The Night Strangler …1973 film

This is the second TV movie about Kolchak. This time, Kolchak is run out of Vegas, still unemployed and in that beat-up suit and straw hat, and somehow still covering the weirdest stories on earth. He lands in Seattle, and right on cue, women start turning up strangled in the city’s underground ruins. Their corpses? Bone dry. No blood. No explanation. Déjà vu, but not quite. I’m not going to give away what it was, but it wasn’t what you expected. 

It’s a clever move, leaving Vegas and swapping it for Seattle’s underbelly. Parts of 19th-century buildings were left after the great Seattle fire of 1889. The movie makes excellent use of these underground tunnels, where Victorian storefronts and old streets sit buried beneath the modern city. The atmosphere here is claustrophobic and perfect for a monster that hides in plain sight.

The Night Strangler was the follow-up that proved Kolchak wasn’t a one-hit wonder. Dan Curtis, who had already scared TV audiences with Dark Shadows, stepped in to direct again, and Carl Kolchak had room to breathe and dig into another supernatural mystery. Also, the humor intertwined in this movie keeps it moving at a good pace. 

Darren McGavin is, once again, the glue that holds the whole thing together. His Kolchak is pushy, sloppy, and never takes “no comment” for an answer. Every scene is like a tennis match between his energy and Simon Oakland’s rage as editor Tony Vincenzo. Honestly, those two could’ve been dropped into a sitcom about running a failing Chicago newspaper, and it still would’ve been gold.

While The Night Strangler didn’t quite capture the lightning-in-a-bottle impact of the original Night Stalker, it proved there was more than enough life in this story to warrant more. The movie’s success led directly to the short-lived but cult-favorite TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker in 1974. Looking back, The Night Strangler remains a strong second chapter anchored by McGavin’s great performance.

The Full Movie

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

36 thoughts on “The Night Strangler …1973 film”

  2. I liked this movie more than the first one. It seemed to have more story line and I loved the use of the underground Seattle history. I also liked seeing Richard Anderson play the bad guy. Although he is most remembered for The Six Million Dollar Man, he had an amazing 70-year career in radio, TV, and movies! (Because I watch a lot of old TV programs, I see him pop up all the time.) Looking forward to reading your take on the series shows, Max!

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    1. Thanks Dana…yes it didn’t surprise people as much but I think they put more money into this one and it was a little better made. I’m with you…now I want to visit their underground.
      Yes I like Anderson a lot…I should have mentioned him…I also remember him on Gunsmoke and some other shows but yea…I think he was best known for Six Million Dollar Man…
      I’m with ya…I watch a lot of older shows as well. I joke with people that in our house it’s 1975.

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      6. Yes! Were you around here when I went over all of them? There are two that are dismissed by a lot of people but I like…I think one of the creepist ones is called “Come Wander With Me” and I also like The Bewitchin Pool….many TZ fans don’t like them but I do.

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  3. cool ! I didn’t know anything of the Seattle underground (other than the music sound!). One wonders what was down there. The city I grew up in was rumored to have a tunnel for several miles, running between an old and a new (well, 1960s new) car factories, might have been quicker to go back and forth or move small shipments that way than on the ground in cars. Don’t know 100% that it’s true, but I knew people back in the ’80s who’d said they walked it and I went down to the entrance of it and it looked like it was indeed what they said.

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    1. Yea I read up a little on this…I didn’t know either but after the great fire…they built above it… and some of those 19th century buildings are still standing down there. I’ve read where New York and Chicago has old subways and other tunnels underground.
      I would love to explore some of these…or tour through them….they would be actual time capsules.

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  10. I planned on watching them ahead of time but didn’t manage to re-watch this in time for your post. Thanks for sharing the whole movie link. When I saw that Dan Curtis directed both of the movies I was geeked because I knew his work from Dark Shadows.

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  11. I watched it this morning, before signing onto the computer. It’s good! I think I saw it way back when but it wasn’t familiar like the first one was. Things I made notes on:
    1) loved seeing John Carradine (David’s dad, for those who don’t know, and star of many “B” horror movies,) Wally Cox (Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog,) and Grandpa Munster (from The Munsters, an Addams Family knockoff,) and Margaret Hamilton (aka Wicked Witch of the East in the Wizard of Oz.)
    2) $10 bottle of Scotch Whisky and dollar pitchers of beer
    3) bits of rotting flesh seen on one of the victims’ necks
    4) manual typewriters
    5) characterization of butch lesbian
    6) no car for Kolchak except at the very end
    7) SO MUCH YELLING between Kolchak and Vincenzo

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    1. Oh yea…I like Wally Cox…he was good friends with Brando…which you wouldn’t think. I think this is one of his last apperances.
      Yea the back and forth between Kolchak and Vencenzo…thats why I said it could have been a sitcom with those two.
      Yea I like Carradine as well.
      I do love the underground stuff.

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      2. It IS interesting because they were so different. I just looked about the underground…no but they did film in the Space Needle at one point.

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