Complete credited cast: | |||
Darren McGavin | ... | Carl Kolchak | |
Carol Lynley | ... | Gail Foster | |
Simon Oakland | ... | Tony Vincenzo | |
Ralph Meeker | ... | Bernie Jenks | |
Claude Akins | ... | Sheriff Butcher | |
Charles McGraw | ... | Chief Masterson | |
Kent Smith | ... | D.A. Paine | |
Elisha Cook Jr. | ... | Mickey Crawford | |
Stanley Adams | ... | Fred Hurley | |
Larry Linville | ... | Makurji | |
Jordan Rhodes | ... | Dr. O'Brien | |
Barry Atwater | ... | Janos Skorzeny |
Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he's reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas. It's here he gets the story of his life. But will the local sheriff, or the D.A., or even his own boss, let him print it? He has an ally in the FBI agent brought in to investigate this strange case. It seems someone is biting the necks of young girls and draining their blood. Can this killer with supernormal powers really be a 70-year-old Romanian millionaire? Can he really be a vampire? And can an aging reporter do anything to stop him? Written by J. Spurlin
Long a staple of late night television schedules, `The Night Stalker', is a memorable slice of seventies horror. Darren McGavin is fantastic as Carl Kolchak, an eccentric, down at heel reporter covering a series of murders which are not what they seem. He is backed by a fine cast of familiar faces who help reinforce genre veteran Matheson's quality script and the atmospheric direction of John Llewellyn Moxley, which hides the made for television origins of this movie.
If this has a weak spot, it lies in the bad guy', who is basically all teeth and snarls. Lacking character (and plainly odd) it's surprising that he wasn't spotted long before he arrived in Las Vegas (incidentally, the location adds a certain charm to the story).