tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30613981423624483722024-03-20T08:07:38.470-07:00It Couldn't Happen Here...An episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker a Day as seen through the eyes of Peter Enfantino and John Scoleri.John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-22561446116508957042016-07-01T11:08:00.000-07:002016-07-05T11:32:21.937-07:00Your Quick Reference Guide to "It Couldn't Happen Here"<div style="text-align: justify;">
Welcome to <i>It Couldn't Happen Here</i>! While we've finished our marathon viewing and reviewing an episode of <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i>
a day, we hope you'll come along for the ride after the fact and post
your comments on the episodes as you make your way through the series.
While you can access all of the entries in the Blog Archive in the
sidebar, we thought it would be helpful to provide this index with links
to each of the episode reviews, Mark Dawidziak's daily spotlights, and the other special
features posted.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHBF2_eecqmMog_6cCrxoVIQnXwmVU0mQUNCD69NlPdrQ1Bgltl7UJr1CaJ-HiMler-hGwRSP3uiibYEhhoN5jWrV9xDSaB6d_Lha21rbl92TW_1RbUbsMUigacEvJNZxf-p8j9uPmbg/s1600/zombie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaHBF2_eecqmMog_6cCrxoVIQnXwmVU0mQUNCD69NlPdrQ1Bgltl7UJr1CaJ-HiMler-hGwRSP3uiibYEhhoN5jWrV9xDSaB6d_Lha21rbl92TW_1RbUbsMUigacEvJNZxf-p8j9uPmbg/s400/zombie.jpg" width="310" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/kolchak-is-coming-backin-style.html"><b>An Introduction to It Couldn't Happen Here</b></a><b><a href="http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/01/outer-limits-first-season-primer.html"></a></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-night-writer.html">An Interview with Mark Dawidziak: The Night Writer</a></b><br />
<a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/series-wrap-up.html"><b>Series Wrap Up</b><b> </b></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>TV Movie</b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> Reviews</b></span></div>
<ol>
<li><i>The Night Stalker</i> <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/night-stalker.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-night-stalker.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/spotlight-on-night-stalker.html">Matthew Bradley</a></li>
<li><i>The Night Strangler</i> <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/night-strangler.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-night-strangler.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/spotlight-on-night-strangler.html">Matthew Bradley</a></li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>TV Series Episode Reviews</b></span></div>
<ol>
<li>"The Ripper" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-1-ripper.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-ripper.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Zombie" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-2-zombie.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-zombie.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be..." <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-3-they-have-been-they-are-they.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-they-have-been-they.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Vampire" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-4-vampire.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-vampire.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> </li>
<li>"The Werewolf" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-5-werewolf.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-werewolf.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Firefall" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-6-firefall.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-firefall.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> </li>
<li>"The Devil's Platform" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-7-devils-platform.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-devils-platform.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> </li>
<li>"Bad Medicine" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-8-bad-medicine.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-bad-medicine.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Spanish Moss Murders" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-9-spanish-moss-murders.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-spanish-moss-murders.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/spanish-moss-murders-deleted-scenes.html">Deleted Scenes</a></li>
<li>"The Energy Eater" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-10-energy-eater.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-energy-eater.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Horror in the Heights" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-11-horror-in-heights.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-horror-in-heights.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Mr. R.I.N.G." <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-12-mr-ring.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-mr-ring.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Primal Scream" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-13-primal-scream.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-primal-scream.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Trevi Collection" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-14-trevi-collection.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-trevi-collection.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Chopper" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-15-chopper.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-chopper.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Demon in Lace" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-16-demon-in-lace.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-demon-in-lace.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"Legacy of Terror" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-17-legacy-of-terror.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-legacy-of-terror.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Knightly Murders" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-18-knightly-murders.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-knightly-murders.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
<li>"The Youth Killer" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/episode-19-youth-killer.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-youth-killer.html">Mark Dawidziak</a> </li>
<li>"The Sentry" <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/episode-20-sentry.html">Review</a> - <a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/mark-dawidziak-on-sentry.html">Mark Dawidziak</a></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>DJS Presents The Unfilmed Episodes </b></span><br />
<ol>
<li>"<a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/djs-presents-unfilmed-kolchak-eve-of.html">Eve of Terror</a>"</li>
<li>"<a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/djs-presents-unfilmed-kolchak-get-of.html">The Get of Belial</a>"</li>
<li>"<a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/djs-presents-unfilmed-kolchak.html">The Executioners</a>"</li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Special Features</b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/stuart-kaminsky-on-night-stalker.html">Stuart Kaminsky on The Night Stalker </a></li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/darren-mcgavin-lost-interview.html">Darren McGavin — The Lost Interview</a></li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/stalker-esses.html">Stalker-esses</a> by David J. Schow</li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/men-of-kolchak-are-backin-style.html">The Men of Kolchack </a></li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/spotlight-on-night-stalker-trading.html">The Night Stalker Trading Cards — That Weren't</a> by Gary Gerani</li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/mark-dawidziak-on-kolchak-in-print.html">Kolchak in Print</a> by Mark Dawidziak </li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/post-kolchak-pu-pu-platter.html">The post-Kolchak Pu-Pu Platter</a> by David J. Schow </li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/02/kolchak-reborn.html">Kolchak Reborn - The Revival Series</a> by David J. Schow</li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/universal-tvs-supernatural-sleuths-part.html">Universal TV's Supernatural Sleuths Part 1</a> by Gary Gerani</li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/universal-tvs-supernatural-sleuths-part_07.html">Universal TV's Supernatural Sleuths Part 2</a> by Gary Gerani</li>
<li><a href="http://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/universal-tvs-supernatural-sleuths-part_08.html">Universal TV's Supernatural Sleuths Part 3</a> by Gary Gerani </li>
</ul>
John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-74114784205422618162016-06-29T10:41:00.000-07:002016-06-29T10:48:54.671-07:00We interrupt this program for a very special announcementJust when you thought you had seen the last of our "TV show a day" blogs, this week co-host John Scoleri threw caution to the wind, and has embarked on a journey to watch and comment on every episode of <i>Dark Shadows</i> on the 50th anniversary of its original airdate.<br />
<br />
And yes, that means starting at the very beginning, not 200+ episodes in when Barnabas arrives.<br />
<br />
Right now the key question is can he do it? Remember, we're talking about 1225 episodes here. Five years. Well, perhaps you have the complete DVD collection in your library, and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to crack those babies open. What better time, and what better way than to join in on the fun.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Check it out at <i>Dark Shadows Before I Die!</i> <a href="http://dsb4idie.blogspot.com/">http://dsb4idie.blogspot.com</a><br />
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<a href="http://dsb4idie.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENfzRUmrHMvg-OlKurAHP3U-ukiPC5EaOTOJ8Vq9V8mBO713Nl6uezLVTbdswB-D0cZ44RNElNHBnbX3ROX-2X3khkLJU9SIjH2664RQ-mWck3WG7dschZpCUodd9Uttsn3NZGFW_EaEr/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-06-28+at+5.31.25+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, Night-Stalkers!John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-15312705869912292152012-02-09T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-09T06:00:15.484-08:00Kolchak Reborn!<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
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<i>This is it—the last scheduled post for </i>It Couldn't Happen Here<i>. After careful consideration, we have decided to forgo an episode-a-day analysis of</i> The Night Stalker <i>revival. Instead, we leave you with this thoughtful overview of the short-lived series by David J. Schow.</i><br />
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<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Kolchak Reborn</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by David J. Schow </span></div>
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Reboot
<b><i>The Night Stalker</i></b>.
How dare they, right?</div>
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Revamp
Kolchak into post-McGavin Tormented Hero With A Dark Secret mode; lose the
seersucker, lose the hat, lose the yelling matches with Vincenzo, subtract the
idiosyncratic byplay — in fact, stomp cruelly on childhood recollect of
everything that made <b><i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i></b> memorable. Bad, bad TV people! Evil reivers of cherished youth!</div>
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Right?</div>
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ABC
sure thought their 2005 series was a massive fail, canceling it after only six
episodes aired.</div>
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Fans
of “Classic Kolchak” had plenty to bitch about, too, whining and stamping their
hooves about each and every microscopic deviation from what they were convinced
was some kind of gospel. And in
the middle of the first decade of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century, internet comment
boards gave even the least literate of these champions ample space in which to
wheeze and poot their displeasure … as though their opinions mattered for
anything.</div>
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But
Classic-K was abundantly available by that time, in the form of comics and
tie-in books of new tales that played by the old rules. For the most part, they did not
preserve or perpetuate Carl Kolchak so much as shellac him in amber, the way
John Gardner’s “modernized” novels tried to preserve the Playboy Philosophy-era
James Bond — accurately, but at the airless cost of repeating what had already
been done. Or they recombined him
with other fictional sleuths such as Sherlock Holmes in mashups.</div>
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Upside: These still-ongoing works kept the
flame burning.</div>
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Like
many other Kolchak acolytes, producer Frank Spotnitz had begun his career as a
journalist, before he fell into <b><i>The X Files</i></b> for a marathon
nine-season run. When offered <b><i>The
Night Stalker</i></b> by ABC and Touchstone Television, he grabbed it with both
hands … because he had been 14 when the original series debuted, and freely
admits he was one of the show’s biggest fans. Accordingly, he had attempted to write Carl Kolchak into <b><i>The
X Files</i></b>, a plan scuttled by Darren McGavin, who initially felt ripped
off. Once McGavin got a proper
taste of <b><i>The X Files</i></b>, he came onboard as a thinly-disguised
Kolchak-manque for two episodes.
In “Agua Mala,” McGavin points out to Fox Mulder: “If I had had someone as savvy as
(Scully) all those years ago … I might not have retired.”</div>
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While
it is fair to say <b><i>The X Files</i></b> helped enable a Kolchak reboot, it
was also a huge obstacle — Kolchak now had to fit into a post-<b><i>X Files</i></b>
TV universe and not be dismissed (as some put it) as “<b><i>X Files</i></b>
lite.” Considering all the other
spinoffs and features in the <b><i>X Files</i></b> family, it’s a shame
Kolchak’s run was truncated, leaving potential character arcs undeveloped and
unexplained. As the pilot episode
proves, Spotnitz’s heart was in exactly the right place, even extending to
three hat-tips to Classic K:</div>
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(1) A “digital cameo” by McGavin’s Kolchak
in the Beacon newsroom (look close and you’ll see it’s a shot of Kolchak
putting a hammer and stake in his workbag, from <b><i>The Night Stalker</i></b>).</div>
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(2) Kolchak’s “bird feeder” hat hanging in
the new Kolchak’s home office.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
(3) The license plate on Kolchak’s upgraded
Mustang reads 197DMG2 — as Spotnitz explained, for “Darren McGavin, 1972.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
Vincenzo
was recalibrated as minor royalty more than a father figure; this revised Tony
would go to bat for Kolchak, especially when Constitutional rights were at
stake. Kolchak himself was
subdivided into a threesome for the sake of more character interplay: Kolchak himself, now a man harboring a
dark secret on a personal quest; Perri Reed, a distaff side and reluctant
partner who takes over much of Vincenzo’s old Doubting Tony role; and Jain
McManus, who takes over the role of Kolchak’s camera/recorder and becomes his
satellite/gofer. A new Bernie Fain
reappears (from the original TV movie), now refitted as an antagonist in the
mold of <b><i>The Fugitive’s</i></b> Lt. Phil Gerard — thanks to incomplete
information and circumstantial evidence, he wants to nail Kolchak for the
murder of his wife, Irene (christened after the Kathie Browne character in “The
Sentry”).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
The
blood so absent from the original series is now present in abundance, offered
more as grueling aftermath than jumpy splatter. Spotnitz specified a color palette where red was used almost
exclusively in the context of death or danger (to the extreme of removing the
red lights from police cruiser flashbars). Another welcome wrinkle for a show called <b><i>The Night
Stalker</i></b>: This show is <b><i>drenched</i></b>
in darkness, night and shadow, recalling David Chase’s protestation (“It’s
called the <b><i>Night</i></b> Stalker, not the <b><i>Day-for-Night</i></b>
Stalker!”) and evoking the hectic, after-hours urban POV popularized by Michael
Mann, under whom Spotnitz had worked on <b><i>Robbery Homicide Division</i></b>
in 2002</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
In an interview conducted by Devin Faraci at <u>Chud.com</u>
in 2006, Spotnitz noted: “… the
more I thought about the more I realized you can’t do Darren McGavin better
than Darren McGavin. It’s a fool’s
errand. It was better to go for a
completely different approach to the character and series and hope that over
time, people would accept it — not as better than McGavin, but different.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Slotted into a kiss-of-death berth against the
hugely popular <b><i>CSI</i></b> on CBS, <b><i>The Apprentice</i></b> on NBC,
and the 2005 major league baseball playoffs on Fox, <b><i>The Night Stalker</i></b>
suffered pre-emptions via <b><i>Alias</i></b>, and had little-to-no paid
advertising from ABC. It was
cancelled right in the middle of a two-part episode, with four episodes
unbroadcast until the series was re-run on the Sci Fi Channel in 2006. All episodes are currently available on
DVD and assorted download options.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
For more on Frank Spotnitz, see:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li>Frank Spotnitz <i>Diary of a Night Stalker</i> at <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1107919,00.html">EW.com</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Excellent piece in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rl8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=spotnitz+night+stalker&source=bl&ots=NHGUwfFA8j&sig=c8fO_M0NU92NTn6roMl0llSlGKI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WuMjT4mQFdHXiQK5v9T9Bw&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBzgU#v=onepage&q=spotnitz%20night%20stalker&f=false">Los Angeles TimesMagazine</a> (go to pages:
106-111, 220, 222-223).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li>Interview at <a href="http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/interview/270"><b><i>BloodyDisgusting.com</i></b></a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.oocities.org/gislef/kolchak/spotnitz_interview02.htm">Ten Questions</a> with Frank Spotnitz.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li>Series post-mortem on <a href="http://www.chud.com/6749/exclusive-interview-frank-spotnitz-night-stalker-dvd/"><b><i>Chud.com</i></b></a>. </li>
</ul>
</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-11006674024751447102012-02-08T13:40:00.000-08:002012-02-08T20:08:16.249-08:00Mark Dawidziak on Kolchak in Print<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDwRQpRlcrDc2SHViweckCKrs9pvT7sGaM8_ErqYoVXSeJbshLEN3m0UAR3WMe95czvyFQYNr7psgvILgX-x9afB61uPJ6T75uo_sN-iUHTXYhmUg2xVjKMs4Q6MTSGF1UNDmqQ1bx95i/s1600/NightStalker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdDwRQpRlcrDc2SHViweckCKrs9pvT7sGaM8_ErqYoVXSeJbshLEN3m0UAR3WMe95czvyFQYNr7psgvILgX-x9afB61uPJ6T75uo_sN-iUHTXYhmUg2xVjKMs4Q6MTSGF1UNDmqQ1bx95i/s320/NightStalker.jpg" width="183" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> There was a time (that time being the mid-'70s to the early '90s) when it was ridiculously easy to keep track of Carl Kolchak in print. There was the 1973 Pocket Books edition of the novel that started it all, Jeff Rice's <i>The Kolchak Papers</i>,<i> </i>published under the title of the 1972 TV movie, <i>The Night Stalker. </i>Then there was <i>The Night Strangler, </i>Jeff's 1974 novelization of Richard Matheson's screenplay. And that was it. You had those two paperbacks and you had the complete Kolchak in print.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Nothing much changed for the next seventeen years. Jeff Rice wanted to do more original novels and novelizations for Pocket Books. When the 1974-75 series was starting production, there was talk of a five-novel deal for Jeff. All of that vanished like a vampire exposed to sunlight in August 1974 when Jeff's attorney notified Universal that the studio hadn't settled key rights questions with his client. Jeff was barred from the lot and the deals disappeared. He eventually had to file a six-count civil lawsuit, and, after months of legal wrangling, it was settled on the day the trial was supposed to begin, and, key to all this, Jeff emerged with firm control of the literary rights to his character. That meant he could authorize Kolchak novels, short stories and comic books.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggjr0BluvaPgtSGbtVI1g7OwHOcNtXsOzBsOd4OC0drtWm6tUKy4M61HDpDss71jCTad0Xzx0K2Za2a4YOT8NZ2e1lyUTkyTsUxTQXCsLUShvn0qKAqE0uSmbRtie4WA6erf-_T6CO8leD/s1600/NightStrangler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggjr0BluvaPgtSGbtVI1g7OwHOcNtXsOzBsOd4OC0drtWm6tUKy4M61HDpDss71jCTad0Xzx0K2Za2a4YOT8NZ2e1lyUTkyTsUxTQXCsLUShvn0qKAqE0uSmbRtie4WA6erf-_T6CO8leD/s320/NightStrangler.jpg" width="188" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Flash forward from 1974 to October 1991. Some guy named Dawidziak adds one more book to that oh-so lightly weighted shelf of Kolchak books. Image Publishing brings out <i>Night Stakling: A 20th Anniversary Kolchak Companion. </i>Although non-fiction, this first history of the Kolchak character set the stage for new fictional stories with our seersuckered hero.While I have it on good authority that the author of <i>Night Stalking </i>greatly enjoyed the writing of
that book, he was not satisfied with Image Publishing’s design and distribution
(or lack thereof). But Kolchak creator Jeff Rice was satisfied with what he
considered the balanced account of his novel being turned into a hit TV movie.
Jeff was so pleased, in fact, he agreed to sign a five-year contract with Image founder
Ed Gross for new Kolchak novels.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> It
was the start of an often-stormy four-year relationship between Rice and Gross.
The initial five-year plan, however, was sound and ambitious. Gross would use
Image's sister imprint, Cinemaker Press, to publish a mix of original novels
and adaptations of the series episodes. Rice would have approval of the writers
for books he did not wish to write himself. He also would have editorial
control of the project. Publishing two or three books a year in the trade
paperback size (six by nine), Cinemaker projected anywhere from ten to fifteen
novels by the time the five-year contract was finished. It didn’t quite
work out that way.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUttdFTm4NId2o-K14En_MN6h1brcz0ws-0R_IfXP3332ZBNMKryLtZ8jA7WsFrt0scrdSdC2LbSSBJN-O867pn8oZME2u05Vmp5ZUHzIHKap2Dhm_SFNyQMvriQ_g-CJ_UPnO0-ckPc1/s1600/CoverK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNUttdFTm4NId2o-K14En_MN6h1brcz0ws-0R_IfXP3332ZBNMKryLtZ8jA7WsFrt0scrdSdC2LbSSBJN-O867pn8oZME2u05Vmp5ZUHzIHKap2Dhm_SFNyQMvriQ_g-CJ_UPnO0-ckPc1/s320/CoverK.jpg" width="236" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
project was to start with a reprint of the first two novels, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Strangler. </i>These would be
followed by an original novel. Gross did not have the funds to make it worth
Rice's while to write a new novel, so Gross asked him for a recommendation.
Rice suggested the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night
Stalking. </i>I was flattered but not at all certain I could come up with a
story worthy of Rice's character. Before agreeing to terms, I submitted five
story ideas to Rice and Gross. Everyone agreed that the first idea was the most
promising, so I set to work researching the book that would become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grave Secrets. </i>Each of the books was to
be published under the umbrella title of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Kolchak Papers </i>(Rice's original title for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker</i>). In other words, the titles would be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Kolchak Papers: The Night Stalker, The
Kolchak Papers: Grave Secrets, </i>and so on and so on.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Unfortunately,
we never got to "so on and so on." The reprint of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker </i>was published in 1993 with a foreword by Stuart
M. Kaminsky and original artwork by Kevin Barnes and Sterling Clark, Jr. It was
printed in paperback and hardcover, but Gross was having no luck finding a
distributor who could place Kolchak books in bookstores. Delays
with artwork pushed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grave Secrets, </i>the
first original Kolchak novel in twenty
years, ahead of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Strangler. </i>It
was published in late 1994 as a trade paperback with original artwork by
veteran illustrator Ed Silas Smith. Bringing Kolchak into the '90s was tricky,
but the trick was accomplished in concert with Jeff Rice. How to deal with the
twenty years before the end of the series and new adventures? Simple, just act
as if they didn't happen. We decided that the last episode of the series, "The
Sentry," was the case that got Carl fired from the INS Bureau in Chicago. A
little later, Tony took a job as an
editor with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hollywood Dispatch, </i>a
scrappy little tabloid nicknamed "the Disgrace" -- respectable, but just. Tony, of course, hires Carl,
and, fast-forward, it's 1994. Carl is the same age. He talks the same. He acts
the same. Jeff updated the character biographies accordingly.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBq_hPGJEBOK-Q_tzOSLBGLSmZ3EIWq_cEwSVrrrQTIXpcnVKSAu-9-kzSVvpwp2MDZbRvSk3OxFnfOiYOjnoQZAoPW9no0piNBSt4I-WJ0H8oCaP7UPpulD1tq5NgZxmzi1kmx1pHbih/s1600/COVER2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBq_hPGJEBOK-Q_tzOSLBGLSmZ3EIWq_cEwSVrrrQTIXpcnVKSAu-9-kzSVvpwp2MDZbRvSk3OxFnfOiYOjnoQZAoPW9no0piNBSt4I-WJ0H8oCaP7UPpulD1tq5NgZxmzi1kmx1pHbih/s320/COVER2.jpg" width="218" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> During
a trip to Los Angeles, Jeff Rice and I scouted locations for Carl’s new home
base. The old <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hollywood Citizen-News </i>building,
a few blocks off Hollywood Boulevard, became the site for "the Disgrace." We
checked out an unbelievably depressing hotel nearby and decided to check Carl
in. "Dare we do this to him?" Kolchak’s creator asked me as we stood in the
shabby room. As we left, Jeff Rice opened the minuscule closet and observed,
"Hmm, just enough room for a straw hat and seersucker suit."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grave Secrets </i>opens with the mysterious
death of land baron Glen Gilmore. The grave secret behind this killing is
buried more than two-thousand miles away and more than 150 years in the past
(heh-heh-heh).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> I was pleased. And I was even more pleased to learn that Jeff Rice was
pleased. All in all, a very pleasing situation, right? It would have been if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grave Secrets </i>had received anything that
could be charitably called distribution. Back at Cinemaker, though, things were
going from bad to train wreck. Instead
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Strangler, </i>Ed announced
an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omnibus </i>edition of both <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Strangler. </i>Meanwhile, writer
Doug Murray had finished the second original Kolchak novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Grand Inquisitor. </i>Neither the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omnibus </i>nor <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Grand Inquisitor </i>ever saw print, although Ed Silas Smith
completed a striking <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omnibus </i>cover
showing Kolchak "haunted" by Janos Skorzeny and Dr. Richard Malcolm.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1Be3PomEXzYwFB3NpTBHBrc6JBgEJs3lQdrcyytdns1Ll1Cdg6XpevTWrTMyoTxOg-yz46JysCM8LzlR1nX5n0EIgQyvyXBzqQ7OjjT9yjMa07rsQnnyn-OG_xs2NVISPu7gdUBEjzxY/s1600/COVER4.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_1Be3PomEXzYwFB3NpTBHBrc6JBgEJs3lQdrcyytdns1Ll1Cdg6XpevTWrTMyoTxOg-yz46JysCM8LzlR1nX5n0EIgQyvyXBzqQ7OjjT9yjMa07rsQnnyn-OG_xs2NVISPu7gdUBEjzxY/s320/COVER4.gif" width="219" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> In
1996, about four years into his five-year-contract with Cinemaker, Jeff pulled
the plug and pulled back
the rights to his characters. So, after four
years, Cinemaker published two Kolchak books, the reprint of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grave Secrets. </i>Work on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Omnibus </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Grand Inquisitor </i>was completed, but neither book was published.
Ed Gross, later editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cinescape </i>magazine
and co-author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Captains’ Logs: The
Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages </i>(Little, Brown, 1995)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>accepts responsibility for the
projects’ failure. He admits he is “no businessman,” and concedes that his
ambition was greater than his resources. He remains a friend and an enthusiastic Kolchak fan. Indeed, much of his well-intentioned efforts were fueled by his great love of the character.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
Cinemaker collapse left Rice and Kolchak without a publisher. There were overtures from a couple of major publishing houses, but nothing on terms
creatively and financially acceptable to Rice.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The publication of <i>Night Stalking </i>also sparked interest in Kolchak from comic book companies. Here, too, would be a path leading through years of frustration. By 1997, Topps Comics had been promising a series
of Kolchak comic books for about four years. The company's biggest sucess has
been its line of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">X-Files </i>comic books,
so a Kolchak connection makes sense. Topps' other titles included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula </i>(a tie-in with the Francis Ford
Coppola movie), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jurassic Park </i>(another
tie-in) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ray Bradbury Chronicles. </i>All
in all, it would appear that Carl would be in the right place. Jeff
Rice signed a Topps contract in late 1992. He also wrote a comic-book script
for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker. </i>After that,
both Marvel and DC Comics expressed an interest in Kolchak. But
in the spring of 1997, Topps' new editor-in-chief stated his
intention to put Kolchak In May of that year, however, Topps pulled the plug, telling Jeff that a new policy prohibited the launching of "any new titles."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3NprpkIMkE_kdOlQvK0DFRyGNIRDePqX_r3KxDqizcXwGAKUf5U9QN3vnIG0gtK_z1aY7Ye7rcdGqemQRAVr_7wBUFeRV-fF2gmhZVZqwn7WLk3HwWw6DmvKTPEf8Qjp4MBJwrc0MTtr/s1600/KNSComic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ3NprpkIMkE_kdOlQvK0DFRyGNIRDePqX_r3KxDqizcXwGAKUf5U9QN3vnIG0gtK_z1aY7Ye7rcdGqemQRAVr_7wBUFeRV-fF2gmhZVZqwn7WLk3HwWw6DmvKTPEf8Qjp4MBJwrc0MTtr/s320/KNSComic1.jpg" width="208" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;">A few months later, Glass House Graphics, which
had packaged comic books for all the major companies, made a run at Kolchak. An
understandably frustrated Jeff decided to withdraw Carl from the field in late
1997. So the only quasi-Kolchak comics to appear at that point were: </span>the 1974 Marvel spoof, <i>The Night Gawker</i>; Marvel's <i>Night Stalker</i>-inspired <i>Paul Butterworth -- The Night Stalker (The Tomb of Dracula, </i>April 1976); and Carl's Rice-approved cameo appearance in Sterling Clark's <i>The Renegade No. 1 </i>(Ripoff Press/Magnecom, October 1993). </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The only new Kolchak book that appeared in 1997 was the revised, reworked <i>Night Stalking, </i>published by Pomegranate Press as <i>The Night Stalker Companion: A 25th Anniversary Tribute.</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> And that's how things stood in 1999. The Kolchak river ran deep, indeed. Many a
fright-minded filmmaker or writer has been swept up in its powerful current, exhilarated
by the thrillingly tricky eddies splashing terror over mirth. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Still, anyone getting far enough from shore's safety
to know that river was deceptively deep also realized that it wasn't exactly what
you'd call wide. From this perspective, the Kolchak world was severely limited.
You could cross it rather quickly, if you so chose, covering everything that existed of Carl on film and in print.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexWv19WGnIJ9SY302Y2ILarHu_bpp4OL-FsroyuI690aXWb1tALC6pVCdTCwilHkd95WzI5_j-VfB_lzmUHU-pjLvYUZNpqrfxT73lVt1Jhp8LE22Bg22QR3wtYCRteOaNDioMI3uICm_/s1600/COVERBC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexWv19WGnIJ9SY302Y2ILarHu_bpp4OL-FsroyuI690aXWb1tALC6pVCdTCwilHkd95WzI5_j-VfB_lzmUHU-pjLvYUZNpqrfxT73lVt1Jhp8LE22Bg22QR3wtYCRteOaNDioMI3uICm_/s320/COVERBC.JPG" width="206" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Enter Moonstone, a Chicago area comic book publisher making the Kolchak world a great deal wider and richer. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> I was contacted in 1999 by Moonstone founder Joe Gentile,
proposing, of all things, a Kolchak comic book. I was not, to put it mildly,
encouraging. I explained to the master of Moonstone the many failures. I
described to him just how burned Jeff felt by past experiences with the
comic-book world. I warned him what Jeff's reaction might be to publishers
bearing lofty promises.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">To his undying credit, Joe was undaunted and
undeterred. His proposal was forwarded to Jeff, and after some frank haggling
on both sides, Moonstone received the green light.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> Some thirteen years later, Moonstone remains the official Kolchak publisher for comic books, short stories and even some new novels. To date, they have published more than 40 <i>Kolchak </i>titles. The decision was made early on to follow the Kolchak universe established in <i>Grave Secrets, </i>a Los Angeles setting that allowed for an embracing of the sensibilities of the original novels, the TV movies and the series while also allowing for experimentation and expansion. The first comic book, Jeff's adaptation of the original novel, appeared in 2002 -- thirty years after the TV movie aired. It was followed that same year by <i>Fever Pitch, </i>an original story by Stuart M. Kaminsky and "Get of Belial," an adaptation of the unfilmed <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>episode. In 2004, those three comic books, along with Stefan Petrucha's "Mask of Moment," were collected in a trade paperback published with my introduction as <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Volume One.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>That same year, 2004, saw the publication of the comic books <i>Devil in the Details, </i>another Stefan Petrucha story, and <i>Lambs to the Slaughter, </i>with a story by Gentile and me. <i>Lambs to the Slaughter </i>and the adaptation of the unfilmed <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>episode "Eve of Terror" were collected in the 2008 trade paperback, <i>Sound of Fear.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>Many more titles followed, including CJ Henderson's <i>Pain Without Tears </i>and <i>Pain Most Human, </i>as well as several issues of <i>Kolchak: Tales of the Night Stalker, </i>edited by Dave Ulanski.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>In 2005, Moonstone got into the short story business, publishing the anthology <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker Chronicles. </i>It featured 26 stories by the likes of Elaine Bergstrom, Max Allan Collins, P.N. Elrod, Stuart Kaminsky, Ed Gorman, Peter David, Chuck Dixon, Jason Henderson, Richard Valley, Brett Matthews, Clay & Susan Griffith, Richard Dean Starr, Martin Powell, Lou Agulair, Steven Grant, CJ Henderson, James Anthony Kuhoric, Mark Leiran-Young, Gary Phillips, Adi Tantimedh, Fred Van Lente, Robert Weinberg, Gentile, Ulanski and Mike W. Barr. It also included my Barnabas Collins-Carl Kolchak crossover story, "Interview With a Vampire?" That story was turned into a comic book for <i>Kolchak Tales Annual </i>(2009).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>A second anthology, <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker Casebook </i>appeared in 2006, with 17 new stories by Pierce Askegren, Mike Baron, Rachel Caine, Tom DeFalco, P.N. Elrod, John Everson, Gentile, Christopher Golden, Rick Hautala, Elizabeth Massie, John Ostrander, Gray Phillips, James Reasoner, Robert J. Randisi, Richard Dean Starr and Ulanski. This one included my introduction/tribute to Darren McGavin and my novella, "Cancellation." The <i>Chronicles </i>and <i>Casebook </i>anthologies were collected into one hardcover edition, <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker Compendium, </i>in 2011. Moonstone also published an omnibus edition of Jeff's two novels, <i>The Kolchak Papers, </i>in 2007.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Rounding out the Kolchak shelf is </span><i>Richard Matheson's Kolchak Scripts, </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the 2003 Gauntlet publication collection Matheson's screenplays for </span><i>The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the unfilmed </span><i>The Night Killers </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(written with William F. Nolan).</span><i> </i></span></div>
</div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-62412311397513488162012-02-08T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-08T06:01:52.094-08:00The Post-KOLCHAK Pu-Pu Platter<div class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">by David J. Schow</span></div>
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Cheese has been called “nature’s most perfect food” when
there’s very little “natural” about it. Movies and television are often denigrated as “hamburger” and the big
studios, as “sausage factories.”
But cheese, hamburger and sausage are among the world’s staple foods
(outside of a lot of Asia, anyway, where jellyfish is a side dish to everything
— especially in China, don’t ask me why). Look at menus across your favorite assortment of eateries and you’ll see
the principal dishes generally boil down to “some kind of meat with some kind
of cheese on it.”</div>
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Speaking of a long-lost TV pilot, a friend recently told me,
“It’s cheesy — but in a good way.”</div>
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We love our cheese.
