Kolchak Night Stalker Complete [DVD]

 

 

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Finally the UK is to get this fantastic series on DVD.
I'm not talking about the recent rehash but the original 1970's classic starring Darren Mcgavin.
For those who don't know this is the show spawned from two of the most successful tv movies ever made- 'The Night Stalker' and 'The Night Strangler' and is noted as the inspiration behind 'The X-Files'.
Only one season was made of this creepy series due to US networks reluctance (at the time) of providing a geniunely scary weekly tv show, favouring the bog standard cop shows of the time.
Each week Carl Kolchak, a reporter of a newspaper investigated supernatural cases involving vampires, werewolves, monsters and the like much to the bewilderment and frustration of his editor and the relationship between these two characters provided some comic relief in a show that once seen is never forgotten.
British tv at the time didn't know how to take it and only a few regions actually screened it. It wasn't until years later that the majority of the UK got to see it and even then it was treated unfairly. Shown by the BBC on 'Mystery Train' - a late night combination of this and horror films in general, presented by Richard O'Brian, the show hacked off half of the opening credits and dropped the closing ones completely for the first 6 or 7 episodes before it finally got the respect it deserved and even now not many people have seen the entire series and probably half the population still don't even know of its existance.
Having recorded 16 of the 20 episodes made and having seen each one countless of times I'm so glad that at last I'll be able to see the missing 4 from my collection and to have them all on DVD.
For those of you in the know I'm sure you are all looking forward to finally getting one of the most influential TV programmes ever made.
Reserve my copy now!!

"You know, if all the film that I've shot that's been confiscated by the cops were laid end to end, I'd have enough film to shoot War and Peace - including a travelogue and a cartoon."

Despite the original TV movie The Night Stalker chalking up record ratings and a followup TV movie, the resulting weekly TV series featuring Darren McGavin's wisecracking old-school reporter now in Chicago and still driving editor Simon Oakland to despair as he invariably finds himself investigating crimes committed by various supernatural creatures - werewolves on ocean liners, zombie numbers runners, vampire call girls, Satanic politicians and devil dogs, spontaneous combustion and doppelgangers, headless bikers, Jack the Ripper, invisible aliens, shapeshifting medicine men, human sacrificing Aztec mummies, giant lizards, Helen of Troy, the odd succubus and other assorted boogey men and women - only lasted a single season before retreating into cult success in TV syndication. Yet for all that, it cast a long shadow: it's hard to imagine The X-Files ever existing if Kolchak hadn't got there first, while echoes of the episode Mr R.I.N.G., with its escaped robot developing consciousness and a strong survival instinct on the run from the `Tyrell Institute' that wants to kill him resurfaced in Blade Runner.

With original producer Dan Curtis and screenwriter Richard Matheson not returning for the series after a third TV movie fell through, there's a very noticeable drop in quality from the TV movies, made all the more apparent by the show kicking off with one of the weakest episodes (The Ripper), though the second, The Zombie, is a huge improvement and one of the series' highpoints. The inconsistency tends to run throughout the series, with great episodes alternating with okay ones while some are scuppered by budget limitations - The Werewolf probably has the most slapdash werewolf makeup ever and the less said about the Headless Biker in Chopper the better. More than the lower budget, it's the writing where the difference really makes itself felt: one week the writing might fly, the next it'd still be taxiing on the runway. Where Kolchak was originally a character straight out of a Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur play, here he's often given jokes to deliver rather than sharp dialogue and there are fewer surprises in the verbal sparring as the series writers initially struggle to find the tone for the show. As a result, the Quixotic exchanges with Severn Darden in The Spanish Moss Murders, the character-rich dialogue and underlying social criticism in Horror in the Heights or vividly drawn guest roles like John Dehner's legendary veteran cop who's more interested in pontificating at length on the human condition than actually doing any investigating in The Knightly Murders and even throwaway lines like "I promised I'd show up with a haircut, a new hat and a pressed suit, but I lie a lot" in Legacy of Terror tend to show up some of the more obviously rushed writing in the weaker episodes by contrast.

Even with reported constant rewrites during shooting, some of the plots became more formulaic, with Kolchak eventually despatching the monster of the week but never getting the proof he needs to get his story published. Indeed, problems with the scripts and McGavin's discomfort with the way the series was headed (he wanted to drop the supernatural angle which was the show's USP) led to only 20 of the 26 scripts being shot and the star being released from his contract at his own request after a single season. Whether that's a good thing or not is debatable: apparently most of the unfilmed scripts were poor with little expectation of a second season showing much improvement, yet the later episodes did show marked signs of development away from the humans: good (well, at least those not in officialdom), monsters: bad archetype. The creature in The Sentry has a perfectly reasonable motive to kill even if it does owe more than a little to Star Trek episode The Devil in the Dark while Legacy of Terror actually humanises its `perfect victim' by revealing him not to be a fanatic but someone who can only look forward to a short life lost in the cracks anyway. Extremely well directed by TV veteran Don MacDougall, it manages to inject a layer of real humanity and surprising compassion to Kolchak with the beautifully underplayed line "Who says you have to be a box boy?", one of the few moments in the series to show him thinking of something more than just getting his story and a surprisingly powerful one.

