Kolchak: The Night Stalker (TV Series) The Ripper (1974) User Reviews

Kolchak knows Jack.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 3 March 2012]

'The Ripper' is a fine pilot episode for a loyally supported, well loved cult TV series in which Darren McGavin made the most out of a fun role, intrepid investigative reporter Carl Kolchak. Kolchak would often make a nuisance of himself as he stubbornly insisted on following the strange stories. He'd already been introduced in a pair of TV movies, 'The Night Stalker' and 'The Night Strangler', and while the series wouldn't last very long, fans still find his adventures quite endearing.

This episode shows how well the cast, writers, and directors could successfully put together true spookiness & suspense and genuinely funny comedy into the same stories without the balance ever tipping too far to either side.

The story here has a series of brutal murders plaguing Chicago, done Ripper style. Kolchak knows of similar Ripper style murders that have occurred throughout the decades, and comes to believe that the perpetrator may very well be THE Jack the Ripper.

Directed with efficiency by Allen Baron ("Blast of Silence"), 'The Ripper' features some solid action sequences and stunts (The Ripper is played for maximum menacing presence by stuntman Mickey Gilbert) and some undeniable tension as Kolchak checks out the house where The Ripper has been spotted. The hilarious bits often come from the confrontations between Kolchak and his long suffering editor Tony Vincenzo, wonderfully played by Simon Oakland, as well as between Kolchak and stuffy colleague Uptight - I mean Updyke (Jack Grinnage) - and weary police captain Warren (Ken Lynch). One can see how Kolchak would rub people the wrong way, but that's why we as fans love him. It's also hysterical seeing an agitated Kolchak trying to do what he would rather do when faced with the task of filling in for advice columnist Miss Emily.

Popping up in supporting parts are Beatrice Colen ('Wonder Woman', 'Happy Days') as upbeat reporter Jane Plumm, Ruth McDevitt, who would go on to play Miss Emily in subsequent episodes, as the elderly woman, Mews Small as a masseuse, and Roberta Collins as an undercover cop.

Good fun all around, and well establishes the formula for the series.

Eight out of 10.

Fine Episode.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 4 October 2008]

If you like the "concept" at all, you must enjoy "The Ripper," the first episode of the series. It's brusque, black, at times suspenseful, and always funny as hell -- absolutely nothing to be taken seriously.

McGavin is his usual over-the-top, somewhat manic reporter for INS. Oakland is the red-faced overstuffed editor who seems to be suffering from astronomical blood pressure readings, so high that he's liable to stroke out at any moment, always on the verge of bursting into a frenzy, approaching the stage of ejaculatory inevitability. His exasperation with McGavin and Updyke, his other subordinate, is so real that at times we're into the kind of territory called "pathos." In this episode, Miss Emily, the Lonely Hearts Editor, is on vacation and Oakland gives the job to a reluctant McGavin. This scene -- the reassignment to the Lonely Hearts job -- provides a good example of some of the off-hand skill that was put into the series by the performers and the director, Allen Baron. McGavin runs into Oakland in the office and asks the whereabouts of the sweet but doddering Aunt Emily. The intense and squint-eyed Oakland replies, "Miss Emily's on vacation, Karl. I've assigned her job to someone else." And he stares for a long moment at McGavin. The camera cuts to McGavin's face as he quickly grasps the implication, opens and closes his mouth, jerks his head up and down, goggles at Oakland again, opens his mouth to speak, and -- CUT. No scripted lines could have been more amusing than McGavin's speechless reaction.

There's another comedic scene which I can't pass by. McGavin locates a woman reporter who is on the same track as he is and takes her to lunch to pick her mind. McGavin's remorseless narrative has already described her as fat. (In fact, she's not that fat but has a full face.) At lunch, she orders a meal fit for Alfred Hitchcock or Orson Welles or Henry VIII -- "and a root beer float." Unable to wait, she begins chomping the celery. She tells McGavin what she's discovered about the murders, such as the killer's having removed a victim's kidneys and eaten them. But she's puzzled about the headline for her article. "I have it!" McGavin exclaims -- "CANNIBALISM." A broad, satisfied grin spreads across her face. She sighs, "Cannibalism," and takes a monstrous bite out of the celery stick. I wanted to mention this because it's a demonstration that not all of the humor is linked to pratfalls and chases.