It may not be good for you, but it sure is tasty. “Cheesy goodness” is a selling point
for a lot of food-like items, but when applied to any other arena, “cheesy”
somehow came to mean inauthentic or kitschy; by one definition, “something that
wants to be good but is bad.” In
the gustatory realm, the usage sprang from the time-honored French tactic of
covering up sub-par ingredients with the camouflage of cheese (see: French Onion Soup). In general usage it also dovetailed
from sports slang, especially in regard to football and goals or plays that
“stank” — just like that nasty French cheese that, according to lyric, “smells
like people’s feet.”</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN0uGSj7X3R9Oy1hpk6M-MTpiT75vw_kVnCWo6721koIXSBkDZqwA3d-DOAOL6cNa3kZhK-M3XPtcCETpC-bvXLPAJTdQmKDU81aQhbz0OY2md3QEQoEa0VAUIbSj8Khm1o107ON2t_E/s1600/SuperCheese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXN0uGSj7X3R9Oy1hpk6M-MTpiT75vw_kVnCWo6721koIXSBkDZqwA3d-DOAOL6cNa3kZhK-M3XPtcCETpC-bvXLPAJTdQmKDU81aQhbz0OY2md3QEQoEa0VAUIbSj8Khm1o107ON2t_E/s320/SuperCheese.jpg" width="239" /></a>What my pal told me, above, implies that for every “good”
kind of cheese, there’s a “bad” kind of cheese … which means that in all its
other slang usages, “cheese” implies something with obvious drawbacks and flaws
that the fans of said cheese consciously choose to ignore.</div>
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Which brings us to most television, and indeed, most art.</div>
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<b><i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i></b> is larded with
cheese … but in a good way. That
cheese which makes the sub-par fast food of TV <b><i>tastier</i></b>.</div>
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In the pressure-cooker of series production, writers, actors
and directors rarely set out to manufacture cheese intentionally, but
frequently the cheese layer becomes a way of rescuing the meal, and if that
doesn’t work, hey, let’s put some <b><i>bacon</i></b> on it! Let’s add sugar-and-spice-rich <b><i>dipping
sauces</i></b>! Past all the glop
du jour, though, most people still have a firm idea in their brains of the
difference between a good hamburger and a bad one … and please don’t get me
started on vegetarianism. *</div>
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(There’s a tangential argument to be made here, about how
the gradual subjugation of series television by soap-operatic “arcs” has
obliterated the once-honorable concept of an episode that can stand alone on
its own drama, and converted the meal into an endless succession of appetizers
that noodle around and never get to the main course … but that’s a whole
‘nother essay.)</div>
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(I can just hear our own Tony Vincenzo – Mr. Enfantino —
protesting: “Cripes! I thought I had my wires crossed with <b><i>Spatula
& Ladle</i></b> Magazine! <b><i>Cheese?!</i></b>”)</div>
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Another friend, who used to work for the primetime sausage
factories that produced most of the TV hits of the 1980s, said, “Back then, you
could come up with an idea for a series in the car on the way to work, and the
network would give you 26 episodes just to try it out.” That seems so far away now, and unduly
luxurious, but it was true. A
different producer had what strikes me as a good rule of thumb, even today: If out of the pell-mell rush of
sausage-making, you could yield three or four good episodes out of a season,
then you were batting a thousand.
And frequently, everybody knows which episodes are the good ones early
on. They make the rest of the toil
and frustration almost worthwhile.</div>
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The difference, today, is that the evidence is often readily
available, via disc and download.
With TV series (as I said in regard to <b><i>The Outer Limits</i></b>),
it’s instructive to consider the “better” episodes in light of the episodes
made <b><i>around</i></b> them.</div>
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You don’t have to eat everything on the platter. But some of the leftovers on the
Kolchak Pu-Pu tray are still … intriguing.</div>
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Sometimes “failed” shows unerringly influence later
shows. Their gold shows through,
whether by Monday-morning quarterbacking or some aspect of concept that took
time to surface — more time than the brief candle-flicker the show had when it
was alive. This readily explains a
big part of the longevity of KTNS and the Kolchak canon in general. A distinction I find curious is that
ever since KTNS was cancelled, somebody, in some form, was persistently trying
to breathe it back to life. The
series was gone but Kolchak himself refused to die.</div>
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I had a very strange meeting at Morgan Creek in the mid-90s
when that company was hellbent on doing a Kolchak feature. One of the scripts that resulted —
virtually a Xerox of the first Kolchak feature — was credited as “by Steve Feke
& Dan Curtis, based on the screenplay by Richard Matheson and the novel by
Jeff Rice,” which certainly over-covers all the bases. Everything old was new again.</div>
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This was the script in which our hero became “Karl Kolchak,”
described only as “middle forties, seedy, unshaven, bleary-eyed” and “looking
only slightly better than the cheese” that molders in his fridge (I kid you not).</div>
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The producers asked, did Kolchak <b><i>have</i></b> to
smoke? Drink? Couldn’t he be younger? Couldn’t he investigate serial killers
instead of vampires?</div>
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Instead of: <b><i>How
can we present Kolchak as a glorious anachronism in a world that doesn’t know
what an anachronism is?</i></b></div>
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The movie was never made, but by then, <b><i>The X-Files</i></b>
was up and running.</div>
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<b><i>X-Files</i></b> creator Chris Carter had always credited KTNS as a germinal
inspiration, and his initial efforts to transplant Kolchak into the <b><i>X-Files</i></b>
realm are well documented — first as Kolchak (unsuccessfully), then as Mulder’s
dad (unsuccessfully), and later (successfully) as Special Agent Arthur Dales in
two episodes, “Travelers” and “Agua Mala.” Darren McGavin also filmed scenes as Dales for a third
episode, “The Unnatural,” but had to withdraw due to suffering a stroke. His scenes were reshot with M. Emmet
Walsh as Dales’ brother (McGavin’s scenes are available as an extra on the
X-Files Season 6 DVD set).</div>
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Reportedly McGavin was originally turned off by just how
much <b><i>The X Files</i></b> seemed like a ripoff of KTNS. In fact, there are whole web pages
devoted to some of the parallels, such as:</div>
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“The Ripper” = “Teliko,” “2Shy,” “Squeeze,” “Tooms.”</div>
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“The Zombie” = “Kaddish,” “Fresh Bones.”</div>
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“They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be” = “Fallen Angel”</div>
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“Bad Medicine” = “Shapes,” “Anasazi,” “The Blessing Way”</div>
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“The Energy Eater” = “Darkness Falls,” “Conduit”</div>
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“The Spanish Moss Murders” = “Sleepless,” “The Host,”
“Schizogeny”</div>
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“Horror in the Heights” = “Colony”</div>
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… and so on.</div>
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(A similar anti-synergy happened when I finally decided to
sample <b><i>The X Files</i></b> by watching an episode titled “Little Green
Men.” I felt it was too beholden
to several <b><i>Outer Limits</i></b> episodes, and watched no more until the
McGavin connection occurred. By
that time, a regurgitated “new” version of <b><i>The Outer Limits</i></b> had
pooped along to ruin whatever joy I had left in life.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaq207UgpyXBA4rz_nTj08Bz869_oKlJe8s5IBC0FWNTsCzx8kNFupSBlmq8oHjvrzlcA6Wlj-5Rd_XeiHrPMO4HZnz-IRQx8HeiR-_pc6rGhjrgK-HkFlYinsfnCFGZNkfyssFZfyu_o/s1600/norliss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaq207UgpyXBA4rz_nTj08Bz869_oKlJe8s5IBC0FWNTsCzx8kNFupSBlmq8oHjvrzlcA6Wlj-5Rd_XeiHrPMO4HZnz-IRQx8HeiR-_pc6rGhjrgK-HkFlYinsfnCFGZNkfyssFZfyu_o/s320/norliss.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;">Earlier, in 1973, Dan Curtis
attempted to salvage what was left of his sunken “Kolchak ship” (since he had
been iced out of the TV series) by producing and directing a pilot for <b><i>The
Norliss Tapes</i></b> in exactly the same gear, but a minor key indeed compared
to the seersucker titan. Aired a
little more than a month following the debut of <b><i>The Night Strangler, The
Norliss Tapes</i></b> was scripted by Matheson’s co-writer on <b><i>The Night
Killers</i></b>, William F. Nolan.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Screen credit insists that Nolan
based his work on an unnamed story by novelist Fred Mustard Stewart, then at
the height of his post-<b><i>Mephisto Waltz</i></b> popularity. Whether the “story by” credit reflects
an arbitration or an actual written treatment, the resultant TV movie is
listless and perfunctory as well as deeply beholden to Kolchak — even
shoplifting the whole “tapes” idea from Jeff Rice’s original <b><i>Kolchak
Tapes</i></b>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">Still, <b><i>The Norliss Tapes</i></b>
is probably a pretty good barometer of what the never-filmed <b><i>Night
Killers</i></b> might have looked like if you subtracted Matheson’s signature
humor and handed the entire project off to second string players: Likable actors plod through a
procedural of the strange, accented with the signature Dan Curtis’ “attack”
sequences by an inarticulate, snarling menace, and culminates in a pallid
climax that doesn’t amount to much of a resolution.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">On paper, Roy Thinnes — veteran
of <b><i>The Invaders</i></b> — must have seemed a terrific choice for David
Norliss, tormented writer and skeptic-turned believer, but his performance is
somnambulant and dull — a polar opposite to Kolchak’s verve. <b><i>Norliss</i></b> can’t help but
seem like a failed <b><i>Night Stalker</i></b> scenario. At least <b><i>The Night Killers</i></b>
would have skewed Kolchak even more firmly into <b><i>X Files</i></b>
territory, by introducing a science fictional antagonist instead of a
supernatural one.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">To sample <b><i>The Night Killers</i></b>,
see the selection from the draft dated January 15, 1974, available at <a href="http://www.darrenmcgavin.net/unproduced_ns_scripts.htm"><b>darrenmcgavin.net</b></a> </span>… or check out the full teleplay
in <b><i>Richard Matheson’s Kolchak Scripts</i></b> (Gauntlet Press, 2003),
edited by our very own Mark Dawidziak.<span style="font-family: Times;"></span></div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times;">What makes<b><i> Norliss</i></b>
interesting in the Kolchak canon is its class reunion of much of the talent on
both sides of the camera for the Kolchak telefilms. For completists only, it was still impactful enough for Gene
Roddenberry to rip it off several years later with his own failed pilot about
occult detectives, <b><i>Spectre</i></b> (1977).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQt0FJXdvx5_x7I3oYOG_moi0HCDeVVVfAGItPlGW2EqtxodvusOZQqaAN7JRkHvx-d40IiNuaUAXY0I_DhRQQZu7jGkZumoVQXO7sevJQFwf1ZlzGsm0_WYgqyp52QWPxT1qIy96Tac/s1600/Picture+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQt0FJXdvx5_x7I3oYOG_moi0HCDeVVVfAGItPlGW2EqtxodvusOZQqaAN7JRkHvx-d40IiNuaUAXY0I_DhRQQZu7jGkZumoVQXO7sevJQFwf1ZlzGsm0_WYgqyp52QWPxT1qIy96Tac/s200/Picture+1.png" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times;">In 1987, Nolan resurrected the <b><i>Norliss</i></b>
protagonist as “David Kincaid” for a series of stories that can be found in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/098233222X?tag=slcinema-20"><b><i>Kincaid: A Paranormal Casebook</i></b></a> (Rocket Ride Books, 2011).</span></div>
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thiamleboar-20&l=as2&o=1&a=098233222X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
According to Phillip Jose Farmer’s elaborate Wold Newton
Universe — a vast compendium and family tree interrelating nearly every
fictional sleuth and supervillain — Carl Kolchak was one of those rare
individuals who was preternaturally attracted to the threats he
investigated. As Matthew Isleman
observed in a Wold Newton article called “Murder Magnetism: Four Case Studies”
—</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify;">
While murder magnetism seems to affect a number of
people, there is a rarer condition I like to call <b><i>monster magnetism</i></b>
(…) instead of being drawn to a mundane crime, the person is drawn to the
supernatural. One major example of
this is Carl Kolchak. Carl was a
reporter who investigated supernatural cases. Though he lived in a variety of different cities
(because of being repeatedly laid off), he would routinely encounter
supernatural phenomena.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“From Russia with Madness,” a typically bizarre Wold Newton
piece by Octavio Aragão & Carlos Martinho, posits that Fox Mulder of <b><i>The
X Files</i></b> is the son of Tatiana Romanova (of <b><i>From Russia With Love</i></b>)
and an unnamed American secret agent.
She also had a daughter named Samantha, who was kidnapped by an outfit
called MJ-12:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify;">
This kidnapping was investigated by a reporter named Carl
Kolchak, who unfortunately could not produce enough evidence to blame the
government for the crime. <b><i>(Sound
familiar? – DJS)</i></b> Kolchak’s
failure made Fox quite disappointed in journalism, a career the boy was
considering. When Kolchak ended
empty-handed, Fox decided to infiltrate the enemy. He would become an FBI investigator.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
(The Wold Newton Universe is eminently searchable online,
but be warned: Once you start
investigating it, you may become hopelessly lost and mildly insane.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Seeing Kolchak’s final hurrah in the form of a digital
McGavin cameo in the 2005 <b><i>Night Stalker</i></b> series reminds us that
the last time we saw our bowlegged savior, he was hightailing it away from a
guy in a really ridiculous lizard suit in the no-budget closer to his single
season on network TV. Nope, no
closure there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But it can be had.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is a magical episode of <b><i>Tales from the Darkside</i></b>
titled “Distant Signals,” which I maintain can be interpreted as a final and
most satisfying chapter in the Kolchak legacy. All you need is a tiny residual sprinkle of the capacity for
a sense of winder or suspension of disbelief.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“Distant Signals” was based on a short story by Andrew
Weiner originally published in <b><i>Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone</i></b>
Magazine in 1984. The teleplay was
by Ted Gershuny (Mary Woronov’s ex-husband), and tells the tale of another TV
series deep-sixed in mid-season: <b><i>Max
Paradise</i></b>, a detective show loosely modeled on <b><i>The Fugitive</i></b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Its washed-up star, “Van Conway,” was played by Darren
McGavin a decade after he had logged his final Kolchak episode — and 27 years
after he had played tough guy Mike Hammer, another model for Max Paradise.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHzJmC6ghG9ozJW1qhf1fRyR8Y4LKi8eoWxDHJ8Lc0GbqDQyfTPBOST4RLlEfhRHEGptMIYc_qIK2XV0mZNL9-5UdYrSiCyB9cDf0ZIIUe5ULbhOcRLFrC6AHggC2GhUD7m9sAHwqP06c/s1600/signals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHzJmC6ghG9ozJW1qhf1fRyR8Y4LKi8eoWxDHJ8Lc0GbqDQyfTPBOST4RLlEfhRHEGptMIYc_qIK2XV0mZNL9-5UdYrSiCyB9cDf0ZIIUe5ULbhOcRLFrC6AHggC2GhUD7m9sAHwqP06c/s320/signals.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Seventeen years after the mid-season cancellation of <b><i>Max
Paradise</i></b>, an alien benefactor visits Earth to resurrect both Van Conway
(now an alcoholic has-been) and the series itself, a foul ball to almost
everyone involved in it. The
visitor (wonderfully played by Lenny von Dohlen) wants the “old team” to
reunite and make six more episodes of <b><i>Max Paradise</i></b> to bring
closure to Max’s story.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Why?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Because the faraway aliens have only just received our TV
transmissions, and were dismayed that Max’s story just seemed to cut off in
mid-stream.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you squint just a little bit, it’s easy to read the
episode as a charming metaphor that saves Carl Kolchak from the “Whatever
Happened To…?” file.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As Bill Gibron observed in his incisive writeup of the KTNS
DVD set at <a href="http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/kolchak.php"><b><i>DVD Verdict</i></b></a>:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-align: justify;">
“Since the dawn of the new millennium, we have more or
less given up on monsters. The
old-fashioned belief in the bogeyman and the local legends of haunted houses
and ghostly apparitions have all but faded into the woodwork of modern worries. Molesters and thrill killers are the
new ogres that unsettle our sleep, and we are more likely to delve into the
mind of a serial slayer than argue over the existence of vampires. In this technologically complex realm,
we dismiss that which does not come to us from the never-resting mantras of the
mass-media machine. Today,
bloodsuckers are just confused Goth kids, werewolves are painted with bizarre
ethnic origins, and zombies are relegated to bit players in some first-time
filmmaker’s living dead epic.
Where once monsters were the major macabre movement, they have been
uprooted and replaced by their far more marketable human counterparts. But boy, back in the 70s we really
loved our beasts (and) Carl Kolchak, decked out in a singular set of clothes
that made him part schlub, part superhero, became our divine hammer.”</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify;">
_________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify;">
*
Still, among people of no depth, “cheesy” basically means “older than me,” a
dismissive catch-all intended to demote any and everything to quaint, outmoded,
knee-slapping oblivion. <b><i>Just
look at those hats! This movie sucks!
</i></b> And while most modern
screen-watchers tend to dismiss everything that came before them as cheese —
unaware that <b><i>their</i></b> faves will look even cheesier in record time —
scratch one of ‘em until they bleed and you’ll discover they are usually
talking about technical presentation, which has become venerated over story or
content because it’s all many newer fables have to offer. Depth or resonance vex them.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
#
# # # # # # #<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>Stay tuned later today for Mark Dawidziak's look at Carl Kolchak in print! And come back tomorrow for David Schow's overview of the revival series!</i></div>
</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-90344212788337039792012-02-07T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-07T06:00:05.758-08:00DJS Presents The Unfilmed Kolchak: The Executioners<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoTitle">
Kolchak: The Night Stalker</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“The Executioners”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 335.2pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’m still having nightmares, even though I know it’s
over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kaput.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily I managed to keep my head while all about me were
losing theirs, if you’ll pardon my little touch of the poetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Losing their heads, or getting hung, or
poisoned … one of the three.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
you were in Chicago this past August, you know what I mean …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Several small clues indicate “The Executioners” was an early
story submission, by Max E. Hodge (1916-2007).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kolchak depicted seems much closer to the original
Richard Matheson incarnation — in the opening shot, we see him putting down a slug
of bourbon to settle his nerves; later he mentions a sexual relationship with a
character named Beatrice Mae Jessee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Also hinting at the early vintage of “The Executioners” is the return of
Captain Warren of the Chicago police for what might have been his second series
appearance after his debut in “The Ripper.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The timestamp “August,” above, also slots the story close to
the beginning of Kolchak’s series timeline.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What
survives of “The Executioners” is a writer’s work draft — something more than a
treatment and less than a polished first draft teleplay.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. “PAUL’S PLACE” – NIGHT – CLOSE ON BOURBON BOTTLE</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It was enough to drive every Chicagoan to drink … even a
staunch WCTUer.*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">NEWSCASTER
(OS)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
On the local front, again the big news is the parlay of
murders committed last night, the second such triple killings this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All were within a two-block area in the
Loop; all were identical to the murders two nights ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One victim was decapitated, the second
hanged, the third poisoned, with no apparent motive for the senseless killings …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The TV plays inside the bar as a young couple chat each
other up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unseen, a “gnarled hand”
slips a chemical powder into the woman’s drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A “nondescript figure in a black raincoat” limps out of
Paul’s Place.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In the alley, a black cat YOWLS at a corpse strung up from a
fire escape.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Elsewhere, inside a ladies dress shop, a “peevish, swishy
male window decorator” complains to an unseen co-worker:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">MALE
WINDOW DRESSER</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You’re <u>late</u>, Harold, and I might add for the last
time!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re fired!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In disgrace!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cut off the buttons on your new cashmere plaid, and go forth
into the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t argue, just
go …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">He TURNS, sees the FIGURE approaching him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He stumbles back against a mannequin in
terror.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An enormous Henry VIII
executioner’s axe swings INTO FRAME.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two heads hits the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The mannequin’s ROLLS INTO FRAME.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak shows up at Paul’s Place (“his neighborhood bar”)
and witnesses the crowd around the now-DEAD Woman from the earlier scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He dogs Capt. Warren back to the police
station:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Sir …?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Correct me if I’m wrong, but did you not also find a corpus delecti
rendered thusly by his wearing a too-tight hemp necktie, one end of which got
caught on the fire escape in a dark alley?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">WARREN</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Not funny, Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I assume you refer to is a
possible suicide – very possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No connection between his death and the <u>possible</u> poisoning of a
young girl in a cheap saloon … possibly from cheap booze.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Ah, come off it, Warren – wood alcohol poisoning went out
with Prohibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you sure you
didn’t find a headless body anywhere tonight?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">WARREN</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(to
Kolchak and group of reporters in general)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Positively!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I guarantee you we have no reports of any …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(sarcastically)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
headless bodies in the neighborhood, although I could
think of one I’d like to see that way since it would obviously eliminate his
mouth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Right on time, Warren gets a call about the dead Male Window
Dresser.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Three triple murders in three nights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that wasn’t bad enough, the Cubs
lost three in a row to the Dodgers … and Vincenzo pitched me three strikes my
first time at bat the next morning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. INS – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Repeat those categories, please.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Obituaries, ballet … or the art show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Choose one …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Or <u>all three</u> … you could squeeze
them all in!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
When does that leave me time for the murder story?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It doesn’t -- that’s the idea!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">As RON UPDYKE ENTERS the office:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Not Updyke?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You didn’t give <u>Updyke</u> the assignment?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Updyke’s doing the pre-season football game at Soldier’s
Field.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What the hell does he know about football -- ?!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(miffed as
usual)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I’ll have you know I had a gin fizz with
Joe Namath once!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well … he was
only two seats away … at the Palmer House bar … <u>three</u> seats …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
So who’s covering the murder story?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve got
to keep my hand in.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You mean your nose, don’t you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(sniffing)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I smell the faint aroma of a Pulitzer Prize … add another
round or two of triple murders, and that aroma could get more overpowering than
limburger cheese … right?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(unmoved)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Obits … art … or the ballet?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(giving up
for now)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Art.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">What does <u>he</u> know about art?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(imitating
Updyke, from before)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I slept next to an art student once … well,
I didn’t exactly <u>sleep</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neither did she …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak makes his way to the Pop Art Institute, where he
finds said art student, BEATRICE MAE JESSEE, sketching a nude model (who
sprawls with a rope around her neck for “relevance”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to make at least a perfunctory stab at the art
coverage for Vincenzo, Kolchak has Beatrice take him to the Becker Museum of
Art – similar to the Harding Museum in Chicago – where an exhibition of
“certified and uncertified” Renaissance works is in progress.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
BECKER MUSEUM – CLOSE ON PAINTING - DAY</span></b></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
The Becker Museum of Art was on a back street near the
North Side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was one of the few
buildings Mrs. O’Leary’s cow failed to kick over during the big fire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PULL BACK as Kolchak and Beatrice examine a Rembrandt-like 1660s
work.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I don’t dig realism, Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I say leave exact duplication to the
camera and/or Norman Rockwell, in that order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not that I’m knocking it, but art – to me – should be
impressionistic, not realistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
that quotable?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about
mentioning the theory of dynamic symmetry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s all based on mathematical equations and how good art stems
from seven basic geometric roots … or something … I never quite understood it,
but it <u>sounds</u> impressive, don’t you think?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Beatrice rattles on, drawing the occasional quizzical stare
from Kolchak, until Carl spots a life-sized oil painting, in Rembrandt’s style,
with deep shadows caused by the illumination from a painted lamp at the top of
the frame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beneath the lamp stand
three FULL-FIGURED MEN in a barren, cell-like cubicle, staring straight ahead:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A HANGMAN holding a noose, an
EXECUTIONER in the middle, holding an axe, and a MONK-LIKE INDIVIDUAL with a
large vial of poison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A metal
nameplate is engraved: “The Executioners.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak and Beatrice have the same thought at the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak begins snapping
pictures.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Coincidence …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What else?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">How could some Dutch painter three hundred
years ago do our scene today … and be so right on?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It <u>is</u> Dutch, isn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seventeenth Century?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What does the brochure say under “The Executioners?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It’s not listed in here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR’S
VOICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(from
behind them)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
We acquired it too late for our brochure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">ANGLE BROADENS TO INCLUDE CURATOR, a Vincent Price type, all
charm, with a smooth, syrupy voice.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Awesome, isn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With a certain charming mystique?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oh – I’m Emile van der Beck, curator of the gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see you’re taking notes …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Carl Kolchak, Independent News Service … <u>art
critic</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is Miz
Beatrice Mae Jessee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re
familiar with her best-known work, I’m sure – “Nude, Descending on Noose?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Jessee?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jessee?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well,
frankly, I specialize in 16<sup>th</sup> and 17<sup>th</sup> Century art …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
When did you hang this one?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It arrived only four days ago, strangely enough, with no
return address.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t know the
donor, and we haven’t authenticated it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of the artists in
this particular exhibit are – you might say – persona non grata, you know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forgers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Copyists.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You mean this could have been painted recently?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Copying the style of the Renaissance?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Don’t be silly, Kolchak – you can see it’s old!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Quite right, Ms. Jessee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least 300 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tested the paint pigment; examined the canvas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What we can’t authenticate is the
artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not signed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Could it be a Rembrandt?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">If we could be so lucky …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Possible?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Remotely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wouldn’t that be exciting?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An undiscovered painting by the great master himself, making its debut
in Chicago?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CAMERA PUSHES IN closer and closer on the painting as the
Curator speaks, until the Hangman’s hands, holding the noose, FILL THE FRAME.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Later that night, a WATCHMAN makes rounds in the closed
gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gradually we notice, on
the balcony overlooking the gallery near “The Executioners,” a pair of HANDS
holding a noose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Night
Watchman moves closer to the painting … examines it … and is LASSOED by the
noose and jerked upward by powerful arms that secure the rope to the balcony
railing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He chokes, dies, swings
still.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
ACT TWO</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. INS OFFICES – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Vincenzo is predictably dissatisfied with Kolchak’s “art”
piece, focusing as it does on the death of the night watchman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What happened, Carl?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your ghost writer crawl out from under your sheet?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Stay out of this, Updyke!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t fool with Fate!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Fate …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Fate!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t
you see what’s happening, Tony?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fate took me to that museum yesterday where the watchman was hung!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fate made me park my car in the front
of the very motel where the salesman was decapitated less than three hours
after I left!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(pushing a
red pin into a Chicago street map on the wall)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
… and this pinhead here … that poor waitress?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you realize it was just my fate she
was poisoned in the <u>very apartment house</u> where my cousin Lucille’s
boyfriend used to live, which makes me familiar with the territory?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Fate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hah.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Ah, ah, ah, Updyke – don’t tempt Fate when she’s right
there</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(pointing
skyward)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
…looking down on me, saying, “Kolchak!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get cracking on those murder stories,
pronto!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(pointing
up)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
There …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Right there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Vincenzo reaches up into the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grabs an imaginary object.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holds “it” in his outstretched hand for Kolchak’s
inspection.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">See that, Carl?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now your fate is in my hand</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(which he
CLOSES, squeezing tightly)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
… Get the picture?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(nodding
slowly)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Worth a thousand words …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak dashes back to the museum before he can be
stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He corners the Curator in
his office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He leaves his draft of
the article for “approval” and sneaks into the gallery (saying, “It makes me
nervous to watch anyone read my copy”), where he notices bright red flecks on
the edge of the Executioner’s axe in the painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He scrapes some onto a sheet of paper, which he folds into
his pocket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He then discovers a
signature of sorts, in the lower right-hand corner of the canvas, concealed by
fresh paint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By shining his
penlight through the canvas from behind, he perceives a capital B, a small o-e,
and a scrawl.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A police lab buddy of Kolchak’s (a “bribe-ee” like Gordy the
Ghoul) identifies the red flecks as human blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak hurries back to Beatrice’s art class, where she is
sketching a nude dude clutching a baseball bat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He cuts her loose for lunch – another bribe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
EXT. “PAUL’S PLACE” – DAY – ON ONLOOKERS AND TOURISTS</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Whenever a murder takes place, there’s always the morbid
out to see the scene of the crime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They say the day after Valentine’s Day, 1929, you couldn’t get near the
Clark Street Garage … which, incidentally, is just up the block from Paul’s
Place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. “PAUL’S PLACE” – DAY – ON TABLE PLACEMAT</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">AS Beatrice fills in the name HENRI BOETJE.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Henry Boach?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<u>On-ray Boe-chee</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Belgian painter who may or may not have studied with
Rembrandt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a real weirdo –
or in Dutch, “vierdo?” – whatever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Know what he mixed into his pigment?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Don’t make me guess.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Human ashes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
To add life to his paintings?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No, now, seriously!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Henri Boetje was a convicted murderer who admitted killing a dozen
people, then cremating them and mixing their ashes with his oils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before the cremations he drained their
blood and used it –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Instead of turpentine, right?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">You peeked …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak phones CASEY, his police-lab connection, to tell him
their “deal” for football tickets is off, since Carl already knows about the
blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Casey tells him the blood
from the painting is not three centuries old … but less than 24 hours old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He hangs up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak, panicked, calls him back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Casey smoothly finagles three tickets on the fifty yard line
and “no info over the phone.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kolchak dashes out of Paul’s place, leaving Beatrice to pay for lunch.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">MAN AT
NEXT TABLE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Forget that creep, lady.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A deadbeat if I ever saw one!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">It is the same man Kolchak just elbowed aside to hog the
payphone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. INS OFFICES – DAY – ON UPDYKE</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’m not really a murderer at heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I told Updyke I’d kill him if he
didn’t give me three tickets to the Bears-Packers game, I didn’t really mean
“kill,” like dead, know what I mean?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even though he told Vincenzo later that I had threatened his life, he
couldn’t have honestly believed me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Otherwise, why would he have had the guts to make me settle for two?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. POLICE LAB – DAY – ON CASEY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CASEY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Two</span></u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"> …?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
And my personal IOU guaranteeing you another ticket
before Saturday!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On my mother’s grave I swear!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CASEY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Some mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This the one you needed to buy a birthday present for, yesterday?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Flowers!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Next to her tombstone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Casey?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I need that info.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CASEY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Okay… it’s fresh blood, as I said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Very rare type: AB negative, the kind
they ask for donors on radio and TV when someone needs a transfusion, you know?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Those three decapitation victims – you find out their
blood types?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CASEY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Don’t have to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I already know.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What’ll it cost me to know what you know?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My right arm?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cut it
off right here at the elbow!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CASEY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
On the house – they were all plain “O.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What about the fourth victim?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Casey needs a sample to tell, so Kolchak sets out to find
one from ROGER (the window dresser) by breaking into the dress shop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is suddenly confronted by a bizarre
apparition:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an ELDERLY ITALIAN
GUARD brandishing a drum-fed Tommy gun!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">GUARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’ll get you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You no get outta here alive!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Guard RAKES the upstairs storage area with bullets, and
Kolchak is hit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
ACT THREE</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. STOREROOM – DAY – CLOSE ON GUARD</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PHOTOGRAPHER
(OS)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Hold the machinegun higher, Joe!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Higher – like you’re ready to mow down
a G-man!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look tough!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CLOSE ON KOLCHAK – BEING BANDAGED</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I was still alive, having survived one of those movie
cowboy injuries – a bullet grazing my shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of the reporters were bothering about me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’d found themselves a living
legend:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joe Costello, a gangster
from the Prohibition era.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">JOE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Sure, I knew Capone!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Old Al and me used to eat dinner at this little restaurant
in Cicero called the Domino Club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It ain’t there no more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
got messed up one night when Moran’s gang come in and shot up the place …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Unfortunately, my wounded shoulder was one of my lesser
problems at the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was
this Lt. Frisbee … who hated my guts anyway …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Frisbee JAILS Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Vincenzo bails him out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. INS OFFICES – DAY – EXCU VINCENZO</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(through
grit teeth)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Ballet, Carl!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>B-A-L-L-<u>lay</u>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You will cover ballet, and only ballet, even if it means wearing a tutu
and toe shoes – you dig?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Luckily, my legs are nice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose I could shave them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Not funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Remember, you are out on bail for illegal entry, and if the owners of
the dress shop should decide to press charges …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Ballet?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Ballet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. POLICE LAB – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
On my way to the ballet interview, I just happened to be
passing by the police lab …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Casey verifies that the window dresser’s blood was also the
elusive type AB.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak returns
to the museum to try and gain some further clue from the painting, and
confronts Emile van der Beck with the information concerning Henri Boetje.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. CURATOR’S OFFICE – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Something told me that the curator knew all along that
this was no long-lost Rembrandt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
was right …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I knew Henri Boetje … only too well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henri Boetje was my great-great, ad
infinitum grandfather, on my mother’s side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The painting had been handed down through the generations to
me, the last living direct descendant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m not married; I have no children … frankly, all my life I’ve been
curious to see the painting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You mean you never saw it before --?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Not until four days ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s been crated up, in storage, ever since I inherited it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, no one has seen the painting
since 1879, to be precise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Brussells.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Mr. Kolchak … I said I never married, never
intended to have children … it’s these headaches, inherited, every fourth
generation male.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one should be
forced to suffer like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must stop!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh, my god – I can’t <u>think</u> …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. PUBLIC LIBRARY – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Actually, van der Beck never did answer my question, so I
did a little research with the aid of a Belgian exchange student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Chicago Main Library we found an
obscure Belgian almanac, published in Brussells in 1880, listing notable events
of the previous year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems an
unexplained series of triple murders took place in the city during that
previous year … 1879.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kolchak hands the student a $10 bill.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT. INS OFFICES – DAY – (AS KOLCHAK TYPES)</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
The Becker Museum seemed to be the focal point for the
current series of murders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But who
is the murderer – or murderers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just for a starter, how about Emile van der Beck?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Vincenzo, totally snowed, thinks Kolchak is finishing up his
art and ballet pieces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tosses
some photos for the articles on Kolchak’s desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carl notices two slightly <b><i>different</i></b> shots of “The
Executioners.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
INT. “PAUL’S PLACE” – DAY – CLOSE ON PHOTOS – KOLCHAK AND
BEATRICE</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">One was taken the day you and I visited the
Museum of Art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other was taken
the next day, when I was alone – <u>after</u> the watchman was hanged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re an artist; your eyes are trained
to spot details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you can’t see
it … maybe it’s not there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(squinting)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Well … it’s probably when they developed the pictures …
yeah, it must be …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Don’t laugh, but it looks to me like the hangman’s hands
are in a different position in this one …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
And the noose is shorter?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Yeah.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(leaping
up and kissing her)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You’re terrific!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pay the check; I’ll reimburse you later!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Where’re you going?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
To prevent three murders – if I can!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(fumbling
in her purse – again)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Least he could do under the circumstances … was go Dutch …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
ACT FOUR</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
EXT. PHONE BOOTH – NIGHT</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Personally, I hate people who call me on the phone and
disguise their voices … but, sometimes …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak affects a very heavy, mock-German accent:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Herr van der Beck …?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do not know me, Herr van der Beck, but I haff a painting
vitch I am sure vill be of great interest to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps if I dropped a hint?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(very
confidential)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Herr Goering’s private collection … interested, ja?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Van der Beck is holed up in his office, alone, one light
