Night Stalker (1972) Night Strangler (1973) Twilight Zone Neo Noir

"It Couldn't happen here."

Supernatural, Fantasy, Horror and SiFi based Noir have been around since the beginning. Classic Film Noir Era films that dealt with these subjects were Decoy (1946), Repeat Performance (1947), The Amazing Mr. X (1948), Fear in the Night (1947), The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), Alias Nick Beal (1949), Dementia (1955), and Nightmare (1956), there are probably a few more.

The Horror films to some extent and especially those produced by Val Lewton had very stylistic and atmospheric sequences extremely akin to Noir. Cat People (1942) and The Seventh Victim (1943) for example. Even some Fantasy/Dramas?Comedies included some very noir-ish sequences, think of the "Potterville" sequence of  It's A Wonderful Life (1946) or The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941).

All these examples predated the noir-ish Crime//Drama/Fantasy/Supernatural/Mystery melange type anthology TV series shows that would become very popular in the mid 1950's to mid 1960's. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962), The Twilight Zone (1959–1964), One Step Beyond (1959–1961)The Outer Limits (1963–1965). At the same time Transisional Noirs like Night Tide (1961), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Seconds (1966)  were similarly supernatural, SiFi or fantasy based followed by Neo Noir's The Psychic Killer (1975), Blade Runner (1982), Angel Heart (1987), Delicatessen (1991), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), Lost Highway (1997), Dark City (1998), Mulholland Drive (2001), Sin City (2005)  Dark Country (2009), Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014). There are most likely more films of both Hollywood and Cable origins that fit above that I haven't seen, and continuing in this vein, probably some films that you may personally tune to that could be added also.

Producer, writer, director Dan Curtis (1927-2006) started his show business career as a salesman for NBC-TV in the 1950s and then went work for MCA. He worked his way up to producing, if I remember right it was a golf program.. It was during this time that he pitched this idea he had to ABC executives that was based on a dream he had had. ABC greenlighted the idea allowing him to assemble a creative team. The result was the at firat Noir-ish/Gothic soap opera called Dark Shadows. For a good dose of Noir cinematic memory, it's cast included a few Noir veterans, Joan Bennett (The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), The Woman on the Beach (1947), Hollow Triumph (1948), Secret Beyond the Door... (1947), Highway Dragnet (1954)). Grayson Hall in Transitional Noirs Satan in High Heels (1962), and The Night of the Iguana (1964). and Thayer David Baby Face Nelson (1957).

The shows first tip over into the supernatural was with the ghost of Josette Collins then followed by the Laura Collins character who showed up from Phoenix, Arizona by way of "Egypt." A practitioner of the Egyptian Book Of The Dead, she attempts to steal David Collins, to join her on a funeral pyre where they will be incinerated and be reborn for another hundred years. That was about episode 120 plus. It's cast included a few Noir veterans, Joan Bennett (The Woman in the Window (1944), Scarlet Street (1945), The Woman on the Beach (1947), Hollow Triumph (1948), Secret Beyond the Door... (1947), Highway Dragnet (1954)). Grayson Hall in Transitional Noirs Satan in High Heels (1962), and The Night of the Iguana (1964). and Thayer David Baby Face Nelson (1957).

From there they went full bore supernatural/mad scientist/SiFi, dealing with a menagerie of creatures with "feelings," vampires, witches, werewolves, a frankenstein's monster "Adam,"zombies, ancient aliens a la The Cthulhu Mythos, and an "Igor" named Willie. They only missed the invisible man. The show was popular, it spun off two films House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

Dan Curtis's next project was The Night Stalker (1971) the tale of Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) Noir-ish newspaperman as de facto detective, tracking down a series of bizarre serial killer murders in Las Vegas. The bodies, all women, have their throats ripped out and are completely drained of blood. When Kolchack suggests to the police and the mayor of Las Vegas that they could be dealing with a vampire he's laughed at. For Noir cinematic memory no less than ten of the cast appeared in Classic Film Noir. Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Elisha Cook Jr., Stanley Adams, Virginia Gregg and Barry Atwater as Janos Skorzeny.

The film is carried masterfully by Darren McGavin. McGavin did 9 films starting in 1945 then a TV show Crime Photographer TV 51-2, then mostly guest parts until he played Louie the drug pusher in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), a couple more films including another noir The Case Against Brooklyn (1958), Then McGavin played Mike Hammer in the first TV series version that overlapped with another series Riverboat, then he did another Private Eye pilot TV called, The Outsider (1967), he played an ex-con private eye working the City Of Angels.

As a kid I remember McGavin most for quasi Western Riverboat and as David Ross private eye in The Outsider, the TV series that was spun off the TV film which I may or may not have seen. Fourteen years after Mike Hammer, The Outsider, created by Roy Huggins, only lasted a season. The character Ross was a loner, with no family. Huggins reworked that scenario, had him living in a trailer on the beach along the P.C.H, with his cranky father to the scenario, a police force buddy (like Mike Hammer had Pat Chambers) and a con friend to humanize the character even more. The reworked series was The Rockford Files. After 1970 there was about 10 year period where I was out in the boonies of Montana and didn't own or much watch a TV if you happened to live someplace where you picked up a signal.

My next encounter with the work of McGavin was as Sam Parkhill the Martian Pioneer in the TV miniseries The Martian Chronicles, And then his probably most memorable role to the majority of people as The Old Man Parker, in holiday favorite A Christmas Story (1983).

I didn't catch up to McGavin's Kolchak until about the turn of the century, and I still haven't seen the TV series.

Night Stalker - It takes a wooden Stake and two Hammers to Kill a Vampire.

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin)

Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, adapted from the novel by Jeff Rice The Kolchak Papers by  Richard Matheson (writer The Beat Generation (1959), Die! Die! My Darling! (1965), The Legend of Hell House (1973), and produced by Dan Curtis. The Night Stalker became ABC's highest rated original TV movie, it did so well it was actually released overseas as a theatrical movie and inspired a sequel TV movie titled The Night Strangler.

The cinematography was by Michel Hugo and music was by Bob Cobert.

Carl Kolchak is a pushy, eccentric, cynical reporter formerly from New York City who wears an out of style seersucker suit white loafers and a straw pork pie hat. He carries by a shoulder strap a Sony cassette recorder and totes either a Rollei 16mm subminiature camera, or a . He drives around in a slightly beat 1968 Chevrolet Camaro convertible that looks as if it was damaged by an under the hood fire/

A reporter in Film Noir was featured in Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), The Glass Alibi (1946), Big Town After Dark (1947), Call Northside 777 (1948), Blonde Ice (1948), Abandoned (1949), All the King's Men (1949), Chicago Deadline (1949), Shakedown (1950), Woman on the Run (1950). Ace In The Hole (1951), Scandal Sheet (1952)The Blue Gardenia (1953), The Phenix City Story (1955), The Big Tip Off (1955), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), Hot Summer Night (1957), I Want to Live! (1958), and Screaming Mimi (1958).

The film begins in dive motel room. In a nice stylistic flourish A Sony TC-40 is giving us Kolchak's  Voice Over dietetic narration. We see Carl Kolchak laying on his bed proofreading his file to the narration.

Carl Kolchak [over the Sony cassette recorder speaker]: ........ This will be the last time I will discuss these events with anyone. So when you have finished this bizarre account judge for yourself its believability and then try to tell yourself, wherever you may be, it couldn't happen here.

His file is about a series of brutal murders that took place recently in Las Vegas, and the official cover up that followed, when the authorities are afraid of  hurting the tourist and gambling biz. The victims are found completely drained of blood and with bite marks on their necks, oh, and what is found to be human saliva.











The first victim was a casino dealer found stuffed in a garbage can. In another stylish flourish we get a sort of "Corpse eye view." from the autopsy table as the County Coroner and his team find not a drop of blood in her entire body.



The next victim is a showgirl who is found again drained of in the middle of a sand  based construction pad with no visible footprints around. Apparently she was not placed there but thrown there by someone with inhuman strength.

A lot of the humor derives from the back and forth between Kolchak and is incredulous Editor Vincenzo (Simon Oakland).

Vincenzo (Oakland) and Kolchak (McGavin)

Carl Kolchak: Did I say it was a Vampire?
Vincenzo: What does just this headline say?
Carl Kolchak: The story makes it clear.
Vincenzo:Vampire Killer in Vegas? Do I misread?
Carl Kolchak: It makes it clear!
Vincenzo:Did I misread or did you use the word vampire?
Carl Kolchak: Some screwball who imagines he's a vampire is loose in Las Vegas and people ought to be told!
Vincenzo:If there's a screwball loose in Las Vegas his last name begins with a K

Kolchak's one true ally is his old friend Bernie Jenks (Ralph Meeker) an FBI man stationed in Vegas

Bernie Jenks (Ralph Meeker)

More chuckles in the exchanges revolving around the authorities and Kolchak,who first think, this is Vegas after all, and its obvious that they are dealing with some nutcase who thinks he's a vampire. The D.A played by Kent Smith suggests it's somebody .....

D.A. Pane: "High on pot or the hard stuff."

D.A. (Kent Smith)

County Sheriff Butcher (Claude Akins) 

Police Chief Matheson (Charles McGraw)

Dr.  Makurji (Larry Linville)

But gradually as more victims are found, the police shoot him multiple times to no effect, and a regional blood supply is raided, (this is an up to date  vampire who even BTW passes himself off as Hematologist, and drives a 1971 Plymouth Sport Fury), Pane, County Sheriff Butcher (Claude Akins) Police Chief Masterson (Charles MacGraw) are all having to come to the realization, at Kolchak's needling, that they really are dealing with a real living dead vampire.

Gail Foster (Carol Lynley)

Kolchak's girlfriend Gail Foster (Carol Lynley) gives him a book on vampire lore, and at the next strategy meeting Kolchak suggests that all police offices are issued a cross, a wooden stake and a mallet. He also tells them that they might as well abandon their current methods because at night the creature is invincible.






Noirsville

Mickey Crawford (Elisha Cook Jr.)

Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater)

 Janos Skorzeny. (Barry Atwater)

It a nice mashup of Noir and Horror. McGavin is excellent. Barry Atwater as the vampire Janos Skorzeny is genuinely creepy, emitting an unearthly hissing growl when he is "on the bite." This is no reluctant Barnabas Collins vampire, or Dracula distinguished count. The creative decision was to make the vampire a bloodthirsty land shark. Bravo! 8/10

Carl Kolchak: I'm Becoming extinct in my own lifetime.

Night Strangler - Down in the underground

The first film was extremely successful and the second instalment actually improved upon the formula. It garnered very strong ratings and ABC ordered a TV series.

Elliot Bay Ferry

Directed by Dan Curtis, written by Richard Matheson. The cinematography was by Robert B. Hauser, and the music was Bob Cobert.

The film stars Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak, Jo Ann Pflug as Louise Harper, Simon Oakland (who himself played a reporter in the Noir I Want To Live) as Tony Vincenzo, Scott Brady (younger brother of Lawrence Tierney  and a vet of six Classic Film Noir) as Capt. Roscoe Schubert, Wally Cox as Titus Berry, Margaret Hamilton (the wicked witch of the West from the The Wizard Of Oz (1939)) as Prof. Hester Crabwell, John Carradine (Fallen Angel (1945)) as Llewellyn Crossbinder, Al Lewis (The Munsters TV Series (1964–1966) ) as Tramp, Nina Wayne (sister of Carol Wayne Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)) as Charisma Beauty, Virginia Peters as Wilma Krankheimer, Richard Anderson (a veteran of three Classic Noir and Classic SiFi film Forbidden Planet (1956) as Dr. Richard Malcolm/Dr. Malcolm Richards.

Seattle Monorail as de facto 'el"

Hotel Roosevelt in downtown Seattle

Carl Kolchak: This is the story behind the most incredible series of murders to ever occur in the city of Seattle, Washington. You never read about them in your local newspapers or heard about them on your local radio or television station. Why? Because the facts were watered down, torn apart, and reassembled... in a word, falsified.

