Dark Intruder *** (1965, Leslie Nielsen, Mark Richman, Judi Meredith, Werner Klemperer, Charles Bolender, Peter Brocco) – Classic Movie Review 5797

Leslie Nielsen stars as 1890 San Francisco playboy sleuth and occult expert Brett Kingsford in director Harvey Hart’s eerie and atmospheric 1965 black-and-white period horror movie. It is produced by Alfred Hitchcock’s Shamley Productions TV company as the pilot for what turned out to be an unmade TV series called The Black Cloak.

The police ask Brett to help uncover a Sumerian demon’s plot to return to Earth and take over a human body when a series of Jack the Ripper-style murders of women occurs in San Francisco.

As with the next year’s very similar Chamber of Horrors (1966), Dark Intruder was judged too strong for TV. So NBC sold it to Universal, who sent it out to drive-in cinemas supporting William Castle’s I Saw What You Did (1965).

Tense, well plotted and characterful, this respected cult item is written by Barré Lyndon, and runs only 59 minutes.

Also in the cast are [Peter] Mark Richman as Brett’s troubled friend Robert, Judi Meredith as Robert’s bride-to-be Evelyn, Werner Klemperer as a Mr Hyde-style monster killer Professor Malaki (voiced by Norman Lloyd), Charles Bolender as Brett’s invaluable dwarf assistant Nikola, Peter Brocco as Chinese curio dealer Chi Zang, Gilbert Green, and Bill Quinn.

A late-night TV regular fixture in the Seventies, it was released on DVD by Universal/ TCM on 7 December 2015 in a double bill with The Night Walker (1964).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5797

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