showing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drinking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I might be …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Goot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps you are available to see me now …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">CURATOR</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No, no … not tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah – tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Call me tomorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll be
leaving here shortly tonight.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Kolchak hangs up and speeds away after completing the call.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I was only two minutes away from the Museum; certainly
enough time to get there before van der Beck could leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But his idea of a “short time” and mine
certainly differed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I waited over
an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then –</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak spots a shadowy, indistinct figure sneaking out a
side door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He tracks it to a
nearby apartment building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
figure takes the elevator to the fifth floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak hustles up the stairs just in time to hear a WOMAN,
screaming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He rushes into an open
apartment and barely avoids being split in two by the EXECUTIONER’S AXE.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK – FROM MURDER’S POV – MOVING</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Van der Beck!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Take it easy!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know it’s
you – but it’s your headaches that are making you do this!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But the figure seems much more the Executioner from the
painting than the frail van der Beck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kolchak heaves a chair; the axeman hacks it apart in mid-air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the killer bears in, Kolchak DUCKS –
and the axeman goes flying out the apartment window from the force of his own
swing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Kolchak hurries
downstairs he finds nothing on the sidewalk below except a large, running, multicolored
blob of PAINT … and an extremely upset ELDERLY LADY whose poodle has just
tracked into the mess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She saw no
body fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak hurries back to
the Museum … and the Lady, thinking him to be some sort of paint-balloon
prankster, sends the oncoming police after him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. BECKER MUSEUM OF ART – NIGHT – MOVING WITH KOLCHAK</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What I’d just seen didn’t make a lick of sense; still,
there had to be some kind of explanation, and somewhere inside the art museum I
felt there was the answer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">He finds an answer he didn’t count on:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>van der Beck’s DEAD BODY.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Dead – from poison!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well, that kicked my theory into a cocked hat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Emile van der Beck was some kind of insane killer,
murder being a habit he had inherited from his ancestor, the artist, Henri
Boetje.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, if it wasn’t van der
Beck, then who …?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak heads back to the painting, in much the way the
nightwatchman had, earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We SEE
the waiting set of hangman’s hands, the ready noose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>EXCEPT …</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“The Executioners” is now <b><i>singular</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only figure in the painting is the
MONK-LIKE FIGURE holding the poison vial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The HANGMAN is missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the empty space where the AXEMAN once stood is a dripping puddle of paint, as
though the figure had been reduced back to its basic pigments.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Suddenly a NOOSE drops around Kolchak’s head from
above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is hauled off the floor
by the HANGMAN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Carl scrabbles for
his penknife and is unable to slice through the thick hemp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His feet leave the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His hands struggle to keep the noose
from drawing tighter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He gives a
final yank and the Hangman – who has been unable to secure the rope to the
railing due to Kolchak’s struggles – FALLS over the edge to get SKEWERED on a
lance protruding from a full set of knight’s armor.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The HANGMAN’s body immediately begins to dissolve into
dripping paint, coating the armor thickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a mystified Kolchak watches, a similar puddle of paint is
forming beneath the spot where the Hangman stood in the painting.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak stares at the painting for a moment, then sticks his
penknife into the Monk-Like Figure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The paint again starts to flow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kolchak SLASHES the canvas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Smashes the frame against the gallery floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The PAINTED LAMP on the canvas abruptly flares, starting a <b><i>real</i></b>
fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fire quickly engulfs the
Museum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What Mrs. O’Leary’s cow failed to do, the painted lamp in
the painting did!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was obvious
the museum would be completely consumed by flames in minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t think of anything to save
except myself … and?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak salvages Emile van der Beck’s body, dragging it from
the office and lugging it out into the night on his shoulders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Don’t ask me why I thought it was important to save a
dead body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe because it was
the only legitimate dead body in the place I could scoop up and save without
stuffing it into an oil paint tube …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
EXT. INS BUILDING – THE NEXT DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Beatrice Mae Jessee ENTERS the building, carrying a wrapped
painting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Things are back to normal now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman who almost got hacked up by the axeman now thinks
it might have been a nightmare … that it wasn’t real at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t dispute her theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could I prove what actually
happened?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who’d believe a painting
could come to life?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
INT. INS OFFICES – DAY</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">As Beatrice holds up the painting for Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is her NUDE BASEBALL PLAYER.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You can hang him over your bed!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I don’t want him over my bed!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suppose in the middle of the night he decided to crack me
with his bat?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">BEATRICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
That is stupid, Carl Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stupid, stupid, stupid!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">I know, but just to be on the safe side,
how about I trade the ball player for your “Nude in the Noose” broad?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wouldn’t mind if she climbed out of <u>her</u>
frame …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Beatrice shakes her head and starts re-wrapping the painting
as Kolchak mugs ferociously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>FADE
OUT/END.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
#</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It seems like no accident that Beatrice’s last line of
dialog echoes one of the most infamous lines from <b><i>Plan 9 From Outer Space</i></b>
… because had “The Executioners” gone to production, it surely would have
usurped the worst-of-series berth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
a way, “badness” in the sense of the schlock horror/science fiction films of
the 1950s was what KTNS was all about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The entertainment value of the series derives largely from a wealth of
eccentric peripheral characters (the folks from whom Kolchak bribes, wheedles
and cons his leads) and his weekly run-ins with the regulars, in particular his
florid arguments with Anthony Albert Vincenzo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Kolchak will overcome the weekly menace is never in
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point of the show
was that it was kind of a <b><i>Rockford Files</i></b> of the supernatural,
demonstrating how blithely Kolchak copes with the day-to-day madness (and
monsters) surrounding him in a contemporary urban environment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The
Executioners” seems spun off from two primary sources:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hour-long <b><i>Twilight Zone</i></b>
episode “The New Exhibit” (in which Jack the Ripper, Bluebeard and other
members of a wax museum’s Murderer’s Row seem to come to life to dispatch
people who threaten the existence of the exhibit) and Robert Bloch’s “The Grim
Reaper,” a <b><i>Thriller</i></b> episode in which the eponymous painting
apparently murders, with fresh blood appearing on the edge of its scythe each
time a victim is reaped.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
abundance of killings in “The Executioners” seems to be without any motivation
whatsoever, and Kolchak is “saved by accident” too many times to count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business clearly depicted onscreen is
nonetheless belabored by extraneous voice-overs from Kolchak and redundant dialog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(In fact, this idea may hold the record
for Most Kolchak Voice-Overs in a Single Show.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike other episodes, the en passant “conflicts” with
Casey, Vincenzo, et al, are never really resolved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even a David Chase pass to spice up the antique dialog (all
of which seems to have time-traveled to roost from a 1930s Warner Brothers
gangster flick) probably would not have saved this one.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wax
museum statues and paintings coming to life were both creaky horror tropes by
the early 1970s anyway, although <b><i>Night Gallery</i></b> tried to freshen
the latter up one more time in “The Cemetery” and “The Escape Route.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I’m sure there are other exceptions.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Discuss.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
____________________________________________________</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Women’s Christian Temperance Union, founded 1874.</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-4882009714026127832012-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-06T06:00:08.331-08:00DJS Presents The Unfilmed Kolchak: The Get of Belial<style>
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<br />
<h3>
Kolchak: The Night Stalker</h3>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“The Get of Belial”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
We here at KTNS, otherwise known as ICHH <b><i>(icch!)</i></b>
are well aware that Moonstone Comics rendered adaptations of the two most
“famous” unfilmed KTNS teleplays, “Eve of Terror” and “The Get of Belial.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But our aim is to present a more
unvarnished look at the script pages that <b><i>do</i></b> exist, with
particular bias toward Kolchak’s encounters with his stringers or his INS
cohorts — two of the most recurrently popular and enduring aspects of the
series.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Unlike a standard KTNS episode, Kolchak’s voice-over doesn’t
intrude until page five (page three of actual scenario).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The January 3<sup>rd</sup>, 1975
revised draft was written by Don Mullally, one of the six writers who cobbled
up “The Devil’s Platform,” and “Belial” brings Kolchak face-to-face once again
with a hellish, or Hellish, antagonist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As we FADE IN to an unnamed town in “West Virginia Mountain Country” …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
ACT ONE</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EXT.
ASSOCIATED ANTHRACITE BLDG. – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Observed by a laconic patrol car, a tatty group of miners is
conducting a STRIKE, picketing the main office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>KOLCHAK is seen keeping pace with one of the pickets, taping
away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">You look for the strike to go on much
longer?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PICKET</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mine
owners are caving in all over the state – except for this mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the pressure he’s gotta be getting
from the other owners, how long can he hold out?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You’re talking about Glenn Maynard, president of
Associated?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PICKET</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Yeah, that s.o.b. …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">As they speak, MAYNARD pulls up in a station wagon, warning the
pickets he’ll plow right through them if they don’t move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pickets begin to rock the car and
pound it with their signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Police
chief ROD PEOPLES debarks and saunters over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s young, soft-spoken but authoritative, and he
effortlessly pushes several of the pickets away from the car.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You don’t want your union to have to buy a new paint job
for Mr. Maynard … right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just cool
it now, hear?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">That was the scene in Winship County, West
Virginia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Labor trouble in the
mines wasn’t breeding nobility on either side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tempers were worn to the breaking point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was ugly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what was moving <u>into</u> Winship County would make
the strike seem like a wedding party.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
BEHIND Kolchak, an ancient pickup truck groans into view,
towing a dilapidated box trailer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bed is loaded with belongings and furniture, covered by a tarp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On top of this tottering heap sits TOM
BLACKSHEAR, a bearded young giant in solid denim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shoulder-to-shoulder inside the cab sit RICHARD BLACKSHEAR,
his mother SARAH, and her husband HENRY, who drives, working a cheekfull of
snuff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard gives directions to
the outskirts of town, where an abandoned coal company hamlet sits, dead and
boarded up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Blackshear truck
parks behind a rural, one-room schoolhouse — the largest, best-preserved
building in the shanty town.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Looks nice, Richard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
We oughta be okay here ‘til they come with the
bulldozers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Won’t be doin’ that while the strike’s on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be okay for your boy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Our</span></u><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";"> boy, Henry …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">They have come to the barren basement of the schoolhouse and
peer down into darkness.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(to
Richard and Tom)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Give me a hand with it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The men unhitch the box trailer and back it up to the cellar
door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They TILT it downward, then
STRAIN against a large, bulky, burlap-covered object.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>UNGODLY CRIES AND MOANS issue from beneath the tarp, which
falls askew long enough to reveal a thickly-barred CAGE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The men hoist the cage into the cellar
and begin “walking” it toward the far wall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah is almost beside herself with anxiety.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Watch it now … watch your hands, Richard!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
A HAIRY CLAW with taloned nails pierces the burlap and
fastens onto Richard’s arm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he
screams in pain, Henry smacks the claw with a broken chunk of timber as Sarah
rushes in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She reprimands Tom and
moves to the cage, making a peculiar, cooing, maternal sound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The claw relaxes and Richard recoils,
clutching his bleeding arm.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
ACT TWO</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">October 2<sup>nd</sup>, 1:30 A.M.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Glenn Maynard, mine executive, was on
his way home after a long day at the bargaining table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was about to lose the most important
negotiation of his life … get a package deal, with death as the bottom line.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Maynard avoids the pickets as he drives home but “something”
is watching him as he moves toward his porch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one giant, ungainly bound, Maynard is attacked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the sounds of “tearing, rending
death” we see his chewed cigar stub roll across his driveway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
SCHOOLHOUSE – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Tom Blackshear discovers the EMPTY cage in the basement, the
hasp on its heavy-duty padlock twisted out of shape.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Woulda swore no livin’ thing could bust that lock.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Must’ve gotten out last night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a dream … I was praying … and the Lord came to me …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Sarah is interrupted by a LOW, VICIOUS GROWL.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family turns to see the “Creature”
framed in the doorway – matted hair, deep-set glowing eyes, fanged and
lumbering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The male Blackshears
are clearly repulsed, but Sarah goes to the Creature, touching its shoulder and
leading it back to the cage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">You’ve come home … you’ll be all right now …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Get him settled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me and you’s going into town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See if we can find out what he did <u>this</u> time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EXT.
MAYNARD HOUSE – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak snaps photos of DEAD MAYNARD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peoples is present, as is newly-widowed
CLAUDIA MAYNARD, in near hysteria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She interferes with the morgue men, clearly distraught, and her friends
are unable to restrain her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
the Blackshear truck, Sarah comes to intervene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Sarah … now you stay out of this, you hear?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I can’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That lady needs me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Claudia pitches a fit, trembling and rigid on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unhelping spectators gather ‘round but
it is Sarah who kneels at Claudia’s side and touches her forehead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Lord, heal this woman, thy child who is heavily
burdened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free her of her torment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Claudia slowly relaxes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The watcher’s are amazed by Sarah’s apparent healing power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Claudia smiles up at Sarah.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">But back at the schoolhouse, the Creature goes into a FRENZY in
its cage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Oh, hell – listen to him!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">RICHARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Yeah, Ma’s done the Lord’s work again and he’s all wired
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we can stop him this
time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
They enter the basement, Richard leading with a cattle
prod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cage rocks back and
forth and suddenly EXPLODES open, the door driving both men back, the Creature
LEAPING over them to freedom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EXT.
TREE-LINED LANE – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Al and Gracie were <u>ideally</u> married …
to a couple of other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
simply <u>lived</u> for these little mid-day trysts, those long walks in the
piney woods, hand-in-hand, to their secret place …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
AL and GRACIE have wandered down to a grassy knoll by a
meandering stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are about
to hit the dirt when Al spies a pair of eyes watching them from the shrubs,
red-rimmed and menacing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A POUNCE,
and Al is smashed down as Gracie FLEES.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In two bounds the Creature catches her, dragging her down as she
SCREAMS.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Today, those stolen moments that they lived for were to
be the death of them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">ACT THREE</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
VINCENZO’S OFFICE AT INS - DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Outside the El rushes by, shaking the entire building.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(yelling)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Kolchak – I can’t hear you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sounded like you said you wanted … combat pay?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(inside a
phone booth)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You heard me, Tony – this town is a powder keg and some
nut is playing with matches!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three
people killed, and I’ve got a feeling that’s just for openers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You getting all this, Uptight?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Across the office on an extension, RON UPDYKE is making notes
with his usual expression of annoyance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(to phone)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I have the names, ages, and occupations of the three
victims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your description of the
bodies, which, parenthetically, our papers will not print … and I have yet to
hear anything about the progress, or lack of it, in the strike negotiations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Yeah, Kolchak – people up here want to know what a ton of
coal is going to cost this winter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
If this war breaks open down here, they can start praying
for a mild winter!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Well, we certainly can’t expect our papers
to print <u>that</u>, either!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Write anything you want, Uptight, just don’t make it
sound like it belongs on the financial page!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I will remind you that coal is very big in our economy!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
And I will remind you that Vincenzo is paying for this
long-distance phone call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides,
I’ve gotta to go a wake …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(he hangs
up)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Ron picks up his pad and makes a huffy exit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tony throws a Chicago phone book at the
wall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
BRANNIGAN HOUSE – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Al’s widow, Joni Brannigan, was taking it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a miner’s wife; her father was
a miner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Death wasn’t that much of
a stranger in her life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">Al’s
COFFIN takes up most of the living room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kolchak moves around a huge buffet setup, systematically helping
himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chief Peoples suggests to
Joni his theory that the killer hid in the back of Al’s car as he picked up
Gracie for a “ride home.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That the
killer “forced” Al to drive to the lonely spot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Gracie’s husband was himself another “victim” of the
mine – wheechair-bound, “dead from the waist down.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak approves of Peoples’ effort to cover for a
potentially nasty situation, actually complimenting the cop:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Chief, that was a very kind thing you did in there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mrs. Brannigan had to wonder what Al
was doing out there in the piney wood with another woman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(shrugs)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Could’ve happened just like I said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">Sarah
Blackshear enters the wake long enough to leave a covered pot, which Kolchak
sniffs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he tails her outside,
he gets a good look at Richard Blackshear, driving the pickup truck.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EXT.
POLICE STATION – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Peoples conducts a press conference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I want you to know that I’ve talked to both sides, union
and management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Told them to cool
it or I’ll be on the horn to the Governor – bring troops in here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Chief, maybe you’re talking to the wrong people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These killings could have nothing to do
with the strike.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I say they do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
How do you explain the fact that all the victims died the
same way – killed by a hand pick, according to you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Ever hear of “an eye for an eye?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maynard’s killer set the pattern.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’ve heard of it, but how come the score is four eyes to
two?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(shrugs)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
The girl was a witness – they had to kill her too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino; mso-bidi-font-family: Palatino;">Peoples
discourages Kolchak’s attempts at further poking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside, Kolchak notices the Blackshear truck and copies its
Pennsylvania license number before he encounters both Richard and Tom
Blackshear in the Associated Anthracite picket line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are sullen and unhelpful, but Kolchak notices Richard’s
injured arm, remembering the slashes seen on all the victims.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Pennsylvania DMV gave me a make on the pickup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Registered owner, Henry Blackshear,
Hamilton, Pennsylvania.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hamilton
was another mining town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something
in my gut told me that wasn’t all it had in common with this part of West
Virginia.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
HAMILTON POLICE STATION – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Kolchak quizzes local police chief WOODRUFF.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">You said there were <u>some</u> similar
killings – how many?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">WOODRUFF</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Five.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No arrests?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">The case is still active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Kolchak sees photos from the case file.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The string of deaths ended on August 22<sup>nd</sup>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I wanted a reading on the Blackshear’s old neighbors –
what kind of people were they?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
neighbors gave them good marks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sarah – Mrs. Blackshear – was a living saint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She could heal people even after regular doctors gave
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All she had to do was pray and
touch them!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the neighbors
remembered the murders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>None of
them seemed to pick up on the fact that they started shortly after the
Blackshears moved to Hamilton … and stopped just before they moved on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak sneaks a phone call to MISS EMILY in the INS office,
asking her to investigate mutilation murders in Appalachia during certain
dates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Vincenzo approaches her
desk in time to hear:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">EMILY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Yes, Carl … yes, Carl …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
That Kolchak?!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(he grabs
the phone from Emily)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Whatever you do, sweetheart, don’t say anything about
this to Tony.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(livid)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Anything about what, Kolchak?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(solemn)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
We wanted to surprise you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miss Emily’s meeting me in Miami.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re getting married!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Kolchak quickly hangs up to a strangling sound at the other end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Dear old Miss Emily came through for me, but not in
Miami.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her telegram was waiting
for me at the hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Quote:
“Following communities report similar incidents, et cetera, “ unquote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One more piece filled out the puzzle,
then it was Chief Peoples’ baby.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
At the local union office, Kolchak inquires about the
Blackshear boys’ recent transfer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But ROY KETTLE is not about to give a reporter confidential
information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he lunchbreaks
at a pool hall where the Blackshear boys are watching the action, he mentions
Kolchak to Tom and Richard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
Kolchak storms out of the union office, the Blackshear pickup buckets past and
Kolchak tails it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tom notices the
rental car dogging them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What d’we do about that?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">RICHARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
See what happens when I make out turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lots of places we can wait for him, if
he’s tailing us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak sees them, too, and drives past, continuing for
about a quarter-mile or so before wheeling around.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It looked like a trap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I ran into that rathole after them … goodbye.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I gave them fifteen minutes to decide
they weren’t being followed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>… come
out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They didn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So along came Kolchak.<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Wary, Kolchak drives up to the shanty town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Smoke wisps from the schoolhouse
chimney.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sees signs of
habitation but no one seems to be around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mattresses, tables, chairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A fueled Coleman lantern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
warm pot of stew on the stove, which Kolchak samples – not bad!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the basement, Kolchak finds the broken
cage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basement doors
SLAMS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the sudden darkness,
Kolchak is SKULLED by a blunt instrument and BLACKS OUT.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">RICHARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Hey, Pa!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Open up!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Richard thumps the door with said “blunt instrument” and Henry
OPENS the door from without, revealing Kolchak unconscious on the floor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">ACT FOUR</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak regains consciousness inside the now-ABANDONED
schoolhouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He goes directly to
Peoples, but Peoples shoots him down:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Blackshears have moved on, yet there has been another attack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
On the road, at night, Sarah and Henry Blackshear argue in
the cab of the truck:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’ve had it, Sarah!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We’re through running, hiding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If he comes back, or if we find him, we’re going to the police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Take the consequences.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Henry, he’s our flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He might change back the way he was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s our cross …</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It hasn’t happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not going to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even you have to know that, now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Peoples and Kolchak, speeding one after the other to the
scene of the latest killing, roar right past the Blackshear pickup, stopped on
the shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak is torn
between the two but decides to stick with Peoples.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
They boy of a young mining couple has been attacked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not dead, but in terminal shock, with
wounds identical to those of the murder victims.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Without so much as a by-your-leave, Sarah Blackshear waltzes
in and performs another of her “miracles” on the injured boy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But a few blocks away, a crippled young woman watching
television is confronted by the Blackshear Creature when it smashes through a
side window of her home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It yanks
her from her chair as she screams for her husband, HARRY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harry comes piling into the room toting
a Winchester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shoots the
Creature at least three times and it retreats, howling, into the darkness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak HEARS the shots and sprints toward their
source.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is bowled over by none
other than the fleeing Creature, which batters him aside as Harry’s slugs
pepper the air over their heads.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">ACT FIVE</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Peoples is intent on organizing a posse to track down the
wounded Creature, and ignores Kolchak’s plea to confront the Blackshears, who
are getting back in their truck to drive away from the scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the truck moves away, Kolchak runs
after it – finally leaping lightly into the rear bed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>(Now <b>there’s</b> a miracle – unless all four “normal,”
still-living Blackshears are all piled into the cab – DJS.)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Hounds baying in the distance, the Blackshear Creature
(unencumbered by its bullet wounds) lumbers back to its latest hiding place
seconds after the Blackshear truck precedes it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an abandoned mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Weathered signs read MINE CLOSED.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>NO TRESPASSING.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ASSOCIATED ANTHRACITE, INC.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As Henry helps his wife down from the cab, his hand comes
away bloodied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah bleeds from
places identical to where the Creature was wounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(matter-of-factly)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
It’s the blood of our son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s been shot, Henry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Kolchak tails them through a mine shack and into a primary
shaft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boards that once
secured it now hang askew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then
Kolchak feels a rifle prodding his back.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(using
flashlight)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Hey … you’re the cat who was asking all the questions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You got me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">They approach a vertical shaft – a big hole in the floor of the
tunnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tom shouts down:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Pa!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hey,
Pa!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caught a guy foolin’ around up
here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sendin’ him down!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
How?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
There’s an iron ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Move!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And don’t
try anything funny!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You mean we couldn’t use a good laugh?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Several levels DOWN, the Blackshears have set up
housekeeping once again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other
tunnels fan out from the black wall of the chamber into which Tom ushers
Kolchak.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(cold-eyed)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
What’re you doin’ here?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I was looking for the Blackshear family.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">RICHARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You found us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
But you’re not all present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where’s the one you usually keep in a cage?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(sighs)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Sonny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
youngest boy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Shut up, Sarah!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You said
we hid him long enough.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">You <u>did</u> say you kept your son in
that cage?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I don’t care what anybody thinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We done the best we could.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
But the cage couldn’t hold him … nothing could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he killed people when he got away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(nods)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Because of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My call to do the Lord’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was Belial’s way of tempting me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Belial?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Devil?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sonny
was a beautiful child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the
changes began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was healing the
sick, as my God commanded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Those changes – how did you know it was the Devil?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">RICHARD</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Old Belial offered Ma a deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all heard it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The voice out of nowhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Scared the hell out of us!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We could have Sonny back just the way he used to be … if Ma’d just get
off the salvation kick.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
And you couldn’t buy it?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">SARAH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to believe that God was stronger
than the Devil.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">TOM</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(rushing
in)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Pa!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cops up
there!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All over!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And dogs, coming this way!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
He’s led ‘em to us … we’re getting out of here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
How?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(indicating)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Air shaft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>About a quarter mile down that tunnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me ‘n Richard checked it out; open all the way to the
surface.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Henry decides to keep Kolchak with them, but when a shower
of rocks and debris rains down, Kolchak escapes back the way they came.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richard starts to chase after him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">HENRY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
No!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re
getting out of here while we can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No way he’s going to find his way back without a light.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As Kolchak gropes his way back to the chamber, the Creature
leaps down from the ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Peoples and his posse are firing shots down, from above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak circles the room like a
prizefighter playing the ropes, but the Blackshear’s youngest get is upon
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak pulls a ratty
mattress over himself for protection and suddenly realizes he is not longer
being attacked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Blackshear
Creature has gathered Sarah’s blanket to its face, and is momentarily
acquiesced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kolchak slowly makes
for the ladder … climbing gently up …but the dog-barks coming from above snap
the Creature back to reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
LUNGES.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Kolchak pulls up his
legs at the last second and the Creature grabs empty space, FALLING into the
deep shaft below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It HOWLS all the
way down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peoples descends the ladder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Kolchak, what are you doing down here?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You gotta have an answer, and it better
be a zinger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Chief, you told me to get away from you – far away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Where’s whatever it is I been chasing all night?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dogs tracked it here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you see anything?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Yeah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More
than I wanted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That scream you
heard – it tripped.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I want a gurney down here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All the rope we can get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ll lower it a level at a time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
All right if I go with you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
How long’s it been since you climbed a mile?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
They DESCEND.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When they finally reach bottom, Kolchak’s hands are blistered, frozen in
a grasping attitude.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the beam
of Peoples’ flashlight we see a HANDSOME YOUNG MAN – crushed, wearing the rags
of the Blackshear Creature.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">PEOPLES</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
You call that a monster?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to know what in hell is going on!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I’ve got to hand it to you, Chief, you’re in the territory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hell is where it’s at.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">INT.
VINCENZO’S OFFICE – DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">As Tony pounds his fist on the desk in his usual high dudgeon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I sent you to cover a strike in the mines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And where were you when the strike was
settled?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">About a mile underground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it <u>was</u> a coal mine, Tony.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Big deal!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every wire service in the country scooped us!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">Sorry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the strike settlement wasn’t the <u>big</u> story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(acidly)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Tell me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(wearily,
shaking his head)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Are you ready to accept a living Devil … Satan … the
Prince of Darkness?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
I have to, Kolchak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hired you, didn’t I?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New";">(then,
bellowing)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
Out!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get out
of here!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Kolchak recoils, we FADE OUT/END.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
#</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>David
Chase recalled “The Get of Belial” for Mark Dawidziak’s <b><i>Companion</i></b>
as requiring “expensive location shooting,” but that’s not really germane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rural setting and mining towns were
pre-thought to make use of Universal’s standing Western backlot sets, and it
sure would have been nice to see some of the scenes shot using the legendary
Bronson Cave location in nearby Griffith Park.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
stronger speculation is that the religious content was a turn-off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God – in God’s typical looky-loo role –
doesn’t do much to ease the Blackshear’s pain, even while Sarah Blackshear is
easing the pain of everyone around her.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sonny
Blackshear’s fate was also identical to the fate of Myra Deckbar in “Eve of
Terror.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><i>Splat</i></b> — now
they look normal — end of story.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sonny
probably would have been depicted as another of KTNS’ “monster hairbags,” which
again raises the puzzle of who actually <b><i>did</i></b> the makeups and
monster suits that were seen during the series run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can find no such credit anywhere, nor has anybody stepped
forward to claim it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Discuss.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
# # # # # # # #</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-83059300709488869732012-02-04T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-04T06:16:32.509-08:00DJS Presents: “THE SPANISH MOSS MURDERS” — DELETED SCENES!<style>
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<br />
(from the <a href="http://www.darrenmcgavin.net/">official Darren McGavin website</a>)<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxHbAmdv02dmSFeEGiR3v1PV7R9_guUjkPdF4vlHTSU0OkeaOWEv08IoDDxKCy8VDyfwisIrTsX6EDS5iYAIYEgN3tByKiKgWvh4CseXWpv4vI-LHUrzGjlBIqvm3D7tT_vgKHKgG-FA/s1600/Peremalfait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxHbAmdv02dmSFeEGiR3v1PV7R9_guUjkPdF4vlHTSU0OkeaOWEv08IoDDxKCy8VDyfwisIrTsX6EDS5iYAIYEgN3tByKiKgWvh4CseXWpv4vI-LHUrzGjlBIqvm3D7tT_vgKHKgG-FA/s320/Peremalfait.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Excerpts from "The Spanish Moss Murders," written
by Al Friedman & David Chase, Production # 41806, from Final Revised draft
dated October 21, 1974 — a sampling of scenes that never made it into the
finished episode, basically a subplot about an efficiency expert named
Sunderland, come to drop the hammer on INS.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Pages 2-5</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS OFFICE - DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">As Vincenzo exits his office, carrying a huge bag of garbage and
junk. Catches sight of Ron, who’s doing nothing, stares angrily.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Why don’t you get off your Ivy League
buckle and help some of the others?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I volunteered but they say I just get in the way. They won’t
take any of my suggestions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo irritably looks around for something Updyke can do.
