The Vampire (4 Oct. 1974)

Carl is determined to kill a beautiful, but extremely vicious, female vampire unknowingly unearthed by a road construction crew.

Director:

Don Weis

Writers:

Jeffrey Grant Rice (creator), David Chase (teleplay),

Stars:

Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, William Daniels

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Darren McGavin	...	Carl Kolchak
Simon Oakland	...	Tony Vincenzo
William Daniels	...	Police Lt. Jack Matteo
Suzanne Charney	...	Catherine Rawlins (as Suzanne Charny)
John Doucette	...	Deputy Sample
Jan Murray	...	Ichabod Grace
Larry Storch	...	Swede
Kathleen Nolan	...	Faye Kruger
Milt Kamen	...	Gingrich
Jack Grinnage	...	Ron Updyke
Anne Whitfield	...	Girl
Army Archerd	...	Man
Selma Archerd	...	Woman
Noel De Souza	...	Chandra (as Noel de Souza)
Bill Baldwin	...	1st Reporter

Storyline

In this sequel to the original "Night Stalker" telefilm, a road crew accidentally unearths the grave of a vampire in Las Vegas, a female victim of Janos Skorzeny. Kolchak gets word of the recurrence of vampire-like murders and flies to Las Vegas under the ruse of interviewing an Indian guru, but soon enlists the help of a friendly real estate agent in his hunt for the home of the rampaging vampire.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 October 1974 (USA)

Filming Locations:

N Franklin St and W Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Francy Productions, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

52 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was actually a reworking of a preexisting script. The original plan had been to set the story in New York, where both Kolchak and Vincenzo had wound up after being kicked out of Seattle. Also, the vampire was going to Skorzeny, last seen in the original movie, mysteriously back from the dead. Then, word arrived that Kolchak had been green-lit for a series, so the story was reworked into its present form.

User Reviews

One of the two best episodes

The two best episodes of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" are this one, and "The Ripper", about THE Jack the Ripper.

Some of the other episodes in the series weren't very good, like the one where aliens are sucking the bone marrow out of animals.

If you rent the first DVD in the series, it has "The Ripper " and "The Vampire" on it. You can rent the other DVD's, but none of them will be as good as the first.

I'm not sure why the episodes went down hill as the show went on, but they definitely did.

Kolchak was a real smart aleck, and it's easy to see why people in positions of authority would despise him. He was arrogant and abrasive, a real know-it-all. He would have been fired after every episode, if somebody in real life did the kind of things he did.

But he had an uncanny knack for cutting through the bull crap and figuring out what was REALLY going on. And that's the main reason why the police and other authorities didn't like him---he would poke holes in their phony explanations, and rub their nose in it. He intensely enjoyed showing them up.

But they always had it coming to them. The cops were always trying to cover their behinds, or protect some secret. But Kolchak tried to tell the truth, for the greater good of society.