DARK INTRUDER (1965)

In 1890 San Francisco, we see a woman chased down an alley at night and killed, with claw marks on her face and a grotesque statuette left behind. This is the fourth such murder and the police force is coming under pressure from the press and the city government to make some progress on the hunt for the killer. Brett Kingsford does occasional work for the police, as an informer and as an occult expert—I don't think we ever learn how he makes a living, but he lives comfortably in a nice house with a dwarf butler named Nikola. Brett surmises that the statuettes represent a Sumerian demon, and the murders have something to do with the demon eventually taking human form. Meanwhile, Brett's close friend Evelyn is worried about her fiancé Robert, an antiques dealer who's been suffering from sleepwalking-like fits and fears that he might be the killer. Brett himself is attacked by a brutish caped figure, and soon he figures out that only one more death is needed to bring the demon back to life. This short movie was originally produced as a TV pilot but when it was considered a bit too scary for television, some extra material was added to bring it to fifty-nine minutes and it was released as a second feature. The idea of a show revolving around an occult investigator might have been more palatable a few years later, and based on this film, it might have worked out nicely. Leslie Nielsen, years before his fame as a comic actor in Airplane! and The Naked Gun, looks the part perfectly with his fancy smoking jacket and sideburns, but his performance, though not comic, is oddly light-toned, perhaps in an attempt to balance out the darker material. He’s not off-putting and has a couple of strong moments, but makes a few too many jokey asides. Mark Richman (later known as Peter Mark Richman, pictured) is the real star of the show as the troubled Robert; Judi Meredith, the princess in Jack the Giant Killer, is serviceable as Evelyn; Werner Klemperer is buried under makeup as Malaki, a spooky fortune teller; Charles Bolender makes a solid impression as Nikola, even though he has little to do. I felt a Lovecraft influence here in the vague presentation of the demon backstory—the god Dagon is mentioned in passing, an actual Sumerian god but also a figure of evil in a Lovecraft story. Brett has a mandrake plant that sways on its own. The sets are elaborate and the visuals are nicely atmospheric. Coincidentally, the cinematographer, John F. Warren, also worked on the movie Zero Hour which was the movie parodied in Neilsen's Airplane! A good choice for October viewing. [Streaming]