That final sacrifice will be Pepe
Torres, played by a then-unknown Erik Estrada!
If that was not enough, Sorrell “Boss Hogg” Booke is taxidermist Mr.
Eddy! Though funny intentionally and
unintentionally, some of the series creepiest moments are included. Arthur Rowe wrote the teleplay Don McDougall
directed here, making for a show everyone will be talking about thanks to this
set all over again, particularly clever in dealing with certain aspects of
Vietnam without letting that interfere with the creepy story one bit. The guest cast also includes Ramon Bieri,
Pippa Scott and Victor Campos and has one of the great surprise endings of the
series.
18)
The Knightly Murders – If it was bad enough to build a hospital
on sacred Native American ground, what about using sacred ground to replace a
museum that resides on it with a discothèque?
Bad idea! That is what is exactly
planned, until all connected with the project are brutally murdered in
remarkable ways. When Kolchak looks more
closely into the case, he suspects the museum’s resident Black Knight has come
to life and is out to keep his home as is.
Vincent McEveety directed this show with more of an offbeat sensibility
than a Horror genre show would be, but it still has some great moments via the
Kozoll/Chase teleplay. John Dehner, Hans
Conreid and Lucille Benson make for a fine guest cast.
19)
The Youth Killer – Dating turns deadly when clients start
turning up dead. No one can tell who
they are, because they have aged to death and are unrecognizable. They were all part of the new electronic
dating service Max Match, run by Helen Surtees (Cathy Lee Crosby), but when
Kolchak shows a picture of her to a Greek friend of his (Demosthenes), he is
certain she is really Helen Of Troy! At
this point, the lighter side of the show that was starting to set in took over
in these last few shows, but the interesting and even innovative ideas kept on
coming. Dwayne Hickman, Kathleen
Freeman, Joss White and TV Captain America Reb Brown co-star in this
Rudolph Borchert-penned teleplay, directed by Don McDougall.
20)
The Sentry – The final show has McGavin’s real life
wife Kathy Browne butting heads with him as the only female police opponent he
would have in the series, something that never happened in the telefilms
either. People are being killed deep in
the underground vaults of a corporate archive and Kolchak is just dying to find
out. He may get his wish, depending on
how fast he can get one of their golf carts to go when the
alligator/crocodile-like monster comes to get him in those tunnels. More humor than expected, but like all the
shows, some great funny moments, followed by moments of amazing horror. Neale & Huff wrote the final teleplay,
directed by Seymour Robbie. The guest
cast also includes Albert Paulsen, Frank Campanella, Margaret Avery and Tom
Bosley.
To repeat points made
in the liner notes in the inside of the three sleeves Madman has included as
the sole extra of this set and I noted in my older review, the show was
supposed to run 22 episodes for the season, but McGavin and later producer Cy
Chermak (who replaced Paul Playdon after the initial episodes and some other
key work for the series; Francy is Chermak’s company, not McGavin’s despite
what has been reported and how much McGavin and his wife Kathy Browne worked to
make the show a hit; the only error in the new essay) could not get along and
as the show became lighter, the ratings were not as strong as reruns in later
years and video sales would prove to be.
The show was on at 10 P.M. EST on ABC, then the reruns in 1975 were
moved to 8 P.M. the same night when the network moved The Six Million Dollar
Man to Sundays. They had to be
edited slightly, but that was all.
Ratings did not improve and the show was cancelled. That also meant the end of seeing other
regular characters Ron Updyke (played by Jack Grinnage) and Miss Emily (one
time Edith) Cowles (played by Ruth McDevitt).
The Independent News Service was finished and even comic book and novel
revivals put the company out of business.
You can read more about the failed revivals in the previous review.
So now it comes down to
how much better the performance of this set is or is not versus the Universal set. There are improvements in this new PAL set
simply because the prints are showing area the U.S. NTSC set is not, but then
it is also missing picture area that set has.
Those who did not like the new bombastic Universal logo before each
episode will be happy to know that only opens each disc and all these prints
have the original MCA-TV endings.
The 1.33 X 1 full color, PAL, full frame image varies
throughout as was the case in the original set.
Despite different openings early and the original MCA ends on each
print, you can tell the footage is otherwise from the same sources. A badly spliced jump cut when Kolchak first
meets Carol Ann Suzi’s
Monique in The Zombie, the missing
final words from the radio on The
Vampire when Kolchak finishes checking into the hotel. These are even a little softer than the U.S.
NTSC transfers, yet they also have some things going for them that make this
set worth owning. For one thing, these
are brighter prints and more than a few critics complained (overdoing it, to be
blunt) that all the transfers we too dark.
Not true, but they may be darker in some ways than expected.
As previously noted, the series had some of the most
elaborate and expensive nighttime shooting in TV history, set bound or not and
you can see that as clearly as ever in these PAL versions. This is again especially apparent in the
early episodes, which remain some of the darkest and best nighttime shooting in
television history. The catch to this
was that the nighttime stocks tend to be grainier and you can see that in each
episode. Sometimes, the footage is
slightly dull, other times color is slightly faded, but the color is much more
often vibrant and detailed as expected from the remastering. The result is warmth that has never been seen
before in the shows, plus there are no scratches or artifacts and remains in
these PAL transfers.
