![]() US / 52 minutes / color / Francy, Universal, ABC Dir: Alex Grasshoff Pr: Cy Chermak Scr: Arthur Rowe, Rudolph Borchert Story: Arthur Rowe Cine: Ronald W. Keenan Wynn as Captain Joe ‘Mad Dog’ Siska. The homicidal monster is played by Richard Kiel, as per the previous episode this time, however, you see nothing of his face, just the huge body draped in copious moss. There are nice cameos from Johnny Silver as street musician Morris Shapiro aka “Pepe LaRue,” Ned Glass as a building superintendent and Virginia Gregg as botanist Dr. The incandescent cop in this episode, Captain Joe “Mad Dog” Siska (Wynn), has been at his wife’s behest trying to control his habitual incandescence through group therapy naturally enough, dealing with Kolchak soon erodes that effort, to spectacular effect. Having said that, it is entirely possible that the writers took some well-known Cajun folk tales and weaved elements of them together to yield the ultimate swamp monster that was paramafait. ![]() It appears that paramafait was purely the creation of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker writing team. I’ve looked often but have never found anything on this monster that connects it to anything but the old television show. I wondered, years after viewing this episode, if paramafait was based on an actual Cajun legend. . . Here’s commentary from someone much better qualified than I am, Michael Mayes, who blogs as Texas Cryptid Hunter: I was wrong, however, and it’s testament to the writers’ skills that I was so deceived. I assumed that the Paramafait must be a creature drawn from existing folklore, as per the others in the series to date (Jack the Ripper appears in episode 1, but in folk-monster aspect rather than as an historical character). Deliberately deprived of the ability to dream for so long, Langois’s unconscious has conjured into being a Paramafait, a bayou swamp monster that Cajun moms use to frighten recalcitrant children to sleep. It’s of course investigative journalist Carl Kolchak (McGavin) who puts all the pieces together. Pollack’s sleep laboratory, under constant monitoring, for the past six weeks. All clues point to Paul Langois (Mantooth), a member of Chicago’s Cajun community trouble is, Langois has been asleep in Dr. Both victims, as well as those who follow, are crushed to death, their bodies found adorned with gloops of spanish moss. Next is the chef (uncredited) at a chichi restaurant (“The total value of Chez Voltaire’s wine cellar exceeded the gross national product of Paraguay”). ![]() Roberta Dean as Michelle Kelly, the first victim.įirst to die at the hands of this latest monster is Michelle Kelly (Dean), one of the lab assistants to sleep researcher Dr. In many ways, one of the most inventive of all the series, including the two precursor TVMs, this has a tremendous climax in the Chicago sewers that’s let down, in its final moments, by a lack of imagination. ![]() Browne Cast: Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Keenan Wynn, Severn Darden, Randy Boone, Johnny Silver, Jack Grinnage, Ruth McDevitt, Ned Glass, Richard Kiel, Virginia Gregg, Elisabeth Brooks, Donald Mantooth, Roberta Dean. US / 52 minutes / color / Francy, Universal, ABC Dir: Gordon Hessler Pr: Cy Chermak Scr: Al Friedman, David Chase Story: Al Friedman Cine: Ronald W. ![]()
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