Finally, he just sets the garbage bag down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Then I suggest you empty this garbage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Ron unhappily rises, picks up the bag, exits with it. Vincenzo
starts to re-enter his office, turns, hearing the sound of typing. Kolchak is
busily at work on a story and at the same time taking bites of a piece of pound
cake, dribbling crumbs all over his desk. Vincenzo crosses to him.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Will you knock off the work? Aren’t you aware the efficiency
expert is coming?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak gives him a look that expresses the absurdity of the
statement. Vincenzo picks up on it, gestures around the office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It’s just that Mr. Sunderland happens to feel that neatness and
cleanliness are important to a well functioning organization. And so do I.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(only
glancing up)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Then wipe
the mayonnaise off your tie.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo looks down, sees the offending blot, takes out his
handkerchief and smears the stuff around.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You have a few minutes before you go to the airport. You could
do something … straighten a file, clean out a cabinet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(happens
to notice Kolchak’s watch; alarmed)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You have three-thirty? My watch stopped. I’m an hour late!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The efficiency expert comes none too soon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(looking
around in panic; furiously winding watch stem)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">His plane lands at four-forty five. Why aren’t you on your way
to the airport?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(typing)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Let him
take a cab.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He happens to feel that cabs are inefficient-- a waste of
company money. And so do I.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Get another rickshaw boy. I’m working.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(nervously;
looking around)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Who? Miss Emily doesn’t drive. Updyke has accidents while he’s
watching movies at the drive-in!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak tries to ignore him, keeps pounding at the typewriter.
Vincenzo eyes him anxiously, starts fussing, straightening papers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Carl, there’ll be delays at the airport because of construction
...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">More typing as Vincenzo fusses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Rush hour traffic’ll start soon …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(stands
suddenly)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Who can work in this squirrel cage anyway?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak grabs his coat and hat, storms across the office.
Vincenzo hastily clears the last crumbs, follows worriedly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Take Mr. Sunderland to his hotel first …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Under this, Updyke has re-entered and is gabbing with Emily
Cowles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It’s Colonel Sunderland, not Mister …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He’s not in the fried food business. He’s just retired Army …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They move past Ron.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m hoping he can pull strings and get me transferred out of my
reserve unit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(whirling)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Don’t you dare ask him that!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">EMILY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(dreamily)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I was engaged to a West Point man…</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(puzzled)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He disappeared right about the time my father lost the last
Congressional election …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo waves this all away, chases after Kolchak.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak. Button your top button and straighten your tie …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">There’s no response from Kolchak who’s already bounding down the
stairs. A worried Vincenzo moves back into the office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Pages
13-14</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS OFFICE - NIGHT - SHOOTING DOWN THE STAIRS</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak climbs to the first landing, deep in thought, ascends
the last flight up to the office. As he reaches the corridor, he stops in his
tracks, seeing:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">OFFICE - HIS POINT OF VIEW</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo sweating, making unctuous apologetic gestures to Col.
Matthew Sunderland, an erect, powerful, aggressive, but diminutive man, in
tweed with leather elbow patches. Vincenzo seems to tower above Sunderland as
they stand amid an extensive array of leather luggage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK slaps his forehead, emits a groan at what he’s done,
presses himself against the wall.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">HIS POINT OF VIEW - VINCENZO AND SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m - I’m terribly sorry. I sent someone out, and he’s very
punctual … conscientious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(hopefully)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Maybe his car broke down. You know, overheated or vapor locked
in this heat …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(flat,
crisp)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It’s a little early to chalk the Snafu off to equipment failure,
isn’t it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Well, I …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(tries to
smile)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You didn’t have to take a cab, though. You should have phoned.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland moves away, starts surveying the office unsmilingly,
hands clasped behind his back.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Your lines were jammed for an hour and twenty-three minutes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I don’t know what to say. I’m very sorry this happened, Mr.
Sunderland …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<u><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Colonel</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"> Sunderland … please.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(tight
smile)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo nods hopelessly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak winces in sympathy for Vincenzo. Hearing footsteps
coming his way, he ducks into the men’s room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
MEN’S ROOM - NIGHT</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak enters, quietly closes the door. He doesn’t realize till
after he’s part way in that Updyke is behind him, splashing water on his face.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(looking
up)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You’re really too much, you know that? Mr. Vincenzo was furious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(guiltily)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Yeah. I’ll straighten it out when things cool down. Have you met
Sunderland?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Met him? I had to carry his bags up from the cab, thanks to you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Seems like he’s all spit and polish. Mostly spit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(wiping
his face)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Getting along with him just takes a little knowledgability of
the military personality. I don’t think I’ll have any problem …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(flat)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Affirmative.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
Pages 35-38</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS DARKROOM/MEN’S ROOM - DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak takes a blow-up from the soup, flicks off the safe
light, studies the photo. Not
completely satisfied.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Suddenly the door bursts open and Vincenzo enters, just stares
at Kolchak in silent rage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(ashamed)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Yeah. I’m sorry about the airport, Tony.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(boiling)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">If this is what you’re like now, Kolchak, what were you like in
kindergarten? Did your teacher slit her wrist or hang herself?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I can explain it all …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Not now, Carl. You and your excuses are the least of my
problems. It’s Updyke. Sunderland’s got him working for him …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Ron does love efficiency …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland stays in my office going through the books. Updyke
walks around on cat feet … taking notes … watching to see how long it takes to
get a story out, how many minutes people spend on the phone, how long they’re
in the bathroom …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(shows him
beret and tin cup)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sure, Tony. But listen. See these? These belonged to a dwarf
named Morris Shapiro. I was talking to him, I was right with him when he
vanished.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Dwarf? Vanished? Kolchak, haven’t you been listening to anything
I’ve been saying?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(checks
watch)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Out. And start working.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Vincenzo urges a frustrated Kolchak out of the room.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS OFFICE - DAY</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Emily Cowles is working at her desk with a large pasteup
crossword puzzle. Updyke, at his desk, looks up as Kolchak and Vincenzo enter,
notes down the time on a clipboard. He nods to Kolchak, then gets up, moves
toward Vincenzo’s office and taps on the door. Sunderland is on the phone,
signals for him to wait.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(sotto, to
Vincenzo)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Tony, this morning, very quietly at six A.M. the police released
their suspect in the Piaget murder. Know why there was no fanfare?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(leading
him to his desk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Carl. Please. I want you to finish the
union graft story you were working on … finish <u>something</u>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They’re keeping it hush-hush because they haven’t got another
suspect. But I do. Look.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He shoves the photo at him. Vincenzo is pained.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(squints;
moves it back and forth)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What is this? Salvador Dali’s Bar Mitzvah picture?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE - UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Jotting a note as Emily Cowles stops work for a donut and cup of
tea. He then moves toward Vincenzo’s office, enters, talks MOS with Sunderland
who looks out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE - KOLCHAK AND VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(points to
photo)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">This is a guy named Paul Langois. Morris, this dwarf, told me
all about him …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He doesn’t see Sunderland come up behind him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Dwarf, Mister Kolchak?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak turns, tries to smile. Updyke has seated himself at his
desk, pretending work. He sneaks glances.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The way I hear it, Mister Kolchak, you have an annoying tendency
to operate counter to directives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak shrugs, casts a glance at Updyke who busies himself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Explain the foul up in transportation yesterday.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m sorry about that. I was --</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He suddenly winces with severe pain, supports himself on the
desk, favoring his leg.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What’s the problem?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Nothing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Are you in pain?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It’s just this pin in my leg. It acts up in hot weather. Took a
piece of shrapnel at Anzio. Yesterday, on the way to the airport, it got so bad
I blacked out. I’m sorry, Colonel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(can’t
help it)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">When were you at Anzio?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(snaps at
Updyke)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Back off, son.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(conversationally)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What was your unit, Kolchak?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">98th Infantry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Good outfit. But Kolchak –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(tosses
paper on desk)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Where have you been the last forty-eight hours? Why haven’t you
finished this union graft story?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I was trying to drink away this pain in my leg. Stupid of me.
With your permission, sir, I’d like to go over to the VA. I’ll take the story
with me; clean it up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland thinks a minute. Nods tentatively.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Talk to Doc George Miles. He’s a friend of mine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak nods, gets his things, including the photo. He smiles
feebly at Vincenzo, and at Updyke as he walks out, favoring his leg.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland Watches after Kolchak, looks down, picks up the tiny
beret.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE - STAIRS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak limps down the first flight, then breaks into a run,
exits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE - UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Watches Sunderland go back into Vincenzo’s office. He picks up
his phone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I want long distance. The Military Records Center in St. Louis
...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
Pages 53-56</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS OFFICE - NIGHT</span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak starts typing again when he hears a sound, turns. Emily
Cowles is entering the office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Emily? What are you still doing here?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">EMILY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(bushed)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Isn’t it sickening? That Colonel Sunderland kept a group of us
here straight through. An hour ago, he said we should break for dinner and he’d
treat. We went to Manny’s. We all had to stick to cold cuts. Even the hot roast
beef sandwich was verboten, the stingy windbag.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The rest of them are still down at Manny’s?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">EMILY</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(nods)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I couldn’t stomach another minute. It was Ron. I’m surprised at
him. Chattering about all his notes and figures. Telling on people. Cuddling up
to that big cheese like a little titmouse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak smiles, shakes his head. Noises are heard in the corridor
and Sunderland and Updyke walk in, smiling, chatting. Vincenzo brings up the
rear, in obvious mental pain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK He winces, spins around, starts typing busily, very
efficient.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND Looks over, studies him … then moves toward him, a
beat … then slaps Kolchak’s shoulder.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(curt,
concern)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">How’s the leg, Kolchak?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(surprised)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Oh -- better, better. They gave me some diathermy and some
pills.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I meant to call Doc Miles over there. Make sure you got A-1
treatment. Never got around to it ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Oh that’s okay. Really. I’m fine.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland gives him a slap, moves off, opens a notebook.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Okay‚let’s take a look at the financial sector, get that out of
the way. Mr. Updyke‚ may I see your output for the period July 7 to the
present?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Updyke peers at him in confusion. Sunderland looks up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">July 7th is the day you came. I’ve been concentrating on helping
you with the survey.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You’ve been letting your own work go by the boards?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">UPDYKE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Well, yes. Wasn’t that what you intended?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Negative. Your own mission should be of primary importance.
Anything beyond that, while appreciated, is icing on the cake.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(angrily)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">In other words, these last couple of days Updyke, you haven’t
even given us the cake. Just the icing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Updyke doesn’t know what to say. Under the above, Miss Cowles
has been flitting around the periphery of the group holding a note, trying to
break in. Now:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(snaps)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What is it, Miss Emily?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">EMILY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m sorry‚it’s a message for, Ron. The man on the phone said it
was urgent and I forgot all about it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(to Ron)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He said that he couldn’t give you the information you wanted on
the personnel of the 98th Infantry because the records were burned in a big
fire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK He’s been privately enjoying all the above. Now he
covers his mouth with his hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland’s eyes narrow. He draws Updyke aside so Kolchak can’t
hear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You’re something of a <u>troublemaker</u>,
aren’t you son? I don’t like to see that in an organization. Is that how you’ve
been spending your time?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Updyke is silent, frightened. Sunderland is calm but firm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Where were you during World War II? While he was out there
ducking kraut bullets? Crying in your bib, that’s where you were. I think we’d
better set you straight. I think I should have a talk with the commander of
that reserve unit of yours.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He takes Updyke into Vincenzo’s office, sits him down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK, looking innocent as a baby as Vincenzo approaches,
regards him with hands in pockets. Finally.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I remember, Carl. Very cute. You were in St. Louis when the
records center burned. You filed the story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Kolchak shrugs, turns with a smug smile, resumes typing. He runs
out of paper and his basket is empty. Opening a drawer, he reaches in without
looking and suddenly screams with horror and disgust.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE - DRAWER</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Lying on the typewriter paper: soggy, putrid Spanish moss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(SEVERAL SCENES OMITTED, THEN:)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">ANGLE- VINCENZO’S OFFICE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sunderland sees the commotion, rises, comes to the door and
looks out. Updyke following.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He’s existing independent of Paul Langois. Back in the sleep lab‚he
heard me talk about the tupelo gum spear‚he wants to kill me first ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Carl, sit down and explain this ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I can’t‚I can’t stay here and be killed ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He gets his things, staring in horror at the moss.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It killed Langois because we were going to wake him up ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Panicked, Kolchak stumbles toward the door, looking around at
everyone in terror.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Where do you find a swamp creature? In Chicago? Where could he
live?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Of course they just stare at him. Breathlessly, he exits. A long
beat of silence, then:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">SUNDERLAND</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Head wounds too?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(shakes
his head)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Damn shame ...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">-30-</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
… and that’s all, folks, for the never-realized
Sunderland. Fans of “The Spanish
Moss Murders” will readily perceive how the material above was reworked for the
finished show. The most
interesting thing about this omitted byplay is the sheer nastiness of not only
Updyke, but Emily! It also
specifies a “tupelo gum spear” (simplified to “bayou gum” in the episode) …
which is indeed one prescription for neutralizing Père Mal Fait (literally,
“the father of bad doings” or “Father Evildoer; “ <u>fait mal</u> generally
meaning “pain” or “hurt.”). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
-DJS</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-62291678299432354552012-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-03T06:00:03.327-08:00DJS Presents The Unfilmed Kolchak: Eve of Terror<style>
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<br />
<div class="MsoTitle">
Kolchak: The Night Stalker</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“Eve of Terror”<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';"></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Most people are familiar with the old Charles Dickens saying,
“beauty is only skin deep.” Yet,
how many know the rest of that quote, which continues, “but ugly goes to the
bone”?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“Eve of Terror,” an unfilmed episode that underwent multiple
redrafts through March of 1975, is credited primarily to Stephen Lord (“Demon
in Lace”) and Michael Kozoll (“Demon in Lace” and “The Knightly Murders”). Here <b><i>The Night Stalker</i></b>
tackles the classic-monster Jekyll & Hyde theme, with a distaff twist
during a period when network executives still thought “women’s liberation” was
a buzzword. Per formula, a violent
murder is set up for the show’s teaser, beginning with Kolchak talking into his
trusty tape recorder, above.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h1 style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
ACOUSTICS CONTROL ROOM – NIGHT</span></b></h1>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2" style="margin-left: 0in; text-align: justify;">
A complex lab setup with a
soundproofed “anechoic chamber” inside which guinea pigs huddle under a barrage
of high-frequency sound. The
scientists in attendance are DR. MYRA DECKBAR, an attractive and dedicated
researcher in her early 30s, and her assistant, technician WAYNE FRANKS. The experiment is being videotaped.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK
(VO CONT’D)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">April 4<sup>th</sup>, 9:00 P.M. Dr. Myra Deckbar, behavioral
researcher, was on the brink of an important discovery. Her technician, Wayne Franks, was also
on the brink … of death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Okay, shut it down, Wayne. Reset for the next frequency.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(catching
herself, smiling)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Please.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">WAYNE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">No need to patronize.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They’ve had this conversation before.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Who’s patronizing?
It’s just polite to say please, isn’t it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">WAYNE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Who knows anymore?
The whole world is cockeyed.
Amy Vanderbilt is gone.
People have turned against the automobile. And guys like me are taking orders from women.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Can the end be far off?
To show you my heart’s in the right place, I’ll get you a cup of coffee.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">WAYNE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m thrilled. Make mine sweet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(adds)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Please.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Coming through the door, Myra notices one of the guinea pigs
is escaping the glass test cubicle.
She enters the anechoic chamber to replace it as Wayne completes the
calibrations and flips the generator on.
Myra falls to the floor, hands over her ears, screaming — fully visible
on the video monitor, but unseen by Wayne. In EXTREME CLOSEUP, we see tufts of hair sprout on the backs
of Myra’s hands as she thrashes about.
Wayne finally turns to the monitor with an “oh my god!” and shuts down
the equipment to rush into the chamber.
Myra moans in pain, fetally balled. Wayne moves to call an ambulance.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
After a quick flash of the EMPTY chamber, Wayne hears a
guttural noise behind him. He
TURNS, screams once, and is BASHED against the wall. CAMERA FAVORS the escaping guinea pigs as we hear off-screen
sounds of incredible violence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
ACT ONE</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The usual murder-scene bustle is in progress in the entry
hall of the research center, with Kolchak trying to get past a cop.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">How ‘bout a little look-see inside? Come on, just one teeny flash?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(grimacing
at COP’s reaction)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I remember you now … I saw you at the morgue. Slab Number Three …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Poking around, Kolchak bluffs his way into an instrument
repair room, where he eavesdrops via intercom on police lieutenant CHARLIE
HURLOW and the center’s administrator, WALT KIMBERLY.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">CORONER’S
DEPUTY (OS)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">… both arms broken.
Couple of ribs, and his back.
My guess is a song-and-dance team worked him over. Maybe even three guys. Worse bare-fisted beating I’ve ever
seen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KIMBERLY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The point is, a valuable spectrometer’s been stolen. Poor Franks got in the way of the
thieves. But Dr. Deckbar, his
immediate boss, is the one to talk to about that …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak’s ears prick and he rushes back into the
throng. But Hurlow (in much the
manner of “Mad Dog” Siska) refuses to actually blow up at Carl because of his
ulcer. Without an incoming tirade,
Kolchak actually seems off-kilter … just for a moment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
MYRA’S APARTMENT – BEDROOM – DAY</span></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Myra wakes up, haggard, drawn, remembering only brief
flashes of scurrying lab animals.
She answers a knock on her door to find her neighbor, GWYNNETH JORDAN, a
fashion model.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Doctor Deckbar, we have a report that you’re heavily into …
donuts. Is that true? We’ve got crullers, bear claws … That
idiot photographer’s assistant is always bringing them to me. He wants me to gain weight so I’ll lose
jobs and be dependent on him forever.
Which wouldn’t be all that bad, except he always smells like a
darkroom. Especially his hands.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
During this, Myra begins to experience FLASHES of Wayne’s
terrified expression from the night before. She tries to shake it off. She regards Gwynneth’s cutoffs and décolletage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Gwynneth, it’s bad enough that you make your living letting your
body be exploited by photographers, but do you have to run around like that on
your time off?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">How else does a girl get a man? Excuse me. Not
“girl” – woman.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(smiles)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You’re hopeless.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">9:30 A.M. I had the
name Myra Deckbar and the telephone book had her address. What I didn’t have was a siren on my
car. For want of it, the race was
lost.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As Kolchak scrambles through the halls searching for Myra’s
apartment, Lt. Hurlow and a uniformed COP report Wayne’s death to Myra. Kolchak gets the door slammed in his
face by the Cop.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Any chance that you’re somebody’s uncle,
and not here on business?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(to the
door)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They really are lovely encyclopedias … won’t you reconsider?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak encounters Gwynneth outside. She asks if he is connected with what
is going on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m a reporter. In
this life, anyway. I can’t imagine
what I might have done in past lives to wind up like this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I used to go out with a reporter. Not the greatest job in the world. But you make your own bed. You’re pushy, loudmouths, smart alecks, liars …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Certainly doesn’t sound like someone I’d want to consider a
professional colleague.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">That’s good. To
tell you the truth, the more I think about him, the more my stomach starts to
turn. But I guess I’m just worried
sick about Myra. She and Wayne
worked together every day for at least a year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Awful. Were they
closer than just a working relationship?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Yeah, they went out. But see what I mean? <u>Pushy</u>. Every sentence has an <u>angle</u> behind it. He used to drive me nuts with that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Okay, sorry. I’ll try to think of something to say that isn’t loaded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(long
beat)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Did you ever meet Wayne Franks?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">No.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kolchak can’t think of anything “safe.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Nice carpets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They’re okay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even longer beat.
Finally, Gwynneth cracks:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I feel so bad for her.
She did like Wayne, even though she said he was a pig; she was just
joking when she said it. She was
actually very fond of him. It’s
just he felt his ideas about women were old fashioned — kind of sexist. It was a joke they shared. She has very strong feelings about the
role of women in society; the way men relate to us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">How do you feel about it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Boy, that’s just the way Leonard would have asked that — ready
to pin me to the mat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak gives up in exasperation. Gwynneth returns to her apartment as Lt. Hurlow emerges from
Myra’s place, fobbing Kolchak off with “no leads, no explanations.” Plus: He has warned Myra Deckbar about Kolchak, leaving Carl to do
a slow burn.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
At the INS office, Kolchak argues the killing is not as
“routine” as everyone else seems to claim. It turns out that Tony Vincenzo and Lt. Hurlow have the same
gastrointestinal specialist, and Hurlow has already placed a friendly phone
call to Tony.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">He’s walking around with an earthquake in his gut. And Carl, you’re an 8.6 on the Richter
scale!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Tony attempts to fob the Myra Deckbar case off to Updyke
while re-assigning Kolchak to cover the arrival in Chicago of actress Veronica
Mason.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Remember your own logical syllogisms,
Carl? All stories on sexy women
sell. All stories that sell make
Tony happy. Ergo, we only have two
possible deductions: A: the
Veronica Mason arrival <u>is</u> your kind of story, or B: you do not have a job.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Your logic’s as bad as your news sense. What’s the matter with you today,
anyway?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">That maniac neighbor kid and his lousy Nakijima.* His old man told me to go take a wade
in Lake Michigan. Can you believe
the gall? He says there’s no law
against noisy motorcycles if they have mufflers on them. Every morning at 4:00 A.M. I get blown
out of bed by that bike.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Vincenzo is DROWNED OUT by the roar of the El passing the
INS office. He has to yell over
the din … about noise pollution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
HOTEL LOBBY – DAY</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">4:00 P.M., the Walton Hotel. Following Vincenzo’s dictates usually
ends up with me bored out of my mind.
But if I don’t cover the story properly, he gripes for days on end. I didn’t know it at 4:00, but Tony’s
griping was the last thing I’d have to worry about. And it almost was <u>really</u> the last thing …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
HARRY PRINE, assistant manager of the Walton, is
coincidentally showing the banquet facilities to a group of behaviorists that
includes Myra Deckbar, who is trying to ease her memory of Wayne’s murder by
“staying involved in things,” which translates as helping her colleague LILLIAN
plan a behaviorists’ luncheon. The
commotion of VERONICA MASON’s arrival in the lobby draws their attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’ve seen her on TV.
Doesn’t it make you want to crawl out of your skin?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LILLIAN</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">But does she really know what she’s doing? It’s medieval types like Craig Temple
who put her in those horrible movies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Come on, she plays right into his hands. Laps it up. She pulls us all down.
She’s as bad as Temple himself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LILLIAN</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Why don’t you do something to change it? Get really involved with women’s rights
instead of just carping?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Just commenting.
Let them do their thing.
Speeches and rallies and committees never really changed civilization
anyway.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LILLIAN</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">But I’m not talking about civilization</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(laughs)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m talking about barbarians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Case in point:
the usual publicity b.s. ensues as CRIAG TEMPLE is introduced to the
media. He BUMPS a podium
microphone, causing a high WHINE of feedback that seems to STUN Myra. She retreats to a fire stairwell. We see her hands as her metamorphosis
begins again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
ACT TWO</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Maids scurry to prep the Walton Hotel’s Room 202 for
Veronica. The transformed Myra has
managed to secret herself inside the room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Inside the elevator, Veronica sheds her naïve sexpot routine
and snaps harshly at Temple:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VERONICA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I told you to have at least six cops around me, dummy!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak recognizes hotel manager Prine and cadges Veronica’s
room number via elementary blackmail:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Remember the good old days in South Bend? That quaint little motel you used to
manage?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Disgusted with the lapdog routine performed by Temple and
his obsequious assistant, ARTIE, Veronica yells them out of her suite along
with the entire entourage. We see
the closet door in the suite is ajar.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Veronica, in the process of undressing, looks up and SCREAMS
just as Kolchak trundles down the hallway outside. As he reaches 202, Myra’s alter-ego EXPLODES through the
door, bowling Carl over.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
202 – LIVING ROOM - DAY</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Later. The room
is torn apart. Veronica is a
corpse. And Kolchak has a sizable
lump on his noggin.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LT. HURLOW</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">The one time you’re in a position to help us instead of being a
thorn in our side, Kolchak, and you come up with this muck?!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It. Was. A. Woman. How many
ways can I tell you? Une
femme. Muchacha. Fraulein! Yes, I may only have seen her for half a second. Yes, she may have been the ugliest,
most frightening thing I’ve ever seen.
And yes, those arms that hit me may have had muscles like garage door
hinges … but it was a woman all the same!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As usual, Hurlow dismisses Kolchak as useless. Kolchak returns to INS, where, as Tony
wakes up from his “nap” (five hours), Carl peruses a set of martial arts photos
featuring women.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Why didn’t someone wake me up? It’s 7:30!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Because it was the best five hours we’ve had around here since
we had to stop work and evacuate because of that bomb scare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’ve always felt that <u>you</u> phoned in
that bomb scare.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I know, and it’s insulting to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It wasn’t easy staying asleep in there. Between your chair and the El trains …
then they started jack-hammering the sidewalk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Sidewalk’s intact, Tony — that was your
snoring.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(re:
photos)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Remember “Wanda Jean, the B-17?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Lady wrestler, hung out at the Little
Dublin? **</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Well, now she’s Wanda Jean McNeil, owner of
the McNeil Studio of Martial Arts.
She gave me these. She told
me it’s possible a woman <u>could</u> inflict the kind of beating that killed
Veronica Mason — <u>without</u> knowing martial arts. It’s concentration, adrenalin flow. She says it’s documented that a
housewife in Wisconsin turned over a Chevy pickup to free her trapped husband.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">VINCENZO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">And with her free hand, rotated the tires
as long as the truck was already up in the air. Is Hurlow on the Mason number? Then I want you <u>off</u> it. Stay away from that poor guy!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
ACOUSTICS LAB – NIGHT</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Myra returns to consciousness clutching her lab
passkeys. Her hands are bloody,
her pantsuit jacket ripped.
FLASHBACKS of Wayne and now Veronica, their faces etched in terror. Frantic, Myra flips through her
notebooks and logs, trying to account for the time, finally remembering the
videotape monitor. She watches
herself fall to the floor of the anechoic chamber under a barrage of sound
exceeding 100 decibels. Hearing a
SECURITY GUARD approach, she quickly neatens up and hides the videotape. Drawn out into the corridor by the
Guard’s small TV, she WATCHES a newscast concerning Veronica’s murder, during
which Craig Temple primps, flanked by two exotic women, and doles out the usual
Beverly Hills remorse for the cameras.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">NEWSCASTER</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Mr. Temple, your lifestyle has been bitterly criticized by a
number of women’s rights groups.
Do you consider yourself an exploiter of women?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">TEMPLE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Contrary to popular belief, I’m a businessman, not a sexual
athlete. I happen to enjoy
women. All kinds of women.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The sound of a passing POLICE SIREN outside stabs at
Myra. The guard, fixated on the
TV, doesn’t notice, and bids her goodnight as she moves away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">NEWSCASTER</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">They say you use women as playthings.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Myra is SEEN TO SPROUT FANGS.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">NEWSCASTER</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Do you think a woman should be a possession?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">TEMPLE</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">A smart woman does. She knows she’ll be loved, showered
with gifts and affection. She <u>wants</u>
to be possessed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
With a beastly snarl, Myra’s alter-ego pushes through an
exit door and lopes into the night.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h2>
ACT THREE</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
TEMPLE ESTATE – CONFERENCE ROOM – NIGHT</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Temple confers with executive peers BARNES, RAMPANELLI, and
NIELSEN about a sex-symbol replacement for the late Veronica Mason. In attendance is Temple’s aide,
MELINDA.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MELINDA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">How do we feel about Blythe Yarnell? She’s the boat show’s “Miss Quick Ignition.” Nineteen years old, five-foot-six and
three quarters, 35-22-24 …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OUTSIDE, the red eyes of Myra’s alter-ego glare through the
French doors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">TEMPLE</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Okay, but let’s have another look at the Blythe Yarnell
nudes. Maybe we can live with her
chest …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The alter-ego EXPLODES through the glass, frothing and
growling. She zeroes in on Temple
as the flunkies go sprawling. When
Temple’s lifeless body is flung across the room, we see that he had captured a
fistful of the monster’s coarse hair …</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
… which is probed by tweezers as we FLASH FORWARD to the
murder investigation, Lt. Hurlow in charge, with Kolchak eavesdropping, as
usual.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LT. HURLOW</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Please, Miss. Try
to describe it. The clothes,
anyway.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MELINDA</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">(disoriented)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Okay … it had on a green tailored suit with
velvet buttons and a bolero jacket.
Conservative chic — you know, understated elegance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">LT. HURLOW</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">A hairy fiend in understated elegance? A hairy female?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hurlow begins to massage his ulcer zone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak, still unnoticed, talks with a CORONER. An INSPECTOR arrives to inform Hurlow
that the missing spectrometer has turned up at a technician’s home, under
repair. Scratch robbery as the
motive for the Franks murder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK
(VO)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">April 27<sup>th</sup>, 10:12 A.M. Noise. It was bad today, an incessant roar of human bumper pool
that diced my thinking into threes — three appearances of the “fiend,” three
executives who’d never play the violin, and three victims somehow related.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
MYRA’S OFFICE – DAY</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kolchak “interviews” Myra under the false auspices of <u>Science
Log Annual</u>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">We’ve succeeded in controlling the behavior of animals by
subjecting them to sonic stimulation.
The chamber is so constructed that nothing can vibrate —</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">— except their little brains. You mean you could take a vicious dog, pop him into that
chamber, bounce some decibels off his head and turn him into a cuddly little
puppy?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Bouncing decibels off heads …?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Myra is clearly fatigued but she shows Kolchak the rest of
the setup, including the video recorder, before she finally starts to see
through him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I guess we should be candid, doctor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’ll give you thirty seconds of candor before I call the
security guard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Craig Temple and Veronica Mason personified certain types of
personalities. Male chauvinist and
female — what would I call it? — chauvinee? I heard Wayne Franks was in the Craig Temple vein. Is that true?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Stone wall, from Myra.
Kolchak makes tracks for the Chicago office of the National Women’s
Alliance, theorizing that a “misguided feminist faction or splinter group” might be behind the crimes. NWA official PAMELA DeLORCA says no
way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">PAMELA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">It wouldn’t be a fringe.
We recognize violence as the most primitive manifestation of male
irrationality. Violence flourishes
where reason fails.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">But that doesn’t preclude a woman from doing it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">PAMELA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">True. I can’t speak
for individuals, male or female.
People do go wrong, and when wrong means violence, it usually comes from
repressing one’s feelings, doesn’t it?
But why are you so sure it was a woman? Why this tenacity?
Are you repressing hostility?
Is it your wife, your girlfriend?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">I’m manifesting my male rationality. The theory makes sense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">PAMELA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Does it? Tell me,
do you feel threatened by the women in your life awakening to their true
potentials? Come on, man, open the
tubes! Blast out those hostilities
into the sunshine! Clean house …
uh, as it were.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Meanwhile, Myra, still in the lab, sets the sonic gear to
produce a steady, low-frequency hum.
She enters the chamber and is quietly, pleasantly anesthetized by the
sound.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak ferrets out DR. THOMAS TESKY, a member of the state
board of criminal psychiatry (which underwrites Myra’s project). Tesky explains behavior modification
via sonics to Kolchak. But what if
there’s an accident?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">DR. TESKY</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">You mean jazz around with the frequencies? I don’t think an American would do that. But it’s uncharted territory. It could get very creative, depending
of course on what’s inside the person’s subconscious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Monsters?</span></div>
<h2>
ACT FOUR</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
ACOUSTICS LAB – NIGHT</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In venerable Kolchak fashion, Carl has broken into the lab
after-hours and is rooting around the dark offices for leads. He discovers the hidden videotape. When he plays it, he sees Myra’s lab
accident <u>and</u> transformation.
He sneaks out as we CUT to Myra’s apartment, where she and Gwynneth sit
chatting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">GWYNNETH</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">… so whatever the doctors prescribed, eat the entire
bottle! You look so great.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">MYRA</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">Thanks. I’m feeling
better. But I think I’d better
talk with Dr. Kimberly, or someone …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Myra’s self-dose of sonics has restored her. Gwynneth returns to her own apartment
to prepare for a date just as a JET PASSING OVERHEAD causes Myra to wince in
pain. Myra cries out, attempting
to fight the gathering seizure.
