Nightkill (1980)

• Year: 1980
• Released: 22 Jan 1982
• Country: West Germany
• Adwords: 1 nomination
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081232/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nightkill
• Available in: 720p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: R
• Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
• Runtime: 97 min
• Writer: Joane Gil, John Case
• Director: Ted Post
• Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jaclyn Smith, Mike Connors
• Keywords: murder, slasher, arizona,

	5.5/10
	25% – Audience

Nightkill Storyline

Jaclyn Smith’s the young unhappily married wife of a wealthy, cold-hearted tycoon (Mike Connors). Her lover, (James Franciscus) kills him, but then disappears. Detective Robert Mitchum is brought in to investigate. As the detective probes, the wife becomes increasingly nervous; she’s hiding what she knows about what really happened and seems to be on the brink of an emotional breakdown. Filmed on-location in Arizona with beautiful scenery throughout. Nice plot twist and a good cast help make this film an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

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Nightkill Movie Reviews

How could the excellent actors make a winner with this script?

When the story begins, Katherine (Jaclyn Smith) goes to the airport to pick up her husband, Wendell (Mike Connors). Within seconds, you realize that Wendell is an emotionally abusive drunk. However, instead of leaving it at this, you are treated to many scenes of Wendell treating everyone like dirt. In fact, it’s overkill…making his character seem almost like a cartoon character, such as Snidley Whiplash! Yes, his character was that broadly written and about as subtle as a sledgehammer upside your head!! Not surprisingly, soon Wendell dies…having been poisoned by one of his employees, Steve (James Franciscus). The wife had no idea Steve would do this….but the pair agree to keep this secret. However, someone has been eavesdropping and soon bad things start to happen to the couple. What happens and who is behind this? See the film…or not.



Aside from an excellent cast that included the above folks plus Fritz Weaver and Robert Mitchum, there isn’t a lot of positives I could give for the film. Although the situation is interesting and could have made for a good film, the writing, simply put, was bad. All poor Jaclyn Smith could do throughout the film was whimper and run…and having the leading lady play such a weak and ineffectual character was a HUGE mistake. She also just seemed illogical and foolish. All this also made Smith look like a terrible actress…which she certainly isn’t. Too many flaws, too many poorly written characters and not enough to make the audience feel as if their intelligence isn’t being questioned. Overall, “Nightkill” is a huge letdown and a film I’d just as soon forget…especially because not even bad enough to be good for a laugh.

Let’s scare Jaclyn to death

Nightkill was going to be the breakout feature film debut for Jaclyn Smith of Charlie’s Angels. It wound up being quite a bit less than that and not even making it to the big screen. Smith is joined by two television series veterans, Mike Connors of Mannix and James Franciscus of Mr. Novak. And of course big screen legend Robert Mitchum who hadn’t been involved in a scare film like this since Cape Fear.

Smith is most unhappily married to Mike Connors who is a tyrannical tycoon. But she is having an affair with Connors’s number two Jim Franciscus. One fine day with both all three at the spaciou home that Connors and Smith have, Franciscus slips some poison into Connors’s drink and he dies. What to do with the body?

After what is done with it, it’s Franciscus’s corpse that Smith finds where they had stored Connors. And now there is a police detective played by Mitchum poking around in a most officious like manner, almost like he understudied the Peter Falk school of plodding detective work.

You might think you know where this is going, but I assure you that you don’t. It gets real terrifying for Jaclyn Smith as she doesn’t know who to trust or believe.

The spacious vistas of Phoenix, Arizona were not properly used in the cinematography of Nightkill. Mitchum doesn’t come in until some 35 minutes after the film begins, but a few flecks of those famous rumpled eyelids and he’s dominating the proceedings from then on.

NIghtkill is not the greatest of mystery thrillers, but it’s reasonably entertaining for those who will want to empathize with what Smith is going through.

Desperation time

Filmed in Arizona by a mostly-foreign crew, “Nightkill” is one of the clumsiest crime dramas I have ever seen. Robert Mitchum (in a cowboy hat) trails recently-widowed Jaclyn Smith around, hoping to figure out if she had a hand in her husband’s death. Jaclyn’s wardrobe is of the Dale Evans variety and her dog is named “Cowboy”…seems as if somebody sure bought into the American myth that all westerners talk and dress like descendants of John Wayne! Screenplay by Joan Andre and John Case may have worked better if approached as parody; this mystery thriller just plays tame, with director Ted Post asleep at the controls. Don’t be drawn in by the video box art of Jaclyn screaming while taking a shower. She does indeed take a shower in this film, but it is not revealing (nor does it further the murky plot one iota). NO STARS from ****