The story isn't really that important. Jack the Ripper comes back to life once in a while -- or has been living all along -- it's never made clear. The bodies pile up and McGavin forms his outrageous theories and nobody believes him and the police hate him and his film is always either destroyed or comes out murky and he solves the problem and still nobody believes him. Jack the Ripper is a rather obvious monster. Later on, the writers had to stretch, bringing in Spanish Moss and zombies and revivified knights and whatnot. But McGavin's character, and the interaction between him and the rest of the cast, never flagged.

The series simply ended because they ran out of spooks.

A fine pilot episode for the excellent TV series

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 30 December 2009]

Feisty newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin in marvelously robust form) investigates a series of brutal killings that appear to be done by a reincarnation of the notorious Jack the Ripper (an impressively agile and menacing portrayal by Mickey Gilbert). Director Allen Baron, working from a clever and intriguing teleplay by Rudolph Borchert, relates the entertaining story at a constant brisk pace, stages the exciting action set pieces with rip-snorting gusto, and further spices things up with a wickedly funny line in sharp cynical humor. Simon Oakland as Kolchak's irascible, disapproving and long-suffering editor Tony Vincenzo makes for an enjoyable foil while Jack Grinnage supplies able comic relief as squeamish and uptight wimp fellow reporter Ron Updyke. Popping up in cool guest roles are Beatrice Colen as brash tabloid reporter Jane Plumm, Mews Small as a jaded masseuse victim, Ken Lynch as huffy police captain R. M. Warren, Ruth McDevitt as a snoopy old lady, and 70's drive-in exploitation movie goddess Roberta Collins as perky undercover cop Susan Cortazzo. Both Gil Melle's spirited shivery score and Donald Peterman's crisp and lively cinematography are up to speed. Great fun.

Stalking Jack

[a_l_i_e_n · 28 May 2006]

A series of "Ripper" murders in the city of Chicago draw the attention of Independent News Service reporter, Carl Kolchak. At the scene of one of the crimes, an amazed Kolchak watches as police corner an assailant who, in a stunning display of super-human strength, evades capture and escapes into the night.

As women continue to die by the blade of this mysterious killer, Kolchak comes to the conclusion that this is no mere psycho masquerading as Jack The Ripper. This really IS Jack The Ripper!

The first episode of the sequel-series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", "The Ripper" closely follows the formula of the original "Night Stalker" made-for-television movie. Basically, you have a killer prowling the streets; the police are unable stop him and largely due to the fact that they don't believe his extraordinary abilities are supernatural in origin; so, it's up to the indomitable reporter in a bad hat to do their job for them.

Despite the familiarity of the plot, "The Ripper" is quite an energetically told story that, in the hour long series format, moves along briskly never feeling like a tired re-hash. Also, by retaining the greater emphasis on humour established in the sequel movie, "The Night Strangler", this first episode well establishes the series as both a comedy and as a paranormal-themed thriller of the type that made the original movie so successful.

After accidentally coming into contact with an electrified fence, the Ripper is finally captured by police. This leads to one of the episode's most memorable scenes in which the incarcerated figure knocks down a steel door and then silently walks out past a pair of dumbstruck prisoners.

Since the police are not interested in any wild theories about the Ripper needing a fifth victim to maintain his immortality, it then becomes up to Kolchak to locate the killer's residence, a dilapidated mansion. Then, following his usual drive to get the story/monster no matter what the personal risk, Carl breaks into the old house in a really funny scene involving rotten floorboards that cave-in as he tries so hard to be stealthy.

Of course Jack comes home, leading to an unbearably suspenseful scene: Carl, hiding in a closet, attempts to keep silent as Jack's hand reaches inside to hang his coat up. The killer's arm then withdraws, but a second later it re-appears to place his hat on a peg. Understandably, Carl just can't hold it any longer and screams in terror as he tumbles out of the closet. To keep Jack a mysterious figure, he is generally shot throughout the episode from a distance, or, the camera focuses on his wicked blade-in-a-cane. That way we never really get a good look at him- that is, until Carl falls out of the closet. Then we are granted a brief glimpse of Jack's face as it eerily passes in and out of the light from a swinging overhead lamp.

Next, in a unique move for a TV hero, rather than trying to engage in some hand-to-hand combat, Kolchak just gets up and runs for his life. However, proving a good plan can be as effective as brute strength, the fleeing reporter leads Jack straight into a booby-trapped pond where the resulting electrocution reduces the immortal killer to a charred corpse that sinks into the water.

The old mansion ends up burning down, too which is significant. In previous adventures, Kolchak had always been denied his "Big Story" by city officials who would suppress the facts and tell him to get outta' town. However his time Carl's chance to finally win a Pulitzer is dashed when the supportive evidence for his story is consumed in the fire. More than once during the series Carl will experience such rotten luck in which something unfortunate happens that makes his prime piece of evidence (a slain monster) vanish and destroys his camera, too.

We learn later that after the pond was drained nothing was found except some old clothes and a shoe the style of which hadn't been made in over 70 years. "How could you explain it?" Carl asks as he finishes typing up his story. "Who could explain it?" Then ripping it out of the typewriter and crumpling it up, "who'd believe it?" The End.

While it does share some similarities with Robert Bloch's classic tale, "Your's Truly, Jack The Ripper", this episode still follows the established Kolchak formula nicely, providing the series with one of it's most effectively frightening monsters. Director Allen Baron admirably handles both the script's suspenseful and comedic elements with equal skill.

Particularly worthy of note: the big scene in which Kolchak tries to convince the skeptical police that they are dealing with a killer who is immortal. It's both funny and enthralling to watch as an exasperated Kolchak vociferously attempts to make his case. It's also probably the best such scene in the entire series and thanks in large part to Darren McGavin's commanding presence.

The very unique and effective music, mixing both the flavour of the urban setting with the horror theme of the story is composed by Gil Melle' (who also wrote the memorable whistling main title theme for the show's opening). Melle, it should be mentioned, composed the theme for "Rod Serling's Night Gallery" as well.

"The Ripper" ranks as one of the most thrilling and suspenseful episodes of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", and definitely got the series off to a roaring start.

The Ripper

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 12 June 2012]

I couldn't imagine a better way to kick off a series about a dogged, determined, and polarizing (the police hate his guts, even his own newspaper editor can't stand him) reporter who comes in contact with the supernatural and the evil than "The Ripper". It concerns Jack the Ripper himself, every so often choosing a new city as hunting grounds for five women to butcher, showing up in Carl Kolchak's Chicago, picking up right where he left off in Milwaukee. Yep, as usual Kolchak is right but getting anyone else to believe such a far-fetched story is next to impossible. He is laughed at, not taken seriously, considered a nuisance, a joke, a bothersome irritant always bugging the police during a difficult investigation with crackpot theories that are accurate but too out-there and hard-to-fathom for anyone to even keep a straight face much less accept that what he has to say could even remotely have some truth. But Kolchak, true to his character, keeps investigating, poking his nose where his boss and the cops feel it doesn't belong, presenting the truth even when doing so makes him a laughing-stock. There are always those scenes, those moments, where we see poor Simon Oakland, Kolchak's editor and chief, exhausted and drained after dealing with the city authorities complaining about his reporter's methods and obnoxious activity, no matter how hard he tries to get the man to work on a story of his choosing (normally something like this episode's "Dear Emily" letters; although, funnily enough, a letter actually lands Kolchak into the Ripper case!), Carl goes off script and pursues what he is interested in. While a lot of the time (most of the time, in fact) Kolchak is responsible in the demise of the weekly villain skulking around Chicago killing folks, he never gets to celebrate his victories…even worse, he doesn't get the glory of writing about them for his newspaper, because credibility for his work would be judged with skepticism and eye-rolling. The Ripper, in this episode, dresses like a magician, long black cape, top hat, carrying around a devil's head cane (that is actually a sheath for a sword used to stab his female victims), able to withstand rounds of ammunition from the police, leaping from buildings to the ground without harm, even, at one moment, breaking down a maximum security cell door! He's quite super powerful. One scene has the Ripper knocking down police officers like bowling pins and only temporarily subdued by an electric fence. Leave it to Kolchak to find a way, understanding that electric shock might be Jack's Achilles' heel. If you love seeing a reporter do things his way, placing himself near the flames, almost engulfed yet somehow always surviving, actually saving the day, while wearing a blue suit, then this show is for you.

