EDITOR’S NOTE: This episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker didn’t air on the CBS Late Movie. It wasn’t offered to CBS because ABC made a TV movie from it and “Firefall” and titled it Crackle of Death. As a completist, I’m covering the episode this week.

The new, modern Lakefront Hospital is supposed to save lives. But why don’t its machines work correctly? How are there cracks in the foundation and walls already? And why have so many people died from horrifying deaths in a place of wellness?

These are the kinds of questions that Carl Kolchak would like the answers to.

He gets his answers from one of the foremen who left the construction before it was finished, Jim Elkhorn (William Smith!), who explains that he and the rest of his Native American crew didn’t want to anger Matchemonedo, an invisible bear spirit that Kolchak must send back into hibernation.

Joyce Jilson (Superchick) and Elaine Giftos (Angel) also appear in the cast. Beyond being in danger, they’re two conquests for Elkhorn, who seemingly is as interested in lying down with lovely women as he is in erecting buildings.

The episode’s highlight is when Karl takes two of his paper’s most expensive cameras to get a photo of the monster. Vincenzo stops him and wants to know what’s happening.

Vincenzo: What are you doing with two of our best cameras?

Kolchak: I’m gonna hock ’em, what do you think? You ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer.

As Elkhorn is helping Karl do research, he translates some French. Smith could do that, as he was fluent in Russian, French, German and Serbo-Croatian, languages he learned while serving as an Intelligence Specialist for the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War.

This episode was directed by Alexander Grasshoff and written by Arthur Rowe, who wrote thirteen episodes of Fantasy Island and nineteen episodes of The Bionic Woman and served as a producer on those shows. It also has scripting by Rudolph Borchert, who wrote five Kolchak episodes.

While not the best episode, this does have Kolchak trying to freeze the basement floors and foundation, which is pretty impressive as he’s just one man against a Native American spirit that has been murdering humans since we first showed up on this planet.