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The Night Strangler (film)

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The Night Strangler (film)

Jo Ann Pflug and Darren McGavin in The Night Strangler
Format Thriller / Horror
Written by Richard Matheson
Directed by Dan Curtis
Starring Darren McGavin
Simon Oakland
Jo Ann Pflug
Richard Anderson
Country of origin USA
Production
Producer(s) Dan Curtis
Cinematography Robert B. Hauser
Running time 74 minutes (TV Premiere), 90 minutes (Dvd version)
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original airing January 16, 1973
Chronology
Preceded by The Night Stalker
Followed by Kolchak: The Night Stalker

The Night Strangler is a made for television movie which first aired on ABC on January 16, 1973 as a sequel to The Night Stalker.

Plot[]

Reporter Carl Kolchak, now in Seattle, Washington (having been run out of Las Vegas at the end of the last film) is assigned to the story of a series of killings, in which the victims, all exotic dancers, are strangled, their necks crushed, then drained of a few ounces of blood. He discovers that there was a similar rash of killings twenty-one years prior. Then he learns of another twenty-one years before that. It turns out that they have been occurring every twenty-one years for about a century.

It seems the killer needs the blood for a kind of elixir of life which keeps him alive for twenty-one years at a time. Of course no one believes Kolchak, and the powers that be want to silence him.

Kolchak enters into a race against time to stop the killer before he is able to complete the creation of his elixir and disappear for another twenty-one years.

Cast[]

  • Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchak
  • Jo Ann Pflug as Louise Harper
  • Simon Oakland as Tony Vincenzo
  • Scott Brady as Capt. Schubert
  • Wally Cox as Mr. Berry
  • Margaret Hamilton as Prof. Crabwell
  • John Carradine as Llewellyn Crossbinder
  • Al Lewis as Tramp
  • Nina Wayne as Charisma Beauty
  • Virginia Peters as Wilma Krankheimer
  • Kate Murtagh as Janie Watkins
  • Ivor Francis as Dr. Webb
  • Diane Shalet as Joyce Gabriel
  • Anne Randall as Policewoman Sheila
  • Francoise Birnheim as Restaurant Woman
  • Richard Anderson as Dr. Richard Malcom

Release[]

The film was released on a double feature DVD with The Night Stalker by MGM Home Entertainment in 2004. It is currently out of print.

See also[]

  • The Night Stalker the predecessor to The Night Strangler
  • Kolchak: The Night Stalker, a 1974 television series based on the movies, also starring Darren McGavin
  • Night Stalker, a 2005 remake of the original Kolchak series

External links[]

v · d · eNight Stalker
Media
The Kolchak Papers • The Night Stalker (film) • The Night Strangler (film) • Kolchak: The Night Stalker (episodes) • Night Stalker (TV series) (episodes) • The Demon and the Mummy • Crackle of Death
Characters
Carl Kolchak • Tony Vincenzo
Cast and writers
Darren McGavin • Jeff Rice • Richard Matheson • Simon Oakland
v · d · eFilms directed by Dan Curtis
1970s
  • House of Dark Shadows (1970)
  • Night of Dark Shadows (1971)
  • Dracula (1973)
  • The Night Strangler (1973)
  • Scream of the Wolf (1974)
  • Trilogy of Terror (1975)
  • Burnt Offerings (1976)
  • When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978)
1980s
  • The Long Days of Summer (1980)
    • 1990s
  • Intruders (1992)
  • Me and the Kid (1993)
  • Trilogy of Terror II (1996)
  • The Love Letter (1998)
    • 2000s
  • Saving Milly (2005)
  • Our Fathers (2005)
    • v · d · eRichard Matheson
    Novels
    I Am Legend (1954) • The Shrinking Man (1956) • A Stir of Echoes (1958) • The Beardless Warriors (1960) • Hell House (1971) • Bid Time Return (1975) • What Dreams May Come (1978)
    Short stories
    "Born of Man and Woman" (1950) • "Blood Son" (1951) • "Button, Button" (1970)
    Screenplays
    The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) • House of Usher (1960) • "The Last Flight" (1960) • "Nick of Time" (1960) • "A World of Difference" (1960) • "A World of His Own" (1960) • Master of the World (1961) • The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) • "The Invaders" (1961) • "Once Upon a Time" (1961) • Night of the Eagle (1962) • Tales of Terror (1962) • "Little Girl Lost" (1962) • "Young Man's Fancy" (1962) • The Raven (1963) • "Death Ship" (1963) • "Mute" (1963) • "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963) • "Steel" (1963) • The Comedy of Terrors (1964) • The Last Man on Earth (1964) • "Night Call" (1964) • "Spur of the Moment" (1964) • Fanatic (1965) • The Young Warriors (1966) • "The Enemy Within" (1966) • The Devil Rides Out (1968) • De Sade (1969) • Duel (1971) • The Night Stalker (1972) • The Night Strangler (1973) • The Legend of Hell House (1973) • Dracula (1973) • The Morning After (1974) • Trilogy of Terror (1975) • The Martian Chronicles Mini-Series (1980) • Somewhere in Time (1980) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) • "Button, Button" (1986) • Loose Cannons (1990) • The Dreamer of Oz (1990) • Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) • Trilogy of Terror II (1996)
    Adaptations
    by others
    "And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959) • "Third from the Sun" (1960) • Cold Sweat (1970) • The Omega Man (1971) • The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) • What Dreams May Come (1998) • Stir of Echoes (1999) • "Dance of the Dead" (2005) • "My Ambition" (2006) • I Am Legend (2007) • I Am Omega (2007) • The Box (2009) • "The Splendid Source" (2010) • Real Steel (2011)
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