***SPOILERS*** After a number of Las Vegas show girls are brutally murdered with their blood drained out of their bodies hard nosed reporter Carl Kolchak,Darrin McGavin, smells a big story in what he feels is behind those savage killings. Kolchak is certain that it was a vampire who did the women in and he was going to prove it even he ended up becoming one the the vampire's victims himself.
With the Mayor and police commissioner of Las Vegas trying to prevent a city wide panic the thought that a legendary vampire was on the loose in the city Kolchak's story is put on hold with his editor Tony Vincenzo, Simon Okland, telling him to drop the whole thing and report on an upcoming beauty contest instead. It's when it become obvious to everyone even the city officials that some supernatural psycho with a craving for human blood is out killing people it's decided to finally go alone with Kolchak's plans in killing him. But only have it kept from the public together with the killer's by now some dozen drained of their blood of victims.
The killer turns out to be 72 year old Romanian immigrant Jonos Skorzeny, Barry Atwater, whom it's found out has used a number of aliases in countries like Britain and Canada as well as here in the US over the last 50 or so years. Skorzeny used those phony names in him getting jobs as hospital orderlies and ambulance drivers where there's freshly dead, but still warm, people as well as blood banks available to him where he has access to the life giving human blood that he so desperately needs. Despite Skorzeny's craving for blood he also seems to be immune to bullets or anything thing else that can kill a mortal man and even worse has the strength of ten man despite his advance, in him being over 70 years old, age!
***SPOILERS*** Reporter Kolchak finally hits pay-dirt when one of his stooges or informant little Mickey Crawford, Elisha Cook Jr, find out the address-13-13 Black Raven Lane-where Skorzeny spend his days locked up in his coffin. Kolchak now plans to do the guy in, when he's fast asleep and isn't looking, by driving a wooden stake through his evil heart and thus put an end to Skorzeny's regain of terror in the city of Las Vegas. Not quite sure what time of the day it is Kolchak, suffering from sleep deprivation, seemingly having lost his sense of time goes to confront and kill the sleeping in his coffin Skorzeny in almost the dead, or darkest before dawn, of night! In Kolchak not bothering to wait until the sun comes up where it would be suicide for Skorzeny to emerge from his deep sleep!
Wild showdown between Kolchak and the vampire Skorzeny with Kolchak's good friend Las Vegas police detective Bernie Jenks, Ralph Meeker, joining in with the vampire in the darkness of night quickly getting the upper hand on the two of them. Just when it looked like curtains for both Kolchak & Jenks an attentive, in him finally knowing it's morning and about what turns vampires off, Kolchak pulled down a curtain in Skorzeny's lair and lets the sun shine in. Together with a crucifix and stake slammed into his heart Kolchak puts him on ice at the local city morgue together with his dozen or so victims. It was just too bad for Kolchak in that he couldn't file his big scoop of a story in what Skorzeny did and how he finished him off. That's in what kin of legal trouble he was in by being threatened by the Las Vegas police department and the city D.A Tom Pain,Kent Smith, with a murder indictment in him killing an "innocent man", Jonos Skorzeny. Since Skorzeny wasn't even arrested indited or tried for his crimes. It was in that way the city officials felt that the true story of the Vampire of Vegas would never see the light of day. Which was far more important to them then preventing the mass killings that Skorzeny committed in the city that Kolchak did everything possible, including risking his life,to prevent!
With the Mayor and police commissioner of Las Vegas trying to prevent a city wide panic the thought that a legendary vampire was on the loose in the city Kolchak's story is put on hold with his editor Tony Vincenzo, Simon Okland, telling him to drop the whole thing and report on an upcoming beauty contest instead. It's when it become obvious to everyone even the city officials that some supernatural psycho with a craving for human blood is out killing people it's decided to finally go alone with Kolchak's plans in killing him. But only have it kept from the public together with the killer's by now some dozen drained of their blood of victims.
The killer turns out to be 72 year old Romanian immigrant Jonos Skorzeny, Barry Atwater, whom it's found out has used a number of aliases in countries like Britain and Canada as well as here in the US over the last 50 or so years. Skorzeny used those phony names in him getting jobs as hospital orderlies and ambulance drivers where there's freshly dead, but still warm, people as well as blood banks available to him where he has access to the life giving human blood that he so desperately needs. Despite Skorzeny's craving for blood he also seems to be immune to bullets or anything thing else that can kill a mortal man and even worse has the strength of ten man despite his advance, in him being over 70 years old, age!
***SPOILERS*** Reporter Kolchak finally hits pay-dirt when one of his stooges or informant little Mickey Crawford, Elisha Cook Jr, find out the address-13-13 Black Raven Lane-where Skorzeny spend his days locked up in his coffin. Kolchak now plans to do the guy in, when he's fast asleep and isn't looking, by driving a wooden stake through his evil heart and thus put an end to Skorzeny's regain of terror in the city of Las Vegas. Not quite sure what time of the day it is Kolchak, suffering from sleep deprivation, seemingly having lost his sense of time goes to confront and kill the sleeping in his coffin Skorzeny in almost the dead, or darkest before dawn, of night! In Kolchak not bothering to wait until the sun comes up where it would be suicide for Skorzeny to emerge from his deep sleep!
Wild showdown between Kolchak and the vampire Skorzeny with Kolchak's good friend Las Vegas police detective Bernie Jenks, Ralph Meeker, joining in with the vampire in the darkness of night quickly getting the upper hand on the two of them. Just when it looked like curtains for both Kolchak & Jenks an attentive, in him finally knowing it's morning and about what turns vampires off, Kolchak pulled down a curtain in Skorzeny's lair and lets the sun shine in. Together with a crucifix and stake slammed into his heart Kolchak puts him on ice at the local city morgue together with his dozen or so victims. It was just too bad for Kolchak in that he couldn't file his big scoop of a story in what Skorzeny did and how he finished him off. That's in what kin of legal trouble he was in by being threatened by the Las Vegas police department and the city D.A Tom Pain,Kent Smith, with a murder indictment in him killing an "innocent man", Jonos Skorzeny. Since Skorzeny wasn't even arrested indited or tried for his crimes. It was in that way the city officials felt that the true story of the Vampire of Vegas would never see the light of day. Which was far more important to them then preventing the mass killings that Skorzeny committed in the city that Kolchak did everything possible, including risking his life,to prevent!