Joseph Baneth Allen's Blog, page 67
March 11, 2023
Legion of Super-Heroes
Just finished watching "Legion Of Super-Heroes" released by Warner Brothers.
It's always amazing looking at the curious disconnect Warner Brothers between it's animated DC movies that are faithful to the original comic book source material and their live action DCU movies. The animated DC movies are great! The live action DCU movies are for the most part ker-stinkers.
"Legion of Super-Heroes" opens with Kara, Kal-El's cousin, barely escaping the destruction of Krypton, and arriving to earth decades after her baby cousin arrived on Earth.
Struggling to adapt to life on Earth and her role as Supergirl, Superman offers his cousin the opportunity to at the Legion Of Super-Heroes Academy in the 31st Century as way of learning to fit in to her life in the 21st Century. She decides to train there when Mon-El introduces himself, but as Kara struggles to find a place for herself even in the 31st Century Earth, she soon becomes involved in a curious mystery that stretches all the way back to the 21st century.
Another Great Animated Movie in the DC universe that is faithful to it's source material.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Legion-Super-H...
It's always amazing looking at the curious disconnect Warner Brothers between it's animated DC movies that are faithful to the original comic book source material and their live action DCU movies. The animated DC movies are great! The live action DCU movies are for the most part ker-stinkers.
"Legion of Super-Heroes" opens with Kara, Kal-El's cousin, barely escaping the destruction of Krypton, and arriving to earth decades after her baby cousin arrived on Earth.
Struggling to adapt to life on Earth and her role as Supergirl, Superman offers his cousin the opportunity to at the Legion Of Super-Heroes Academy in the 31st Century as way of learning to fit in to her life in the 21st Century. She decides to train there when Mon-El introduces himself, but as Kara struggles to find a place for herself even in the 31st Century Earth, she soon becomes involved in a curious mystery that stretches all the way back to the 21st century.
Another Great Animated Movie in the DC universe that is faithful to it's source material.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Legion-Super-H...
The Night Strangler
Just finished watching "The Night Strangler" released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.
After the success of "The Night Stalker," that was a huge ratings success for ABC, a follow-up movie was ordered by the network and producer and director Dan Curtis enlisted writer Richard Matheson to write the second screenplay that continues the adventures of Kolchak who stumbles upon a another supernatural killer.
Kolchak ended up in Seattle after being expelled from Las Vegas for his investigation into the vampire. It turns out the city is suffering from a wave of women being strangled. That’s not all however as there are two strange twists. First, residue found on the victims show that they were killed by a man with dead flesh. Second, there were a similar round of stranglings back in 1952, 1931, 1910 and 1889 or every 21 years. These facts and others are relayed by a voice over done by Kolchak like an old detective movie or a film noir.
While a third movie chronicling Kolchak's adventures was tentatively planned, the powers-that-be at ABC decided to green light a weekly Night Stalker television series that is often ballyhooed as the precursor of "The X-Files" decades later.
Very Intense, psychological horror.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Night-Strangle...
After the success of "The Night Stalker," that was a huge ratings success for ABC, a follow-up movie was ordered by the network and producer and director Dan Curtis enlisted writer Richard Matheson to write the second screenplay that continues the adventures of Kolchak who stumbles upon a another supernatural killer.
Kolchak ended up in Seattle after being expelled from Las Vegas for his investigation into the vampire. It turns out the city is suffering from a wave of women being strangled. That’s not all however as there are two strange twists. First, residue found on the victims show that they were killed by a man with dead flesh. Second, there were a similar round of stranglings back in 1952, 1931, 1910 and 1889 or every 21 years. These facts and others are relayed by a voice over done by Kolchak like an old detective movie or a film noir.
While a third movie chronicling Kolchak's adventures was tentatively planned, the powers-that-be at ABC decided to green light a weekly Night Stalker television series that is often ballyhooed as the precursor of "The X-Files" decades later.
Very Intense, psychological horror.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Night-Strangle...
The Story of The Jews - Finding The Words - 1000 B.C. to 1492 A.D.
Just finished reading "The Story of The Jews - Finding The Words - 1000 B.C. to 1492 A.D." by Simon Schama, published by ECCO back in 2014.
Historian Simon Schama, a Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, has written a comprehensive history of the Jewish Diaspora
Schama tells of an energetic and extensive history of the Diaspora, from North Africa to Baghdad, with flourishing communities, whose cultures contribute much more to the modern Jews, than the Temple practice of the Jews known to the Romans.