The other great benefit is in color. Already, this is one of the greatest color
film productions in TV history in ways it never gets credit for, but these new
PAL DVDs confirm that. The PAL discs
offer brighter whites, black that is richer without the whole image being
darkened and colors like blur, red (important for blood) and unique color and
color combinations are better than the NTSC U.S. set. It makes for a nice change of pace and almost
worth taking the step backwards from the NTSC U.S. set for these improvements,
but the NTSC U.S. set is still more photorealistic, detailed and refined just
the same. There is less color fading
here, while grain is not as noisy, partly from lack of detail.
As noted in the previous review, cinematographer Donald
Peterman shot the first episode and made it very visually effective, even
inspiring the look for the first episodes of Millennium (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) and setting the tone for the best this show offered
visually. Alric Edens, A.S.C., shot the
second show and added to the vocabulary and feel of Kolchak’s Chicago.
Eduardo Ricci shot the third episode, which has some chilling slow
motion work and creepy uses of the zoom lens.
Ronald W. Browne took over for the rest of the series and continued to
make it visually interesting and exceptional, though as the scripts got
lighter, so did the visuals.
The sound is once again
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, but this time, that differs more so than the picture
from the NTSC U.S. set. You
get more background noise and hiss than the older set, but that step backwards
means that music, sound effects and even dialogue are clearer. That does not always mean cleaner and there
is distortion here that never turns up on the Universal set. However, it is an alternative set of mixes
some fans may prefer. I liked it just
because it was different from the NTSC U.S. set and wish both soundtracks
appeared here ala what Criterion just allowed on the Blu-ray and DVD versions
of Alain Resnais’ Last Year At Marienbad
(1961, unreviewed, but highly recommended) where the director included an “unrestored”
version of the original soundtrack because he felt the cleaned-up versions even
Criterion was doing cut into the original audio. That is what this PAL set’s sound is like,
despite some flaws.
To repeat myself again,
the series always had an interesting mix of location taping, sound effects
audio, in-studio dubbing and looping, plus exceptionally recorded, engineered
and recorded music. Unlike previous
video versions of the series, you can hear the differences, with some audio
sounding remarkably good for an old TV series.
Some of the audio has intended echo that makes the sound almost stereophonic
and as a huge fan, hope the sound is upgraded to optional 5.1 mixes whenever a
Blu-ray set arrives. The music masters
are in a Universal vault and such upgrades may be possible if CD versions of
the theme are any indication.
Gil Mellé’s theme song (offered
in two versions in this PAL set as noted above) was partly derived from the
theme to the 1974 Gene Roddenberry TV movie The Questor Tapes, and was
already on the map with the theme to the Rod Serling series Night Gallery
and also did the score one of the first three Six Million Dollar Man
telefilms, for Larry Cohen’s controversial 1972 theatrical film Bone and
the 1971 Andromeda Strain, often sited as the first all-electronic score
for a motion picture. Mellé had helped
to invent the drum machine and was exceptionally aware of sound and the coming
of new kinds of music, which is why his music for Kolchak holds up so
well.
Mellé left the series
after the fourth episode and felt it might be lightening up too much. The great Jerry Fielding took over for
virtually the rest of the series, while Mellé was sometimes still credited when
his music was reused. Greg McRitchie,
one of the best film and TV music orchestrators in the business, did the 11th
show on his own, but that was the only exception. Hal Moone added music for episode 9, while
Luchi De Jesus added scoring for episode 10.
I should add that Universal Television was as state of the art as any TV
production operation in their time and the high quality we have here thirty
years later has much to do with that.
Even for fans who have seen the show dozens of times before, the jokes
and jolts have a whole new life as a result of this high fidelity combination.
The only extra we get
is the essay over three paper sleeves as seen in the interior of each
case. Again, one extra Madman & Universal
could have included for kicks are to show what happened to the withheld
episodes above. They were cut into two
artificial TV movies, with some new voice-overs by McGavin and Oakland to tie the show together. Crackle Of Death combined shows 6
& 10 into a tale that could have been dubbed “deaths-a-poppin”, while The
Demon & The Mummy crossed shows 16 & 17 with an ending too silly to
believe. Ironically, they are the last
times either actor would portray those classic characters, if only in
voice. Perhaps NBC/Universal thought
that was repetitious, but that is still a good idea as far as I am
concerned. Grinnage and early regular
Carol Ann Suzi are still around, as are Cy Chermak, David Chase, Robert Zemeckis,
Bob Gale and many of the guest stars are still with us. Interviews and audio commentaries would have
also been nice. The paperboard case
skips the metallic inks of its NTSC U.S. set counterpart, but has a
nice alternate design with raised back letters on the logo on the front of the
slipcase and has three slendercases for its DVDs as well.
Even with that said, this new PAL Region 4 DVD set of Kolchak: The Night Stalker is a must-have for serious fans and
collectors. It might also be the last
time we see the older early prints turn up anywhere before the Blu-ray edition
is inevitably issued.
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import set exclusively from Madman at:
https://www.madman.com.au/actions/channel.do?method=view
-
Nicholas Sheffo
