Kolchak Returns

 

 (imdb)

THE NIGHT STRANGLER-1973-Once again the brash eclectic reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) takes tape recorder in hand to investigate the murders of a belly dancer, this time in Seattle, Washington. He meets his former boss Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) in bar and is hired on but is first read the riot act by the publisher Crossbinder (John Carradine). Police Capt. Shubert (Scott Brady) and coroner Webb (Ivor Francis) hold a press conference after a second killing. Another coroner tells Kolchak there was rotted flesh on the victims' necks. Some blood is also missing. They seem to have been killed by a dead man. When Kolchak learns about the abandoned underground city of Seattle, he goes to Titus Berry (Wally Cox), in charge of the city's archives. It seems the same type of murders have happened every 21 years since 1889. 

He befriends another belly dancer (Jo Ann Pflug) and they take a tour of the underground city. But they take a detour and meet a derelict (Al Lewis). He also consults Prof. Crabwell (Margaret Hamilton), an anthropologist who clues him in on a secret "elixir of life" to stay young. After another dancer (Nina Wayne) is strangled, Kolchak tries to convince Shubert what's happening but the captain puts a few holes in Kolchak's theory. Later when a 6th woman is murdered (there was always 6 victims), Kolchak identifies the killer as a 144-year-old Civil War doctor (Richard Anderson). Kolchak destroys the decrepit doctor but loses his job, so does Vincenzo. This ends on a lighter note than its predecessor. 

Producer Dan Curtis also was the director of this great follow up, written once again by Richard Matheson. The short-lived TV series “Kolchak:The Night Stalker” ran in 1974. Curtis produced and directed another “Kolchak” like TV film the same year for another network called THE NORLISS TAPES.

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