My favorite scenes include Kolchak's dialogue with a trash mag's reporter, Jane Plumm (the incomparable Beatrice Colen, stealing all her scenes), always hungry (for food and a story) and eager to gain whatever sleazy headlines will provide her employer with notoriety. Her agreement to meet Jack on "his own terms" seals her fate despite Kolchak's pleas for her not to. I also love how Kolchak butts heads with scrawny, nervy, nerdy Ron Updyke (Jack Grinnage), who he has nicknamed "Uptight". Oh, and Ken Lynch's Capt. Warren is not a fan of Kolchak's, always the two of them at odds…I just got a kick out of the scene where poor Oakland's Tony Vincenzo must endure his reporter's explanation of the Ripper murders to Warren, as everyone in attendance scoffs at such an idea as nonsense. This is a constant of the series: Kolchak sincerely explains his theory of what is going on in a particular case, the response always the same, deflated exasperation.

The Short Run Begins

[gavin6942 · 8/10 · 18 December 2014]

When a rash of serial murders suddenly begins in the Chicago area, Kolchak (Darren McGavin) establishes a similarity between the new killings and the murders committed by Jack The Ripper.

How can you not love that Kolchak writes "Miss Emily" rather than works a crime beat, or is a detective? This is a great angle to approach the show from. Not only is it weird, unexplained supernatural events, but the protagonist is a little bit outside the usual.

Heck, we even get to see the gritty side of Chicago and Milwaukee. This makes the show a bit edgy, even showing a strip club in the opening scene and getting as close to nudity as possible without getting the show banned from the air. Well played.

Scary and entertaining

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 7 November 2021]

Reporter Carl Kolchak discovers a killer who only kills woman in Chicago may be the original Jack the Ripper recreating his original murders.

Fast, funny and scary. The murders are tame--not shown and no blood or gore. Still the show does its job. Darren McGavin is great as Kolchak and Simon Oakland matches him as his long-suffering boss. I remember seeing this as a kid on TV when I was 12 and having the stuffing scared out of me. As an adult now it doesn't scare me that much but it still works.

The most important TV show of all time

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 11 July 2023]

I can't even explain to you just how important Carl Kolchak was to two-year-old me. My parents even bought me a straw hat and toy camera so that I could hunt down the monsters in my small Western Pennsylvania hometown. I may never have found any, but I did discover a love for the supernatural that has lasted for my entire life.

The character started in Jeff Rice's unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers - which told the story of the Las Vegas reporter discovering real-life vampire Janos Skorzeny - which was optioned as a movie by ABC in 1972. The Night Stalker is even today one of the best TV movies ever filmed with a dream team of director John Llewellyn Moxey, writer Richard Matheson, producer Dan Curtis and star Darren McGavin. On its first airing, it had a 33.2 rating and a 54 share, which means that 33% of possible were watching it and 54% of all TVs turned on were tuned to ABC. Those are the kind of numbers that we will never see again outside of the Superbowl and perhaps not even then.

A year later, The Night Strangler was directed by Curtis and written by Matheson. This time, Kolchak had been run out of Vegas and was working in Seattle when he runs into a serial killer who has stayed alive for nearly a hundred years thanks to the blood of his victims. It also did well in the ratings, so well that instead of a third movie where Kolchak would investigate android duplicates - The Night Killers - ABC ordered a weekly series.

There's no way the series could live up to the movies. There are some great episodes, however.

The show aired in the worst time slot, Friday nights at 10 p.m., and then moved to 8.pm. Before the last four reruns aired on Saturday at 8 p.m. McGavin found himself working as an executive producer with no credit or pay to try and keep the quality of the show, which exhausted him. He hated that each week there was a new monster and finally fed up, he asked for his release with two episodes unfilmed.

For several years, that was it. No more Kolchak.

Then, on May 25, 1979, The CBS Late Movie resurrected Kolchak!

Sure, they started with episode four, but it was back. And then it was gone! That's because the ratings were so strong that CBS decided to save it until the fall. All told, the series played in 1979, 1981 and from 1987 to 1988, missing only four episodes.

That's because ABC packaged "Demon In Lace" and "Legacy of Terror" as The Demon and the Mummy and "Firefall" and "The Energy Eater" as Crackle of Death. Until 1990, these episodes were kept from the original rotation. They made their return to the series when SciFi aired the show.

Now, let's journey back to 11:30 p.m., while the rest of America was asleep, watching Carson or about to fall asleep watching Carson and get into "The Ripper."

Directed by Allen Baron (who also made the noir classic Blast of Silence) and written by Rudolph Borchert, the story begins with an exotic dancer (Denise Dillaway, The Cheerleaders) being attacked by a man in a cape with a sword cane who is somehow strong enough to throw human beings through the air.

We cut from this to a scene that will become familiar to fans of the show: Carl's boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) is now with him Chicago, screaming at him yet again for the reporter's latest screw-up. This time, he pretended to be the commissioner, stole a car and placed several people under citizen's arrest as he was looking into a robbery. As punishment, Carl must write an advice column as Miss Emily.

That's not where our reporter friend wants to be. His police scanner alerts him to another attack by the man people are calling The Ripper. There, Carl watches the man shrug off several point blank gunshots, a four-story leap off a building and fighting multiple police officers. Carl would be fired if it wasn't for the fact that his fellow reporter Updyke (Jack Grinnage) got sick when he even heard about the crimes.

At a press conference, Captain Warren (Ken Lynch) refuses to answer any of Kolchak's questions but does reveal that The Ripper has sent a letter to another reporter, Jane Plumm (Beatrice Colen). She and Carl compare their research and he learns that the letter says, "And now a pretty girl will die, so Jack can have his kidney pie." As he digs deeper into the case, he discovers that there have been murders like this all over the world for decades.

Another crime, another poem - "Jack is resting. Be reborn. To finish up on Wednesday morn." - and Carl learns something else the police didn't. A couple hit a man with their car who just walked away. Kolchak saves a scrap of fabric from the accident. Jane is taking things even further, meeting men who claim to be The Ripper.

The cops want Carl out of the way, but The Ripper attacks the squad car he's in the back of, and even though he's caught after being stunned by an electric fence, the serial killer tears a jail cell door off its hinges and escapes. Carl figures out that he's in a house in Wilton Park. There, he finds Jane's corpse and barely survives when The Ripper attacks him. Luckily, Carl thought ahead and brought electrical gear that he uses to disintegrate the killer. Unfortunately, it also burns the house - the Musnter's house on the Universal backlot - he's been hiding out in down to the ground, destroying all the evidence.

Carl closes ruminating over how he got here all over again, saying "And here's the postscript: when they drained that pond, they found nothing - nothing, but some old clothes. For some reason, the police suddenly decided they wanted those, and my head. I don't know how Vincenzo will handle the charges of arson and malicious mischief lodged against me by Captain Warren, but that fire was a big one - a six-alarmer. A blast furnace couldn't have done a better job: everything gone. The house. My story. The evidence. Like they say: ashes to ashes. One thing survived the inferno, however. There's enough of it left to read the maker: "Peel's Footwear, London, Southwest 1." They're still there, of course, but they don't make this style shoe anymore. It was discontinued over seventy years ago. Seventy. Years. Ago."

Realizing that no one will believe a word he's written, he pulls the paper from his typewriter and throws it in the trash.

"The Ripper" is a decent first episode that establishes Carl to anyone who didn't see the first two movies and what the theme of the show is. I'm excited to revisit these, as they are some of my fondest childhood memories.

