The Night of the Strangler

When college student Denise (Susan McCullough) announces to her brothers that she's dropping out of school to get married, oh and she's also pregnant, oh and the husband-to-be is black, their reactions are somewhat different. Younger sensitive brother Vance (Mickey Dolenz) is shocked yet supportive, while older brother Dan (James Ralston) is enraged, spewing out virulent racist comments between swings of his fists. After Denise's fiancee is shot by an assassin, a whole series of murders begin to occur, leaving the police baffled. Maybe recently returned priest Father Jessie (Chuck Patterson) can put an end to it.

Former Monkee Mickey Dolenz will be the main draw for curious viewers these days, but I warn them: this very low budget effort is a chore to sit through. The acting is bad, the script is worse, and the filmmaking comes in dead last. The film seems to want to shine a light on the destructive power of racism, but it's done in such a stupid, incoherent manner as to minimize any messaging that was intended. That would be perfectly fine if either the mystery or thriller elements were well handled, but they're not. The mystery's resolution is dumb and a cheat, while the suspense is non-existent, since you don't care if these people live or die. I've seen this movie listed in horror books over the years, but it's not a horror film at all, so don't expect one. Oh, and no one is strangled, either.

Watch out!...this early 1970s anti-racist mystery has more murders than the mafia. I mean I watch giallos on a level that most people wouldn't consider sane and I haven't seen a body count like this outside of a slasher flick from at least ten years later. That's not a good thing, I'm not a gore hound, and the sheer level of murder that people get away with in this cheesy flick in order to make the end "work" is laughably absurd.

People are just dropping like flies from beginning to end despite the victims being regular average folks on college campuses in broad freaking daylight and in the upper middle class white suburbs of New Orleans.

To top it all off, one of the Monkees - Mickey Dolenz, looking just as much like a Monchhichi doll as ever - is a main character yet never once breaks into song. AND...the "night of the strangler" never actually happens, unless you count a drowning. There are however an abnormal number of Asian snakes and poison darts.

The Night of the Strangler (1972)

** (out of 4)

A woman starts off a wave of murders when she returns home to announce that she's getting married. Her older brother Dan (James Ralston) isn't too happy but he goes balistic when he learns that she's also pregnant with a black man's baby. Soon her baby daddy is dead and the sister is too shortly after. Soon the entire family gets wrapped up in a murder plot.

THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER was sold as a horror movie but it's really not one. I guess you could say it was an attempt to tell a detective story based around some racial events but THE BIG SLEEP or GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER it's not. For the most part this will appeal to fans of low-budget films that were made without too much thought, money or talent.

I guess the most notable thing about the picture is that Micky Dolenz plays the younger brother. His performance is certainly lacking and especially during a crying scene he has. Ralston is at least entertaining enough and especially early on with some of his racist rants. The rest of the cast ranges from decent to poor. There's some mild nudity and violence thrown in but nothing overly memorable.

THE NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER somewhat works as the mystery of who is doing the killings is handle well. There are a couple nice scenes but most just fall rather flat.

"Night of the Strangler" obviously isn't the type of movie to win prizes, but I would like to hand out one special kind of award, though, and that is the prize for the film with the most inaccurate and misleading title ever! Admittedly it sounds cool, as well as appealing to horror fanatics, but not a word of the title makes any sense. Night? The events in the film take place in a span of more than a year! Strangler? There's shooting, drowning, death by venomous snake bite, stabbing and a bizarre sort of arrow-shooting device, but not a strangulation in sight! If I had to give an apt title, it would probably be something like: "The random slaughter of a whole bunch of innocent people". Come to think of it, that actually sounds awesome!

Enough with the ranting already, because I honestly enjoyed this obscure and extremely low-budgeted horror/thriller quite a lot! The plot is very original, truly unseen, and - with a healthy dose of imagination - can even be considered as a Blaxploitation effort! Set in New Orleans, homestead of director Joy N. Houck Jr. And one of the most beautiful cities in the world (at least according to yours truly), the film starts with a rich white girl announcing her engagement with a black man to her two brothers. The oldest brother, Dan, is a filthy racist pig and threatens to kill both her and her boyfriend. The younger brother Vance tries to defend his sister, but without much success. Shortly after, the black fiancé is shot dead by a sniper in New York. A year later, and back in New Orleans, the girl - Denise - is drowned in her bath by a vicious killer dressed in black, but he makes it look like suicide. From then onwards, "Night of the Strangler" turns into a bizarrely compelling and unusual type of slasher/murder mystery. While the black town's priest attempts to make peace between the estranged brothers Dan and Vance, a number of vicious murders plagues the community.

What makes this movie so harsh, and simultaneously so intriguing, is that the murder victims are all innocent and very sympathetic people, while the loathsome ones remain alive! Vance (played by none other than Mickey Dolenz of the pop band "The Monkees") is a jealous and aggressive guy, and Dan is the most hateful and disgusting racist thug I've ever seen. But they remain standing, whereas all the friendly characters die painful and cruel deaths. The identity of the killer can be guessed, if you are an experienced slasher-fanatic, but the mystery around his/her persona and motivations are elaborated quite effectively, I must say. The pacing is occasionally sluggish, but the film never gets boring. Definitely recommended.

There are seeds of a good film here in a story about a man, The Monkees' Micky Dolenz, who disowns his sister after learning she is pregnant with boyfriend's baby because her boyfriend is black. The sister is later found murdered, which leads Dolenz and a black priest to investigate the murder, which has been disguised as a suicide, trying to find an individual with a peace-sign belt buckle who they suspect is the culprit. There could have been some interesting commentaries on race relations with this kind of a set-up, but the film is basically a cash grab exploiting the real-life Boston Strangler, who still at-large, and following a big budget Hollywood production a few years before about the Boston Strangler. Never mind that no characters are actually strangled and the story has nothing to do with that case. It's a super cheap production without any real scares or suspense, so there's not a lot to recommend outside of the novelty value of seeing Micky Dolenz is a very un-Monkees-like role. Well, he is still a bit of a 1960s hipster/hippie, but he plays a much darker character than his Monkees Micky character. Overall, "The Night of the Strangler" is a forgettable quickie low-budget picture that offers a darker role for Micky Dolenz, but is a missed opportunity for murder mystery about race relations.