Nightkill (1980) ** (out of 4)Katherine Atwell (Jaclyn Smith) watches her lover kill her rather mean-spirited and cruel husband (Mike Connors) right in front of her. The lover promises her everything will be fine but the next day she finds his dead body. Before long people start wondering where the husband is and that's when Detective Donner (Robert Mitchum) starts to ask questions. Soon the wife begins to crack as she feels there's something more sinister going on.Ted Post's NIGHTKILL is a rather interesting German picture that was meant to be a huge theatrical release but it ended up showing on television before eventually making it to video. This is without question one of the strangest films from this era because in all honesty it's pretty poorly made and there are countless flaws throughout. With that said, at the core there's a good movie somewhere in all of the mess and one can't help but think that a more polished script and some better direction could have made something special here.When this film eventually got released it was passed off as a horror film but that's certainly not the case. It's basically a murder-mystery that looks and feels like a watered down made-for-television film. It's really too bad that Post didn't try to add more style or flair to the picture because it could have been so much better. The problem is that the film was shot rather ugly and there's just no style or energy to be found. Considering what Brian DePalma and others were doing with this type of film around this era it's easy to see why this thing just never took off.Another problem is that the lead character, the wife, is just downright stupid. Her situation could have been avoided countless times yet her character just keeps making one dumb decision after another. For the most part Smith turns in a good performance but she certainly can't save the picture. Connors and James Franciscus are good as are Fritz Weaver and Sybil Danning. As far as Mitchum goes, he's certainly offered a good role here and he does a nice job with it. We've seen him play the Detective countless times throughout his career so he certainly knows how to play it.NIGHTKILL has some good sequences throughout it including a car chase where the woman believes her dead husband is coming after her. The ending was also well done and it ends the film on a high note. Still, there are just way too many flat moments here to make it a complete success but the film is an interesting misfire.

In it's early part, you know you've seen films like this before, which brought one film to mind, Harry Hamlin's 1990's Deceptions. But then this well constructed and stylish thriller, thrills over and over again, many times over. By it's preview, or cover, which you'd find in the ill appropriate horror section, of your video store, you'll look at this film, misjudgingly as a slasher pick, which it isn't. Jaclyn Smith, an angel who at one time in the 80's was voted, most sexiest woman (I remember that shot with her son) is perfect, as done solid by the rest of the cast, especially Mitchum who provides the killer twist, where I really like James Franciscus as Smith's lover. The story basically has Smith, as a tortured soul of a wife, who's copped the brunt of ugly verbal abuse (though no physical abuse is implied) and ridicule by hubby (who you really get to hate, and want to see dead) where you really sense Smith's pain, and frustration, and before you know it, she's an accessory to his murder, but then Smith's hell gets worse, with more bodies turning up in a freezer. In it's early part, I found the film in a nothing happening kind of land, say to films like Somebody Killed Her Husband, where some suspender moments were thrown in, like in that roadblock scene, where at first, Smith's car won't start up again, where she's en route to getting rid of one of her bodies, but boy was I mislead. The shower scene will stay with you, where Mitchum, has really got his s..t together, you kind of admire him, in spite of his corrupt intentions. We view in a CU, we really didn't need, with the after affect it has, on a burnt bodied smith. It's music score, one I really liked, to me is unforgettable. Highly recommended, for thriller fans, you won't be disappointed by this nice little oldie.

The movie is appropriately named, "Nightkill", because it is so darkly filmed that the daylight scenes, which are not many, seem like night, and the nighttime scenes will literally leave you in the dark. Since the plot twists and turns, it would be nice to actually see what is going on. Basically, Jaclyn Smith is unwittingly drawn into a complex murder plot, involving her tyrant, millionaire husband, Mike Connors. Once her lover, James Franciscus, does the killing, nothing is explained, and the audience is left to blindly follow what is happening. Personally, I lost interest until the relentlessly downbeat ending. Despite the presence of Robert Mitchum, and some decent acting, technically the film is seriously flawed. - MERK

Nightkill is set in Phoenix, Arizona. Katherine 'Cathy' Atwell (Jaclyn Smith) is married to an overbearing, mean and often cruel but successful businessman named Wendell (Mike Connors), their marriage is for show and business purposes only. First of all we see Wendell place a briefcase with $1,000,000 in it in an airport locker. Later that night his right-hand man named Steve Fulton (James Franciscus, the IMDb listing for this character is wrong. It's definitely Fulton not Fuller, it's pronounced Fulton throughout the film and I even checked the spelling during the end credits) with whom Cathy is having an affair with slips some poison into Wendell's drink which appears to kill him within minutes. Cathy seems surprised and upset, Steve has acted on his own and has involved Cathy against her wishes. Steve's plan is to alter Wendell's passport with a picture of himself and catch a plane as Wendell to Washington, and then travel back as himself and therefore give the impression Wendell has disappeared in Washington. Then retrieve the briefcase with $1,000,000 in it at the airport and fly off into the sun with Cathy and live happily ever after. Well, that's the plan anyway. Steve sticks Wendell's body into a large freezer and heads off to the airport, leaving Cathy to attend a party in her honour organised by two of her friends Herbert (Fritz Weaver) and his wife Monika Childs (Sybil Danning) to give the impression that things are fine. Steve says he will fly back the next day and contact her. A perfect plan? Not quite. Wendell's secretary Christine (Belinda Mayne) reports him missing and Cathy is spoken to by Lieutenant Donner (Robert Mitchum) about his whereabouts. Steve fails to contact her and Cathy feels she should dispose of the body. Cathy opens the freezer only to find Steve in there dead instead of Wendell. Things turn even worse when it comes to light that Wendell knew about Cathy's affair with Steve and hired a P.I. named Rodriguez who bugged the entire house and recorded the murder of Wendell, and Lt. Donner tells Cathy that Wendell never made the flight to Washington. What's going on? Is Wendell really dead? Who else could it possibly be? Will Cathy be able to solve the mystery before Lt. Donner finds out the truth? Will she be blamed for the murders herself? So many questions, you'll have to watch it to find out the answers! Directed by Ted Post I thought this was a good murder mystery but I have to admit I figured out the twist ending about half way through which was a little disappointing as I was precisely right about how everything turned out. The script by Joan Andre based on a story by John Case isn't really at fault for this, I've probably just seen to many of these things that try and be too clever for it's own good. At least it tries, and it's quite clever and interesting to watch overall. It's a little slow at times with certain scenes and characters seeming like padding especially Herbert and Monika who have no relevance to the final outcome at all, maybe it would have been better as a slightly shorter T.V. programme. The pay-off at the end is reasonably satisfying but goes on for too long, the twist is revealed about 15 minutes before it finishes and I expected another big twist within the final 5 minutes or so, but it never happened. The acting is fine by an experienced cast. Technically the film looks a little bland and it's easy to see that Post is predominantly a director of T.V. shows, he tries to light peoples eyes while keeping the rest of their face in shadow in certain scenes which look out-of-place. Not a bad way to spend an hour and a half I suppose, how much enjoyment you get out of this film will greatly depend on if you figure out the twist ending which I did. Worth a watch if you can catch it on T.V. for free.