Despite all the problems, at its best it's still a great mixture of hardboiled newspaper movie and horror movie and even though not every episode is a gem it still offers a surprisingly high success rate and a lot of fun. There are some interesting names on the credits too. Among the familiar faces in the guest roles are Phil Silvers, Carolyn Jones (the original Morticia Adams), Julie Adams (the object of The Creature From the Black Lagoon's attentions), Henry Brandon (Scar in The Searchers), John Fiedler (the voice of Piglet in the Disney Winnie the Pooh cartoons), Antonio Fargas playing what could be seen as an early draft of Starsky and Hutch's Huggy Bear as a Haitian mobster, Marvin Miller (the voice of Robbie the Robot), Jim Backus (the voice of Mr Magoo and James Dean's father in Rebel Without a Cause), William Daniels, Nina Foch, Tom Skerritt, Keenan Wynn, Richard Kiel, Jay Robinson, Victor Jory, William Smith, John Hoyt, John Marley, George Savalas and Larry Linville and Jamie Farr from M*A*S*H as well as familiar know-the-face-but-not-the-name character players like Ned Glass, William O'Connell and Douglas Fowley. One of the weakest stories, Chopper, was the first script Back to the Future creators Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale sold, Horror in the Heights, one of the show's best scripts, is by veteran Hammer horror writer Jimmy Sangster, David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, wrote eight episodes and was story consultant on the series, while a dozen episodes boast scores by Sam Peckinpah's regular composer Jerry Fielding.

Playback's 5-disc set doesn't include the original two TV movies, which are currently only available as a double-bill in the US (the rights belong to a different company), but it does include all 20 episodes of the series. Unfortunately, the picture quality isn't all it could be - while MGM/UA's double-bill of the original TV movies boasted pin-sharp quality, these are soft with occasionally oversaturated color, frequent soft definition and a few instances of print damage, making it clear that no real restoration or effort to get the best picture quality has been made (a bit of a recurring problem with Playback's 70s TV shows). Nor are there any extras, giving it the feeling of a most-expenses-spared release. Yet for all the problems, it's acceptable and the show is definitely worth checking out.

I first saw this series back in the early 90's on the SI-FI channel and was hooked. I suppose you have to be a child of the seventies to really enjoy programmes such as these, as they bring back fond memories of an earlier age. Newcomers to Kolchak will think its a bit quirky or lame compared to the X-Files but so did newcomers to STAR TREK TOS after watching Enterprise or The Next Generation. What we must remember is who started the whole thing. Sure Kolchak isnt that scary and yes the effects are suspect, but its the story and the acting that are pure gold.
The late McGavin is perfect as Kolchak and is funny as well as dramatic. Try getting your hands on 'The Night Stalker/Strangler' the original TV films which came before this series. It shows Kolchak's first brush with the supernatural.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Kolchak - a Wonderfully Eccentric Character in the Columbo mold!!!
"Kolchak" was a show that both I and my husband remembered
from when we were young - and we both loved it and
wondered what had ever happened to it. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Diane Byrnes

4.0 out of 5 stars CRACKING OLD SERIES
Good old fashioned seventies series,forerunner to programmes like THE X FILES.Picture quality average (just like VHS) with no real extras but a bargain at the price.

Published 11 months ago by Lonsdale Hater

5.0 out of 5 stars The grandfather of The X-Files and Supernatural
The fact that Kolchak was an inspiration for The X-Files is well known, yet Supernatural has also been inspired by Kolchak, as one episode featured a tulpa, a Tibetan thoughtform.

Published 13 months ago by S. Carey

5.0 out of 5 stars dvd
excellent service from seller,fast delivery,great box set,i watched this when it was first broadcast on tv and enjoyed it,if you liked the x files you will enjoy watching this box... Read more

Published 15 months ago by ted

5.0 out of 5 stars great series
I saw this series first in Australia and was captivated by it. Some ten years ago I saw it again on the sci-fi channel. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Gerry

5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Hubby Is Very Happy.Very Fast Delivery Top Seller A++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks So Much.Will Use Again HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Published 16 months ago by Rachel Bryant

5.0 out of 5 stars classic horror
exelent value for money enjoyed it very much shame the two movies made before are hard to find over all recommend it if you like the classics

Published on 9 Feb 2010 by P. roberts

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Great!
When I was ten I suffered from insomnia. I had a great doctor who advised my parents to buy me a TV for my room to take my mind off trying to fall asleep; it was during this... Read more

Published on 13 Aug 2009 by S. Clarke

3.0 out of 5 stars Maybe Worth Renting...
I'm sure people who have fond memories of the show still love it and forgive it its faults. But for those who are coming to it fresh, I can only suggest: don't get your hopes up... Read more

Published on 28 May 2008 by David Longhorn

5.0 out of 5 stars Stalking the night creatures

The mid-1970s produced a pair of unlikely hit TV movies, called "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler," chronicling the supernatural investigations of a quirky... Read more

Published on 31 Mar 2008 by E. A Solinas

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