The very first of the series...sort of.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 30 September 2013]

This is the first episode of the short-lived series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", but it marks the third of Darren McGavin as the title character. This is because the show had previously been two made for TV movies--"The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler". The first film was set in Las Vegas, the second in Seattle and now the series is set in Chicago--all because Kolchak cannot hold down a job!

"The Ripper", not surprisingly is about Jack the Ripper. Murders similar to the old Jack the Ripper murders take place and they are so similar Kolchak wonders if perhaps this killer is somehow still alive--though it would make him well over a hundred years old. Additionally, this guy, whoever he is, has incredible strength and bullets don't seem to harm him. But, as always, Kolchak is in the doghouse with Vincenzo (Simon Oakland)--and he's been assigned to do the Miss Emily column--a Dear Abby type of personal advice column.

Structurally, this show is pretty much what all the Kolchak shows were like--Kolchak irritates his boss, Vincenzo as well as the local police. And, his evidence seems to vanish or is confiscated by the cops. And, in the end, Kolchak is able to defeat a seemingly unstoppable fiend. Not exactly new in that sense, but, as always, entertaining.

Jack Is Back

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 10 November 2014]

Darren McGavin returns as intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak, now in Chicago working for INS with his old boss Vincenzo(Simon Oakland), and still involved in supernatural cases. This first episode deals with a brutal rash of murders which have all the trademarks of thought-dead London murderer Jack the Ripper, who is alive and well, and now has superhuman strength(manhandling the police force) and difficult to kill - though Carl will find a way to deal with him in electrifying fashion, though still no proof. Action-filled series debut has all the usual elements in place, though suffers a bit by the vague, undefined nature of the Ripper himself.

The Blue letter!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 27 June 2017]

Kolchak is totally new to me, l never saw it, but this famous series just came out in Brazil officially the first season box-set with the classic dubbed version and yesterday l watched the first episode where Carl Kolchak a true amusing reporter played fantastically by Darren McGavin, he investigate a serial killer in Chicago area who actually has supernatural powers and Kolchak studying the matter over the old books about this kind of killer, he suspicious that may be something like Jack the Ripper, l'was thrilled for such good experience, the episode has all elements to support the series as black humor, suspense and take to us all scary stories from the unknown and darkness!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

Kolchak: "The Ripper"

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 15 April 2018]

PLOT: Kolchak observes a link between an outbreak of murders in Chicago to the slayings of Jack The Ripper 85 years earlier in London. Curiously, the killer (Mickey Gilbert) appears to have superhuman qualities.

COMMENTARY: This was the 1974 debut episode of the series, which ran for one season (20 episodes) after two successful TV movies: "The Night Stalker" (1972) and "The Night Strangler" (1973). The problem with "The Ripper" is that it borrows too heavily from those movies, especially the first one, not to mention the Star Trek episode "Wolf in the Fold' seven years earlier; it therefore seems unoriginal. It's basically a streamlined version of the superior first film with not enough variation. The creators obviously did this to establish the series, so I guess it can be excused to a degree.

In any case, there are several good-looking women in the periphery, like a curvy brunette in the prologue and Roberta Collins as an undercover cop.

One of the series' finest and genuinely scary at times

[gortx · 10 May 2023]

It's genuinely scary at times, particularly the conclusion. It's also a bit more explicitly gruesome than most of the series episodes. The story is a rehash of the myth that Jack The Ripper is an eternal, but, it has enough pop that it still works.

The back and forth with Updyke takes up a bit more time than necessary, but, I did like the character of the rival reporter, Jane Plumm (Beatrice Colen) - the "fat" one (when Ruth McDevitt as the old woman repeats that description, I burst out laughing - great timing by the veteran actress).

Even though this is episode one, it is, of course, not a true pilot as there had been two TV movies prior. Still, it was the initial foray into paring it down to a one hour standalone episode format and it does it pretty well.