She stumbles into the hallway, where, as the script says:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText2">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">… the complete metamorphic of the Alter-Ego develops — a hideous
face with wild, bristling hair, bushy eyebrows, flared nostrils, high bony
cheeks, and a wide mouth with brutish teeth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Gwynneth emerges into the hall, locking her door just in
time to look up to meet the gaze of the creature. She panics, running for the hall stairs, shedding her
platform shoes en route. She makes
the roof with the Alter-Ego hot on her heels just as Kolchak arrives as Myra’s
apartment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak hears Gwynneth’s screams and runs upstairs, punching
a fire alarm along the way. On the
roof the Alter-Ego CATCHES Gwynneth and HOISTS her for a body-slam off the
roof, as Kolchak bursts through the fire doors, SHOUTING.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The Alter-Ego abandons Gwynneth to chase Kolchak, who fends
her off with an aluminum folding lounge chair. She shoves him <u>through</u> a smokestack, then <u>off</u>
the roof.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Gathering spectators see Kolchak DANGLING as the Alter-Ego
pries one of his hands loose from the ledge. The SIREN of an approaching fire engine causes the creature
to hesitate and clamp its hands over its ears. Kolchak scrambles back onto the roof and breaks off a TV
antenna to keep his distance from the monster. More sirens.
The Alter-Ego blood-lusts for Carl, but the NOISE causes it pain. It GRABS Kolchak again and they BOTH go
over the edge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak manages a last-minute GRAB as the monster flails
wildly, plummeting to its death.
Gwynneth helps Kolchak back onto the roof and they both look over the
edge to see firemen turn over the dead body of Myra Deckbar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">INT.
INS OFFICES – NIGHT</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kolchak wraps it up, speaking to his tape recorder.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">KOLCHAK</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New';">What toppled onto that pavement was clearly
not the body of a vicious, superhuman killer, so the murders remain “unsolved.” However, I was forced to turn over my
story, together with the Deckbar tapes, to the research center. And today in that same research lab,
another behavioral scientist is conducting top secret research in sonic
stimulation, maybe trying to discover what vibes turn <u>him</u> on, and
hopefully off. As for me, I’ve
begun to think about the noise …</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak winces fatalistically as another El train roars past
outside. FADE OUT/END.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
#</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Whoo, boy, the 1970s were a <b><i>long</i></b> time ago …
and yet Hillary Clinton has still not learned the protocol of “chic pantsuits.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
KTNS featured relatively few
intellectual monsters — that is, witches or devils who might engage Carl in a
bit of James Bond-style gloating before attempting to rip him to ribbons. (There are exceptions, usually from the
devil’s-deal column, such as Robert Palmer in “The Devil’s Platform” and
Madelaine in “The Trevi Collection”).
For the most part, the monsters were bestial, depicted as hissing,
spitting predators — not evil in a moral sense, just dangerous.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
“Eve
of Terror” hints at a passing moral evil — that Myra Deckbar subconscious, like
the Id of Morbius in <b><i>Forbidden Planet</i></b>, determined her destiny as
the Alter-Ego. In Stevenson’s <b><i>Dr.
Jekyll & Mr. Hyde</i></b>, Hyde is a monster true to form, but one capable
of seduction and sadism. Ditto
vampires, who bring their decadence with them into the afterlife.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It’s
also pretty obvious that Myra’s name was originally “Eve.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Kolchak’s
discovery of the tapes while ransacking the lab is a bit glib as a resolution,
considering that the audience is never really sure whether Myra watched the
tape long enough to see her own transformation, either. The script is structurally different,
too, opting to hold viewers through act breaks by having kills come at the
beginning of acts rather than using them as climaxes (<b><i>after</i></b> the
ads, rather than before).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The
story <b><i>wants</i></b> to tackle a lot of things — sexism, Women’s Lib,
noise pollution — but name-drops the topics rather than servicing them
adequately.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Discuss.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
__________________________________________________</div>
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* Nakajima manufactured Japanese aircraft during World War
2, similarly to the story told about Matsuda, in re motorcycles, by Jim Backus
in “Chopper.” Matsuda was the
forerunner of the company currently known as Mazda.</div>
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** Presumably the same watering hole Vincenzo and his
cohorts drank to closing in “Firefall.”</div>John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15830334036783163702noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-19556744938670494912012-02-02T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-02T06:00:00.345-08:00The Series Wrap-Up<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Our Picks for the Best of</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker </span></b><br />
<br />
<b>The Top 7 Episodes</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While we felt it was safe to assume that <i>The Night Stalker</i> and <i>The Night Strangler</i> will be in most fans' top picks, we had a hunch that they might not always be in the top two spots. So we decided to go with the top seven episodes (including the TV movies) to ensure we'd be able to identify the top 5 episodes of the TV series.</div>
<br />
Peter's Picks:<br />
<ol>
<li><i>The Night Stalker</i></li>
<li>The Vampire</li>
<li>The Spanish Moss Murders</li>
<li>The Knightly Murders</li>
<li>Chopper</li>
<li><i>The Night Strangler</i></li>
<li>The Ripper</li>
</ol>
John's Picks:<br />
<ol>
<li><i>The Night Stalker</i></li>
<li><i>The Night Strangler</i></li>
<li>The Vampire</li>
<li>Chopper</li>
<li>The Energy Eater</li>
<li>Horror in the Heights</li>
<li>Firefall</li>
</ol>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Best Babe</b></div>
Peter and John's Pick:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfrjtrCaCvoq1k-I3TZGU_5UZcLHhTdgBkKdTYIV-Tqb69NBNBrzY9glDuGqtwdVKJGzUirP6DIQhZP7W7AFK9WKgzu6Y5AHbFZQ7Qk6sznmGFGK6xcnrDihaJHT2ax0cyTLgA3IgWZo/s1600/screen-capture-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTfrjtrCaCvoq1k-I3TZGU_5UZcLHhTdgBkKdTYIV-Tqb69NBNBrzY9glDuGqtwdVKJGzUirP6DIQhZP7W7AFK9WKgzu6Y5AHbFZQ7Qk6sznmGFGK6xcnrDihaJHT2ax0cyTLgA3IgWZo/s400/screen-capture-1.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Patricia Estrin, "Firefall"</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>(yeah, we know, 30 seconds of screen time but oh what a 30 seconds!)</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Best Cop</b></div>
Peter's Pick:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_T9QbRU2lSnL2OQuEM5s3GECXxUIao5NCzTVfq_K95HzifIpbop-IWWKamAyESCNmakGhmzFSjt02p4H5jpcSJ0Ls9KF16vDPGxBmqKpgZURutpfLlrKISt9DXeo0b8vL8IVuKrM8Tk/s1600/screen-capture-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3_T9QbRU2lSnL2OQuEM5s3GECXxUIao5NCzTVfq_K95HzifIpbop-IWWKamAyESCNmakGhmzFSjt02p4H5jpcSJ0Ls9KF16vDPGxBmqKpgZURutpfLlrKISt9DXeo0b8vL8IVuKrM8Tk/s200/screen-capture-2.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhqWshp4IGuHHMx8dzMwV_SP32cyVNxeSei_hlTNMed8NbingyCyyMLAXhfzbyfpg3x6I04G4UjuBGyjJLu0wYDOPAmnkznr63VyclkiN9YQ9l8o2ONTF_3xMfZqTfSZMtmUu0K_u0io/s1600/screen-capture-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhqWshp4IGuHHMx8dzMwV_SP32cyVNxeSei_hlTNMed8NbingyCyyMLAXhfzbyfpg3x6I04G4UjuBGyjJLu0wYDOPAmnkznr63VyclkiN9YQ9l8o2ONTF_3xMfZqTfSZMtmUu0K_u0io/s200/screen-capture-4.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Tie: Keenan Wynn/John Dehner</div>
<br />
John's Pick:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhqWshp4IGuHHMx8dzMwV_SP32cyVNxeSei_hlTNMed8NbingyCyyMLAXhfzbyfpg3x6I04G4UjuBGyjJLu0wYDOPAmnkznr63VyclkiN9YQ9l8o2ONTF_3xMfZqTfSZMtmUu0K_u0io/s1600/screen-capture-4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZhqWshp4IGuHHMx8dzMwV_SP32cyVNxeSei_hlTNMed8NbingyCyyMLAXhfzbyfpg3x6I04G4UjuBGyjJLu0wYDOPAmnkznr63VyclkiN9YQ9l8o2ONTF_3xMfZqTfSZMtmUu0K_u0io/s400/screen-capture-4.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
John Dehner<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Best Monster</b></div>
<br />
Peter's Pick:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxt9QGRF7WvpEL_ty-EIB8bQM1Bs5Cv09BUQADMRVyFD9FKdpV3s-C47WYNfspoWecezFdO7dVhRwCcpZH6tx52Qw2-sFjBVuqpIJN0PhucySCVM60ybbxPtjSRbvZxdldS_BIkO8NWA/s1600/NS_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHxt9QGRF7WvpEL_ty-EIB8bQM1Bs5Cv09BUQADMRVyFD9FKdpV3s-C47WYNfspoWecezFdO7dVhRwCcpZH6tx52Qw2-sFjBVuqpIJN0PhucySCVM60ybbxPtjSRbvZxdldS_BIkO8NWA/s400/NS_03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Barry Atwater as Janos Skorzeny "The Night Stalker"</div>
<br />
John's Pick(s):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9NCHbrry65RC2FSBoxlc0uZ9TfWtlqT7sQVJ9p_rG7PMB2kECI5FnujDbhXNMlPLfgdzEaYOEZSsDL-_OMXlH9EfhAD_wRAwcXEhNxVtXw4b4UWsy7iI3fkDA1KmQBYLoes-36XBCp5M/s1600/screen-capture-7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9NCHbrry65RC2FSBoxlc0uZ9TfWtlqT7sQVJ9p_rG7PMB2kECI5FnujDbhXNMlPLfgdzEaYOEZSsDL-_OMXlH9EfhAD_wRAwcXEhNxVtXw4b4UWsy7iI3fkDA1KmQBYLoes-36XBCp5M/s400/screen-capture-7.png" width="400" /> </a> </div>
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Suzanne Charney "The Vampire"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjXF26UQXqcKSZEu33DfB1Vs6keqcm6d5nybGzKd1pBctFFRByTTQ3X5w-UudMszW8Og-RQ9jyWqqxVedFf3guFdmSswJK31PHr942kwNqaGQ2Yg1wMaKWyzoU9k5-YZqj-4nTN2nLwk/s1600/screen-capture-8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjXF26UQXqcKSZEu33DfB1Vs6keqcm6d5nybGzKd1pBctFFRByTTQ3X5w-UudMszW8Og-RQ9jyWqqxVedFf3guFdmSswJK31PHr942kwNqaGQ2Yg1wMaKWyzoU9k5-YZqj-4nTN2nLwk/s400/screen-capture-8.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Matchemonedo "The Energy Eater" </div>
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Be sure to let us know how our picks stacked up against yours!<br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>You didn't think you'd get off that easy, did you? We've got quite a few special treats in store for your continuing pleasure—at least a few more week's worth! First up, over the next several days DJS provides us with the scripts for three unfilmed episodes (and check in this Saturday for a surprise extra!). Then,</i><i> Mark Dawidziak will offer a look at Carl Kolchak's career in prose. David J. Schow</i><i> will explore the TV offspring of </i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker<i>, and then we launch into a full episode-a-day review of the revival series. That's right. Stay tuned to find out how it stacks up against the original. </i></div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-65959266673567346202012-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:002012-02-01T12:32:31.509-08:00Mark Dawidziak on The Sentry<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjQzpVqaOvKANTiv9qqduh-srar6f2PrE1A_YMULPia3v8Lqa_xjepCi5SWUW31O0pOMs7s7PDd1C2GzToL00kmvuvRH8j7GK2P0Sskl-ulwMHTJ1LfGvZs2EXDlLwTWgP-vhIM1ZafmF/s1600/Sentry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnjQzpVqaOvKANTiv9qqduh-srar6f2PrE1A_YMULPia3v8Lqa_xjepCi5SWUW31O0pOMs7s7PDd1C2GzToL00kmvuvRH8j7GK2P0Sskl-ulwMHTJ1LfGvZs2EXDlLwTWgP-vhIM1ZafmF/s400/Sentry.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "It's after me." Those are the ominous words spoken by Carl Kolchak in the opening narration of "The Sentry," the twentieth and final episode of <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker. </i>He is, of course, referring to that reptilian creature lurking in the vast labyrinth underneath Merrymount Archive, Inc. What really was after him, however, was the specter of cancellation.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "Take my advice," Kolchak says at the end of this episode, "run to the nearest exit."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> With these words, after two TV movies and twenty supernatural encounters of the series kind, Darren McGavin's Carl Kolchak ended his prime-time career. Weary of the show, McGavin took his own advice and ran for the nearest exit.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The 1997 evaluation of "The Sentry" from <i>The Night Stalker Companion:</i></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzk9vUl1w9unBQXxfoYAdfs7h6fmqtFu-V1hVzPwhAntgQjS9htqWKuowmcwsv41xQGhvb78YV3Sz-g5Vlqfufsr3egdiuZtGWGwKthyphenhyphenz1D6_GyeR3Hhl24aL9Gdzlw_p0oiVvL9SBaOCH/s1600/Darren&Kathie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzk9vUl1w9unBQXxfoYAdfs7h6fmqtFu-V1hVzPwhAntgQjS9htqWKuowmcwsv41xQGhvb78YV3Sz-g5Vlqfufsr3egdiuZtGWGwKthyphenhyphenz1D6_GyeR3Hhl24aL9Gdzlw_p0oiVvL9SBaOCH/s400/Darren&Kathie.jpg" width="315" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Kathie Browne and Darren McGavin</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek</i> fans noticed the resemblance
between this finale and the Horta episode, "Devil in the Dark." It
was a weak finale with one very strong element -- the presence of Darren
McGavin's wife, Kathie Browne. If you're thinking nepotism, forget it. When
they married on New Year's Eve 1969, Browne had her own list of acting credits,
which included episodes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Alfred Hitchcock
Hour </i>("Bed of Roses" and "Wally the Beard") and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek</i> ("Wink of an Eye").
She also had been a regular on two series: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Slattery's
People</i> (CBS, 1964-65) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hondo</i>
(ABC, 1967). Far more than a curiosity, her Lieutenant Lamont would have made
an interesting recurring character. Obviously ambitious and all steel under
that soft exterior, Lamont isn't above using her feminine charms to get what
she wants. Now here's an intriguing twist: Carl Kolchak, played by her husband,
is the only male in the episode wise to her game and immune to her wiles. "Hey,
ease up on her, Kolchak," one moonstruck reporter says, "she’s just doing her
job." An amazed Kolchak grumbles back, "Yeah, sure, yeah, so was Adolph
Eichmann." If <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolckak: The Night Stalker</i>
had remained on the air, this character would have been worth exploring in more
of a three-dimensional way -- a strong and smart woman who knows she must play
some games to survive on a man's police force.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-v8JZxttfC_jRv1HOCC4_VwU1amnt_becop3M0yxHihEsaTYAZVtytxgye8R-idDk6xoDNMsL4P9GMCgSPzWBH82Fvi6PZ5WcxxxpxjTTfMl_uHHE3A70ThbIWwyWhA0acxFCSDgTnAFa/s1600/DarrenKathie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-v8JZxttfC_jRv1HOCC4_VwU1amnt_becop3M0yxHihEsaTYAZVtytxgye8R-idDk6xoDNMsL4P9GMCgSPzWBH82Fvi6PZ5WcxxxpxjTTfMl_uHHE3A70ThbIWwyWhA0acxFCSDgTnAFa/s400/DarrenKathie.jpg" width="383" /></span></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> So, yes, I like the Kolchak-Lamont dynamic. And I sure like the idea of a vast cave system housing a being with raptor-like teeth. If hardly high-caliber <i>Kolchak, </i>"The Sentry" at least tries to shake up the formula a bit. Unlike most <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak </i>episodes, it begins with an action sequence, of
sorts, involving our hero -- Kolchak racing through the Merrymount Acrhive tunnels in that golf cart. This sequence, the title monster's body suit (lizard head plopped onto stunt man Craig Baxley in a <i>Lost In Space </i>kind of way) and, well, the entire episode are emblematic of the series, creating the eeriest mood possible while cutting every possible budget corner. <span style="line-height: 115%;">The</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">
lobby of Universal City’s landmark MCA Black Tower office building doubles for
the lobby of Merrymount Archive. And this was a typical cost-cutting maneuver with
Universal television shows. You can spot the Black Tower lobby and elevator
bank in other <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak </i>episodes, too (and <i>Columbo </i>mysteries and other Universal series of the period).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> Still, the storytelling seems off in this episode, and I definitely miss the grounding that a choice Ron Updyke or Miss Emily scene would have given this. And, for me, some of those golf-cart scenes get rather tedious after a while, if not downright laughable. There's an "all right, enough already" aspect to Carl looking as if, late for his tee time, he's racing to meet the other members of his foursome. Not quite a <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000 </i>moment, but perilously close. Would it have been more satisfying to see <i>Kolchak </i>go out in stronger style? Absolutely. Was this among the very worst episodes of the one-season series? Well, the bottom of the Merrymount caverns isn't the bottom of the barrel, but you can see it from here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> There's something fitting about Kathie Browne's presence in this episode, particularly because she had such great understanding of how much her husband brought to the role of Carl Kolchak: "The people who really love <i>The Night Stalker </i>love Kolchak because he never gives up," she told me. "He's fighting, always fighting. You can take the monsters and take them to be anything you want -- the government, big business, corrupt officials. Their hero comes through at the end, beaten up but ready to go on fighting another day. I think Darren has a lot of that in his own personality."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> When I asked Darren what he thought about that, he replied, "Well, when you're working that fast in television, you have to draw on yourself. You use who you are to a greater extent than you would in a play or a film."</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggA-Q_9c2jRDKWerxLWuruan1DJlkCfTwm2219P7T3B_CWmLQxwtdw6w9Ek54yu5EhDcwcDG6chdDmWIIUD_ACemdH9zixnZLpLh2VojDDC47wGLVd_NgmfQs9XoR0HbNvaXOvWPtFLpLv/s1600/Bosley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggA-Q_9c2jRDKWerxLWuruan1DJlkCfTwm2219P7T3B_CWmLQxwtdw6w9Ek54yu5EhDcwcDG6chdDmWIIUD_ACemdH9zixnZLpLh2VojDDC47wGLVd_NgmfQs9XoR0HbNvaXOvWPtFLpLv/s400/Bosley.jpg" width="313" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Tom Bosley</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> And while missing Ron and Miss Emily, some of the guest stars certainly are worth noting: Tom Bosley, best known as Howard Cunningham on <i>Happy Days, </i>as Jack Flaherty; John Hoyt as Dr. Lamar Beckwith; and Margaret Avery as Ruth Van Galen. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Hoyt's film credits ranged from Joseph L. Mankiewicz's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Julius Caesar</i> (1953) to the
science-fiction sex spoof <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Flesh Gordon</i>
(1974). He also was in <i>When Worlds Collide </i>(1951), <i>Blackboard Jungle </i>(1955) and <i>Spartacus </i>(1960), His television roles include Dr. Knox in "The McGregor Affair," a 1964
episode of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Alfred Hitchcock Hour</i>,
and Dr. Philip Boyce in "The Menagerie," the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek </i>pilot turned into a two-part first-season episode. He
also was in </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">a 1959 episode of McGavin's <i>Riverboat, </i></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">two episodes of <i>The Twilight Zone </i>("Will the Real Martian</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Please Stand Up" and "The Lateness of the Hour"), three episodes of <i>The Outer Limits </i>("I, Robot," "The Bellero Shield" and "Don't Open Till Doomsday") and two episodes of <i>The Munsters. </i></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Avery was ten years away from her role as Shug in director Steven Spielberg’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Color Purple.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i>Curious blue? Curious yellow? This also was the episode in which Kolchak's
Mustang convertible picks up its nickname -- "the Yellow Submarine." In <i>The Night Stalker, </i>Kolchak drove a 1968 blue Camaro convertible.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> E<span style="line-height: 115%;">ight
days after this last <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak </i>episode
aired, McGavin was honored with the Count Dracula Society’s Ann Radcliffe
Award. This was the thirteenth year that the society recognized chilling
achievement in film, television and literature. One of the hosts for the
evening was Janos Skorzeny himself, Barry Atwater.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFL5DQ4bbbcT1KNeR4Jui4ToBb2XQoCk_XW1SOFUjfY9KQClOumS7l9Jpm7Ov_XAHhpFWvSghzkoiXf28S4J8JnujZ_bVgXZOsEa0xNvHUku_E51EeAVYkqsyS7CJZc8I4BtVKsxm3Vwl/s1600/Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiFL5DQ4bbbcT1KNeR4Jui4ToBb2XQoCk_XW1SOFUjfY9KQClOumS7l9Jpm7Ov_XAHhpFWvSghzkoiXf28S4J8JnujZ_bVgXZOsEa0xNvHUku_E51EeAVYkqsyS7CJZc8I4BtVKsxm3Vwl/s320/Time.jpg" width="270" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> So, why and how was <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>canceled? A persistent myth has been that new ABC entertainment chief Fred Silverman killed the show because he didn't like it and he didn't like fantasy. Yes, it is
true that the hot young programmer left CBS to become president of ABC
Entertainment in 1975. It is also true that<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
</b>under his direction ABC went to number one in the ratings for the first
time in television history. If you
are looking for cultural crimes to place at Silverman's doorstep,
consider that in the late seventies he jumped to NBC, where he tried such
masterworks as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pink Lady, Kate Loves a
Mystery</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Super Train</i>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> But the killing of <i>Kolchak </i>cannot be pinned on him. If Silverman hated science fiction so much, why did schedule <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Buck Rogers in the 25th
Century</i> when he was at NBC? More to the point, however, Silverman didn't
join ABC until June 1975, well after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak:
The Night Stalker</i> shut down production and accepted a cancellation notice.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> What killed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak</i>? Let's be honest. Low ratings certainly had a great deal to do with its demise.
Stuck in a poor time slot against fierce NBC competition (all four of NBC's
Friday series made that season's top fifteen), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>didn't
crack the top<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>fifty. Out of
eighty-four series aired during the 1974-75 season, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak </i>finished a miserable seventy-fourth. It averaged only 13.6
percent of all television homes (the top show of that season, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All in the Family, </i>averaged 30.2
percent). Only one series in the bottom twenty was renewed, and that was a
little cop comedy in its first season --<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barney
Miller. </i>All of the other series with less than a fifteen rating, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker, </i>were canceled. So,
whether Silverman liked the show or not, it had almost no chance of seeing a
second season.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> And whether Silverman had been the
new boss or Martin Starger had stayed, a certain amount of cleaning house would
have occurred. The 1974-75 season was a total disaster for ABC. Deep in third
place, the Alphabet Network couldn't place one series in the season's top
fifteen. Only three ABC series made the top thirty.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2D-KPqqHPIZLSuF1d3oqwCId2Oy3KQLsw790IDcN5agQPQNcfdaIVkNB3l46-zNPA979AJwZjsA7E78IIvClCPIQ8yGEvH4Ypu6AmZ5N1lpTQGgKwbFsSBkVMdhN8n-eLhMA0ndoczepg/s1600/Stake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2D-KPqqHPIZLSuF1d3oqwCId2Oy3KQLsw790IDcN5agQPQNcfdaIVkNB3l46-zNPA979AJwZjsA7E78IIvClCPIQ8yGEvH4Ypu6AmZ5N1lpTQGgKwbFsSBkVMdhN8n-eLhMA0ndoczepg/s400/Stake.jpg" width="308" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The last stake in the Silverman
legend is driven by Carl Kolchak himself -- Darren McGavin.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Do you want to know who
canceled this series?" the actor told me. "I canceled it. I was tired. I
wasn't having any fun. I couldn't face another season of it. So I called
[Universal TV boss] Frank Price and said, 'I want out.' He said, 'Well, ABC has
to decide. . . ' So I called Marty Starger and said,
'I want out.' He said, 'Well, we need to talk to Universal. . . ' I said,
'Look, will you two get together and cancel this thing.' The next day I got the
phone call telling me I was free."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> A February 1975 interview with
columnist Ward H. Mosby of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Milwaukee
Journal </i>confirms McGavin’s disenchantment. “I hope they cancel this show as
quickly as they can and get it out of their corporate, pinheaded minds,” he
told Mosby. “This is not the show I started out to do, and rather than try to
pump life with a hypodermic needle into something that's just dying, I'd rather
bury it and put it out of its misery."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Far more detail on this in <i>The Night Stalker Companion.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> </i>At Universal, only a few voices of
sorrow could be heard.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "When the show was canceled,
there was a wrap party," Michael Kozoll said. "Almost nobody
attended."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> You might be thinking that, after
all the fighting and a trip to the hospital, Cy Chermak would have been glad to
see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>get
canceled. You'd be thinking wrong.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "I was relieved to have the all the
stress come to an end, but I wasn’t happy to see the series come to an end,”
the producer said. “I wanted to make it work. And I thought it deserved a
second season to find an audience. I thought it deserved a chance. Most shows
need at least two seasons to click with the audience and get things on track.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9SFKY2ZK4x0KIEiLagla830boYEdHM822kP4HPRJ803xyOqLViTktIlZQxXkm33jT0pLoD14ePmFgzl6FBQra-rAkJDrO4Lwx7DvzccTFbTpzXvp-ikHAwEzEdB3KbbmEaYd1lM5ZHMh/s1600/RodTwillight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY9SFKY2ZK4x0KIEiLagla830boYEdHM822kP4HPRJ803xyOqLViTktIlZQxXkm33jT0pLoD14ePmFgzl6FBQra-rAkJDrO4Lwx7DvzccTFbTpzXvp-ikHAwEzEdB3KbbmEaYd1lM5ZHMh/s400/RodTwillight.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> He's right, you know. Some of television's
most-celebrated series were slow starters on the verge of cancellation after
one season. Three notable examples: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hill</i><i> </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Street Blues. </i>Many series not facing cancellation after one season still
don't hit their creative stride until the second year.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "I don’t like to give up,” Chermak
said. "I thought we could have learned a lot from that first season. I felt we
would have clicked with the audience in the second season. And in 1997, I think
I was right. Look, the show is still running on the Sci-Fi Channel. People are
buying the tapes. It's a cult success with only twenty episodes. There are fans
all over the world. There's this guy named Dawidziak who's writing a book about
it. So, yes, I think I was right. It should have been given another chance."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Had the show gone into a second season, we know some of the stories that would have been tried. Start with the two that might have been in the first season. On
March 12, 1975, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Daily Variety</i>
reported that ABC and Universal had agreed to cut the twenty-two episode <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i> order by two. At this point, the
production team had two more completed scripts, another well on the way to
being finished and several others in various stages of development.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "There
was over $75,000 in unproduced material," Darren McGavin said. "There were unproduced scripts, story outlines, story ideas. There
were about ten ideas in some form of development when we shut down."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> If
there had been a twenty-first episode, it probably would have been "Eve of
Terror," a script taken to final draft by Stephen Lord and Michael Kozoll
in early March. The two writers had collaborated on "Demon in Lace."
Kozoll was one of the writers on "The Knightly Murders." "Eve
of Terror" opens in the audio control room of an acoustics laboratory. Behavioral
researcher Myra Deckbar and technician Wayne Franks are studying the effects of
high-frequency sound on guinea pigs. The sonic stimulation experiment goes
tragically wrong when Myra is mistakenly trapped in the sound chamber. One
hazardous frequency unleashes a murderous alter ego in the mild-mannered
scientist. Her first victim is Wayne Franks. One might describe the unproduced
episode as Dr. Deckbar and Ms. Hyde. How about Kolchak meets She-Hulk? While
the influences might be obvious (they usually were in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak</i> episodes), the writers' motives were sensational.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "That
was our statement on noise pollution," Kozoll said. "You could do
that kind of thing on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Night Stalker.</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>I don't think you saw much of that on
television at that time."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
other completed script was "The Get of Belial," which Donn Mullally
submitted in early January. Mullally was one of the six writers who had worked
on "The Devil's Platform," and, like that episode, this one involved
the prince of darkness.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In
"The Get of Belial," Kolchak is covering a miners' strike at the
Associated Anthracite Building in West Virginia. Glenn Maynard, the president
of Associated, is considered the prince of darkness by picketing union miners.
When Maynard is killed, the union is suspected. But the real culprit is Sonny
Blackshear, possessed son of faith healer Sarah Blackshear. A beautiful child,
Sonny was turned into a beast by the devil, "Old Belial." Belial
offered Sarah a deal. She could have her beautiful child back if she would stop
preaching and healing. She refused, and only her mother's love can temporarily
bring out the good in Sonny. The climactic confrontation takes place in a coal
mine. After nearly killing Kolchak, Sonny falls to his death in a deep shaft.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>In death, the beast is gone. There
remains only the smooth features of Sarah Blackshear's beautiful boy. When Carl
tries to get the story printed, he asks Tony if he's ready to accept a living
devil. "I have to, Kolchak," the editor answers. "I hired you,
didn't I?"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> If
"The Get of Belial" had been placed on the production schedule, story
editors David Chase and Rudolph Borchert probably would have put it through a
final-draft rewrite. Mullally's script was in five acts instead of the usual
four. Chase says there were other why "The
Get of Belial" was moved back on the order of scripts.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "It
was a good story," Chase said. "But, as I recall, most of it took
place in West Virginia. That would have required expensive location shooting of
some kind. We always faked Chicago by using the Universal backlot sets. That
helped to keep costs down on an expensive show. We were always looking for ways
to keep costs down."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzirN7pCgjNrnkiQllenhrgohraC5Om995cD6BT6k6D8CYjMHqitkg_KM5hLqy3Eqf_VcmbZiBuMatwbeA91518uE4ys5Pue1pRESvEduiydHVu29yp3SB3riz9nMq8UyvUAzKXpkLafl/s1600/Phantom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXzirN7pCgjNrnkiQllenhrgohraC5Om995cD6BT6k6D8CYjMHqitkg_KM5hLqy3Eqf_VcmbZiBuMatwbeA91518uE4ys5Pue1pRESvEduiydHVu29yp3SB3riz9nMq8UyvUAzKXpkLafl/s400/Phantom.jpg" width="316" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> To
that end, Chase was writing a script that would be very cheap to shoot.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "I
was working on what's called a bottle show," he recalled. "That's when
you never have to leave the studio. You can do the whole thing on the lot.
Everything is in the bottle. My idea was to have Carl Kolchak on assignment in
Hollywood, and there's a monster hiding out on the old <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Phantom of the Opera</i> set. Everything could have been done at
Universal, which was the studio where Lon Chaney shot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Phantom of the Opera.</i>"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In
interviews granted during the 1974-75 season, McGavin, who maintained a strong
creative input, told reporters that the writers were working on stories
involving Bigfoot and the Medusa of Greek mythology.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "You
name a monster or legend from any culture," Chase said, "and we probably talked
about using it. If there had been a second season, sooner or later, we'd have
gotten around to Bigfoot."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Bigfoot
was the other idea Bob Gale and I pitched to them,” Bob Zemeckis recalled. “That was
the one they rejected. I think we just took it to story. I don't there ever was
a full script."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> A Russell Bates story titled "The
Piasa Bird," supposedly would have launched the second season. "The
Executioners" was a script pitched by writer Max Hodge. Bates was the co-author
(with David Wise) of “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth,” an October 1974
episode of the animated </span><i>Star Trek </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">series.
