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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

Last week's quiz movie was the 1972 ABC TV movie The Night Stalker, produced by Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows), written by one of Stephen King's favorite novelists and biggest influences, Richard Matheson, and starring Darren McGavin in, not too arguably, the role of his life as Carl Kolchak, muckracker of the damned. (Simon Oakland was also at his very best as Carl's editor, Tony Vincenzo.)

The first and best of the two Kolchak movies, its story of a vampire amuck in Las Vegas was radically different than any network horror offering ever done at that time, the same way Dark Shadows stood out like a severed thumb on daytime television. It was funny, had a cast of veteran character actors (Charles McGraw, Kent Smith, Claude Akins, Elisha Cook Jr., Ralph Meeker), and moved with the speed of a great B movie from the '50s. It was perhaps the best of the ABC Movie of the Week originals being done at that time, and many of those were surprisingly good. (For a look at the original preview for The Night Stalker, click here.)

So a tip of a cheap, crummy-looking hat to the following quiz winners for identifying this classic: Joe Rosenberg, Wayne A. Palmer (who also supplied the links for the Movie of the Week page and the preview), Mike Everleth, E. Yarber, Hank Parmer, Christopher Bahn, and Paul Murphy.

(Special note: Mr. Palmer is looking for video of the Movie of the Week called The Love War-- if anyone has a copy, please let me know and I'll pass the info on to Wayne.)

P.S. Darren McGavin has a webpage!

(You know you've made it in this culture when they make a toy or model out of you.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at January 26, 2004 2:10 AM

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