In this precise narrative, he traverses meadows and deserts in this walk of about five thousand years. Schama works the history properly, but with detachment from the human truth accumulated by the Jews throughout the centuries. In certain passages he puts in check the divine value of sacred words. One of his favorite phrases is "If the Bible was right, as the Orthodox rabbis say (...)." However, the writer admits the importance of Deuteronomy in the formation of Jewish culture.
Schama's history is a continuation of the Jewish history that late historian Cecil Roth's was working on.
A very absorbing read, but the sorrows of Jewish history can be sometimes difficult to read.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Jews-Fin...
Historian Simon Schama, a Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, has written a comprehensive history of the Jewish Diaspora
Schama tells of an energetic and extensive history of the Diaspora, from North Africa to Baghdad, with flourishing communities, whose cultures contribute much more to the modern Jews, than the Temple practice of the Jews known to the Romans.
In this precise narrative, he traverses meadows and deserts in this walk of about five thousand years. Schama works the history properly, but with detachment from the human truth accumulated by the Jews throughout the centuries. In certain passages he puts in check the divine value of sacred words. One of his favorite phrases is "If the Bible was right, as the Orthodox rabbis say (...)." However, the writer admits the importance of Deuteronomy in the formation of Jewish culture.
Schama's history is a continuation of the Jewish history that late historian Cecil Roth's was working on.
A very absorbing read, but the sorrows of Jewish history can be sometimes difficult to read.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Story-Jews-Fin...
March 3, 2023
The Last Hours
Just finished reading "Chain of Thorns - The Last Hours Book Three" by Cassandra Clare.
With all the hoopla around age appropriate material in public school libraries, and my own past experience with my own elementary school teachers and librarians trying to inappropriately influence, and in a few cases taking my books away until my parents intervened - yes reading Japanese fairy tales, science fiction, mysteries, historical, and non-fiction science books presented dangerous non-conformity back in the 1960s and 1970 in the minds of some idiotic teachers in the Camp Lejeune School System - I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that because of the themes and forthright sexuality of the characters in all of Clare's Shadowhunter novels, that none of them are appropriate for children or teenagers under 16. Clare also has a rather deceptive way of portraying gay sex in her novels. With heterosexual couples she will describe the full act up to and including penetration and afterwards. She limits her descriptions of gay sex to touching and kissing and leaving it to your imagination, but afterwards implying through her writing that all that "gay stuff" was just kissing and naked touching.
I'm sure the Shadowhunters novels are on banned booklists somewhere due to their themes of children fighting against demons - and sometimes dying violent deaths - and for the simmering sexuality of the characters.
The conclusion of "The Last Hours" trilogy finds James and Cordelia battling against their personal demons as well as the demons Lilith and Belial.
Belial's desire to rule London and turn it into his own hellish kingdom on Earth is unleashed as he unleashes an army of dead Iron Brothers and Iron Sisters whose dead bodies have been possessed by demons, against the Shadowhunters. The final step in his plan is possess his grandson Jame's body.
Cordelia meanwhile is struggling with her marriage to James, not knowing that he had been be-spelled with a bracelet given to him by the now repentant Grace - who was under her mother's influence. Cordelia must also figure out a way to free herself from being Lilith's paladin.
And in-between there is enough sexual longing, self-doubt, and shame over being gay that must be resolved in the heat of combat.
Yes, it's definitely an epic conclusion to this trilogy, and it will be curious to see where Clare goes with her next Shadowhunters novel. She does have a new series coming out later this year.
Epic conclusions! Unexpected Deaths! Happily Ever Afters!
Highly Recommended.
Four Stars because I suspect that Clare isn't being true to the agenda she's promoting.
https://www.amazon.com/Chain-Thorns-3...
With all the hoopla around age appropriate material in public school libraries, and my own past experience with my own elementary school teachers and librarians trying to inappropriately influence, and in a few cases taking my books away until my parents intervened - yes reading Japanese fairy tales, science fiction, mysteries, historical, and non-fiction science books presented dangerous non-conformity back in the 1960s and 1970 in the minds of some idiotic teachers in the Camp Lejeune School System - I'm going to go out on a limb here and state that because of the themes and forthright sexuality of the characters in all of Clare's Shadowhunter novels, that none of them are appropriate for children or teenagers under 16. Clare also has a rather deceptive way of portraying gay sex in her novels. With heterosexual couples she will describe the full act up to and including penetration and afterwards. She limits her descriptions of gay sex to touching and kissing and leaving it to your imagination, but afterwards implying through her writing that all that "gay stuff" was just kissing and naked touching.