A Native American writer, Bates had taken "The Piasa Bird" to the treatment
stage. It would have dealt with a militant Native American leader who could
summon an ancient bird creature. There's more, but this gives you some idea of what a second season of </span><i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>might have resembled.</span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-12668483725404053112012-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:002012-02-01T06:01:48.783-08:00Episode 20: The Sentry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjxpdnR4XdO7ZsyLTelG0dJnNvaWKchz7SXJqmpUoA-EoK23AMUUErMdowiP_YMn4LfzEl_tqJy4FrLlcSAiVP_-rNyq9iB0La8KyoeM41ONMgioMbkVVfu4GsejxBKRQgfGtk0hXiPgE/s1600/screen-capture.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjxpdnR4XdO7ZsyLTelG0dJnNvaWKchz7SXJqmpUoA-EoK23AMUUErMdowiP_YMn4LfzEl_tqJy4FrLlcSAiVP_-rNyq9iB0La8KyoeM41ONMgioMbkVVfu4GsejxBKRQgfGtk0hXiPgE/s320/screen-capture.png" width="320" /></a>Episode 20: The Sentry<br />
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and Craig Baxley as The Sentry</div>
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Written by L. Ford Neale and John Huff</div>
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<i>After several mysterious rocks are found in an underground excavation, something starts killing off workers and scientists working in the underground tunnels. Kolchak determines the owners of said 'rocks' want them back, and will stop at nothing to get them.</i><br />
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JS: Kolchak versus the Lizard Men! How could it go wrong? In all fairness, the fault isn't the creature costume. I think it's just as endearing as the headless biker in Chopper, without looking quite as silly as that (<i>Say What?!-PE</i>). We get a few teasing glimpses of The Sentry early on. A foot here...<br />
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A body shot there...<br />
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The clearest look at the creature's face comes late in the episode, and shows that some time and money went into the creature design this time out.<br />
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Unfortunately, there's not enough of the Lizard Men to save this episode.<br />
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PE: Lizo looks like the kiddie ride we had down at the Happy Hollow amusement park. Stiff. Yeah, they must have blown, what, thirty bucks on that suit? I'm sorry, I can't see a silly costume like this and think anything but "silly costume," much like the outfits from flicks I grew up with, like <i><b>Monster on the Campus</b></i> (everytime Eddie Parker moves his face, the eye slits move) and <b><i>Alligator People</i></b> (every bit as silly as the lizard monster here). I still love those flicks but I do grimace. This is one of those instances where Lizo-Man should have been kept in the shadows throughout. Only young children (or those who don't want to admit the truth) would find frightening something that looks like a parade float.<br />
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JS: Overall this episode lacked the spark that the supporting cast normally brought to the table. I didn't note any particularly memorable lines from Vincenzo, Updyke, or any of the usual suspects, for that matter. <br />
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PE: Very odd to hear Tom Bosley, the man who was Mr. C. for sixty-three years on <i>Happy Days</i> use the words "family jewels" in conversation.<br />
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JS: Are there really people out there who don't know any better than to steal creatures eggs from the nest? </div>
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PE: There's a lot of padding in this one. The shot of Carl in the golf cart in the opening and Irene walking into Merrymount go on forever.<br />
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JS: It doesn't help that they make us endure that golf cart ride twice! If they had included Kolchak's voiceover on top of the initial ride, it might have been more bearable. <br />
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PE: I remember "the guys" in my 8th grade class hanging out in the schoolyard talking about how cool this one was, which floors me when I see it now and realize how gawdawfully slow it is.<br />
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JS: I was hoping that this episode might offer the same kind of fun that the "<a href="http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/01/tourist-attraction.html">Tourist Attraction</a>" episode of <i>The Outer Limits</i> did. Unfortunately, other than the creatures in these two episodes being separated at birth, there's no comparison.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFlRyVqVtsd6SJUdR47MZnqvVO9C6RXyAGK8BM0JESTCznoug8T9JcdhNrx0qlbQMZagPmr2YBw-tgkD3m6ph_d1g0vYGQaSZPMRwhCn_NkHRswVYAD7oQyG68thGQwq9PHAbsbrRkfI/s1600/screen-capture-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFlRyVqVtsd6SJUdR47MZnqvVO9C6RXyAGK8BM0JESTCznoug8T9JcdhNrx0qlbQMZagPmr2YBw-tgkD3m6ph_d1g0vYGQaSZPMRwhCn_NkHRswVYAD7oQyG68thGQwq9PHAbsbrRkfI/s320/screen-capture-3.png" width="320" /></a>JS: I had to laugh during the big showdown with the creature. Why shoot the creature with your gun if you can beat him with it instead. Next thing you know, Creature 5, Workers 0.<br />
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PE: Even McGavin looks bored in this episode. I assume he knew things were drawing to a close and just wanted to get this one done and get on with the next project.<br />
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JS: We get our first female police Lieutenant in this final episode. She manages to get everyone <i>but</i> Carl wrapped around her finger. Which is surprising, considering how touchy-feely she likes to get.<br />
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PE: The acting in this is uniformly bad. Kathie Brown's a good looking woman but she's not a top cop. I'm sure I'll catch hell for that one because, if you don't diss any aspect of McGavin, you can't diss his real-life wife. She's stiff as a board, friends. Frank Marth (Colonel Brody) is a walking cliche. If this episode was funny, I'd think it was designed as a parody but it's not funny. It's barely watchable, in fact, and a sad way for this show to go out.<br />
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JS: We've had good stories with good effects ("The Vampire"), good stories with bad effects ("Chopper"), bad stories with bad effects ("They have been..."), and now a bad story with what I'll go out on a limb and call good effects. And as episodes go, this one had one of the more satisfying conclusions. While not a strong finale to the series, it beats going out with "The Youth Killer."<br />
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PE: I'll drink to that, at least. Scoleri's always the half-full guy.<br />
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Next up... our picks for the best of <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i>.</div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-87474823135119711662012-01-31T12:00:00.000-08:002012-01-31T12:26:46.236-08:00Mark Dawidziak on The Youth Killer<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Pre-<i>Kolchak </i>Cathy Lee Crosby as Wonder Woman.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> The series kind of fizzled out, and "The Youth Killer" definitely was a case of infinitely more fizzle than sizzle. The evaluation from <i>The Night Stalker Companion</i>:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Despite some nice touches, like the lap
dissolve sequence that ages a runner from twenty-two to ninety, the episode
runs out of gas. The buildup is good. The payoff is weak. And some of the age
makeup is poor, even by 1975 standards.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> The most notable aspect of this episode was that it marked the third and final appearance of John Fiedler's Gordon "Gordy the Ghoul" Spangler. <span style="line-height: 115%;"> After
enduring Gordy the Ghoul wannabes in "Chopper" and "The Knightly Murders," we
are treated to Fiedler's long-awaited return as our favorite morgue attendant. With
Fiedler back in the fold, this is one of the two episodes that comes closest to having the entire cast
of regulars and semi-regulars. Only Carol Ann Susi's Monique Marmelstein is
missing. In "They Have Been, They Are, They Will Be . . . ", only Ruth McDevitt's Miss Emily is missing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> And the guest cast, as always, is intriguing:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Cathy Lee Crosby, moving from the realm of the incredible in
"The Youth Killer," became one of the hosts of ABC's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That's Incredible! </i>(1980-84). The year before this episode ran, she was the pre-Lynda Carter <i>Wonder Woman </i>in a TV movie based on the DC comic book. It was directed by Vincent McEveety, the director of "The Knightly Murders" and featured Andrew Prine (Professor C. Evan Spate of "Demon in Lace").</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Dwayne Hickman in <i>Dobie </i>days with Bob Denver.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;">Dwayne Hickman, best known as television's Dobie
Gillis, became a successful programming executive at CBS. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cat Ballou </i>(1965), he shared scenes with
John Marley (Captain Molnar in "Primal Scream"). On <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dobie Gillis,</i> he shared scenes with Steve Franken (the morgue
attendent in "Chopper").</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The actor billed as Demosthenes was playing Detective Stavros on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kojak</i> at the time of this <i>Kolchak </i>episode. His real name was George Savalas, brother of series star
Telly Savalas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;">Busy character actress Kathleen Freeman had been
a guest star on dozens of situation comedies. She also has been a regular on
several series, including Sandy Duncan's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Funny
Face </i>(CBS, 1971). One of her co-stars was Henry Beckman, Senator Stephens
in "Mr. R.I.N.G."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> Freeman, Fiedler, Demosthenes and the mayonaisse and Hickman's change-of-pace police sergeant provide some lighthearted diversion throughout "The Youth Killer," but the weak script, plodding pace and many logic lapses relegate this one to the realm of lesser <i>Kolchak.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>So, instead of dwelling on the episode's many failings, let us now praise Jack Grinnage, making his last of eighteen appearances as uptight Ron Updyke. Only Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland appeared in more episodes, of course, so, even though rarely given much to do, Ron was an integral part of Carl's Chicago world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>What follows are excperts from the profile of Jack that appears in <i>The Night Stalker Companion. </i>Let me set this up by assuring <i>Kolchak </i>fans that while Jack was Ron in eighteen episodes, Ron is not Jack. Hardly. Jack couldn't be more gracious and congenial, and he remained a devoted friend to Darren McGavin and Kathie Browne after the series left the air. You've also got to love the scope of Jack's career. He worked with James Dean, Elvis Presley, Bob Newhart, Rod Serling and the Smothers Brothers. He appeared in episodes of <i>Father Knows Best, Playhouse 90, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis </i>(with future <i>Kolchak </i>guest star Dwayne Hickman), <i>The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Rawhide, </i><i>Gunsmoke, The Munsters, The Beverly Hillbillies </i>and <i>The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. </i>Post-<i>Kolchak, </i>Jack has appeared in episodes of <i>Lou Grant, Six Feet Under </i>and <i>Scrubs. </i>This interview was done in 1997:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Actually, I was just supposed to do the
first episode," Grinnage says. "Ron was introduced in 'The Ripper' as a
character who throws up at the sight of blood. I think the character was
Darren's idea. Well, they liked the character and wanted to keep him, but my
grandmother was ninety at the time and I was taking her to Europe. Now I never
had turned down a job in my life, but I told them that I had already planned
the trip and was going."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Universal
enticed Grinnage to stay by offering him a firm commitment for three episodes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Fine,"
he replied, "but I'm still going to Europe."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Then
they offered him seven episodes. Then thirteen. He kept saying no until they
offered him a guarantee of every episode for the season. And, if they failed to write his character into an
episode, Grinnage still would get paid. It was a run-of-the-series contract,
and only McGavin and Oakland had that distinction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "When
I told my grandmother," Grinnage recalls, "she said, 'Dear, I'm not dead yet,
we'll go next year.' "</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Born
and raised in Southern California, Grinnage attended Los Angeles City College,
where he became an active member of the drama department. A friend recommended
him to an agent, who got him a job on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Father
Knows Best. </i>He played Bud’s friend, Claude, for about five episodes, then
learned that the role had been recast. Welcome to show business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> But
he soon found cause for celebration. Director Nicholas Ray cast him as one of
the young hoods in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebel Without a Cause </i>(1955),
which starred James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and future <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>guest star
Jim Backus. Three years later, he had another supporting role in another film
starring a rebel icon of the ‘50s, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King
Creole, </i>with Elvis Presley and future <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak:
The Night Stalker </i>guest star Carolyn Jones. The director was Michael
Curtiz, whose credits included <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Adventures of Robin Hood </i>(1938) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Casablanca
</i>(1942).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "And
when I worked with Elvis Presley," Grinnage says, "he just wanted to know about
James Dean."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></b>In 1961, Grinnage was a regular
on NBC's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Bob Newhart Show. </i>That
same year, he appeared in "The Mind and the Matter," a second-season episode of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Twilight Zone. </i>Seven years and several
TV roles later, he was playing a gay hairdresser trying to pick up Darren
McGavin's David Ross on NBC's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Outsider. </i>So Grinnage had been an actor for about twenty years when the
role of Ron Updyke came his way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "One
of the two casting people at Universal was Ralph Winters, who had once been my
agent," Grinnage says. "I think he was instrumental in getting me the role on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Stalker. </i>There were six people
reading for Ron when I auditioned. I have to think that knowing Ralph helped.
That and the fact that Darren and I had had such a great time working on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Outsider</i>. Both those things had to
help."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> When
cast as Ron, Grinnage was working for the Los Angeles Board of Education.
Running the board’s drama unit, he took various programs into schools.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "I
went to my supervisor and told him I had a series," Grinnage remembers, "and he
said, 'Well, let's see what happens.' And what happened was that most of my
scenes were shot at night, so I was able to keep my full-time day job while
doing the series. That turned out to be a good thing because the series went
off the air and I still had to make a living."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Grinnage
views his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Stalker </i>experience
with great fondness. His co-stars are what made the show special for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Darren
couldn't have been nicer," he says. "He'd help you with your lines or anything.
He was always there for you. Ruth McDevitt was a dear, as was Carol Ann Susi. I
still see Carol Ann, who doesn't live too far from me. We get together for
lunch every now and then. She's very funny. We'd get our fan mail delivered on
the set, and Carol Ann and I would open our two letters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "And
it was a great honor to work with Simon Oakland. When I was in college, I saw a
play called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Sebastian</i>, with
Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. And Simon Oakland was in the cast. That was
really my introduction to theater. So it was an incredible thrill to be
actually working with him."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Ron
Updyke was supposed to appear in the final episode. Scenes were written for the
character, but Grinnage had an offer to do another series. Sure they were going
to lose him, the writers cut him out of "The Sentry."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Then
I ended up turning down the other series, anyway," Grinnage says. "After the
show left the air, I remained with the Board of Education until Proposition 13
took that job away. But I'd always made props, and I was offered a job at prop
house. So now I do a couple of soap episodes, a commercial, voice-overs, go out
on auditions, and then go back to making props. If you saw <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In the Line of Fire </i>with Clint Eastwood and remember the rabbit's
foot with the bullets in it, well, I made that!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> "I’ve
worked a lot, and I've been lucky that many of the things I was in became cult
favorites, like </span><i>Rebel Without a Cause </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">or
an Elvis Presley picture. So </span><i>The Night
Stalker </i>fits right in with that.</span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-90832523012437699612012-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-31T06:00:02.331-08:00Episode 19: The Youth Killer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Episode 19: The Youth Killer<br />
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Guest Starring: John Fiedler, Cathy Lee Crosby</div>
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Directed by Don McDougall<br />
<br />
<i>Kolchak's assignment to write a swinging-singles article just happens to coincide with a series of mysterious deaths in Chicago, where bodies of young folks are not just turning up dead, they're turning up old.</i><br />
<br />
JS: In this episode, we find out a little more about Carl when it becomes clear that the thought of marriage is more terrifying
to him than <i>any</i> of the monsters he has faced.<br />
<br />
PE: One wonders: if Carl had stayed on the Swingin' Singles Scene story like Tony Vincenzo had ordered him to do, would he have worked his way around to uncovering Helen of Troy anyway?<br />
<br />
JS: Unfortunately things get off to a bad start with the jogger. Dissolves were not the best way to go to establish the instant aging. It just didn't work. I did like how the guys who came to collect the dead body the next morning basically picked it up like a bag of trash and threw it onto the gurney. No respect for old folks in this episode, that's for sure (with our apologies to Miss Emily).<br />
<br />
PE: For an old-timer, Cynthia Tibbs does a fabulous half-gainer off her balcony. The three judges below rated Tibbs an average of 9. But, other than the fact that a future Olympic diver is no more, I'm mystified as to why the entire police force of Chicago had to show up to the scene.<br />
<br />
JS: I thought her aging scene was handled brilliantly. As she dipped in and out of frame during her exercise routine, she went through a number of interesting make-up transitions before going over the edge (<i>Since this scene was obviously filmed without cuts, I thought it was brilliant that the make-up man was able to apply each prosthesis in a matter of seconds!-PE</i>). Make note of this, because it's an indication that they weren't without the skills or budget to do decent old-age make-ups. <br />
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PE: Lance (Michael Richardson) comes to his computer dating interview dressed to the nines. I've never tried one of these dating services but I can tell I wouldn't go far. I don't own a Chuck Norris jacket or Elvis belt buckle and I've never worn lipstick. Well, not that shade at least. Later, when he's getting dressed (as Bobby Riggs, if I'm not mistaken), there's some queasy stuff going on with Lance's domineering mother. I'm not sure I'd want my mom checking out the fur on my legs and, if she was, I'd appreciate it if she'd keep it to herself.<br />
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JS: I have to imagine that for the computer nerds of 1975, there was nothing quite like seeing Cathy Lee Crosby fondle a punch card. My question is this: by giving Helen in toga gear curly hair, and Helen in the office Farrah-hair, were they trying to imply that these were two different women? <br />
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PE: The stretching of credibility this episode doesn't stem from a goddess with bad make-up who gets rid of the sandbags under her eyes by stealing the youth of men but the fact that Carl Kolchak was able to match that key to an apartment.<br />
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JS: While I guess we owe the writer our appreciation for not spinning another 'every 69 years Helen has to suck the life out of attractive young men and women' yarn, wouldn't it make sense that in her aged state, Helen look more like the aged state of her victims (<i>and, is that Cathy's nose or a leftover prop from </i>Twilight Zone<i>'s "Eye of the Beholder"?-PE</i>)?<br />
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PE: Other than those monstrous potato sacks under Cathy Lee's eyes, she looks like she's doin' pretty good to me. Now, if the make-up man had rigged up some grey in that beautiful blonde hair, some wrinkles on those perfect hands, and some of those down-to-the-knees breasts I've seen in the clubs I frequent, I'd have found it a little easier to believe that this Helen was a few thousand years old.<br />
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JS: Perhaps Crosby had it in her contract that she could never look worse than could be hidden by a pair of sunglasses when she wasn't needed on set. <br />
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PE: Watching Lance's last few minutes as he staggers through the park, I sure called that Bobby Riggs resemblance on the nose, didn't I?<br />
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JS: It's a reasonable trick at some point during an age-transformation scene to replace your young actor with an older actor, but if you're going to do that, you should at least try and find actors who look remotely alike. I can only imagine how bad this would have looked if the only old timer central casting could come up with on that day had been black. One thing I'm curious about is where this episode fell in production
order. Carl
made a reference to Tony doing Yoga in "The Knightly Murders," however
his weight-loss regimen appears to originate here. <br />
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PE: What's the story with the Greek cab driver? Carl run out of museum curators? That's Telly Savalas' brother, George (who used his middle name, Demosthenes, for his TV roles), moonlighting as the brilliant Greek scholar/cabbie.<br />
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JS: Not only did I think he was fine, I actually preferred him to a number of the 'museum curators' that can only serve the plot of the particular episode they appear in. I assumed he's just one of the many connections that Carl has made through the years (like last episode's pawn shop owner who Carl was collaborating with on his biography). Had the show continued, I like to think that Carl would have been back the next time Pandora's Box was opened. <br />
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PE: Not much to say about this one. Definitely the worst episode of the series in my book, with the only plus being its obvious message, that we've become too wrapped up in beauty for our own good. Obviously, in the 35 years since this was first aired, that facet of our society has only gotten worse. Is Helen the stand-in for the average woman who'll do anything, including human sacrifice, to stay young and beautiful? I'd have sacrificed a few goats to get some laughs with Tony Vincenzo. The only "humor" we get here is a drunk who keeps butting in to Carl's conversation with the cabbie. It's an awful sequence, smelling like some of the worst Foster Brooks routines, and stands out from the humor in past episodes like a <i>Star Trek</i> fan at Helen of Troy's Mix and Match dating service. I doubt you'd have found a scene like this in a David Chase script. One half a typewriter for Crosby's wet toga.<br />
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JS: For me, a few interesting old-age make-ups and the lovely contemporary Crosby (you can have the toga version - wet <i>or</i> dry) raise this one above the near UF-Zero of "They Have Been..."<br />
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Next up... Kolchak faces <b>The Lizard People!</b></div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-12105684280497856072012-01-30T12:00:00.000-08:002012-01-30T12:00:06.264-08:00Mark Dawidziak on The Knightly Murders<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Dehner Factor</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe we've stumbled on something wonderfully mystical here, and I don't mean the plot. I'm calling it the Dehner Factor. Think about this. Late in the fifth season, <i>The Twilight Zone </i>clearly was out of gas. Some of the classic anthology show's weakest episodes are in this wheezy home stretch. For the most part, the scripts are repetitive, uninspired and not all that imaginative for a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. But in the midst of this mediocrity, one delightful episode stands out: "Mr. Garrity and the Graves," with John Dehner as an Old West con man who claims he can bring back the departed citizens in a town cemetery. It's not a great episode. It has a few basic problems, and certainly no one would rank it with the very finest <i>Twilight Zone </i>gems. You wouldn't even mention it in the same breath as the early fifth-season episodes penned by Richard Matheson, notably "Steel" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." But "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" does show that the dying series still had some kick, and much of that kick is provided by Dehner's magnificently droll performance while surrounded by several other future <i>Kolchak </i>players: Stanley Adams (Fred Hurley in <i>The Night Stalker </i>and Louie the Bartender in "The Devil's Platform"), Kate Murtaugh (Janie Watkins in <i>The Night Strangler</i>), J. Pat O'Malley (the cemetery caretaker in "The Zombie"), John Mitchum (the janitor in "The Energy Eater"). It stands out in this last batch of <i>Zone </i>stories, and it's that rarity among Rod Serling scripts -- a comedy that works.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Mr. Garrity and the Graves" aired in May 1964. Flash forward about eleven years, to March 1975. Here again is John Dehner giving a magnificently droll performance in a final batch of otherwise uninspired episodes. Preceded by "Legacy of Terror" and followed by "The Youth Killer," "The Knightly Murders" charts way up and demonstrates in high-spirited fashion that <i>Kolchak </i>still had some kick left as the end was drawing near. And, again, Dehner is a tremendous part of that kick. He is in typically fine form <span style="line-height: 115%;">as the flattering,
grandiloquent Captain Vernon Rausch, a police officer who is all style and no
substance. And there you have it: the Dehner Factor.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> But, to be sure, many things go splendidly right in this knight stalker caper, which, if not in the same class as "Horror in the Heights" and "The Spanish Moss Murders," ranks with "Chopper" and "The Vampire" in the second tier of memorable episodes (those with some obvious flaws, and yet, the fright-and-fun elements far outweigh the flaws). This remains one of my favorite episodes . . . because of Dehner, because of Dehner and McGavin working together so well, because of Hans Conried, because of Conried and McGavin working together so well, and because the Michael Kozoll-David Chase script, despite the familiar ending, gleams like a freshly polished suit of armor. The boys were having a good time, and it shows in scene after scene.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Dehner's television resume is a packed one, of course, but he got his Hollywood start as a Disney animator, working on both <i>Fantasia </i>and <i>Bambi. </i>His mellifluous voice yielded jobs as a disc jockey, and the versatile Dehner also was a good enough musician to work as a professional pianist. Just a few of his memorable TV credits: two more episodes of <i>The Twilight Zone </i>(Captain Allenby in "The Lonely" and engineer Alan Richards in "The Jungle"), </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">two <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Columbo</i> mysteries (aviation investigator Roland Pangborn in "Swan Song" and
the title murder victim in "Last Salute to the Commodore"), four episodes of <i>The Rifelman, </i>two episodes of <i>Bonanza, </i>twelves episodes of <i>Gunsmoke, </i>three episodes of <i>Hogan's Heroes,</i> one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Andy Griffith Show </i>(con man Colonel Harvey in “Aunt Bee’s Medicine Man”) and a <i>Mission: Impossible </i>two-parter (“The Contender”). Between 1960 and 1983, he
was a regular on ten network series.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Hans Conried in <i>The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Conried </span>also adds several moments of fun, making the most of his screen time as museum curator Mendel Boggs (a name that might be suggesting mental and bugs as possible character traits). TV fans know Conried as Uncle Tonoose on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Danny Thomas Show</i> (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Make Room for
Daddy</i>), the English tutor and aspiring songwriter in a 1952 episode of <i>I Love Lucy </i>and<i> </i>Wrongway Feldman on two episodes of <i>Gilligan's Island, </i>. Animation fans know him as the voice behind Captain Hook in Disney's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Peter Pan</i> (1953) and Snidley Whiplash on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rocky and His Friends</i>. Dr. Seuss fans know him as the cruel music teacher in the film
version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. </i>(1953)
and the narrator of the TV version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Horton
Hears a Who</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">And it was in this episode that Carl Kolchak made his most definite statements about
being Polish. In Jeff Rice's original book, Kolchak tells us that his paternal grandfather, Anton Mihail Kolchak (nicknmaed Mike), was Rumanian with an endless supply of folk tales. Darren McGavin decided that Kolchak was a Polish name, and moved the Kolchak family point of origin in north-westerly direction. Strolling into a coat-of-arms store, Carl is attacked by the
smooth-talking proprietors. Oh, they say after he<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>tells them that Kolchak is Polish, "you must be descended
from Archbishop Kolchak of Cracow." Kolchak doesn't think that's likely.
Well, they say, maybe you're a descendant of Baron Kolchak, "the Lion of
Warsaw." He ends up buying a "Kolchak" coat of arms. Polish or Rumanian, it's one of several mirthful scenes (given a merry push by busy character actor Robert Emhardt).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">This
was the only episode directed by Vincent McEveety, the television veteran whose
long list of credits includes several episodes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Untouchables, Star Trek, Gunsmoke </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder, She
Wrote. </i>He was the helm of seven of the twenty-four <i>Columbo </i>mysteries that Peter Falk did for ABC between 1989 and 2003. He also directed such Disney comedies as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Strongest Man in the World </i>(1975), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gus </i>(1976) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Apple
Dumpling Gang Rides Again </i>(1979). His cast for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Strongest Man in the World </i>included Phil Silvers, Dick Van
Patten and James Gregory, all of whom appeared in episodes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak: The Night Stalker.</i></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">"The Knightly Murders" also contains one of my favorite Tony Vincenzo lines, perfectly delivered by Simon Oakland. Surveying the madness that is the INS bureau, Tony asks, "Why do I always feel like I don't belong here?"</span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-62678254355912098602012-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-30T06:01:37.300-08:00Episode 18: The Knightly Murders<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Episode 18: The Knightly Murders<br />
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Original Airdate: 3/7/75</div>
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Guest Starring: John Dehner, Hans Conried</div>
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Written by Michael Kozoll and David Chase</div>
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(from a story by Paul Magistretti)</div>
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Directed by Vincent McEveety</div>
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<i>A string of murders in Chicago have a strangely similar trait—they're all carried out with medieval weaponry. Kolchak is convinced he's found the suit of armor responsible; leaving him to find out who fits inside.</i><br />
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JS: My new favorite crime scene image—a chalk outline on a door!<br />
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PE: Well, now I've got a problem: do I like Keenan Wynn's animal growl or John Dehner's New Age psychobabble better? This is a tough one. Dehner slips right into the role of Captain Rausch, a cop so different from any other this show has seen before. He happily gives Carl information about the murders he's investigating and then mulls over the murders in a very un-policeman like way. When Carl asks what killed one of the victims, the Captain answers in a melancholy tone: "Society." In the same conversation, Rausch asks Carl, "Did you know that there were one-seventh as many ice-pick killings last year as there were in 1942? Technology, Carl." For once, it seems as though Carl would prefer the bellow of Captain Siska.<br />
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Rausch:
Negative! Last night's statement is no longer functionally descriptive
and the negative is also appropriate to the second part of the second
question you asked. There is no, I repeat no, reason to believe that the
death of (unintelligible)... Homicide is a very democratic institution.
One more question.</div>
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Reporter: Allow me to rephrase that, Captain...</div>
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Rausch: Negative. Any more questions?</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ41aMIkqlxmtKI-5als2SXI7e2HYytePDuwifXNv8TC_SZkd3YE63tcVEpgy4DkA9STZaXVHoe8pTgx9L5Uo51-HcGl_ZwxlZGMc72YoNzUVBzYLcOgVR3wdlck-ju8yYJ7e07yOXF3A/s1600/screen-capture-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ41aMIkqlxmtKI-5als2SXI7e2HYytePDuwifXNv8TC_SZkd3YE63tcVEpgy4DkA9STZaXVHoe8pTgx9L5Uo51-HcGl_ZwxlZGMc72YoNzUVBzYLcOgVR3wdlck-ju8yYJ7e07yOXF3A/s320/screen-capture-4.png" width="320" /></a>JS: Particularly compared to Siska's last appearance, Rausch wins hands down. Every time Kolchak finds himself in front of the captain, you can't wait to hear what direction he's going to go next. And I loved the way they introduced the concept. As he begins pontificating, Kolchak asks him to start over so he can record it. Rather than be annoyed, he's soon got Kolchak hanging by the strap of the recorder and won't let go as he rambles on and on. What a refreshing twist after so many similarly written captains.</div>
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PE: Minerva Musso (Lieux Dressler) is about as risque as Standards would let you get in 1975 primetime. When Carl invites himself into Musso's house and then into her bedroom while she's talking on the phone, she asks Carl "Robbery or rape?" When Carl answers "Neither one, so don't get excited". She looks very disappointed. Then later, when Carl hears the knight shambling in the hall, Kolchak asks the woman, "you got bad pipes or something?" Musso, outraged, exclaims "I beg your pardon?!"<br />
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JS: That was a great exchange. I thought it was interesting that David Bowie got a shout-out in a Kolchak episode. I wouldn't have thought that of all the possible celebs to plug-in as Minerva's next redecorating client, Bowie would have been a prime contender in 1975.</div>
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PE: When the knight bashes in the front door, Carl tells Minerva to run into the bathroom and lock the door, she again questions him "I beg your pardon?" Kolchak yells at her "Get in the bathroom, you dumb broad, and lock the door!"<br />
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JS: Nice that they used the episode as an opportunity to teach the audience all about small arms of medieval times. In case anyone didn't know the difference between a crossbow bolt, lance, mace, or axe before the episode, they certainly did by the time they were through. It might have been nice if there was some story point explaining why each victim was dispatched using a different method, but I'm willing to accept that it was likely done for the sake of keeping things interesting. </div>
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PE: I don't blame the knight for the drastic measures he employed. If my house was being renovated for a discotheque, I'd be brandishing a crossbow myself. While not quite as energetic as Lancelot, I did paste a DISCO SUCKS bumper sticker on my Maverick as a high schooler. I couldn't imagine someone coming into my domicile and playing "We Are Family" or "Float On" every night.<br />
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JS: So are we supposed to assume that the spirit of the knight attends city council meetings? Or has ghost friends on the planning commission? I personally thought it was a silly motive for the killings, but assuming he somehow had the awareness of what was to come, can't blame him for wanting to stop it before it was too late. </div>
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PE: One more time: John Dehner does the unthinkable, he steals every scene he's in with Darren McGavin. Could Captain Rausch be the cop that Siska might have been had he stuck with his group therapy? It's either zen or Michoacan. Hans Conried is aces as well as the mysterious museum curator, Mendel Boggs. Could he have something to do with the killings? He comes off very believable as insulted the police would consider him a suspect.<br />
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JS: I loved when the cops tried to squeeze the armor onto Boggs. Even if not the killer, he probably felt the same way as the offended knight. I'm a big fan of Conried, who portrayed Dr. Terwilliker in the Dr. Seuss film <i><b>The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T</b></i>, as well as numerous cartoon voices including one of my favorite characters, Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Do-Right. Here's Conried interviewing Rod Serling from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fractured-Flickers-Collection-Hans-Conried/dp/B0002F6BJW?tag=slcinema-20"><i><b>Fractured Flickers</b></i></a> a show he hosted from the people behind Rocky and Bullwinkle:<br />
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PE: If I was Carl Kolchak and my editor refused to run any of my articles, I'd stop risking my life for a story. After 20 supernatural and scientifically challenging adventures, our intrepid reporter must have an idea, while chasing alligator men across a swamp, that no one will ever know this happened and it becomes something you do for, as Paul Revere once phrased it, "Kicks."<br />
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JS: Between Conried and Dehner, we can forgive the lack of classic bits between McGavin and Oakland in this outing. After a lengthy scene where Carl uses his normal trickery to determine precisely how much pressure it takes to crush a telephone, he realizes the weight of a man in a suit of armor is sufficient. By that time, I think most of the audience is thinking what Tony says:<br />
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Vincenzo: All my life I wanted to know a medieval knight could crush a telephone.</blockquote>
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Indeed. Despite being very entertaining thanks to the contributions of a number of great supporting characters and a unique monster of the week, it also falls victim to the show's Achilles heel. The vanquishing of the knight is all too easy. I'm not looking for a long, protracted swordfight with Kolchak—<i>he is who he is</i>—but once again the ending felt rushed. I wanted something more substantial.<br />
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Next up... Kolchak faces <b>The Youth Killer!</b></div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-1446452464870186802012-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:002012-01-27T22:11:58.260-08:00Mark Dawidziak on Legacy of Terror<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Preparing for a convention appearance in "Legacy of Terror," Carl Kolchak tells us, "I promised I'd show up with a haircut, new hat and pressed suit . . . but I lie a lot." The truth is, he should have showed up with a better script.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Each <i>Kolchak </i>episode has its share of frightening and funny moments, and this one is no exception, but, overall, "Legacy of Terror" is poorly structured and paced. Suffering from a patched-together quality, it sort of clunks along like the Mummy played by Lon Chaney Jr. in those 1940s Universal horror films. Despite such entertaining interludes as Kolchak's encounter with Mr. Eddy, the taxidermist sensitive about the image of his profession, "Legacy of Terror," to borrow a line from <i>The Night Stalker Companion, </i>"unravels like a loosely wrapped mummy."</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Erik Estrada as Ponch on <i>CHiPs.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Even Kolchak's opening narration seems trite and tired and wearily routine: "</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Among the philosophers,
the great thinkers and the common Joes of this world, no question is more
controversial than truth. Remarkable as it may seem, I can attest to the
following events did occur, whether you believe them to be true or not." Cut the gab, Carl, and get me rewrite. We need a punchier lead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Well, everybody probably was getting pretty punchy at this point in the first and only season of <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker. </i>Like "The Werewolf," "Legacy of Terror" squanders a fairly promising idea: a 500-year-old Aztec warrior rising every 52 years to claim five victims. Richard Malcolm required six victims every 21 years, so this Aztec model can go much longer between terror tuneups.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> On the list of Kolchak capers, this one ranks near the bottom, although it does feature several notable guest stars and supporting players:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Erik Estrada's presence as Pepe Torres is particularly intriguing, since he'll go on to star as Ponch in </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">CHiPs</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">, and Cy Chermak would later produce, yes, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">CHiPs</span></i></span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg on <i>The Dukes of Hazzard.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Sorrell Booke, who plays the touchy taxidermist, went on to play Boss Hogg on </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">The Dukes of Hazzard. </span></i></span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">The Boss Hogg persona was so strong, it tended to overshadow Booke's versatility. The Buffalo native's film credits included <i>Fail-Safe, Black Like Me, Bye Bye Braverman, What's Up, Doc? </i>and <i>Slaughterhouse Five. </i>Between <i>Kolchak </i>and <i>Hazzard, </i>he appeared in two episodes of <i>Columbo </i>("Swan Song" and "The Bye-Bye Sky I.Q. Murder Case") and five episodes of <i>All in the Family.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Ramon
Bieri makes his second appearance as a police captain, but, this time he's playing Captain Webster, not Captain Joe Baker, the role he played in </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">"Bad Medicine." But, of course, there had been a
Captain Webster in "The Energy Eater," but he was played by Robert
Yuro. Go figure. Why not just have Bieri return as Captain Baker?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Victor Campos, who plays Professor Jamie Rodriguez, has appeared in episodes of <i>Dexter, ER, Six Feet Under </i>and <i>Arrested Development. </i>The <i>Kolchak </i>guest star was making appearances on <i>Kojak </i>as Detective Gomez.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Pippa Scott, who plays Tillie Jones, had appeared as Laura in "The Trouble With Templeton," a 1960 episode of <i>The Twilight Zone, </i>and as Marcia in "Parasite Manor," a 1961 episode of <i>Thriller. </i>Her films include John Ford's <i>The Searchers </i>and<i> Auntie Mame.</i></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Captain Webster? Captain Baker?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i>Mickey
Gilbert, who played "The Ripper" in the first <i>Kolchak </i>episode<i>, </i>returns
to play the mummy. That earns him a tie for most appearances as a <i>Kolchak </i>creature. Also with two monsters
apiece are Richard Kiel (in "Bad Medicine" and "The Spanish Moss Murders") and
Craig Baxley (the title roles of "Mr. R.I.N.G." and "The Sentry"). But Craig
Baxley also appears in "Legacy of Terror" -- as Rolf Anderson, the Green Beret
who becomes one of the sacrificial victims. The stunt specialist appeared in a
fourth <i>Kolchak </i>episode, "Primal
Scream," but not as the monster. That distinction fell to another member of the
flying Baxley family, Gary. Another Baxley, Paul, played Dr. Jules Copenik in
"Primal Scream."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Look
closely at the final few seconds of "Legacy of Terror." Gilbert's dormant mummy
opens its eyes during the fade-out. Intentional? Either way, it's a spooky
moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> And as most <i>Kolchak </i>fans well know, "Legacy of Terror" is one of four episodes that Universal pulled out and edited into two TV movies for syndication. That was in 1976, a year after
the series left the air. With Kolchak </span><span style="font-size: small;">bouncing
between</span><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">two cases, the sixteenth and
seventeenth episodes --"Demon in Lace" and "Legacy of
Terror" -- became <i>Demon and the
Mummy</i>. The sixth and tenth episodes -- "Firefall" and "The Energy Eater" -- became <i>Crackle
of Death</i>. Darren McGavin was called in to loop connecting dialogue. Jack
Grinnage and Simon Oakland were called back to overdub a few lines of dialogue.
