Sunday, October 30, 2011 Halloween Countdown: Kolchak, the Night Stalker

A while back, I came across this column by Michael Phillips, movie critic for the Chicago Tribune. It says everything I would want to express about one of my childhood heroes in a far better way than I could manage:

Vegas vampires in the 1970s faced an unforgettable foe

August 19, 2011

This week's release of "Fright Night," a sharp-witted remake which brings vampires to modern-day Las Vegas in all its sunny horror, marks a fine time to celebrate the memory of Darren McGavin and one of his choicest roles.

I refer to Carl Kolchak, the Vegas reporter in the porkpie hat, featured in "The Night Stalker," originally broadcast Jan. 11, 1972, as an ABC Movie of the Week. (Kolchak moved to Chicago for a short-lived TV series.)

Remember those? I certainly do. I remember the tear-stained hallways of my grade school the morning after "Brian's Song" aired. And I remember the not-quite-11-year-old me dying to watch "The Night Stalker" a couple of months later, which the promos made look pretty racy for network television, and then watching it (dad, mom: thanks), and not so much dying of fright (though it was scary for the time) as going crazy for McGavin's brashly comic portrayal of a seeker of truth and reluctant vampire slayer.

Talk about a genre mash-up. A refugee from a '30s newspaper comedy plunked down inside a serial killer movie with a mythic supernatural premise.

And people did talk about it. With a script by Richard Matheson, "The Night Stalker" was a huge ratings success up against "Hawaii Five-O" and an NBC documentary special on the troubles in Northern Ireland. The cast of "The Night Stalker" included Carol Lynley, Simon Oakland, Claude Akins and Ralph Meeker. Until seeing "The Night Stalker" again recently, in the less-than-ideal YouTube edition, I'd forgotten that Meeker was part of the cast. (By the way, if you haven't checked out the Criterion Collection reissue of Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly," starring a vicious, sneering Meeker as Mike Hammer, do so as soon as possible.)

Johnny Depp has expressed interest in developing a remake of "The Night Stalker," which has already undergone a reboot or two in various formats. The original ABC version spawned a lesser sequel ("The Night Strangler") and a short-lived TV series. Vampires never die, as we know. They're everywhere, and they all seem to have their own franchises to run. I was frankly surprised how much the new "Fright Night" brought to a crowded party.

Revisiting "The Night Stalker" reminded me of how dependent the teleplay was on McGavin's rumpled charisma. Had "The Night Stalker" featured a less interesting actor as Kolchak, the ratings probably still would've soared. But while various aspects of "The Night Stalker" date, or weren't especially fresh to begin with, everything McGavin does adds to our enjoyment. Everything. A wonderful character man, he never really got his due or the career, busy and productive as it was, that he deserved. He also had a wonderful way of tilting a porkpie hat just so. Bloodsuckers come and go, and many are worth the time and trouble. But Kolchak was something special: an immortal mortal.

Fantastic Kolchak JACK O'LANTERN (!) by Benchak at DeviantArt

I was too young to watch the original movies when they first came out, and the follow-up series aired after my bedtime and I doubt my mom would let seven-year-old me watch something so spooky, anyway.  I was fascinated by a TV listings ad for the "Vampire" episode of the series ("Remember that vampire Kolchak killed in Vegas?"), so I was ecstatic to finally catch up with Carl when CBS aired reruns as part of its Friday late-night block of programming (which is where I also discovered stuff like The New Avengers).

Naturally, I was hooked right from the start.  The monster of the week format, the Chicago setting, but above all Darren McGavin's wonderful portrayal of Carl Kolchak as a broken-down newshawk who always fought the good fight no matter how terrified he was.  And Carl got terrified a lot.  Only Shaggy and Scooby could give him a run for the money in that department.  But still Kolchak soldiered on, and it was one of the reasons we loved him so.

Given that the series was not a ratings bonanza, it's not surprising that there has been almost no Night Stalker merchandise.  I was rather giddy when Fanogria #3 fell into my hands in 1979.  It had a complete Night Stalker episode guide, and full color mini-poster that hung on my wall until it literally fell apart.  But my first piece of Kolchak memorabilia was a copy of Arrgh! featuring a parody of The Night Stalker.  Arrgh! was a monster-themed humor comic put out by Marvel in the early seventies.  It had even less success than the Night Stalker show.

Here's the complete Night Stalker spoof from  Arrgh! #4

Even today, now that geeks have inherited the Earth, there's precious few Kolchak tchotkes to be had, aside from Moonstone's line of Night Stalker comics and prose books.  However, I did come across this replica of Kolchak's legendary straw hat.  It's pricey as hell but it looks great (especially if you tuck this baby in the brim).  Maybe someday, when I have a big house and I can set up a corner desk with an old manual typewriter, flash camera, and "portable" tape recorder.  Make it look like ol' Carl had just stepped out for a moment to look something up in the file room.

Happy Halloween, Mr. McGavin.