Delving into the World of Malevolent, Supernatural Forces

[darryl-tahirali · 7/10 · 31 March 2022]

The opening credits to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" begin with Gil Melle's bright, cheerful melody as whistling crime reporter Carl Kolchak enters an empty newsroom; then, while he is writing up his story, the music shifts abruptly to a dark, ominous tone as the words "victim" and "monster" appear on his typed copy, encapsulating perfectly this mid-1970s thriller television series: beneath our benign natural world lurk malevolent, supernatural forces.

In the premiere episode "The Ripper," that malevolent, supernatural force is none other than Jack the Ripper, Victorian London's legendary serial killer who preyed upon prostitutes in the fall of 1888 and was never caught. But is the spate of murders targeting sex workers in Milwaukee and Chicago, where Kolchak works for the Independent News Service, yet another copycat killer decades after the original--or could it really be the original Jack?

Series creator Jeff Rice wrote the initially unpublished novel that spawned two highly successful television movies, 1972's "The Night Stalker" and 1973's "The Night Strangler," both starring Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland as Kolchak's perpetually exasperated editor Tony Vincenzo, each of whom migrated to the series that featured a "monster of the week" that Kolchak inevitably stumbled upon but was unable to convince anyone, particularly Vincenzo, about what he had discovered.

With its modest budget and the special effects of its time, "The Night Stalker," much like Britain's "Doctor Who," also suffered from wobbly-walls-and-men-in-rubber-suits syndrome. In "The Ripper," even with a presumptive human as the monster, so much of the action is shot at nighttime locations or in dark interiors that you can't see what is happening.

Thus, like "Doctor Who," the series had to rely on snappy scripts, droll humor, and the raffish charm of its leading man, unkempt but distinctive, unconventional but intrepid, dogged but fallible as Kolchak couldn't resist delving into the world of malevolent, supernatural forces even when, as punishment for antagonizing Chicago's Finest, particularly police Captain Warren (Ken Lynch), Vincenzo tasks him with addressing the correspondence piling up for vacationing advice columnist Miss Emily.

That leaves Vincenzo's other reporter, dapper, priggish business writer Ron Updyke, to investigate the killing of a local masseuse--and, boy, is "Uptight" (as Carl dubs him) out of his league, particularly as how Kolchak has already seen the presumed killer, impervious to bullets, leap from a four-story building, throw police officers around like they were rag dolls, and even walk away unscathed after being hit by a car.

Rudolph Borchert's gritty script, taking in strip clubs and massage parlors alongside sojourns in the decidedly-shoestring INS newsroom, also weaves in comic relief in the form of gluttonous tabloid reporter Jane Plumm (Beatrice Colen), certain that she's sniffed out the killer, and, in a brilliant, hilarious moment, Kolchak's own feet of clay as he (nearly) comes face to face with the Ripper, an all-too-human hero whose every sly, shrewd, shabby move is worth watching.

So, too, is "The Ripper" worth watching despite its flaws, because McGavin is fully invested in the eerie, offbeat, supernatural malevolence that lurks beneath our benign natural world. You should be too.

"They had The Ripper trapped, treed and cornered, but he got away."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 16 August 2021]

I never watched this series when it aired, but had heard of it's reputation as an early precursor to The X-Files. Just like Scully and Mulder, investigative reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), working for the Independent News Service, would undertake self directed inquiries into the strange and unusual, although with this first episode, I didn't expect it to involve as much campy humor as it did. Finding himself on the wrong side of Chicago police Captain Warren (Ken Lynch), Kolchak's boss at INS (Simon Oakland) assigned him to the 'Dear Emily' advice column desk, a short lived prospect for the intrepid reporter who couldn't let a good story slide. This first one dealt with a modern day Jack the Ripper, though in Kolchak's mind, it could have been the real deal, even if it meant the murderer would be over a hundred years old. Whenever the Ripper did appear in dark and shadowy circumstances, he seemed to have Superman-like strength and the acrobatic athleticism of Batman.

