The Movie:

Directed by Harvey Hart, 1965's Dark Intruder is set in 1890 and stars the inimitable Leslie Nielsen (immortalized in The Naked Gun but so much more than just Frank Drebin) as an occult investigator named Brett Kingsford. He's called in by Police Commissioner Harvey Misbach (Gilbert Green) to help them crack a bizarre case wherein a series of young women are by some sort of beast-man that skulks about in the shadows of San Francisco at night. The only clue is a small statue left at each crime scene.

When Kingsford is able to identify the statues as Sumerian in origin, he gets some help from a man named Chi Zang (Peter Brocco) and eventually figures out that all of this ties into an ancient Sumerian mummy that ties into a series of seven murders. While all of this is going on, an associate of Kingsford named Robert Vandenburg (Peter Mark Richman) is all set to tie the knot with the beautiful Evelyn Lang (Judi Meredith) but gets into some trouble when he runs into Professor Malaki (a heavily made up Werner Klemperer). All of this ties together before it's all over, but will Kingsford be able to crack the case before another victim is taken?

Originally made as a television pilot that never turned into the intended ongoing series it was meant to kick off, (which would have been titled The Black Cloak), Dark Intruder is pretty great stuff. It moves quickly and is only an hour in length but it packs quite a bit of entertainment value into those fifty-seven-minutes and it should leave fans perfectly satiated. Nielson makes for a great leading man, the script by Barré Lyndon playing to his strengths and letting him toss out frequent quips and one liners as he goes about his business. Nielsen does well in the role and you're left wondering how good a series this could have been had the pilot passed the muster with the suits in charge of such things.

Aside from Nielsen's presence, Gilbert Green is also fun to watch here as the constantly perplexed top cop in town. Peter Brocco isn't the most convincing as ‘Chi Zang' but this is a product of its time. Peter Mark Richman is quite good as Nielsen's character's pal and Judi Meredith is a kick here, nice to look at but quick with her wit and genuinely entertaining to watch. Klemperer is good as the heavy, though he's unrecognizable, really, given that he's under as much makeup as he is. Speaking of, the effects are pretty solid here, the creature featured in the picture is sufficiently weird looking and the movie doesn't lack in quirky, sixties genre fare charm.

The black and white cinematography is pretty atmospheric and lends itself nicely to the features mood and atmosphere. There are times where some of the sets look a bit cheap but overall, the production values here are more than decent. All in all, this is a short feature to be sure, but it's one that fans of vintage monster mayhem should really enjoy.

The Video:

Kino Lorber brings Dark Intruder to Blu-ray on a 25GB disc framed at 1.66.1 taken from a ‘new 2k scan digital master' this is a very nice transfer. The elements used for the transfer were clearly in great shape, there isn't much in the way of print damage here at all, barely even any specks. Grain is sometimes a bit on the heavy side but it always resolves like you'd want it to, never clumping up or anything like that. The black and white image shows nice contrast and strong black levels. There are no issues with noise reduction, edge enhancement or compression artifacts to complain about. All in all, this looks quite good.