I'm sure the Shadowhunters novels are on banned booklists somewhere due to their themes of children fighting against demons - and sometimes dying violent deaths - and for the simmering sexuality of the characters.
The conclusion of "The Last Hours" trilogy finds James and Cordelia battling against their personal demons as well as the demons Lilith and Belial.
Belial's desire to rule London and turn it into his own hellish kingdom on Earth is unleashed as he unleashes an army of dead Iron Brothers and Iron Sisters whose dead bodies have been possessed by demons, against the Shadowhunters. The final step in his plan is possess his grandson Jame's body.
Cordelia meanwhile is struggling with her marriage to James, not knowing that he had been be-spelled with a bracelet given to him by the now repentant Grace - who was under her mother's influence. Cordelia must also figure out a way to free herself from being Lilith's paladin.
And in-between there is enough sexual longing, self-doubt, and shame over being gay that must be resolved in the heat of combat.
Yes, it's definitely an epic conclusion to this trilogy, and it will be curious to see where Clare goes with her next Shadowhunters novel. She does have a new series coming out later this year.
Epic conclusions! Unexpected Deaths! Happily Ever Afters!
Highly Recommended.
Four Stars because I suspect that Clare isn't being true to the agenda she's promoting.
https://www.amazon.com/Chain-Thorns-3...
February 25, 2023
Village In The Sky
Just finished reading "Village In The Sky" by Jack McDevitt, published by SAGA Press.
The ninth novel in McDevitt's series of Alex Benedict's adventures has the odd tone of the finality of a last adventure together with old friends.
While the Alex Benedict novels are interconnected, there is the feel that the series has loose established cannon. Each adventure in the series is an independent adventure and past adventures are rarely mentioned, and if they are, they are given brief mention.
Alex Benedict is the narrator in all the novels, and this one starts out with the odd admission from her that she never thought she and Chase would be the villains in their own story.
When an exploratory mission looking for living alien civilizations actually stumbles upon a solitary village of aliens living on a planet, it's the beginning of a mystery when a follow up mission to the planet discovers that the village has disappeared.
Intrigued by the disappearing aliens in the aftermath of a first contact with a totally alien non-human spider species, Alex and Chase begin to lay the ground work to return the planet in an attempt to discover any alien artifacts that might be there, despite widespread government and public disapproval of such a mission. There is even debate if private individuals should own interstellar spacecraft for their own use - especially over fears that individuals could initiate a first contact on their own with potentially disastrous consequences.
The mystery deepens once Alex, Chase, Gabe, and Robbi Jo arrive at the planet and discover a few buried and left behind artifacts. Nothing makes sense and with the few clues they have, Alex and team decide to search for the aliens who left the planet and discover that while they relocated the colony elsewhere, the alien colonists are dying from a mysterious plague and are in desperate need for help from their home world.
A thoroughly enjoyable and intense interstellar mystery.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Village-Sky-Al...
The ninth novel in McDevitt's series of Alex Benedict's adventures has the odd tone of the finality of a last adventure together with old friends.
While the Alex Benedict novels are interconnected, there is the feel that the series has loose established cannon. Each adventure in the series is an independent adventure and past adventures are rarely mentioned, and if they are, they are given brief mention.
Alex Benedict is the narrator in all the novels, and this one starts out with the odd admission from her that she never thought she and Chase would be the villains in their own story.
When an exploratory mission looking for living alien civilizations actually stumbles upon a solitary village of aliens living on a planet, it's the beginning of a mystery when a follow up mission to the planet discovers that the village has disappeared.
Intrigued by the disappearing aliens in the aftermath of a first contact with a totally alien non-human spider species, Alex and Chase begin to lay the ground work to return the planet in an attempt to discover any alien artifacts that might be there, despite widespread government and public disapproval of such a mission. There is even debate if private individuals should own interstellar spacecraft for their own use - especially over fears that individuals could initiate a first contact on their own with potentially disastrous consequences.
The mystery deepens once Alex, Chase, Gabe, and Robbi Jo arrive at the planet and discover a few buried and left behind artifacts. Nothing makes sense and with the few clues they have, Alex and team decide to search for the aliens who left the planet and discover that while they relocated the colony elsewhere, the alien colonists are dying from a mysterious plague and are in desperate need for help from their home world.
A thoroughly enjoyable and intense interstellar mystery.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Village-Sky-Al...
Peacemaker
Just finished watching "Peacemaker - The Complete First Season" released by Warner Brothers.
Written and directed by James Gunn, "Peacemaker" deftly takes up months after Gunn's "Suicide Squad" movie and tackles the redemption of Peacemaker, a tortured psychopath superhero/villain who is kills for peace. Fun fact, prior to the Silver Age and the implementation of the Comics Code Authority, Batman used guns and he didn't hesitate to kill criminals. The Golden Age Batman actually killed The Joker and those who took up the villain's mantle.
Waking up in the hospital after the events of the last Suicide Squad, Peacemaker escapes and is soon recruited for a Black-Ops mission by a team assembled by Amanda Waller to stop an alien invasion that threatens to enslave and destroy humanity.
Oh, there are "adult" moments and enough foul language to make a woke sailor blush. And in the last 30 minutes of the final episode there is the inclusion of Woke Mantra how the aliens are only taking over for the good of humanity because we are making the same mistake that did in destroying their own world.
It's a weird inclusion, the alien Butterflies are evil and destroy human individuals by taking over their bodies and destroying their minds all in the name of saving the planet - but their anti-heroes because their intentions are for humanity's own good. Or as Leota Adebayo, the newbie on the Peacemaker's team observes after the Butterflies are defeated and Peacemaker is agonizing over if he made the right decision, humanity may be doomed, but we do have the right to choose our own fate.
Despite it's dark overtones, "Peacemaker" is fun series and it may provide some insights as how James Gunn will move the DC Movie-verse forward. There is a second series that is supposed to be in the near future.
Only time will tell.
Great Fun!
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Peacemaker-Com...
Written and directed by James Gunn, "Peacemaker" deftly takes up months after Gunn's "Suicide Squad" movie and tackles the redemption of Peacemaker, a tortured psychopath superhero/villain who is kills for peace. Fun fact, prior to the Silver Age and the implementation of the Comics Code Authority, Batman used guns and he didn't hesitate to kill criminals. The Golden Age Batman actually killed The Joker and those who took up the villain's mantle.
Waking up in the hospital after the events of the last Suicide Squad, Peacemaker escapes and is soon recruited for a Black-Ops mission by a team assembled by Amanda Waller to stop an alien invasion that threatens to enslave and destroy humanity.
Oh, there are "adult" moments and enough foul language to make a woke sailor blush. And in the last 30 minutes of the final episode there is the inclusion of Woke Mantra how the aliens are only taking over for the good of humanity because we are making the same mistake that did in destroying their own world.
It's a weird inclusion, the alien Butterflies are evil and destroy human individuals by taking over their bodies and destroying their minds all in the name of saving the planet - but their anti-heroes because their intentions are for humanity's own good. Or as Leota Adebayo, the newbie on the Peacemaker's team observes after the Butterflies are defeated and Peacemaker is agonizing over if he made the right decision, humanity may be doomed, but we do have the right to choose our own fate.
Despite it's dark overtones, "Peacemaker" is fun series and it may provide some insights as how James Gunn will move the DC Movie-verse forward. There is a second series that is supposed to be in the near future.
Only time will tell.
Great Fun!
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Peacemaker-Com...
February 24, 2023
Appetite For America
Just finished reading "Appetite for America - How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built A Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West" by Stephen Fried, published by Bantam Books back in 2010.
Now as Selma Franz - my baby sister, Jeff H., and Zack will attest to, I have stacks and piles of unread books that I have bought that are still waiting to be read. I think a conservative estimate would probably be over 1,000 books that I have tucked away alongside the over 1,000 DVDs, and over 1,000 audio dramas that I have stored away in Selma's old bedroom - accountant desks and dressers make great storage units for books, DVDs, and CDs.
So when I first bought "Appetite for America," I had just sold my novella "Geronimo's Laughter" to the Riding the Rails anthology published by Bold Strokes Books, which featured a time traveler who grabs a bit to eat at a Fred Harvey restaurant before catching a train to solve a mystery involving the curious disappearance of a Pinkerton agent.
Yet "Appetite for America" waited quietly in one of my unread stacks of books until now - 13 years later.
Fred Harvey is a typical American rags-to-riches story of a young teenage boy who immigrated to America to make his fortune and he did by building a family dynasty that lasted three generations of his family.
Fred Harvey who became the actual brand behind his hospitality empire, built and expanded his Southwestern restaurant empire by insisting and maintaining on high levels of quality of food and professionalism in it's staff.
Not only did Fred Harvey create what was the first national chain of restaurants that changed how people began going out to eat, but he also provided career opportunities for single young women and helped to build up the American middle class. He also expanded into hotels and theme-parks, and toy stores, bookstores, and gift establishments. Fred Harvey also changed how books were, and still are, sold in America, along with creating the concept of the bestseller.
Fried, who had access to the family records of the Harvey family and who also interviewed members of the Harvey family, has written a fascinating and comprehensive history of how one man and generations of his family became a primary social force of change in America and the aftermath when their business eventually failed due to financial pressure of changing times.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Appetite-Ameri...
Now as Selma Franz - my baby sister, Jeff H., and Zack will attest to, I have stacks and piles of unread books that I have bought that are still waiting to be read. I think a conservative estimate would probably be over 1,000 books that I have tucked away alongside the over 1,000 DVDs, and over 1,000 audio dramas that I have stored away in Selma's old bedroom - accountant desks and dressers make great storage units for books, DVDs, and CDs.
So when I first bought "Appetite for America," I had just sold my novella "Geronimo's Laughter" to the Riding the Rails anthology published by Bold Strokes Books, which featured a time traveler who grabs a bit to eat at a Fred Harvey restaurant before catching a train to solve a mystery involving the curious disappearance of a Pinkerton agent.
Yet "Appetite for America" waited quietly in one of my unread stacks of books until now - 13 years later.
Fred Harvey is a typical American rags-to-riches story of a young teenage boy who immigrated to America to make his fortune and he did by building a family dynasty that lasted three generations of his family.
Fred Harvey who became the actual brand behind his hospitality empire, built and expanded his Southwestern restaurant empire by insisting and maintaining on high levels of quality of food and professionalism in it's staff.
Not only did Fred Harvey create what was the first national chain of restaurants that changed how people began going out to eat, but he also provided career opportunities for single young women and helped to build up the American middle class. He also expanded into hotels and theme-parks, and toy stores, bookstores, and gift establishments. Fred Harvey also changed how books were, and still are, sold in America, along with creating the concept of the bestseller.
Fried, who had access to the family records of the Harvey family and who also interviewed members of the Harvey family, has written a fascinating and comprehensive history of how one man and generations of his family became a primary social force of change in America and the aftermath when their business eventually failed due to financial pressure of changing times.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
TEN STARS!
https://www.amazon.com/Appetite-Ameri...
February 20, 2023
Death And The Conjuror
Just finished reading "Death And The Conjuror" by Tom Mead, published by Mysterious Press.
Mead's previously published adventures of his detective Joseph Spector, a semi-retired magician who has a penchant for solving locked room mysteries in short stories that appeared in Ellery Queen Magazine.
In his first novel-length mystery, Joseph Spector is brought in by his friend Police Inspector Flint to solve three seemingly impossible mysteries that at first glance don't seem to be connected, but have at their centers the rather brutal murder of psychiatrist Anselm Rees who was murdered in his locked home office. There is also the mystery of how a painting by an acclaimed artist vanished in the midst of a party hosted by the artist. And there is also the odd murder of a bell boy who seemingly has no connection to the other two crimes.
"Death And The Conjuror" is an engrossing classic locked room murder mystery in the tradition of John Dickson Carr. Joseph Spector is in the grand tradition of Golden Age detectives. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Hettford+W...
Mead's previously published adventures of his detective Joseph Spector, a semi-retired magician who has a penchant for solving locked room mysteries in short stories that appeared in Ellery Queen Magazine.
In his first novel-length mystery, Joseph Spector is brought in by his friend Police Inspector Flint to solve three seemingly impossible mysteries that at first glance don't seem to be connected, but have at their centers the rather brutal murder of psychiatrist Anselm Rees who was murdered in his locked home office. There is also the mystery of how a painting by an acclaimed artist vanished in the midst of a party hosted by the artist. And there is also the odd murder of a bell boy who seemingly has no connection to the other two crimes.
"Death And The Conjuror" is an engrossing classic locked room murder mystery in the tradition of John Dickson Carr. Joseph Spector is in the grand tradition of Golden Age detectives. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Hettford+W...
February 19, 2023
The Moons of Vulpana
Just finished listening to "Doctor Who #251 - The Moons of Vulpana," released by Big Finish Productions.