Flying in the face of authority, Kolchak managed to find himself in a compromising but easily explainable situation at the Sultan's Palace Massage Parlor, and also took some time out to have lunch with rival newspaper reporter Jane Plumm (Beatrice Colen). This might be the only television show in history in which a character, in this case Ms. Plumm, orders a tongue sandwich for lunch. There was probably a good joke in there somewhere but the script writers let it pass. Adding somewhat to the humor of the episode was fellow INS reporter Ron 'Uptight' Updyke, who's near faint at the sight of one of the Ripper victims made him an unlikely candidate for future gory assignments.

Working on a tip, Kolchak tracks down the alleged Ripper and engages in a little breaking and entering to nail down a headline, but in the pursuit, the Ripper electrocutes himself on a live electric cable that Kolchak unexplainably rigged up. However the body somehow vanished, leaving behind only a set of smoldering clothes and a seventy year old shoe, identified as the last of it's kind from Peele's Footwear Company in London. With no positive proof as to the existence of Jack the Ripper, Kolchak is left to pose the question - "How could you explain it?" - in his best pre-X Files manner.

The Ripper case file

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 13 September 2017]

The TV series debut of Kolchak: The Night Stalker has Darren McGavin being demoted to the lonely hearts column by Simon Oakland as the woman who writes it is on vacation. A little zinger from Oakland who is tired of the way that McGavin irritates him and flouts his authority.

There's a series of murders of women, brutal slashings in the style of Jack The Ripper that Oakland does give to Jack Grinnage who is McGavin's ivy league rival on the post. Still Kolchak gets a letter in his temporary capacity of INS's Dear Abby that gives him a clue.

The Chicago police know they are dealing with something supernatural when they corner the guy dressed in English attire of the 1880s who is impervious to bullets and can jump from heights like a cat or Superman. They also don't want the news out either.

Of course in the end he defeats the new Jack The Ripper, but McGavin doesn't write the story. Sets a pattern for several of the episodes.

Kolchak.

[bombersflyup · 3/10 · 3 April 2022]

The show has similar premises you'll find in "The X-Files" monster of the week's, which McGavin later appears a few times. He's likable in the lead role and the forthright unapologetic remarks are welcome. It's a shame the tone's entirely flimsy though and comic book-esk, with low production value and all the action scenes in the dark.

Darren McGavin does a magnificent job

[Paularoc · 7/10 · 16 September 2012]

I watched this series a few times when it originally aired. That I watched it at all was due entirely to Darren McGavin's performance since the basic premise of the show was not appealing. As one reviewer said - the show is a winner for those who like stories of the supernatural and I don't. However, McGavin does such as wonderful job as the manic, enthusiastic reporter that he makes the show fun to watch. In this episode, he's convinced that a vicious (is there any other kind?) serial killer is in fact Jack the Ripper come back. His scenes with Editor-in-Chief Simon Oakland are always energetic. And his scene with another reporter, played by Beatrice Colen (an actress I've never heard of, unfortunately as she was quite good) is especially humorous. This is a solid entry for those who enjoy the genre. As for me, I much prefer McGavin in his Mike Hammer series - a TV series that is sadly hard to find copies of nowadays.

Kol-Jack

[stones78 · 6 March 2019]

Forgive me for the stupid title of my review, but I try to be clever sometimes. The was the official start of this short, but great series, and it definitely started with a bang, as the infamous Jack the Ripper visits the Windy City. The quick camera cuts/edits are on full display here, and it's done rather well, even though Jack was a tad more superhuman than I expected, and that was a bit of a negative to this reviewer. Look for some familiar faces in a "fat" Beatrice Colen, and Ken Lynch; regarding Colen, she's described as "fat" a few times in this episode, but by today's standards, she's just about average, but I digress. I won't spoil what happens to her character, but let's just say that it was unexpected, and that's a good thing! I forgot to mention above that Ruth McDevitt is another familiar face, but this time she plays an old geezer who thinks she saw the killer; later in the series, she would become a co-worker at INS, but as a different character. Let me add that while I liked the ending, it seemed a bit over-the-top and too easy for Kolchak to figure out. The portrayal of the Ripper himself could've had a little more pizazz to him, but all in all, this is a solid intro for what would become a fantastic and influential series.