The concept in "A Cold Night's Death" is very good...and very interesting. However, it's also a very, very simple idea...so simple that it cannot be supported in a 90 minute film...perhaps 15-20 at the most. As a result, there were significant periods of dull filler and the overall effort is one I wouldn't recommend.Robert Jones (Robert Culp) and Frank Enari (Eli Wallach) are sent to the Tower Mountain Research Station because the man running the place, Dr. Vogel, stopped transmitting five days ago. Additionally, before this be was beginning to sound more and more irrational. When they arrive in this frozen wasteland to replace him, they find the Doctor...dead...frozen in a room exposed to the elements. How did this happen? Through the course of the film they put the puzzle pieces together and Dr. Jones thinks that the apes at this research center had something to do with this!As I said, the basic idea isn't bad but you could probably sum up the plot in two or three sentences! Wallach and Culp do their best...you can't blame them. But the script just isn't enough to hold your interest...though the payoff is pretty cool...if you're still watching by then!!

The action of "A Cold Night's Death" takes place at an isolated research laboratory in Antarctica and involves two scientists played by Eri Wallach and Robert Culp.They have come to replace the last scientist who worked at the outpost who apparently went mad and killed himself by leaving a window open and slowly freezing to death.The more time our inquisitive friends spend in the outpost,the more paranoid and suspicious they become,both of their surroundings and of each other.Something is definitely amiss and each night brings them closer to the truth behind what really happened to their predecessor."The Chill Factor" provides plenty of bleak snowbound atmosphere of dread and severe isolation.The acting by two leads is excellent and the final moment is utterly chilling.A perfect example of brilliant TV-horror that perfectly conveys the fear of unseen.8 out of 10.

"A Cold Night's Death" is a product of the ABC "Movie of the Week" factory that turned out TV-films at the rate of one or two a week back in the 1970s. Few of those films were memorable, but this is one that stands out in the same way that "The Night Stalker" and "Brian's Song" are still remembered.Set in an animal research laboratory isolated in an arctic wasteland, the film begins with a lone scientist, Dr. Vogel, who appears to be losing his mind, frantically radioing for help to a base that cannot hear him. When the base is out of contact with Vogel for several days, they send a pilot and two more researchers to investigate. They find Vogel dead under mysterious circumstances.Once the pilot leaves, the two new researchers, Drs. Jones and Enari (Robert Culp and Eli Wallach) set about salvaging the animal research experiments. Though Enari is all too happy to think that Vogel simply went mad, the more open-minded Jones is bothered by parallels he sees between what happened to Vogel and the strange things which begin happening to them.If these two men had the mutual respect of Fox Mulder and Dana Sculley, perhaps they could have figured out what was going on. Instead, they move further and further in opposite directions, with Jones convinced something else is at work in the station, and Enari growing increasingly paranoid that Jones has some sinister ulterior motive.The plot being relatively thin, to tell more would ruin it. Thin or not, the story is milked for all it's worth. Moving at a slow, deliberate pace allows the film to build its suspense one step at a time until it reaches its bizarre conclusion. Some of the most delicious movie endings have involved the surprise twist that literally doesn't appear until the absolutely final shot. You get one of those here, and it's a good one. Even if you can guess ahead of time who or what is behind it all, you'll still feel a shiver go up your spine when you see that final close-up.One thing that really makes the film is Gil Mellé's score, which is highly reminiscent of "The Andromeda Strain" (made about the same time). It's electronic, low-keyed and creepy. Director Jerrold Freedman does a nice job making you feel the isolation of these two men who are, really, beyond hope of immediate rescue. In fact, the opening scene is wonderfully spooky. We simply see the research station from the outside in a screaming snowstorm...but we can also hear Vogel inside screaming in panic. Shooting the entire scene from the exterior emphasizes Vogel's aloneness against the malevolent power that is working against him. It's a real grabber. And as Enari and Jones, Wallach and Culp are what they always are: reliable, extremely watchable pros.The off-camera surprise is that this movie is a Spelling-Goldberg production. Spelling and Goldberg have attained a well-deserved reputation for creating some of the worst (albeit most popular) crap on TV, and high-minded suspense movies with sci-fi/horror overtones are not their typical style. Still, give them a star for this one.Incidentally, two notes of interest: First, the movie begins with a narrative which I believe to be the voice of Vic Perrin, the Control Voice of the classic "The Outer Limits". Also, as some have noted, this movie is sometimes aired under the alternate title "The Chill Factor". And, in fact, I recorded it off a local station a few years back under that title. Yet the title "The Chill Factor" doesn't appear in the film. In fact, NO title appears in the film. It runs through the producers, the cast, the writer and the director, but the film's title itself is missing. There IS a blank space in the opening credits where the title normally WOULD go, so it appears that somebody removed "A Cold Night's Death", and never inserted the new title! It is, to my knowledge, the only time something like that has ever happened in a movie.

It has been sometime since I have seen this television movie. It is an eerie film, imaginatively made considering the budget that this film had, which was not much. When we had fewer stations that we do now, films like this were still being seen in the afternoons on affiliate stations to ABC. This show, was part of the Tuesday or Wednesday movie of the week that ABC had. It was from this series that Duel, Directed by Steven Spielberg came from. Regrettably, many of these other films I think were equal to Duel, but these directors and writers from what I can see, never were able to come close to Spiebergs fame.Todays TV movies seem to be made with bigger budgets, but watching a film like Cold Nights Death shows what greatness can be done with a limited budget. The Tuesday and Wednesday night movies on ABC were not all good, but some of them deserve greater status than has been accorded them. These films remind me of the excellent B movies we have heard about that Hollywood made as a second feature in their heyday. Those in the 1970's who looked upon the 1950's as some great creative time on TV forgot about these films. Even in the 1970's when American films were some of the best ever, Film critics then were also not appreciative of what they had before them.Hopefully buried treasures like A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH, and other films will get their re release, either on TV, or on DVD's. Apparently this film is available on DVD to purchase, but many others may not be.