Directed by Don Weis (Beyond Westworld, The Munster’s Revenge) and one of several episodes written by Rudolph Borchert, “The Trevi Collection” has Carl Kolchak find out that fashion model Madeline Parker (Lara Parker, Angelique from Dark Shadows) is an actual witch. On the excellent blog It Couldn’t Happen Here, she told writer Mark Dawidziak that star Darren McGavin gave her some advice: “Nobody really understands the style of this thing. It has to be played seriously, and then the horror will come out naturally.”

She’d already been doing that for years in Collinsport.

She told The Night Stalker Companion, “He kept trying to tell me how to play a witch. It was a fun part, but, to be honest, it wasn’t the most fun acting experience I ever had.”

This episode was made when they were halfway through the season, and one assumes nerves were already shot, what with the long hours and low budgets. At least this episode has a fluffy white cat maul and a model named Ariel (Diane Quick). Another, Melody Sedgwick (Beverly Gill), is killed by a shower that gets way too hot.

The one interesting part is that Carl goes from Madeline helping him to her being the villain. This is a different approach to the show’s formula, and while it’s not an episode I enjoy as much as some of the others, I’ll take any Kolchak over most shows.

Sources

It Couldn’t Happen Here…: Mark Dawidziak on The Trevi Collection. https://akolchakaday.blogspot.com/2012/01/mark-dawidziak-on-trevi-collection.html