Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

A Major Disappointment

Blistering performances.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Item: supernatural murder mystery. Item: vicious and creepy villain. Item: cool and occasionally eerie soundtrack. Item: tension and scares. Item: sly and witty humor. Item: charismatic and relentless journalist.'The Night Strangler' is sequel to 'The Night Stalker' where, again reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin reprising his role without discount) is on the tails of mysterious killer who leaves behind victims drained from blood and with their neck crushed. This time the playground is Seattle. Kolchak relentlessly tries to convince authorities about his fact based theories while, again, he is left without help, as no one takes him seriously.Maybe not as dark as its predecessor, but equally enjoyable.

RELEASED TO TV IN EARLY 1973 and directed by Dan Curtis, "The Night Strangler" chronicles events in Seattle when the strangled bodies of several young women are found. Intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) discovers that the same kinds of murders occur every 21 years dating back to the late 1800s. Simon Oakland plays Kolchak's bellowing boss while Jo Ann Pflug appears as a genial belly dancer who assists Carl. Scott Brady plays the police captain while Wally Cox is on hand as a helpful scribe. Richard Anderson has a key role."The Night Strangler" was the follow-up to the highly successful "The Night Stalker" (1972) and led to a series that ran for one season from 1974-1975 (20 episodes), not to mention numerous Kolchak books. The two pilot movies are the best of the batch and established the template (formula) for the series and books.Like the first film, there's a lot of intrigue, action, ravishing women, horror and suspense, plus a percussion-oriented jazzy score that's even better. "The Night Strangler" adds a little effective comedy and the antagonist is more complicated. The underground lair is mysterious and the mummified family is creepy, but the details of the alchemist's elixir and strategy seem contrived.It's good to have Kolchak team-up with someone (cutie Pflug), which rarely happens in the ensuing series, but it was welcome when it did ("The Energy Eater" and "Demon in Lace"). There are a few peripheral beauties (Regina Parton, Nina Wayne and Francoise Birnheim), which the rest of the series mostly lacked, except for the debut episode, "The Ripper," and "The Werewolf." Since this is a TV flick from the early 70s don't expect much gore. THE MOVIE RUNS 90 minutes (with the original TV release more streamlined at 74 minutes) and was shot in Seattle and the Bradbury Building in downtown, Los Angeles, with studio work done at 20th Century Fox Studios. WRITER: Richard Matheson (teleplay) & Jeffrey Grant Rice (characters & formula).GRADE: B+

(I haven't looked, but somebody else surely must have done a similar play on my summary title. I apologize in advance for stealing his or her thunder.) What a tremendous movie! And how different in tone from the first made for TV movie. This is the true pilot for the series, incorporating a comedic undertone and the full blown banter between Kolchak and Vincenzo. Still, it creates chilling scenes, too, especially the finale, with the descent into old underground Seattle. BTW, another motif that will play often in the series is revealed in the scenes with Wilma Krankhamer (what a name!!!). While Carl will laugh at and ridicule people like Wilma throughout, at their moment of being most vulnerable (in this case, where Charisma Beauty is killed), he will often express sympathy and compassion. Thus Carl never appears "mean" or hard hearted. It lifts his character and makes him noble, I think. Meanwhile, the dialog is quite special, from the staccato delivery of Carl's hardboiled narrative, with its wit and humor, to the constant play on words and phrases. Good stuff. And the casting is simply overwhelming. Kolchak enters the creepy old environs of underground Seattle and the first person to pop out of the shadows is . . . Grandpa Munster! Need advice on ghouls, warlocks, alchemists and the like, what better expert than Oz' Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton as the so aptly named Professor Crabwell! And, in a carryover effect from the first movie, John Carradine's Llewellyn Crossbinder operates as the most sinister and unsympathetic figure in the movie, just like Kent Smith's D.A. Tom Paine in The Night Stalker. In comparison, even Richard Anderson's Strangler emerges with a bit of sympathy at the end, a semi-tragic figure of sorts. And, yes, every time I run across Wally Cox, I realize how much I miss his performances.

Carl Kolchak is my favorite TV character, hands down. So yes, I am pretty biased towards anything Carl appears in. This pugnacious misfit was an anachronism even in the 1970's...he would have been much more comfortable in the wild-and-woolly journalistic days of the 20's and 30's. He's clumsy...tactless...socially inept...and completely fearless in pursuit of the truth. He gets beaten up, but never beaten down. Plus, I like his hat.Following the humongous success of "The Night Stalker", it was only natural that a sequel be commissioned. With Dan Curtis and Richard Matheson teaming up on the creative end, there were no worries that "The Night Strangler" would be second-rate or inferior. Even though in many ways it is a virtual remake of the first film, the sequel manages to be even eerier and more frightening, while containing many humorous touches and character bits.Kicked out of Las Vegas after the Janos Skorzeny "vampire" debacle, Kolchak makes his way to Seattle...just in time for a rash of mysterious murders of young women to break out. The victims have had their throats crushed by a man with incredible strength and a small amount of blood has been syringed out of the base of their skulls. Obviously more than just a typical serial killer is at loose. Digging through the moldy archives of the local newspaper (with the help of Titus Berry, played by the great Wally Cox), Kolchak discovers that every 21 years since 1889, six women have been strangled during a period of 18 days. In each case, the killer was described as having superhuman strength and in some cases looking like a corpse.When Carl proposes the theory that the same man is responsible for all the killings going back to 1889, he gets the same response he did in Las Vegas: disbelief, silence and stonewalling. His long-suffering editor Tony Vincenzo is driven almost to a heart attack by arguments with Kolchak and pressure from the police and the powers that be.Kolchak learns that the killer may be lurking in the sinister Seattle "underground"...the remains of the 19th century town buried beneath the modern metropolis. With the help of a sexy belly dancer (cute Jo Ann Pflug), he plunges into the underground in search of the seemingly immortal maniac. The only question is: what will he do when he finds him? The villain in "The Night Strangler" is more interesting to me than the bestial Janos Skorzeny. He is more ghoulish because of his rotted features (depicted in a grisly police sketch) and yet more intellectual, because he is able to speak and articulate his mad reasoning. The scene where Dr. Richard Malcolm, the Night Strangler, converses easily with the mummified remains of his dead family sitting at a cobwebbed dinner table, communicates how utterly insane this genius has become. Richard Anderson, soon to play Oscar Goldman in "The Six Million Dollar Man", gives a chilling performance in his relatively brief scene as Malcolm.As was typical for all Kolchak vehicles, the movie is full of well-known character actors. It's a joy to watch these old pro's in action. Scott Brady is the belligerent police Captain Shubert, cadaverous John Carradine is the publisher of Kolchak's paper, Al Lewis is a drunken bum lurking in the Seattle underground, and, best of all, the Wicked Witch of the West herself, Margaret Hamilton, is a stern college professor who gives Carl information on alchemy and immortality. She has the movie's best line. When Carl asks if everlasting youth was possible, the professor replies "If it was, I'd be an 80 year old sexpot." The scenes in underground Seattle are terrifically spooky and the sequence where the killer bursts through a glass window to get to a victim had me jumping out of my chair. The mixture of humor and horror was never done better than in the Kolchak stories.Yes, the story is very familiar and yes, the shouting between characters gets a little overdone, but "The Night Strangler" is nothing but pure entertainment. Check it out and discover why Carl Kolchak is one of the greatest characters ever to appear on TV.