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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Before Fox Mulder and Dana
Scully began uncovering conspiracies lurking in
every shadow draped corner, there was Carl
Kolchak. Kolchak (Darren McGavin) wasn't an FBI
agent but a reporter when journalism had a bit of
respect still attached to it. Created by Las Vegas
writer and reporter Jeff Rice, "The Night Stalker"
TV movie was the highest rated TV movie of its day
only surpassed later by "Roots." With the success
of "The Night Stalker" and its sequel "The Night
Strangler," ABC TV returned to director Dan
Curtis, scriptwriter Richard Matheson and actor
Darren McGavin for a third TV movie. This TV movie
which was scripted by Matheson in collaboration
with William F. Nolan ("Logan's Run" the novel on
which the film was based) and to be directed by
Curtis was an equal to the other two telefilms
tackling a science fiction theme in a completely
different direction (and, in fact, predated "The
X-Files" best story arc with a similar theme).
Unfortunately, ABC changed their minds about the
TV movie and elected to develop a TV series around
Carl Kolchak (McGavin).
"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" remains a cult
classic to those who grew up in the 70's and 80's.
Universal has finally decided to release "Kolchak"
to capitalize on the new TV series executive
produced and written by Frank Spotnitz ("The
X-Files"). In fact, many keen fans saw Darren
McGavin as Kolchak in his seersucker suit in the
pressroom of the pilot episode through the magic
of digital technology, which was another good
tie-in. While the series lacked much of the bite
and wit of Richard Mathesons' screenplays for the
two TV movies, McGavin, Oakland and the rest of
the cast make up for much of that with their great
performances. While some of the effects might be
hokey by today's standards and the pacing doesn't
quite compare to today's crop of TV shows,
"Kolchak: The Night Stalker" still works because
of the smooth writing by David Chase ("The
Sopranos"), Robert Zemeckis (director of "Forest
Gump," "Contact" and co-writer and director of the
"Back to the Future" movies) & Bob Gale ( "Back to
the Future," "Used Cars")
Newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (McGavin)
specializes in uncovering the weird truth behind
many of the murder mysteries reported in his
newspaper. Much to the chagrin of his tortured and
put upon editor Vincenzo (the delightful late and
great Simon Oakland) rehires Kolchak against his
better judgment. He digs up the strangest stories
and his only saving grace is he's a great writer.
Kolchak faces everything from werewolves to
creatures from Hindu mythology and Satanic
politicians taking them down when others won't.
Unfortunately, Kolchak's stories are frequently
rewritten and edited to protect the newspaper from
lawsuits and pressure from city hall.
The transfers here are considerably darker than
they should be even compared to the videotapes
released on Columbia during the 90's. I don't find
the claims that this has been "digitally restored"
to be credible based on how the series looks.
Using the same masters (much as they did for
"Night Gallery") "Kolchak" doesn't look bad just
too dark. The episodes have quite a bit of digital
artifacts, image grain and some issues with
pixilation. They look anywhere from passable to
quite good but could look so much better. Honestly
the video image can err on the side of scary
looking at times with poor clarity and depth. The
second episode "The Zombie" for example has a
damaged frame that has clearly been spliced
together. Color is pretty decent all around. The
mono sound isn't tinny sounding and has pretty
decent presence but not much could really be done
with the original audio aside from reducing hiss.
Sadly there are no extras here. While many of the
cast and crew have died, Darren McGavin (at this
writing) is still around although he might be too
ill to participate in any interviews/commentaries.
Jack Grinnage who played the comical Updyke in the
series could have provided interesting commentary
if he had been asked. There are no featurettes
which is a surprise given the credits of McGavin
(a frequently Emmy and Tony nominee), Oakland (who
appeared in many classic films such as "Psycho"
and TV series), guest stars William Daniels ("St.
Elsewhere"), Dick Gregory, Phil Silvers ("Sgt.
Bilko") and Scatman Crothers ("The Shining").
I don't want to discourage fans from purchasing
this series as it will probably be the only
release it sees on DVD (who knows when we'll see
it on high definition DVD much less Blue-Ray). On
the other hand, fans do need to send a message to
Universal, which has dropped the ball a lot with
their TV shows. I'd say purchase with caution as
there have been quality control issues with many
of DVD18 discs (so called because of the storage
capacity) from Universal. The reason? Dual layered
discs have two discs glued together. Making dual
sided ones means they must go through the pressing
three times increasing the risk of manufacturing
errors even higher. Also, sent Universal an email
and let them know how unhappy you've been with the
shabby quality of many of their releases. While
Universal has ignored many of these complaints, if
consumers complain enough they'll do something
about it particularly if people stop buying their
product. |
