Here he is: Carl Kolchak, Independent New Service, Chicago, or Las Vegas, or Seattle. He’ll get the story. He’ll try to get it printed. He’s an icon.
Below is a doll of Kolchak. An “Action Figure”, if you will. These were never produced but one enterprising fan bought the action figure from “A Christmas Story” and “modded” it out to be Kolchak. That’s right, he even wove a little Seersucker suit. Hard to believe. Click the link and believe. Believing was what Kolchak was all about.
Click here to open the story of the guy who made his own Kolchak doll in a new window
Here is the nerve center: The INS newsroom, run by Antonio Vincenzo [vin-chen-zo], played by the brilliant Simon Oakland. This guy seems so real and so natural at his part that it’s hard to believe that he didn’t do more in his career. He could act circles around a wimp like Tom Hanks. He plays YOU, while he’s playing his part.
The guy at left is Ron Updike. Note the similarity between Updike and Uptight, which Kolchak frequently called him. It was suggested, all the way back there in 1974, that he was, you know, that way. He was a good antagonist to Kolchak. Miss Emily on his side, Tony and Updike on the other. Great stuff.
I always loved the art deco/film noir feel of the INS newsroom. I could spend some time there.
I remember watching that show as a kid OH THE TERROR when he has to fill the zombie’s mouth full of salt and sew it shut in the back of that wrecked ambulance in a junk yard YIKES
that was terror to a kid at the time
Comment by Tim — May 10, 2008 @ 9:08 am | Edit This
Tim, once again, you hit it right on the head. That moment defines Kolchak. That is the scariest moment where he pours the salt in the mouth and attempts to sew it up. It is a hearse rather than an ambulance, I believe, but I could have it wrong.
Coolest moment is in The Night Strangler, when Kolchak goes in the trap door under Dr. Malcom Richard’s clinic in Seattle and finds the lost section of the underground.
Another defining moment is in “Horror in the Heights”, when a monster kills you by becoming someone you trust. And Kolchak tells the old Indian guy, “…but I don’t trust anyone…” and then the moster appears in a back alley as Miss Emily and Kolchak shoots her with the crossbow and kills the henious monster. The acting that McGavin does as he is about to shoot her is amazing. Right on. Kind of laughing nervously but firmly and disbelievingly telling the faux-Miss Emily, “…I’m going to have to shoot you”.
Comment by mcgonnigle — May 12, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
Needless to say, this banter is what makes the Pinetar Rag GREAT!
Nuff said.
Comment by Robert — May 12, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
how about the killer robot dressed up in the mailman suit that goes on the rampage and then the face falls off of it and all thats there are blinking lights and wires
YIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE wheres my mail!!!
Comment by tim — May 14, 2008 @ 11:01 am
I think he still gets disability and a pension from the US Post office–model of efficiency that they are…
Comment by mcgonnigle — May 14, 2008 @ 3:31 pm