Cinema Tuesdays Review

The Night Stalker
by Randy Anderson

Every network wants a hit on television, and in January of 1972 ABC had one. "The Night Stalker" was a simple vampire story set in modern times - Las Vegas no less, and managed to pull one out of every three viewers in the country that night. ABC was in shock and rapidly tried to make lightning strike again. There was another TV movie, "The Night Strangler," and then a series, "The Night Stalker," in 1974. The series petered out after less than two seasons and its star Darren McGavin went on to other projects. The success seemed simple enough, but these things never are. McGavin played a cynical, wisecracking crime photographer on a Sidney Lumet-directed TV show in the early 1950s, and writer Jeff Rice’s Kolchak was from the same post-WWII school of hard knocks, so McGavin had the character down to a T. The script was lean and street-wise and the cast was filled out with a galaxy of solid character actors. The story was tight, well filmed and chock-a-block with stunts. It was these ABC packed into its teasers that started two weeks before the broadcast.

While "The Night Stalker" and its many offspring lie sleeping in film vaults, the kids that got such a bang out of the movie grew up and started working in TV themselves. Fast-forward to 2005, when ABC announced it was going to start another "Night Stalker" series, this time developed by "X-Files" alum Frank Spotnitz.

While the new show slipped beneath the waves after a few outings we now have a new 2-DVD set from Buena Vista featuring the shows that were aired and four that never saw the light of, er, night.

Round and around

The new Night Stalker is dark, almost black, which makes setting the brightness control on your TV a difficult chore. The stories are much darker too, with some of the violence aimed at women and children. Maybe we are too cynical. The price for any murder mystery is a corpse and "Night Stalker" delivers up a young wife three minutes into the first show. What kills her? We are not allowed to see; I mean, the producers of the show won’t tell us or even show much. But there is talk of mutant coyotes... right. Stuart Townsend plays the intrepid Carl Kolchak and admits that he has been in news for all of five years. Please don’t mistake him for a hard-boiled newspaperman; this is personal, and like a sleepy-eyed fellow we might remember from another program, he is really doing this for family reasons. Add a comely and skeptical Gabrielle Union as the paper’s top crime reporter, and we have very familiar vibe working here. As Kolchak riffs on possible explanations for stories, some super-natural, crime reporter Perri Reed (Union) pours cold water all over them. Sound familiar? Yes, we are back to the "X-Files." Chris Carter, the originator of the “files," was a big "Night Stalker" fan, so we have arrived full circle with this production.

I watched the series when it premiered last year, but after watching these DVDs I have a better understanding of the dynamics of network television. Frank Spotnitz was asked to do a "Night Stalker" series for ABC. He gave them a product as good as and similar to the "X-Files." In watching the four episodes not broadcast (included on disc 2), I found some of them to be as good as anything on the "X-Files." It is shame that ABC didn’t come up with a new title for this show and let the ghost of the original "Night Stalker" earn its well-deserved rest.

I wanted to like the series and wished it well, but much of the old magic rested in the acting of Darren McGavin. His Carl Kolchak was driven to get the story, and like reporters in the past, he stepped on plenty of toes in the commission of his job. There are a few obvious nods to the original series in the 2005 version. One, never explained, is a panning shot across the newsroom, and there in full light is Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak lifted from 1974 and digitally inserted. There he is with that wry grin and knowing look in his eyes. He steals a scene with a thirty-year-old film clip! What a contrast to the new acting style of quiet concern. In 15 seconds we know there is only one "Night Stalker" and this isn’t it. But, the programs are visually arresting and gripping in a post “files” manner. Too bad this series was given a title it could not live up to.

Are you an X-files fan? If so, this new set is for you. If you want the true "Night Stalker" experience, stick to the original movies and the 1974 series - they are all out on DVD, and then you can enjoy your monsters.

Night Stalker, the complete series on 2 DVDs. Buena Vista Home Entertainment.  10 Episodes, four never broadcast, interview with Frank Spotnitz, commentary track on the pilot program and deleted scenes.

5/26/06

Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page

More about the Cinema Tuesdays series