With no other bridging material, however, the films never seem more than precisely what they are: two
hastily slapped-together movies. The editing at times is sloppy. The dubbing
frequently is poor. And the cutting between two cases often is confusing. In <i>Demon and the Mummy</i>, for instance, the
action shifts between heart attacks on the campus and hearts cut out near the
hotel. "They were
made for the same reason all pictures are made," said Harry Tatelman, vice
president of Universal Pictures Television, "to make money." Yet the
syndicated presence of these two movies yanked the four episodes out of Universal's <i>Kolchak </i>package for local stations and
cable channels. They were not seen when CBS made <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>part of its late-night lineup. They were
not seen when cable’s Sci-Fi Channel aired the series (although Sci-Fi did pick
up the two 1976 movies for occasional showings). They would remain "lost
episodes" until the Columbia House</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;">Video
Library put out all twenty episodes -- complete and uncut -- in its Collector's
Edition series. They've been restored with the other sixteen episodes ever since, and, of course, are included in Universal's box set for <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker.</i></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-23935772199724996992012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-27T06:00:00.802-08:00Episode 17: Legacy of Terror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Episode 17: Legacy of Terror <i>aka</i> Lord of the Smoking Mirror<br />
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Guest Starring: Erik Estrada, Ramon Bieri and Mickey Gilbert as The Mummy</div>
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Written by Arthur Rowe</div>
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Directed by Don McDougall</div>
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<i>Bodies are turning up around Chicago with their hearts cut out. It doesn't take Kolchak long to figure out that an ancient Aztec plot to revive a mummy is underway, and only he can stop it.</i><br />
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JS: It's important to point out, right off the bat, that this episode is not titled "The Mummy." If it were, it might be fair to criticize it for the lack of a traditional, linen-wrapped monster-of-the-week. I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I realized that I wasn't going to see Carl chased by a classic <i>step-drag-step</i> mummy. This is more of a Carl Kolchak versus the Aztec Mummy.<br />
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PE: Weird way to begin a show. Lenny Strahan, one of the best linebackers in the NFL and owner of a very big heart, has that prized organ cut right out with a dull kitchen knife. But never mind that... how about that sweaty Green Beret who got his shirt torn to shreds? Was the budget too small for one more extra to play Lennie's attack scene or did we run out of time for that?<br />
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JS: Our Green Beret is assaulted by men in giant bird costumes (at this point we're hoping they're costumes, and not a case where the monster-of-the-week is a flock of giant man-eating parrots). It doesn't exactly instill confidence in the episode.</div>
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PE: LOL dialogue that, I assume, is not meant to be funny when the two dopes disguised as detectives are investigating the de-hearted Green Beret:</div>
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Detective #1: Looks like the heart was cut out with a dull blade again. Pretty messy.</div>
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Detective #2: Yeah. You know, it's been seven days since the football player got it. You notice the heart is... (counts) seven steps below the body. That could mean something.</div>
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After that exchange, I had to check the credits again to make sure this wasn't written by Larry Buchanan. Later on, we find out the number seven does indeed mean something special to The Aztec Heart Association, but why would this cop make the connection? Laughably, Kolchak enters the scene, is discovered and then makes his way down the blood-spattered stairway. Nope, no evidence at that crime scene, I guess.<br />
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JS: It's a nice subtle touch when Carl lowers his cassette recorder into the stairwell to catch the conversation. </div>
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PE: The case of the giant Indian who recited Old MacDonald was such an embarrassment to Police Captain Joe Baker (Ramon Bieri) that he changed his name to Captain Webster (Ramon Bieri). He didn't move out of town though and Kolchak's nice enough not to rub in their previous meeting. But then, Kolchak has amnesia when it comes to his past stories, doesn't he?<br />
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JS: I liked it when Tille Jones calls Vincenzo and the Air Force major out on the carpet for not letting the young female Air Force captain (Udana Power) get a word in edgewise. There's nothing like introducing an empowered woman, putting her in a nightgown in the next scene, and then proceeding to cut her heart out.</div>
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PE: LOL-dialogue, when Carl goes to interview a taxidermist, the man goes nuts when Kolchak identifies himself as a reporter: </div>
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Taxidermist: Get out! I know the attitude of the press towards taxidermy! Always ridiculing us. Always using the term "stuffed animals" as if we make toys for children to chew on!</div>
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Carl (flustered): No! You have exactly the wrong attitude! That's not what I think at all! </div>
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Taxidermist: If you were a wild creature, Mr. Kolchak... would you rather end up like this (points at a stuffed vulture)... glorified, eternal... or dumped on some trash heap?</div>
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Carl: There's no question how I'd like to end up... uh, like this (points to the vulture)!</div>
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JS: I thought Erik Estrada was a perfectly reasonable choice for the aloof Pepe (but then I watched <i>CHiPs</i> religiously growing up). His intro was great—thinking the Air Force major was his airport shuttle driver. And I thought his performance makes sense once we fully understand Pepe's situation.<br />
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PE: I'm surprised that Estrada didn't hang up his acting career after watching the airing of "Legacy of Terror" on national TV. Cast as a flute-playing jerk named Pepe Torres and wearing a pink three piece suit couldn't have helped him win any plum roles (I doubt it advanced the cause of "Hispanic role models on television" either). The only consolation, I guess, is that by this time the <i>Night Stalker </i>ratings were so low, no one saw him. But what do I know? Two years after this aired, he was the Fonz-caliber star of <i>CHimPs, </i>which inexplicably lasted six seasons<i>. </i>His stand-out dialogue here, when Carl interrupts his flute playing: "Friend, you're bending my mind off my music!"</div>
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JS: You no like the Tony Montana collection? Are you telling me you didn't catch your share of fish on sharp collars like that in the 70s? Perhaps you weren't paying attention, but the lovely ladies couldn't seem to get enough of Pepe's charm in this episode. Let's meet our bachelorettes...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUhRO7VnoVy-rBVg03rk9UInbFOXO_KRwF41tjC_p21A7shejxrQTshH0r_dIGBItcimCaagvwRLcRDeD_SA_XFc9pk86E8GFNivqpQGFPnlXoN8pKWvrf7CrWS5yJ-GImPUpS0JxPbY/s1600/screen-capture-5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUhRO7VnoVy-rBVg03rk9UInbFOXO_KRwF41tjC_p21A7shejxrQTshH0r_dIGBItcimCaagvwRLcRDeD_SA_XFc9pk86E8GFNivqpQGFPnlXoN8pKWvrf7CrWS5yJ-GImPUpS0JxPbY/s400/screen-capture-5.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merrie Lynn Ross as Nina - Pepe's 'Art Department'</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sondra Currie as Vicky - Pepe's 'Executive Assistant'</td></tr>
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PE: This doesn't sound like such a great life, even for a mummy. Every 52 years you wake up to make sure you've had five hearts cut out then you go back to sleep for another 52 years. Those Aztecs sure were nutty!</div>
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JS: Time out, Green Bay—did someone think we wouldn't notice that this is the same old story, same old song and dance struck from the original <i>Night Stalker</i>/<i>Strangler</i>/<i>Ripper</i> mold?</div>
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PE: Carl just wanders into the Chicago Sports Arena at midnight <i>and it's fully lit</i>! No one's aware this is going on in such a popular facility? And, I'm no expert in Chicago architecture but could the nose bleeds in a basketball arena really be the highest staircase in that city? They've got skyscrapers, don't they, or were those built <i>after</i> 1975?<br />
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JS: In preparation for the final sacrifice, Estrada dons an outfit that looked a hell of a lot better on Gina Gershon in <i><b>Showgirls</b></i>. Well, a little bit better, anyway.</div>
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PE: Deadly dull episode, with a snail's pace, gawdawful acting (whose idea was it to give Estrada a monologue about how he'd have ended up had he not taken the bargain?), and a criminally anticlimactic ending. The mummy, about to cleave Carl in two, simply falls on him, back to sleep. I know just how he felt. And what's with the opening of the mummy's eyes seconds before our end credits begin to roll? <br />
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JS: There's a bit of a <i><b>Beneath the Planet of the Apes</b></i> mutant-look to the mummy, which is more effective than some of the other monsters Carl has faced. And forgetting about the mummy's eyes opening... what's with Carl speaking right to the audience at the end? <br />
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Next up... Kolchak faces the <b>Black Cross Knight!</b></div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-8896606694411162422012-01-26T13:07:00.000-08:002012-01-26T16:56:24.663-08:00Mark Dawidziak on Demon in Lace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> ITEM: This report is being posted later than usual because, like Carl Kolchak, I still inhabit a world of deadlines and editors and breaking stories. No, I wasn't waylaid by a Rakshasa or Peremalfait. I got sandbagged by some breaking stories on my way to "Demon in Lace," so apologies for checking in, as Bob Cratchit says to Scrooge, "behind my time." The Tony Vincenzos in my newspaper life were quite correctly wondering, "Where's that story?" Yes, those conversations really go on, just as they were depicted in <i>The Night Stalker.</i> Although I've never had the pleasure of delivering a newsroom line anywhere close to Carl's "Demon in Lace" exclamation: <span style="line-height: 115%;">"Another vanishing corpse, Tony. I tell you,
we’re in luck! It's terrific!"</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> ITEM: This is another episode I've always rather enjoyed, if not quite as much as "Chopper." The presence of Keenan Wynn, making his second appearance as Captain Joe Siska, also invites comparison with the previous Siska story, "The Spanish Moss Murders." Obviously, "Demon in Lace" is not in the "Spanish" class. But if not top-of-the-line <i>Kolchak, </i>it does have creepy moments that hit you with all the impact of a midtown succubus. I'll stick by the evaluation in <i>The Night Stalker Companion</i>: "<span style="line-height: 115%;">Good scares. Good sense of humor. Good
atmosphere. Good fun. Good episode." That pretty much sums up the succubus odyssey for me.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlK2_GrEYi5EM4eMASJX3AkYxb0UWWeh7b2v3EXSyp3ccsqEovHo_0qVi4zhuxzyqzDvhAoNenhwnpnmXPeGgisaTU26NtqZhRIU2VOPERumeKBzhGK5tOT0k7dvE0rUVpQGbQ67mUfPW6/s1600/Invasion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlK2_GrEYi5EM4eMASJX3AkYxb0UWWeh7b2v3EXSyp3ccsqEovHo_0qVi4zhuxzyqzDvhAoNenhwnpnmXPeGgisaTU26NtqZhRIU2VOPERumeKBzhGK5tOT0k7dvE0rUVpQGbQ67mUfPW6/s400/Invasion.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Carolyn Jones as a blonde in <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> ITEM: Kolchak's interaction with the guest players is great fun in this episode, from his roaring reunion with Siska to his encounters with the tuna-touting coach played by comedian Jackie Vernon and the registrar played by Morticia Addams herself (or Marsha, Queen of Diamonds, if you prefer), Carolyn Jones (whose pre-<i>Kolchak </i>credits included not only <i>The Addams Family </i>but the Vincent Price version of <i>House of Wax </i>and the original film version of <i>Invasion of the Body Snatchers</i>). Even like Carl's scenes with Kristina Holland as college newspaper reporter Rosalind Winters. Wynn's TV credits have been well documented. His </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">many films include <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hucksters </i>(1947), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Three Musketeers </i>(1948), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Angels in
the Outfield </i>(1951), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kiss Me Kate </i>(1953),
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Man </i>(1956), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dr. Strangelove </i>(1964), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Finian’s Rainbow </i>(1968), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nashville </i>(1975) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Piranha </i>(1978). Vernon, the voice of Frosty the Snowman, played the inept genie Chatterje in Rod Serling's 1971 "Make Me Laugh" segment of <i>Night Gallery. </i>College student Mike Thompson was an early TV role for </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Ben Masters, later to
co-star with Kate Mulgrew (later Captain Kathryn Janeway on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Trek: Voyager</i>) in ABC's 1988
medical drama, <i>Heartbeat. </i>And Andrew Prine's post-<i>Kolchak </i>genre credits include episodes of <i>Darkroom, V, Freddy's Nightmares, Star Trek: The Next Generation </i>and <i>Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.</i></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Carolyn Jones plays Morticia to John Astin's Gomez.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> ITEM: You can't write off an episode that starts with Kolchak quoting a leader of the Weimar Classicism movement: “It was Goethe who said we love girls for what they
are. Well, even the great Goethe could have learned something from the tale
that took place on the campus of Illinois State Tech.” You can't write off an episode with Tony </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">revealing that in college he played drums in a
group called Tony Vincenzo and his Neopolitans (in real life, Simon Oakland was
an accomplished violinist). Goethe, the Neopolitans and a succubus in the same episode?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> ITEM: This was the last of four episodes directed by Don Weis (following "The Vampire," "Firefall" and "The Trevi Collection"). All in all, not a bad <i>Kolchak </i>quartet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> ITEM: Carolyn Jones and Darren McGavin co-starred in "The Cheney Vase," a 1955 episode of <i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents.</i> </span></div>
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ITEM: Editors screaming for more copy. Grabbing my porkpie hat and
heading for the next deadline. Don't let anyone tell you, it couldn't
happen here.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Take one tablet and call me in the morning.</span> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"> </span> </div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-24144710201196866802012-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-26T06:00:15.309-08:00Episode 16: Demon in Lace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Episode 16: Demon in Lace<br />
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Original Airdate: 2/7/75</div>
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Guest Starring: Keenan Wynn, Andrew Pine</div>
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and Teddie Blue as The Demon</div>
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Written by Stephen Lord & Michael Kozoll and David Chase</div>
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Directed by Don Weis</div>
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<i>A succubus is working her way through hunks and babes on a college campus. With the help of a college reporter, it's up to Kolchak to stop the Sumerian demon.</i><br />
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PE: Every man's nightmare! A few too many drinks and you'll end up in the sack with just about anything. Take my word for it. I live in Arizona where the local pick-up line is "Hey, nice tooth!" And the gruesome make-up almost looks like our Demon has a tongue hanging out of her mouth. I've even had those lines used on me: "I want to touch your face. I've seen it so many times. I just want to convince myself that I'm really here." Usually the only thing I see after that is the badge.<br />
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JS: While the succubus is sufficiently scary looking, her appearances are too few and far between in the episode for my tastes.</div>
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PE: Did college jocks really dress this effeminately in 1975? If so, they certainly got what they deserved. I really wanted to see "that look on their face," the look of terror the cops keep describing on the faces of the corpses. What does a person look like when they've "died of fear?" The eyes have to be open, right? How about the mouth? Lips pulled back as if to scream? We don't even get a description here. Just "Well, chief, you can tell by that look on his face how he died." Bunk.<br />
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JS: I think it would have been very effective to see at least one victim with a face frozen in fear. In fact, if we saw that as the indication that someone was the victim of the succubus, I would have been content with the few early glimpses we do get of the demon.</div>
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PE: Interesting credit: "and Carolyn Jones as Registrar." You'd think if they're going to honor Jones' obvious contract stipulation they'd at least give her a name. Her credit is actually longer than her screen time.<br />
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JS: You know you're in trouble when a superior performance of a guest star can be found in an episode of <a href="http://tothebatpoles.blogspot.com/2011/11/76-77-78-penguin-is-girls-best.html"><i>Batman</i></a>.</div>
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PE: Jackie Vernon is the latest victim of "Cameo Comedian." I don't have a problem with the short shrift given Vernon though as his somnambulist schlub routine, done so much better by Rodney Dangerfield, never lit my rockets.<br />
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JS: Speaking of sleepwalking, if you had told me that Milton Parsons (as Dr. Salem Mozart) died mid-take, I would have believed it. I must admit that I found his conversation with Kolchak quite entertaining, particularly when Carl agrees to subscribe to <i>Handgun Review</i> to give to Miss Emily.</div>
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PE: No, that's not John Holmes in the role of Archaeology Professor Spate, it's genre vet Andrew Prine. What made you think of porn was the mustache, sausage-squeezing bell-bottoms borrowed from Robert Plant, tacky neck-wear, and gold chain Prine wears with his khakis. What, no pith helmet? Those pants, by the way, are in no way complimentary. After hundreds of TV appearances (<i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Combat, Ironside, Dr. Kildare</i>, etc.) Prine settled into a stream of low-budget horror films including <b><i>Simon, King of the Witches, Crypt of the Living Dead, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Grizzly, The Evil,</i></b> before heading back to TV for a second successful run. (including an appearance on <i>CSI</i> in 2005). He's got one great scene here, obviously the one with McGavin, where Carl is trying to bullshit his way into the Professor's confidence. The reporter stumbles when he opines that some of the hieroglyphs on the ancient tablet might be a recipe for Lamb with Mint Sauce. Prine has a fabulous WTF? moment before falling in with Kolchak's inanities to find out where this is going. The funniest thing about this sequence is that this really smart professor could not see through Kolchak's ruse for quite a while.<br />
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JS: Another favorite bit of mine comes when Kolchak pockets a security guard's badge, only to prick himself on it.</div>
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PE: LOL-dialogue when Tony informs the newsroom that, from here on out, all stories will have an upbeat theme, just as Carl, reading from an old text, exclaims "Ah, Asmodeus, the Prince of Fiends!"</div>
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Tony: How is the Prince of Fiends going to fit into my new directive?</blockquote>
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Carl then tells Tony about the translating of the sinister ancient tablet, to which Tony barks:</div>
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Tony: Carl, I don't care what the ancient tablet is, whether it's an ancient guest record at the Ebenezer Motel... or what...<br />
Carl: Ebekenezer!</blockquote>
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JS: I know that I'm going to take heat for this, but I was underwhelmed by Keenan Wynn's performance this time out. Whereas his first appearance as Siska in "Spanish Moss Murders" was a standout, I felt that he reverted to being the cliché police captain here. And now for your rebuttal.<br />
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PE: My rebuttal is that you're insane. I'd like to know the reasoning behind the rotating Captain policy on this show. I ask because it strikes me that Keenan Wynn is so good in this role (as was William Daniels, for that matter) that the producers should have just hired him as a regular. He couldn't have had an unreachable fee at this stage of his career. He's got all the components down perfectly and knows which one to bring out at the right time. He's got that Tony Vincenzo-esque <b>KOLCHAK!</b> bellow, he can converse in an even tone, and he can convey a no-nonsense attitude as well. Was there a thought process going in to this show that a different cop every week would somehow be a plus?</div>
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JS: I'm surprised you didn't call out the line where Rosalind is on the phone describing Mick Jagger as a 'nine' and Quasimodo as a 'two'. Of course the reason it stood out to me is because I would rank Jagger and the Hunchback about the same.<br />
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PE: I think Lara Parker hung around after "The Trevi Collection" to give evil laugh lessons to Maria Grimm (dead girl Maria)</div>
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JS: It made for a nice transition from the cutie-pie that she was, to the demon she would become.<br />
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PE: Coincidentally, everyone in this show who discovers a dead body knows exactly what a dead body looks like. The young guy who loses his date through a tumble down the stairs, only to find her body missing, spent three years in Nam and knows just what a dead body looks like (and also knows well the <i>stench</i> of death!). Maria, dead from a really bad day at the office and a percolator, is discovered by her Spanish landlady just moments before she gets up from the couch and wanders off. "No, senor, I've worked at a hospital for ten years, I know the dead when I see them," she tells Captain Siska. Our Captain must be getting tired of hearing the same old line.<br />
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JS: I liked that final shot of he vanquished demon, where we realize that the succubus was in fact <i>Mrs</i>. Chopper (<i>nice hair though-PE</i>).<br />
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PE: Very creepy climax when the demon turns her unsavory attention towards Carl, who's smashing her tablet. The image of the demon through the open french doors reminded me of some of those Mexican horror films I ate up as a kid.<br />
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Next up... Kolchak meets <b>The Mummy!</b></div>
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Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-57033904813815701032012-01-25T12:24:00.000-08:002012-01-25T12:36:18.273-08:00Mark Dawidziak on Chopper<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> All right, we all know what's wrong with "Chopper." Producer Cy Chermak knew before the episode was done filming. Nobody needs the heads up on this one. On the show's budget, there simply was no way to make the headless motorcycle rider look like anything but a stuntman with a leather jacket pulled over his head and phoney shoulders. It looks terrible today, but, to be painfully honest, it looked pretty awful in 1975.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> In today's CGI world, this biker updating of Washington Irving's Headless Horseman tale could be given the dazzling special-effects treatment. Like "The Werewolf," "Chopper" is an episode that leaves you pondering just how frighteningly effective it could be done more than thirty-five years later. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Still, if you can look past what's passing for that missing head, "Chopper" holds up very well in almost all other regards. Indeed, so much goes wonderfully right in "Chopper," both producer Cy Chermak and story editor David Chase single it out as a favorite.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "I thought it was very well written,"
Chermak said. "The dark humor is really something, but I hate the visual. It
looked silly. Today, with digitalization, you could do that effect one, two,
three." </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> It does, indeed, chart very high for all kinds of reasons: humor, horror, offbeat approach, guest cast. You can sense the fun everybody had with this one. Here's the section from <i>The Night Stalker Companion </i>about about Bob Zemeckis becoming part of the <i>Kolchak </i>world:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> One of the contributing writers to
"Chopper" was a recent graduate of USC's School of Cinema, Robert
Zemeckis. A Chicago native, Zemeckis went to Universal to observe the making of
a TV series, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">McCloud</i>. Then in his
early twenties, Zemeckis and collaborator Robert Gale wrote a script for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">McCloud</i>. They also took a whack at <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kolchak</i>.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Bob
Gale and I worked on a couple of ideas for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Night Stalker</i>," Zemeckis recalls, "and they produced one. It was my first
professional sale. So I guess you could stay it all started with Kolchak.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "We
knew they needed ideas and scripts. The show had trouble because they needed a
new monster every week. And after they had done a werewolf, a vampire and
zombie, they said, 'Oh, no, we're running out of monsters.' So Bob and I saw
this and thought, if we could create a folklore that they could plug into the
series, we might get our first sale. We started out with a sort of 'Legend of
Sleepy Hollow' thing, and we combined that with the '50s biker idea. And they
bought it. I thought it came off very funny. They kept all the main elements of
the story. The rewriting that was done was because we didn't understand the
limitations of television.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "Obviously,
I've always loved this kind of stuff, but that's not why we wrote 'Chopper.' We
did it because we perceived this vacuum. Now I tell students, 'Don't try to
sell a spec script to a hit show. They have a staff of writers and more scripts
than they know what do with. Sell one to a show that's having trouble finding
writers.' That was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night Stalker. </i>If
you come along with the right idea, they'll recognize that it's good for their
show."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcq8OjVqMiBiNGSjuHz7t1LwdFs_3lHiAdl9rOeoQz9bsFmqQwj8rTJ1fWoKl9JCJ96vFAqyFqBoSkFhKkEo7cetl2XuDUHDO_Bm0QzZ4eX7tUzBNKJExvPQgXYhomEhBt2O72FLQNm-z/s1600/Zemeckis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvcq8OjVqMiBiNGSjuHz7t1LwdFs_3lHiAdl9rOeoQz9bsFmqQwj8rTJ1fWoKl9JCJ96vFAqyFqBoSkFhKkEo7cetl2XuDUHDO_Bm0QzZ4eX7tUzBNKJExvPQgXYhomEhBt2O72FLQNm-z/s400/Zemeckis.jpg" width="371" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Bob Zemeckis and friend.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Zemeckis
and Gale then sold their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">McCloud </i>script.
Then they sold one to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Get Christie Love </i>(ABC,
1974-75). In 1978, Zemeckis turned to directing with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I Wanna Hold Your Hand</i>. The rest of the resume speaks for itself: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Used Cars</i> (1980), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Romancing the Stone</i> (1984), the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Back
to the Future</i> trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990 and shot at Universal) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Who Framed Roger Rabbit</i> (1988). Zemeckis
also has directed episodes of a series he executive produces for Home Box
Office, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tales from the Crypt </i>(a
horror anthology you know Carl Kolchak would appreciate). On March 27, 1995, he
walked on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to pick up his
Oscar for directing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Forrest Gump. </i>The
hit film also won Academy Awards for best picture, best actor (Tom Hanks),
screenplay, film editing and visual effects. And it all started with a headless
motorcycle rider.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> "That
episode was one of my favorites," David Chase. "It's typical of what
the young writers, like Bob Zemeckis, would come up with. It was a ‘60s rock
'n' roll joke. It was wild -- a headless biker riding around."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Funny stuff roaring throughout "Chopper." There’s Simon Oakland, in typically
wonderful form, having a belly blast with Tony’s restricted diet. Released from
the hospital with a churning ulcer, Tony must try to keep his temper while
keeping away from spicy food – while dealing with you-know-who. There's also that great Kolchak line, when Captain Jonas (Larry Linville) says a motorcycle
rider has taken it into his head to start a killing spree: "He certainly hasn't
taken it into his head, because he has no head!"</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Jesse White in his Maytag phase.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Following Stanley Adams, Linville
became the second cast member from the original </span><i>Night Stalker</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> movie to make a guest appearance in an episode of the
series. The supporting cast of "Chopper"
represents a great deal of television history: Jim Backus (the voice of Mr.
McGoo, his series ranged from </span><i>I Married
Joan</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to </span><i>Gilligan's Island</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">),
Linville (Major Frank Burns on </span><i>M*A*S*H</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">),
Steve Franken (Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. on </span><i>The
Many Loves of Dobie Gillis</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">) and Jesse White (the original Maytag repairman
in the commercials).Franken, though, was filling in for
John Fiedler. Neil the morgue attendant seems to be a fun, but, let's face it, he’s no Gordy the
Ghoul. Jesse White got his start as Mr. Wilson
in the Broadway and film versions of </span><i>Harvey</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.
