Kolchak Logo 'Chopper'

by Robert Zemeckis and David Chase, Bob Gale and Steve Fisher
Carl Kolchak

When a cemetery in Chicago is sold to a real estate company, the graves are dug up and moved to another site. However, after one grave in particular is uncovered, a headless ghost rises from the earth and speeds off on an antique motorcycle wielding a sword. Taxi driver Joe Morton is the first victim, decapitated in a car park. Kolchak intercepts a police report, but is then run off the crime scene by police Captain Jonas. Visiting the morgue the reporter discovers that Morton’s head was cut off with surgical precision, something not possible with a sword. Kolchak questions the owner of a motorcycle dealership, and learns that the motorcycle being ridden by the spectre dates back to just after World War II, and was the type used by two motorcycle gangs called the Jokers and the Bishops. Meanwhile, ‘Suds’ Spake, a telephone repairman, narrowly avoids death at the hands of the ghostly motorcyclist by fleeing up a telegraph pole. Kolchak continues his investigations and finds out that Morton used to be a member of the Jokers. He then visits Morton’s widow, who tells him that the headless ghost is Harold ‘Swordsman’ Baker; years ago the Jokers played a prank on Baker, a member of the rival Bishops gang, but things went wrong and Baker was unintentionally decapitated. Baker’s severed head was carried around by the gang as a trophy, and now resides in a local warehouse; when his grave was recently dug up his spirit went out for revenge on the surviving Jokers. After ‘Suds’ is decapitated by the phantom swordsman, Kolchak realises that he must reunite Baker’s head and body once more - before the headless cyclist can finish off the rest of the gang…

Darren McGavin (Carl Kolchak), Simon Oakland (Tony Vincenzo), Jack Grinnage (Ron Updyke), Ruth Mc Devitt (Emily Cowles), Larry Linville (Captain Jonas), Sharon Farrell (Lila Morton), Arthur Metrano (Henry Barlow ‘Suds’ Spake), Jay Robinson (Professor Eli Strig), Jim Backus (Herb Bresson), Frank Aletter (Norman Kahill), Steve Franken (Steve), Jesse White (First Watchman), Joey Aresco (Electric Larry), Jimmy Murphy (Beaner), Jack Bernhardt (Otto), Jim Malinda (Snow White), Brunetta Barnett (Nurse)
Directed by Bruce Kessler

TX (US): 31st January, 1975

Notes:
*Featuring Carl Kolchak and Tony Vincenzo