The Night Strangler is the made-for-television sequel to The Night Stalker, which introduces the two main characters. It begins with a chuckle and ends with a knee-slapping laugh. You have to watch this movie to fully appreciate how much trouble a person can get into for trying to tell the truth, especially when other people want to conceal the facts.

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) has made his way to Seattle, where he is trying to sell the book he has written about the Las Vegas vampire. Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) is now the Seattle city editor of the Daily Chronicle, owned by Llewellyn Crossbinder (John Carradine). He hires Kolchak.

Kolchak's first assignment is a murder, but he sees a link to two recent murders. The victims are young, beautiful women. Their necks are broken, their throats are crushed and there is a residue of rotten flesh on their throats.

The newspaper researcher, Titus Berry (Wally Cox), helps Kolchak establish a pattern of identical murders -- six women in 18 days -- every 21 years, all the way back to 1889. Each time, there were reports of odd or bizarre facts being suppressed by the police. In each set, there were enough facts released to know they were identical to the current ones.

When the story gets printed, the police once again suppress the story. Carl and Tony are on thin ice with Police Captain Roscoe Schubert (Scott Brady), who promises to put Kolchak behind bars if he does not cease and desist. Of course, Kolchak does not cease or desist. Instead, he produces a name: Dr. Richard Malcolm (Richard Anderson). Then he goes after the story.

The Night Strangler takes off at a quick pace and never lets up. From incident to argument, this is raucous action all the way.

The special effects are kept to a minimum. This movie relies primarily upon strong acting and spooky sets, and it has both in abundance. Part of the story is set in the remains of the burned-out underground "Old Seattle." Geez, how spooky! And just wait until you see the bad guy's family....

The one place where they went all out is the makeup when Dr. Malcolm ages. It is a tremendous scene and can stand up to comparison to the most advanced aging scenes of our modern technology.

All the actors played their roles extremely well, though they do not have the chemistry of the original cast, but very few movies ever have had. This is still a superb movie in all respects.

Two wonderful additions to the cast are JoAnn Pflug as Louise Harper, who is paying her way for a degree in psychology by working after school as a bellydancer, and Margaret Hamilton as Professor Crabwell, who is an expert in the paranormal and metaphysical. They certainly add a pizzazz to the story, which is well written and moves briskly through the cause and effect action and drama to arrive at what will likely be an unexpected ending, where I laughed myself silly. Only Kolchak could get into this kind of mess.

If you are not familiar with Kolchak, I recommend you watch The Night Stalker first. It is not necessary and The Night Strangler stands on its own as an independent movie. However, watching the original movie will give you the history and make the interaction between Carl and Tony funnier.

Either way, The Night Strangler is a first-rate movie that mixes horror and comedy for a thoroughly enjoyable movie experience.

The Night Strangler was followed by a television series: Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Each episode brought Kolchak into confrontation with a creature or entity from folklore or history -- something that you can research and reference. That series is worth its weight in gold.