In 1956, he appeared with Henry Jones (Captain Wells in “Werewolf”) in </span><i>The Bad Seed. </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">His other notable movies
include </span><i>Bedtime for Bonzo </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(1951), </span><i>Death of a Salesman </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(1951) and </span><i>Matinee </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(an underrated 1993 film from
director and </span><i>Kolchak </i>fan Joe
Dante).</span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-25076763517198848992012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-25T06:04:57.139-08:00Episode 15: Chopper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Episode 15: Chopper<br />
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Guest Starring: Jim Backus, Larry Linville</div>
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and Steve Boyum as The Headless Harleyman</div>
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Written by Steve Fisher and David Chase</div>
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From a story by Robert Zemeckis, and Bob Gale</div>
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Directed by Bruce Kessler</div>
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<i>When the decapitated skull of a sword-wielding biker is separated from the rest of his body, his spirit returns in search of vengeance for the people responsible. It's up to Kolchak to pin the head on the stump, putting the ghost rider to rest once and for all.</i><br />
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PE: How does a bloodless show address a monster who decapitates his victims with a sword? Answer: lots of slow motion and gasping witnesses.<br />
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JS: Let's be frank. This episode has no business getting any respect. And yet, despite perhaps the most ridiculous looking monster of the week yet, it's pretty darn entertaining. </div>
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PE: It's hard to get past the shortcomings of that chopper suit. I know there was no other way in 1975 of showing a headless guy on a Harley. Obviously budget constraints also factored into <i>talking</i> about Chopper's favorite song, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly, but never actually <i>playing</i> it on the soundtrack. It's a glaring omission though once it's brought up. I would guess that, if it was in Zemeckis' original script, that's what he imagined in the finished product.<br />
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JS: The least they could have done was started with a stunt driver who wasn't six feet tall! Of course as funny as he looks, if you saw him coming down the street at you swinging a sword, you'd be freaking out, too.</div>
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PE: The first professional work credited to future Oscar-winning director Bob Zemeckis and his writing partner, Bob Gale, "Chopper" carries the same kind of dark humor that was a strong selling point of his early work like <i><b>1941</b></i> and <b><i>Used Cars</i></b>. It was only later in his career that he fell back on family-oriented fare like<b><i> Back to the Future</i></b>, <b><i>Who Framed Roger Rabbi</i></b>t, and <b><i>Forrest Gump</i></b>. I'm a big fan of the early Zemeckis and Gale.<br />
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JS: I love that, for the first victim, we get a chalk outline, all shoulders, no neck or head. In case we hadn't been paying too close attention when he was smacked in the middle of the back with the sword.</div>
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PE: Carl uses his fast-working, conniving brain to extract vital information from top cop Larry Linville. I liked the scene but it seems out of place in <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker</i>. Don't ask me why because I can't explain it but the sit down and gab seemed more suited to another David Chase show, <i>The Rockford Files (I hadn't made that connection, but you're absolutely right—that was very Jim Rockford. -JS)</i>. Still an entertaining scene. Linville played a Medical Examiner in the first film. Here he's quite a bit more animated. Some of that whiny, caffeinated Frank Burns comes through now and then.<br />
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JS: Linville, who I absolutely could not stand in <i>M*A*S*H</i>, is great in this. He's given more to do than just yell at Kolchak; we see him deal with victims and witnesses much more compassionately. And finally, a police captain gets his just desserts!</div>
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PE: Not near enough "Tony and Carl" here. There's only one standout scene in the newsroom. Driven by a mad desire to eat (but needing to watch what he eats because of his ulcer), Tony is a little more irritable than usual. After Ron, Carl, and Miss Emily have a rambunctious discussion of beheadings while eating their lunch, Tony rips into the trio:</div>
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"Boy, you people got a lot of gall, let me tell you. You sit around here collecting your salaries and gassing about guillotines and corpses on motor scooters and stuffing your faces. This isn't a functioning newsroom! This is occupational therapy!"</div>
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The scene ends with a delivery boy (ostensibly from Matty's) coming to the newsroom, Vincenzo discreetly paying him and then the editor racing into his office, pulling the shades, as if he'd just pulled off a drug buy and was going to sample his purchase. Oakland, as usual, is comedic gold.</div>
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JS: While the time in the newsroom is limited, I think the other characters make up for it. This episode doesn't feel padded like some of the others we've seen.<br />
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PE: Why is it that whenever Carl needs to keep quiet, he drops something?<br />
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JS: For an episode about motorcycle gangs, it sure seems like there's a dearth of motorcycles.</div>
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PE: Like Phil Silvers in "The Horror of the Heights," Jim Backus is woefully underused here. What's the sense of hiring these TV vets and then using them for a throwaway scene or two? Backus is actually very good here as a motorcycle salesman/WWII vet. He conveys a deep sadness while telling Carl of his plane going down in "The Big One" and his year in a Vet hospital. You'd never know this was the guy behind Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell the Third.<br />
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JS: Backus is great. As soon as you see him, you expect him to be a stereotypical used car dealer. So imagine my surprise to find that his scene was quite poignant. </div>
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PE:
I'm not sure why Kolchak would visit a guillotine exhibit to inquire
about supernatural shenanigans during the Victorian era. What does that
have to do with Harold "Swordman" Baker? A lot, we come to find out, but
it's a stretch that Carl got his answers from the prissy Professor
Strig.<br />
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JS: Professor Strig was portrayed by Jay Robinson, who in 1976 joined the Sid & Marty Krofft family as the infamous <i>Dr. Shrinker</i> (which was second only to <i>Land of the Lost</i> in my book).<br />
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JS: The skull, when we finally see it, is a great payoff. Of course, no sooner than we get that effective shot, and we're right back to silliness as Kolchak throws a two-seam fastball at our spirit biker, reverting him to a dime store skeleton. And if you've followed our previous blogs, you'll know I'm a sucker for skeletons.<br />
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PE: Despite my usual nits, this is easily the nastiest Kolchak yet. It moves quickly, with not too many dead spots, and elevates itself high above the silly sight of a guy with a six-foot midsection and an itty bitty stump atop his shoulders. The memories I have are of a thirteen year-old watching this on the edge of his couch, not minding (or possibly not noticing) the bad spfx. I was, after all, the same kid staying up late to watch<i><b> The Giant Claw</b></i> and <b><i>Monster on the Campus</i></b>.</div>
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Next up... Kolchak faces the <b>Demon in Lace!</b></div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-82161795712731097152012-01-24T12:09:00.000-08:002012-01-24T18:36:25.238-08:00Mark Dawidziak on The Trevi Collection<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> It's such an ancient pitch and maybe it's witchcraft, but this one always has charted a little higher for me -- not into the top echelon of <i>Kolchak </i>episodes, to be sure, but certainly landing solidly in that middle ground where the paranormal proceedings seem fresh and fun. I like the idea of turning fashion-challenged Carl loose in the world of high fashion (great comedic contrast, as <i>Columbo </i>learned in a few episodes). I like the way the relationship between Carl and Madelaine starts out so amiable, friendly and sympathetic. I like the creepier touches, even if some of them are done, predictably enough, on the cheap. I like Nina Foch's portrayal of Madame Trevi (and her interplay with Carl, first so snippy, then sympathetic). I like the overall balance of humor and horror as "</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Dying and maiming were coming into vogue in
the fashion world." Well, there's just a great deal to like here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Some of those touches go over the top, without doubt, and "The Trevi Collection" does have its share of clunky moments, as well. But if not a great episode, by any means, for me, at least, it's a thoroughly entertaining entry. It works its magic, and, full disclosure time, perhaps some of that can be chalked up to having been under the spell of <i>Dark Shadows.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEise7DrdDDmAAwYtCgiPozHwMe-zEgYpZK6WOISzp6WPG4OV-tefEpxuZuxVJDDOeUx0XgGpsviSP611d07zG4e3SZ4nHPVNVxkF1Sk6owpHEfupL1XfwwAs4s94omYFLCnB4MDiSCaL96-/s1600/DarkShadows5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEise7DrdDDmAAwYtCgiPozHwMe-zEgYpZK6WOISzp6WPG4OV-tefEpxuZuxVJDDOeUx0XgGpsviSP611d07zG4e3SZ4nHPVNVxkF1Sk6owpHEfupL1XfwwAs4s94omYFLCnB4MDiSCaL96-/s400/DarkShadows5.jpg" width="267" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i>The link between <i>Dark Shadows </i>and <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker </i>is obvious, but it's also personal. I was ten years old when <i>Dark Shadows </i>let Barnabas Collins out of his coffin in April 1967, and, all of sudden, there was a vampire running around daytime television. I'd been watching monster movies for about three years at that point, so I was hooked. I explain to the students who take my Vampires on Film and Television class at Kent State University how important and pivotal a figure Barnabas is as a vampire who questions his own nature, battles against it and sets out to reclaim his soul. Here begins the wholesale humanizing of the vampire, a path that will take us deep into the books of Anne Rice, past <i>Angel </i>and all the way to current vampire boom of <i>True Blood, Twilight </i>and <i>The Vampire Diaries. </i>But if for every action there's a reaction, then the response to this vampire with a conscience came just nine months after <i>Dark Shadows </i>ended its five-year ABC run in April 1971. That, of course, would be <i>The Night Stalker, </i>with its snarling, animalistic, dehumanized Janos Skorzeny -- every bit as nasty as Barnabas was sympathetic. One of the many intriguing things about this is that the same producer gave us both: Dan Curtis. He gave us the sympathetic vampire, then turned right around and put the pure predator back on the horror track in the biggest way imaginable. If Barnabas and Janos could have sat down and talked over matters vampiric, that conversation might well have foreshadowed (and <i>Dark Shadow</i>-ed) the chats Rice cooked up for introspective Louis and the proudly predatory Lestat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Both <i>Dark Shadows </i>and <i>The Night Stalker </i>were profound influences on my horror consciousness. And Lara Parker was an integral part of the <i>Dark Shadows </i>world, playing ever-scheming Angelique as a witch, a vampire and a witch again. About 22 years after "The Trevi Collection" first aired, <i>The Night Stalker Companion </i>was published by Pomegranate Press, a publishing company founded by Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie Evans on the very first 1966 episode of <i>Dark Shadows </i>and stayed with the series until September 1970. I'm standing on a stage at a midtown New York hotel, telling <i>Dark Shadows </i>fans, "I can't believe that Maggie Evans is my publisher." I still can't believe it. A few years after that, I was sitting between Kathryn and Lara at a horror convention, talking <i>Dark Shadows </i>and <i>Kolchak </i>with a non-stop parade of fans. So an episode that brings an essential <i>Dark Shadows </i>player into the <i>Kolchak </i>world might still have a little extra magic for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> That much being confessed, I do have actual critical reasons for liking this particular witches brew of high fashion and low comedy. First, there is the comedy, from Carl lecturing Tony about sprucing up his wardrobe (Carl?!) to Carl's amusement over Tony having a brother-in-law named Rocco in the venetian-blind business.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Then there's the direction by Don Weis, at the helm of his third <i>Kolchak </i>episode (after "The Vampire" and "Firefall"). Again trying to squeeze the maximum terror out of </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> minimalist horror effects, his
production team makes eerie use of the animated mannequins by suggesting an
impending attack through camera angles and slight movements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> And there's the new approach to the storytelling. </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Unlike most <i>Kolchak
</i>episodes, "The Trevi Collection" plunges right into the story with Carl
giving a date and time and place for the first mysterious circumstance.
Usually, this information was provided after a more general opening narration that
established the mood. Then Carl would launch into the date-time-place spiel.
"The Trevi Collection" skips the talking-into-the-tape-recorder opening and
cuts right to the chase. Nice change of pace. It's like that rare <i>Columbo </i>episode when the good lieutenant unexpectedly shows up in the first few minutes, and you're thinking, "Wait a minute. He's not supposed to show up for another fifteen minutes." Once in a while, it keeps you on your toes. Like that, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Those familiar with <i>Night Stalking </i>or <i>The Night Stalker Companion </i>know that "The Trevi Collection" was not the happiest time Parker spent on a film or TV set. The grind really was getting to everybody, including Darren McGavin. Still, having so memorably played Angelique on so many episodes of <i>Dark Shadows, </i>Parker was a natural choice for the role of Madelaine. "I
don't think it had anything to do with me being cast," Parker said.
"I auditioned for the part and got it. But I think all of the <i>Dark Shadows</i> fans were thrilled to see
me as something supernatural. I remember Darren McGavin telling me, 'Nobody
really understands the style of this thing. It has to be played seriously, and
then the horror will come out naturally.' It was sort of ironic because I'd
been doing that type of show for five years."</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwMEIQp6W650bkSLKrdG2BySCI06C8Mq9MSdqmPSaWJpqKTTFrhjSxTFFD8gTpaxc5VhuPwQyG9xTK-8F2lDDON1bcMPtg1FIoy9SFKEkB0dsKl830dIzzjVUum6Px7bdQ0ewb3wD8XLP/s1600/LaraBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwMEIQp6W650bkSLKrdG2BySCI06C8Mq9MSdqmPSaWJpqKTTFrhjSxTFFD8gTpaxc5VhuPwQyG9xTK-8F2lDDON1bcMPtg1FIoy9SFKEkB0dsKl830dIzzjVUum6Px7bdQ0ewb3wD8XLP/s400/LaraBook.jpg" width="257" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lara Parker's <i>The Salem Branch</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> But the grueling hours, tight budgets and exhaustion had taken their toll on the cast members and production crew, so
Parker wasn't walking into the jolliest of environments. This is how Lara described it for <i>The Night Stalker Companion</i>: "Darren McGavin
was working very, very hard, so he was sort of withdrawn
and not very accessible during that episode. Yes, we worked at night. And, yes,
the hours were long. They'd already done more than half of the episodes at that
point, and I think nerves were a little frayed around the edges. But it was a
nice part, a fun part. I had my head held under water. I had purple spots all
over my face while I turned into a raving maniac. I had to freak out, yelling
and screaming. I'm very game. . .</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">but, long hours and all, he wasn’t very
nice to work with. He was very short-tempered. When I’d be yelling, he'd be saying, 'Don't do that,
don't do it that way.’ He kept trying to tell me how to play a witch. It was a
fun part, but, to be honest, it wasn't the most fun acting experience I ever
had."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> I've also interviewed Lara several times about her <i>Dark Shadows </i>experiences (most recently for last year's 45th anniversary of the show's premiere), and these always have been wonderfully thoughtful, candid and rich conversations. Also an accomplished author, Lara has penned such <i>Dark Shadows </i>novels as <i>Angelique's Descent </i>and <i>The Salem Branch.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i>Also contributing to the episode are:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i>Bernie Kopell, who made appearances as the
evil C.H.A.O.S. mastermind Siegfried on <i>Get Smart.</i> He plays a
doctor. Two years after this episode, he started a lucrative nine-year cruise
as the ship's doctor on <i>The Love Boat</i>. He also showed up in memorable episodes of <i>The Dick Van Dyke Show, Night Gallery, The Odd Couple, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show </i>and, as Dr. Frankenstien on <i>The Ghost Busters, </i>starring Larry Storch ("The Vampire") and Forrest Tucker.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Marvin
Miller, who has one scene as the lecturer on witchcraft. He was best known as Mr.
Michael Anthony, the financial representative who, for five years of <i>The Millionaire</i> (CBS, 1955-60), gave
away a million tax-free dollars on behalf of billionaire John Beresford Tipton. Uncredited voices were a bit of specialty, ranging from Robby the Robot in <i>Forbidden Planet </i>(1956) to the narrator on Leslie Nielsen's lamentably short-lived <i>Police Squad.</i></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3i0900UzRMoJxljceJW61jyHsTQoeamRn7OCKHuV09Egd3n0I5Ls62Iare9MgS8th1X2_af01S9Pn1hHW2T7NKpqa7WqoChsPTRO7goT35vHh_w49tmnUAvPnmXqIVdUAlrvHyhyhhT6_/s1600/NinaFoch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3i0900UzRMoJxljceJW61jyHsTQoeamRn7OCKHuV09Egd3n0I5Ls62Iare9MgS8th1X2_af01S9Pn1hHW2T7NKpqa7WqoChsPTRO7goT35vHh_w49tmnUAvPnmXqIVdUAlrvHyhyhhT6_/s400/NinaFoch.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bela Lugosi putting the bite on Nina Foch in <i>The Return of the Vampire.</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>And, Madame Trevi herself, </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Nina
Foch. She had the ideal preparation for a <i>Kolchak </i>episode. Two of her first films
were <i>The Return of the Vampire </i>(1943),
with Bela Lugosi, and <i>Cry of the Werewolf
</i>(1944). Twenty years after her Lugosi encounter, she appeared in an episode of <i>The Outer Limits </i>("The Borderland"). In 1945, she appeared in <i>A
Song to Remember, </i>the film that marked the screen debut of young Darren
McGavin. He movie credits also include <i>An
American in Paris </i>(1951), <i>The Ten
Commandments </i>(1956) and <i>Spartacus </i>(1960).
After her <i>Kolchak </i>gig, she played Dr.
Julia Moorehouse in ABC’s <i>Shadow Chasers</i>,
a 1985-86 <i>Ghostbusters</i>-inspired
series about two paranormal investigators (Dennis Dugan and Trevor Eve).</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"><i> </i>She also has the distinction of being the very first murder victim in the very first mystery featuring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, <i>Prescription: Murder </i>(first aired in 1968).</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-14460713384464386442012-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:002012-01-24T06:00:04.049-08:00Episode 14: The Trevi Collection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtChzTDP0Ha4omgslGRidAv7WNMAs_20ar-l1cCZEYJlo7XY43_c9hpxmlPSmmUcvqZpKZ8VAEoQoIaLSebUAZJYnSnkc_UDZcq8rNVG7yKrSuHVB7EeykYXDUZho9FY48Q4s6f5W1zA/s1600/screen-capture.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtChzTDP0Ha4omgslGRidAv7WNMAs_20ar-l1cCZEYJlo7XY43_c9hpxmlPSmmUcvqZpKZ8VAEoQoIaLSebUAZJYnSnkc_UDZcq8rNVG7yKrSuHVB7EeykYXDUZho9FY48Q4s6f5W1zA/s320/screen-capture.png" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Episode 14: The Trevi Collection</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Original Airdate: 1/24/75</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Guest Starring: Nina Foch, Lara Parker</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Written by Rudolph Borchert</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Directed by Don Weis</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Kolchak believes that fashion designer Madame Trevi may be responsible for several mysterious deaths through the use of black magic. When one of her models offers to help him, he doesn't realize that Trevi may not be the real threat.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: Well, since we don't see the disheveled Carl Kolchak sitting in a gutter someplace speaking into a tape recorder, there's a bit of suspense here: could this be the adventure Carl doesn't survive? </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkFMQQED4PMo2fxMFKUYonSgFUYh9yRr8C3NWzxfTvTUX5jqtWrnNfko_AOusw5zEdxjEmTdAF4xGv1EOfW7e7f9fA5dkkmxOhFfB1NGEtBjKI3W3d5ubQeB1-ZEgtHSMtFCGNusQy82M/s1600/screen-capture.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkFMQQED4PMo2fxMFKUYonSgFUYh9yRr8C3NWzxfTvTUX5jqtWrnNfko_AOusw5zEdxjEmTdAF4xGv1EOfW7e7f9fA5dkkmxOhFfB1NGEtBjKI3W3d5ubQeB1-ZEgtHSMtFCGNusQy82M/s320/screen-capture.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">JS: This one hooked me right away with the creepy living mannequins. I wish a still image could do them justice, but you really need to see them rolled across the floor on a dolly to appreciate them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: If I was Mickey Patchek, the tip-off that there's something strange going on, while he's snapping secret pics, would be that those mannequins are moving. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: While I was hoping that Madame Trevi's living mannequins were going to be the monster of the week,
that's not the case. At least the mannequins make another appearance
before the episode is over.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: Nice ghoulish dialogue between Carl and the publicity-seeking fashion model, Madelaine (the still lovely Lara Parker):</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Madelaine: What kind of story could you do about me?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Carl: Well, I might be able to tie you into a story on the man's death.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Madelaine: Terrific! I like the contrast! Beautiful fashion model. Grim, tawdry death of a fashion spy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Are we sure this is Chicago and not Hollywood?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: </span><span style="font-size: small;">She portrays a kind of character we haven't seen much in
this series—one who's more interested in talking to Kolchak than he is
in listening to her. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Parker made a name for herself on Dan Curtis' long running gothic soap opera, <i>Dark Shadows</i>. She has gone on to pen several <i>DS</i> volumes (both fiction and non-fiction). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAIV5Bb7VVjipFgnVnZTAp-HC4CuDJALfVBzUh_EVBVzgjQhOF-kXTjw3bZdIIAALFNuZ3vGflneO2nvkQEsJ4fDeQIpvAY0GUIWi5JF30O43gAdMi3bm3bZ1mXAUzoLAMS9paPYxIjE/s1600/screen-capture-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBAIV5Bb7VVjipFgnVnZTAp-HC4CuDJALfVBzUh_EVBVzgjQhOF-kXTjw3bZdIIAALFNuZ3vGflneO2nvkQEsJ4fDeQIpvAY0GUIWi5JF30O43gAdMi3bm3bZ1mXAUzoLAMS9paPYxIjE/s320/screen-capture-2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">PE: Lara Parker's a babe but she's got an unusual delivery. She always sounds as though she's just run a mile, out of breath. A bit of a scene chewer as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: Yeah, when she turns on that maniacal laugh, there's no stopping it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: It occurs to me that Carl Kolchak falls down at the most inopportune times more than any 1950s monster movie heroine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: The accidents that befall our murder victims are very interestingly staged this time out (for the most part). A favorite of mine being the cat-attack.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: The "mauling" of model Ariel is a stunner. I haven't seen such consummate animal tossing like this since Eddie Albert and June Havoc suffered "<a href="http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/03/cry-of-silence.html">The Flight of Frog Squadron One</a>" But that's topped by the underworld machine-gunning snitch Murray Vernon in the phone booth as he's falling asleep. Mobsters have no class. At least Murray was able to hang up the phone before bleeding out to avoid extra charges. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: Yeah, Vernon's falling asleep on his feet when he's
supposedly being brought down with a hail of bullets from a machine-gun
was pretty ridiculous.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">PE: The goons give Carl a better deal: he has 60 hours to cough up the evidence. That's "the day after tomorrow night" as one of the heavies reminds Kolchak. The other heavy is played by our old friend, character actor Richard Bakalyan, who kept us entertained through five episodes of <i><a href="http://tothebatpoles.blogspot.com/">Batman</a></i> last year. Bakalyan was the go-to guy for a heavy in the 60s and 70s. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: I was pleased to see him here, too. For all sakes and purposes, he could be playing one of the same hoods that he did in Gotham City.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: Tony is perplexed by the sixty hour figure:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Tony: Sixty hours? How'd you come up with that?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Carl: Arbitration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The scene following that exchange, where Tony has his near-seizure while trying to talk Carl into doing something sensible, is the reason that I love this series, even when everything else that makes up the episode is weak. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: Yes, <i>Trevi</i> earns points for great Kolchak/Tony banter. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: The shower death of Melody Sedgwick (Beverly Gill) is a knock-out. There's no gore involved but you can feel that scalding water hitting the girl and her obvious helplessness. One of the more effectively staged death scenes we've had in this series. Risque shot as well. Gill certainly looks nude from behind the frosted glass. I guess we'll have to wait for the blu-rays to show up before we make a final decision. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: I'm so glad you've finally embraced a new technology, but I think your expectations for the capabilities of Blu Ray may be a tad too high.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: An odd gaffe when Carl tells Tony that his boss should discover haute couture: "That's high culture" says Carl, but later when interviewing Madame Trevi, the fashionista uses the phrase and Carl has no idea what she's talking about. But the most inexplicable bit is when Madelaine tells Carl that Trevi is a witch and he looks at her like she's nuts. "Witch?" he asks as he turns away, rolling his eyes. Obviously, if anyone's going to believe the girl, it would be Kolchak. That is, unless witches are a bit more far-fetched than vampires, werewolves, and moss monsters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: In all fairness, I don't think the disbelief was in witches so much as it was that a popular fashion designer might be a witch.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LFQxH5_xbjPDp07g6IvKXwVGsGhPqUf2YyIgqRPHMUBqalGFRnC55R-SndYXjzX8Q5zrQPDxTD3esN8Di3riRn3O2CUs7ncsjRJN5MrZ-rZ2b3bWQiW5j94jxhYHpaPO2hFaSxwr-30/s1600/screen-capture-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4LFQxH5_xbjPDp07g6IvKXwVGsGhPqUf2YyIgqRPHMUBqalGFRnC55R-SndYXjzX8Q5zrQPDxTD3esN8Di3riRn3O2CUs7ncsjRJN5MrZ-rZ2b3bWQiW5j94jxhYHpaPO2hFaSxwr-30/s320/screen-capture-4.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">PE: That sure looked like Simon Oakland up at the podium lecturing about witchcraft. Or is it Edward G. Robinson? How can we ever forget Priscilla Morrill (Griselda) as Donald Pleasance's nagging wife from <i>The Outer Limits</i> episode "<a href="http://wearecontrollingtransmission.blogspot.com/2011/01/man-with-power.html">The Man With the Power</a>"?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: How about the doctor, played by Bernie Koppel before joining the crew of the <i>Love Boat?</i> I thought he and Carl had a nice exchange after he overhears Kolchak and Trevi talking in the hospital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: I love how Kolchak is set up by the evil coven, falling for their parlor tricks but then the scene is completely ruined by amateurish, over-the-top guffawing. The kind of forced laughter a parent comes up with at his kid's school play (with crazy eyes as an added bonus).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">JS: That was a very interesting twist, to be sure. Imagine if a vampire had convinced Kolchak to stake a human!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">PE: A wildly uneven episode, filled with plenty of show-killing slow spots and a nutty finale. Madelaine's forced apple-bobbing in a vat of blue dye (at least I think it's supposed to be blue dye) by Kolchak is nasty and violent (I expected a police witnessing ala <b><i>The Night Stalker</i></b> at this point but none came) but it's capped off by the histrionics of a screeching, very <i>blue </i>Lara Parker.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Next up... Kolchak faces the <b>Chopper</b>!</span></div>
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</div>Peter Enfantinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061398142362448372.post-24219390241700544462012-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:002012-01-23T19:09:20.600-08:00Mark Dawidziak on Primal Scream<div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">By Mark Dawidziak</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> "Primal Scream" is a scream . . . if you can disregard the supernatural stuff and just appreciate it for the considerable comedic content. The humor always could get quite antic (and sometimes delightfully juvenile) on <i>Kolchak: The Night Stalker, </i>but in no other episode does the humor so far outdistance the horror (of which there is very little in this lackluster episode about a prehistoric apelike creature with a voracious appetite for human flesh).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Although there was (and still is) some subversive metaphoric delight in seeing an oil conglomerate being cast as the real monster, unwittingly unleashing a disaster claiming human life (hmmmm), this is a Kolchak caper where the usual blend of humor and horror is terribly out of whack. By the time they got to the thirteenth episode, so much of the monster-of-the-week formula stuff seemed wearily familiar. The ending in the tunnels, even though the reddish flares are a nice visual touch, is reminiscent of the Peremalfait showdown in "The Spanish Moss Murders." Katharine Woodville's Helen Lynch is reminiscent of Corrine Michaels' Leslie Dwyer, just seen in "Mr. R.I.N.G." John Marley's Captain Maurice Molnar is reminiscent of so many of his growling police predecessors. And there's no real explanation given of why cells from the Ice Age would start to "exhibit biological functions," rapidly reproduce and form into a half-man, half-gorilla beast. Where's the <i>Jurassic Park </i>moment when the whole pseudo-scientific concept is explained in a half-way plausible manner?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> The germ of this idea, by the way, was in a Time magazine article that caught Darren McGavin's fancy when the series was in its earliest planning stages. </span><span style="font-size: small;">Written by story editor Chase and Bill
S. Ballinger (who had received solo credit on "Firefall"), "Primal Sceam" had
its origins in a suggestion made by McGavin. Even before Paul Playdon was
signed on as the first producer, McGavin was on a plane to Australia when he
read the <i>Time </i>piece about core
samples being taken from Antarctic ice. The samples contained amoebas thousands
of years old and still alive. When asked by reporters at the first <i>Kolchak </i>press conference about story
ideas, McGavin said they might do one about a hospital built over an Indian
burial ground ["Bad Medicine”] and another "on live amoebas dating back five or
six million years, and dug out of an Antarctic drilling."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> They did that drilling story, all right, but they didn't dig too deep for a great horror idea. They compensated with humor, and, to be totally fair, the humor works quite well throughout "Primal Scream." It's worth sticking around just for the laughs, even if you suspect about halfway through that the writers and actors are just having way too much fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Case in point: the whimsical inside-the-cemetery jokes. </span><span style="font-size: small;">One of the creature's victims is
watching a Universal horror film with the Mummy. Another victim is truck driver William Pratt. Boris Karloff's real name, of course, was William Henry Pratt and he had indeed worked as a truck driver before making it as actor. While
playful, these in-jokes also remind us that the <i>Kolchak </i>home studio, Universal, was the Hollywood lot that gave
us Lugosi's <i>Dracula</i> and Karloff's <i>Frankenstein</i> and, yes, all those Mummy pictures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Easly the most playful scene, however, is the
one in which the ever-serious Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage) tells Carl and Tony a very somber
story about a terrible accident, ending with the line about a piecost. Finally, Tony takes the bait. "What's a
piecost?" he asks. "About eighty-nine cents," Ron answers,
prompting Carl to break up and Tony to dub him "Harry High School." The real culprit here, though, was story editor David Chase.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> "I
heard that joke in the second grade," Chase said.
"I just threw it in. It's this little moment of absurdity. I mean, why is
this reporter telling a grammar-school joke? I
always sort of looked at the INS newsroom as a family, with Tony as the
bellowing father. Kolchak became the naughty boy, always a little out of place.
Ron was the good boy. Emily was the favorite aunt or sweet grandmother."</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnj-dPmYwtD-OmNxmX9wmfXcjuy8qN2tCXCKdk7N4cmEgpUvmweELPdL2jpcM6dekAhyphenhyphenvKBDXbJMH_aIAsYHueDgi7W7U8_RHjv5g6qErflqdVpFPz2EoDzsELRtelv-G_R_tABsUW59C-/s1600/Chaney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnj-dPmYwtD-OmNxmX9wmfXcjuy8qN2tCXCKdk7N4cmEgpUvmweELPdL2jpcM6dekAhyphenhyphenvKBDXbJMH_aIAsYHueDgi7W7U8_RHjv5g6qErflqdVpFPz2EoDzsELRtelv-G_R_tABsUW59C-/s320/Chaney.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">You know Quasimodo predicted all of this.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Any fan of Chase's <i>The Sopranos </i>knows how much Chase loves these absurd little moments of humor. It's like that lunatic season-four discussion when, pondering world disasters, Bobby Baccilieri tells mob boss Tony Soprano that, "Quasimodo predicted all of this . . . All these problems, the middle east. The end o' the world." A disgusted Tony tells him that he means Nostradamus: "Quasimodo is the hunchback of Notre Dame . . . Nostradamus and Notre Dame, that's two different things completely." But Bobby persists, pointing out that you also have the halfback of Notre Dame: "I'm just sayin'. It's interesting, the coincidence. What, you're gonna tell me you never pondered that?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> You get these kind of oddball diversions in <i>Kolchak </i>and <i>The Sopranos.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i>Jack
Grinnage also singles out the piecost joke as a favorite moment: “Darren, Simon
Oakland and I had so much fun with that scene. We just laughed so hard after
finishing that."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> And
the jokes keep flying. When Kolchak smells something like mildew, Marley's Captain
Molnar suggests it's his undershirt. "Maybe it's your jokes,” Carl shoots back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Even Kolchak's usual dire warning is laced with humor: "</span><span style="font-size: small;">Now you saw that thing and I saw it, and that
was not just any ape. I mean, that wasn’t just J. Fred Muggs out there, dressed
in a tutu and drooling for the public and playing on a unicycle. That was some
creature!" </span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0KiCT91oURipMNVGiS_9YG4OyoPdn2v-T89A-LHOn4RnI6uv8QVlDSsaxgQhLH21PxIYhyWYl374s3Eq6YfGowTbRJ9Egn1bBTZ64XxUtzcG9joqEQq4bFlLN1XBv5OWDDuLrAaZmpBr/s1600/MASHCast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO0KiCT91oURipMNVGiS_9YG4OyoPdn2v-T89A-LHOn4RnI6uv8QVlDSsaxgQhLH21PxIYhyWYl374s3Eq6YfGowTbRJ9Egn1bBTZ64XxUtzcG9joqEQq4bFlLN1XBv5OWDDuLrAaZmpBr/s400/MASHCast.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Original <i>M*A*S*H </i>cast with <i>Kolchak </i>players at each side: Linville and Farr. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Another comic highlight is Jamie Farr, </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">who already had made a name for himself as cross-dressing Corporal Maxwell Klinger on <i>M*A*S*H</i>, </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">as a disgruntled high school biology teacher.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> Speaking of sitcom actors, </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">a month before this episode aired, Pat
Harrington started his nine-year run as Schneider the super on <i>One Day at a Time</i>. Already a TV veteran,
Harrington was a member of Steve Allen's resident company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;"> And even though Captain Molnar is cut from a familiar mold, John Marley makes him distinctive because, well, he's John Marley: Dr. Tony Romano in the "Guilty Men" episode of <i>Thriller, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">Dr. Sigmund Hindeman in the "Man With the Power" episode of "The Outer Limits," a supporting player in two episodes of <i>The Twilight Zone </i>("Kick the Can" and "The Old Man in the Cave"), </span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 115%;">Frankie Ballou in <i>Cat Ballou </i>(1965), Ali MacGraw’s father in <i>Love Story </i>(1970) and Jack Woltz in <i>The Godfather </i>(1972). </span></div>
</div>Mark Dawidziakhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17535425789954062022noreply@blogger.com7