Kolchak: The Night Stalker/Demon in Lace

Demon in Lace
Season 1, Episode 16
Airdate	February 7, 1975
Teleplay by	Stephen Lord & Michael Kozoll and David Chase
Story by	Stephen Lord
Directed by	Don Weis
Produced by	Cy Chermak
Stream
← 1x15 Chopper	1x17 → Legacy of Terror
Kolchak: The Night Stalker — Season One

Demon in Lace is the sixteenth episode of the first season of Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Starring: Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak)

Also Starring: Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo)

Guest Stars: Keenan Wynn (Captain Joe "Mad Dog" Siska), Jackie Vernon (Coach Toomey), Kristina Holland (Rosalind Winters)

and Carolyn Jones (Registrar),

Special Guest Star: Andrew Prine (Prof. C. Evan Spate)

Co-Starring: Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke)

Co-Starring (end credits): Ruth McDevitt (Emily Cowles), Carmen Zapata (Spanish Woman), Maria Grimm (Maria Venegas), Ben Masters (Mike Thompson), Milton Parsons (Dr. Salem Mozart), John Elerick (Mark Hansen)

with Davis Roberts (Coroner), Donald Mantooth (Tim Brennan), Hunter Von Leer (Don Rhiner), Margaret Impert (Betty Walker), Iris Edwards (The Girl)

Uncredited: Teddy Blue (The Demon), Carlos Molina (Landlord), Steve Stafford (Craig Connelly), Snag Werris (Don Rhiner)

Plot Overview

Kolchak investigates a series of murders at the Illinois Technical Institute. He runs out of gas just as he arrives at the scene of the latest killing, where Captain Joe Siska is investigating. Kolchak and Captain Siska do not get along well at all, but Kolchak finds out what he can and then bums a ride from Rosalind Winters, a reporter from The Blue Monitor (a campus newspaper).

At a house somewhere a woman falls downs the steps and dies. While her boyfriend is calling for an ambulance, she gets up and walks off. Later her body is found along side the latest murder victim. Kolchak eavesdrops on the crime scene investigation, but is exposed when Rosalind blunders in. Captain Siska has him removed from the scene.

At the police station Kolchak steals a police investigator's badge in order to gain access to the police reports on the other murders. He discovers that each victim was found with a woman who had already died just hours earlier.

Back at the office, Tony has gotten approval from the New York office to make the newpaper more "upbeat." From now on only upbeat stories will be allowed. Kolchak rolls his eyes at this ridiculous idea and leaves to continue work on his story.

Posing as someone from the respectable publication Archaeology Quarterly, Kolchak meets with Professor Spate to talk about the tablet. After a few moments, he is exposed for the fraud that he is (Kolchak that is), but he does get a photograph of the tablet before he is forced to leave.

Back at the office Kolchak examines the photograph. His research indicates that they are dealing with a succubus, a female demon that lures young men into amorous situations and then kills them. Kolchak seeks advice from Doctor Salem Mozart, who tells him that destroying the tablet is the only way to get rid of a succubus.

Kolchak arrives in the study of Professor Spate to destroy the tablet, but the professor stands in his way. Kolchak throws the professor aside and begins to hack away at the tablet using a hammer and chisel.

The succubus had gone to see Mike Thompson, Professor Spate's newest assistant. She was about to kill him, when Kolchak started chipping away at the tablet. In ugly hag, demon form she rushes to the professor's study to stop him.

Kolchak grapples with her and throws her to the ground, before turning his attention back to the tablet. The succubus gets up and attacks several more times, but eventually he gets the better of her, doing enough damage to the tablet to kill her. The succubus falls to the floor and turns to dust.

Trivia

The Show

• The Blue Monitor was the weekly campus newspaper at the Illinois Technical Institute.
• Professor Spate named his dog King Tut.

Allusions and References

• As the show opens, Kolchak quotes Goethe:

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

• With Ron's help Miss Emily works on a crossword puzzle with a World War II theme.
• The tablet that Professor Spate was translating, was found by Professor Julius Whitehead in Iraq in the lower valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates. He claims the tablet is Sumarian and probably predates the Dead Sea Scrolls.
• While impersonating a reporter from Archaeology Quarterly, Kolchak drops a few place names such as Mesopotamia and Nebuchadnezzar just to sound like he knows what he's doing.
• Kolchak grumbles about the campus reporter's less-than-effective investigative skills. He even invokes the name of Perry Mason.
• Kolchak tracks the historical whereabouts of the tablet and discovers that they came into the possession of a knight of the Crusades, and that Pigafetta also knew of the tablet.