Now a traveling Companion of the Seventh Doctor, Mags discovers that the Doctor has built a sonic modulator which can revert her back to her human form when she looses control and changes into her werewolf form. She is also surprised to learn that they are in orbit above her home world of Vulpana - not during her present, but in the distant past during The Golden Millennium when the Four Great Wolf Packs of Vulpana ruled the planet.
The Seventh Doctor wanted Mags to see a time in her species history when they could actually control the change induced by the planet's four moons; but all is not what it seems on Vulpana as the houses of the Four Great Wolf Packs are fading and there is something interfering with the natural change cycles. Plus Mags is being courted by the sons of the Second House as a deadly game of cat-and-mouse gets underway.
An intriguing bit of a back story for Mags.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781788510?...
Now a traveling Companion of the Seventh Doctor, Mags discovers that the Doctor has built a sonic modulator which can revert her back to her human form when she looses control and changes into her werewolf form. She is also surprised to learn that they are in orbit above her home world of Vulpana - not during her present, but in the distant past during The Golden Millennium when the Four Great Wolf Packs of Vulpana ruled the planet.
The Seventh Doctor wanted Mags to see a time in her species history when they could actually control the change induced by the planet's four moons; but all is not what it seems on Vulpana as the houses of the Four Great Wolf Packs are fading and there is something interfering with the natural change cycles. Plus Mags is being courted by the sons of the Second House as a deadly game of cat-and-mouse gets underway.
An intriguing bit of a back story for Mags.
Strongly Recommended!
Five Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1781788510?...
February 12, 2023
The Night Stalker
Just finished watching "The Night Stalker" released by Kino Lorber.
I honestly don't remember if I saw "The Night Stalker" when it first aired back on ABC - one of the three traditional television networks back in the days of long ago before cable and streaming internet services came on the scene decades ago.
"The Night Stalker" first aired January 11, 1972, and garnered the highest ratings of any television movie at that time (33.2 rating — 54 share). It was perhaps the first time that a made-for-television original horror movie that aired on a weekday became a huge hit that would go on to spawn a a sequel, a proposed third sequel that was never filmed, but became a television series that lasted one season - of which I actually recall several episodes of when the series first aired.
Kolchak first appeared in an unpublished novel, "The Kolchak Papers," written by Jeff Rice. In it, a Las Vegas newspaper reporter named Carl Kolchak tracks down and defeats a serial killer who turns out to be a vampire named Janos Skorzeny. The novel reveals that his birth name is "Karel", although he uses the anglicized version "Carl". After the success of the TV film and its sequel, the novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original, entitled The Night Stalker. Richard Matheson wrote the script for "The Night Stalker."
Carl Kolchak, portrayed by Darren McGavin, is a cynical and bursk Los Angeles newspaper reporter who comes to believe the activities of a serial killer are in fact - those of a modern day vampire! Perhaps the reason why this movie took television by storm is because while Kolchak is triumphant, he ultimately looses his chance at professional redemption.
A great, intriguing horror movie.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GGPP8BL?...
I honestly don't remember if I saw "The Night Stalker" when it first aired back on ABC - one of the three traditional television networks back in the days of long ago before cable and streaming internet services came on the scene decades ago.
"The Night Stalker" first aired January 11, 1972, and garnered the highest ratings of any television movie at that time (33.2 rating — 54 share). It was perhaps the first time that a made-for-television original horror movie that aired on a weekday became a huge hit that would go on to spawn a a sequel, a proposed third sequel that was never filmed, but became a television series that lasted one season - of which I actually recall several episodes of when the series first aired.
Kolchak first appeared in an unpublished novel, "The Kolchak Papers," written by Jeff Rice. In it, a Las Vegas newspaper reporter named Carl Kolchak tracks down and defeats a serial killer who turns out to be a vampire named Janos Skorzeny. The novel reveals that his birth name is "Karel", although he uses the anglicized version "Carl". After the success of the TV film and its sequel, the novel was published in 1973 by Pocket Books as a mass-market paperback original, entitled The Night Stalker. Richard Matheson wrote the script for "The Night Stalker."
Carl Kolchak, portrayed by Darren McGavin, is a cynical and bursk Los Angeles newspaper reporter who comes to believe the activities of a serial killer are in fact - those of a modern day vampire! Perhaps the reason why this movie took television by storm is because while Kolchak is triumphant, he ultimately looses his chance at professional redemption.
A great, intriguing horror movie.
Highly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GGPP8BL?...