 

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), is in Seattle after being run out of Vegas. He's in a bar with his Las Vegas Vampire story, telling it to anybody who will listen. The patrons are sort of off put. They humor Carl for a while then split.

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin)

Tony Vincenzo walks into the same bar hee hears Carl's familiar voice and asks the bartender a question.

Vincenzo: Take a look around that corner, and see if there isn't someone that looks like he just came from a road company performance of "The Front Page."

Vincenzo vouches for Kolchak in job interview

Vincenzo assigns Kolchak to a strangulation case

Vincenzo hires Kolchak to cover the story of the strangulation killing of a belly dancer. The one murder is followed by a series of killings all in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle in which all the victims, are not only strangled but have their throats literally crushed and then drained of a few ounces of blood from a puncture wound at the back of their necks. The kicker is that the coroner's report states that all the victims so far, had traces of rotting flesh on their necks.

The First Strangulation Sequence

Another witness tells the police that the killer looked "like a dead man." When Vincenzo publishes Kolchak's story the Seattle Chief of Police (Scott Brady) flips out.

Kolchak and Capt. Schubert

Capt. Schubert: You know what I call that? Irresponsible yellow journalism. Fast buck journalism. The kind of seamy journalism one might expect to find is some second rate metropolis. The sordid brand of journalism which is based not on the public good but on the cash register.

Mr. Berry (Wally Cox) "I envy you."

When Kolchak heads to the newspapers research department he runs into department head Titus Berry (Wally Cox). For Cox it's a natural, he had a knack for playing understated nerd type Poindexters. For me, he was probably best known for his repeated guest appearances on various game shows, but he did have a very popular TV show Mister Peepers which ran from 1952–1955. The show won him two Emmy nominations. He was also the voice of the animated cartoon character Underdog on Underdog (1964-1973). According to a mini bio at IMBd "His television persona was that of a shy, timid man in horn-rimed glasses who spoke in a tentative, though distinctly enunciated, voice. It was a persona that his long-time friend Marlon Brando said was completely at odds with the real man."
It's been said that his appearances on the The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965), the quiet guy  with a keen knack for sarcasm, was probably closer to the real Cox. This film was his last movie.

There is a very humorous sequence between Kolchak and Berry.

Mr Berry: Here we go.
Carl Kolchak: Thanks.
Mr Berry: Most welcome. I envy you.
Carl Kolchak: You do?
Mr Berry: Research... that's where the joy lies.
Carl Kolchak: Joy.
Mr Berry: And the fascination. Let the others scurry about gathering the contemporary bits of gossip. This [points to book] is where the meat is found.
Carl Kolchak: Meat.

Berry, continuing his research, also discovers that there were similar killings in 1952, going further back similar M.O. killings have occurred in 1931 and every 21 years going back to 1889. Another fact was that each series took place in a period of eighteen days. He even finds a police sketch based on a witness description of the strangler looking like a corpse.

Berry tells Kolchak that "out of burning curiosity" finds a an old interview with Mark Twain and the picture and mention of a Dr. Malcolm Richards a Civil War veteran who was a member of the original staff of Westside Mercy Hospital in the Pioneer District. In the interview, Richards mentioned to Twain his series of tests on his theory of a life extending elixir using human blood.

When Kolchak goes to the site of the old hospital he finds a Malcolm Richard Clinic there. When entering the clinic Kolchak see's a painting on the wall of  the clinic's founder, Malcolm Richards who is the spitting image of Dr. Richard Malcolm things go Noirsville.

Noirsville

 Louise Harper (Jo Ann Pflug)

Professor Crabwell (Margaret  Hamilton)

Dr. Malcolm Richard/ Richard Malcolm (Richard Anderson)

Charisma Beauty (Nina Wayne)

The film was as successful as The Night Stalker, and this resulted in ABC actually shelving a third TV Movie and deciding to develop the TV series and have it produced by Universal. 8/10.