Kolchak Logo 'Horror in the Heights'
(a.k.a. 'The Rakshasa’)


by Jimmy Sangster
Carl Kolchak

In the Chicago ‘Heights’ district, Harry Starman meets up with some elderly fellows to play poker. When his friend Buck goes to get some wine glasses, he is surprised to meet his rabbi; as Buck explains why he did not attend that evening’s services the rabbi enfolds him in his arms… and Buck’s corpse is later found, the flesh stripped from his body. Kolchak hears the police report over his radio and arrives at the scene, but the police put the incident down to rats. Kolchak is suspicious, and begins investigating the story. That night, as an elderly couple walk down a darkened alley they are relieved to meet a policeman; but then he gives them a reassuring hug, and their screams ring out. Joining the police at the scene of the murder Kolchak encounters Harry, who tells him that the killer is the owner of the Lakshmi Indian restaurant, who arrived just after the first murder occurred, two years ago. Harry calls the old Indian a ‘Hindu Nazi’ because he has painted swastikas all over the neighbourhood; he shows Kolchak the signs painted in an alleyway, but while the reporter looks around Harry sees a second Kolchak, who promptly kills him. Suspected of murder. Kolchak is taken in for questioning by the police, who refuse to believe his story. Having been bailed out by Vincenzo, Kolchak then visits the Lakshmi restaurant, where the old owner tries to shoot him with a crossbow, believing him to be a Rakshasa – a Hindu demon that can entrance its victims by taking the form of the person they trust most. Having sought advice from an expert in Indian artefacts and folklore, Kolchak returns to the restaurant, where he finds the Indian lying in his bed on the verge of death; this time the elderly Rakshasa hunter listens to Kolchak’s claims that he his human, and then entrusts the reporter with the task of killing the demon for him. Armed with a crossbow and some bolts blessed by a priest of Brahma, the hapless reporter sets off to find the creature – but to defeat the Rakshasa, Kolchak must shoot whoever it is that he trusts the most…

Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke), Ruth Mc Devitt (Emily Cowles), Phil Silvers (Harry Starman), Abraham Sofaer (Indian), Herb Vigran (Sal Goldstein), Ned Glass (Joe), Eric Server (Officer Boxman), Benny Rubin (Julius ‘Buck’ Fineman), Naomi Stevens (Mrs. Goldstein), Shelly Novak (Officer York), Murray Matheson (Lane Merriott), Barry Gordon (Rabbi Sholman), Jim Goodwin (Frank Revas), John Bleifer (Charlie), Robert Karnes (Officer Thomas)
Directed by Michael Caffey

TX (US): 20th December, 1974

Notes:
*Featuring Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo