User Reviews

The ever headstrong and intrepid Carl Kolchak (the marvelously exuberant Darren McGavin) discovers a lethal and powerful Native American medicine man known as the Diablero (a perfectly cast Richard Kiel) who's cursed to forever walk the earth collecting a horde of precious jewels. Director Alexander Grasshoff, working from a fresh and compelling script by L. Ford Negle and John Hoff, relates the story at a constant brisk pace, does a fine job of creating an arrestingly eerie and mysterious atmosphere, and treats the outrageous premise with admirable seriousness while still adding inspired moments of snappy sarcastic humor. The sound acting from a sturdy cast rates as another major asset, with stand-out work by Simon Oakland as the hot-tempered Tony Vincenzo, Alice Ghostley as helpful Native American mythology expert Dr. Agnes Temple, Ramon Bieri as the huffy Captain Joe Baker, Jack Grinnage as fussy jerk Ron Updyke, Marvin Kaplan as shrewd informant Albert Delgado, and Victor Jory as the sage Charles Rolling Thunder. The hulking Kiel makes for an effectively menacing figure. Jerry Fielding's robust shuddery score does the shivery trick. Ronald W. Browne's crisp cinematography boasts a few nifty panoramic shots of Chicago. The climactic confrontation between Kolchak and the Diablero on a high-rise rooftop is quite suspenseful and exciting. A very entertaining show.

Precious gems disappear as bodies accumulate among Chicago's wealthiest citizens.

Kolchak rushes to the scene of a burglary at a diamond exchange. Upon arrival, he and police discover a guard dog has been mauled to death, and in another room, two security guards lie dead after being shot with their own guns. As they proceed upstairs they encounter a startlingly large Native American Indian standing before them. Oddly, though he easily repels all attempts to subdue him, the Indian only retreats when Carl shoots a picture of him using a flash attachment. Then, as they all watch in astonishment, the Indian leaps off the side of the building and vanishes. Unbeknownst to them all however, high up on a nearby tenement building a black raven sits on a ledge. Next to it lies a precious stone from the diamond exchange.

Kolchak suspects an exclusive private gem auction may be the next target, and sure enough he discovers the Indian among a roomful of murdered bidders. When Carl again uses his flash attachment, the Indian turns into a raven and flaps off through a broken window.

Later, Carl meets with an Indian tribal elder who advises him that the murders are the work of an evil sorcerer known as a Diablero, a cursed figured doomed to amass an eternal treasure that will allow him to pass from this world into the next. He adds that the source of the Diablero's power is his eyes, but that his eyes are also where he is most vulnerable.

Figuring that the Diablero will be found at the highest point in the city, Carl makes his way to the top of a large, half-empty high rise. As he searches the top floor, he discovers the Diablero engaged in a ritual involving the stolen gems. When Carl clumsily drops a mirror he'd brought with him, the Diablero goes after him, alternating between human form and that of a coyote. Backed into a corner, Carl smashes a large mirrored panel and holds a fragment of it up to the Diablero's eyes. As it gazes into it's own reflection, the towering entity sinks to the floor and disintegrates into a smoking pile of dust.

"Bad Medicine" works surprisingly well considering it's particularly wild plot, and provides Kolchak with one of his most unusual foes: an Indian sorcerer with the ability to change itself into animal form. Something else that makes this villain particularly memorable is the casting of Richard Kiel in the role. Known the world over as the metal-toothed killer, "Jaws" from the James Bond movies, Kiel's impressive height of over 7 feet provides the character of the Diablero with an appropriately awesome physical presence. The vague smile on his face as he dispatches his victims is also an effectively sinister touch.

Character actor Victor Jory plays the Indian authority on native legends, and the feeling of authenticity he brings to the role makes the rather "out there" aspects of the story that he explains much easier to accept.

Nicely directed by Alexander Grasshoff, the scene where Kolchak enters the auction room is quite startling. As Carl slides the doors open we see that every single person in the room is now dead at the hands of the Diablero. In another scene, the sorcerer (now in the form of a raven) attacks a woman's chauffeur. When the woman rolls up her window we suddenly see the Diablero's face reflected in the glass. When he Appears to another wealthy woman as a coyote, she prepares to defend herself with a mean-looking hat pin. Next we see the coyote's face dissolve into a tight shot of the Diablero's eyes, and using his hypnotic stare, the evil shaman then makes the woman stab herself with her own hat pin.

Kolchak's hunt for the entity at the top of the high rise builds with a good deal of tension, and particularly creepy is the sound of the Diablero's distant chanting mixed with an eerie wind that grows increasingly louder the further along Carl gets. The sound department's amplification of the raven's shrill cries and the coyote's weird, unnatural growling sounds are also effective touches.

The makeup effects at the end are satisfyingly repellent as the Diablero appears at first to melt, then disintegrates into a skull atop a pile of ashes.

As stated, the plot for "Bad Medicine" is certainly out there, but with it's particularly strong guest-cast (especially Kiel as the villain), a nerve-jangling climax and Grasshoff's over all fine direction, this medicine ends up tasting pretty good.

Pretty exciting when a Native American Legend (Diablo) kills off a lot of people before he is caught. It takes Kolchak quite a while to figure out where the spirit of this legend would hang out. It takes longer still to understand how to kill them.

The spirit of the legend Diablo is strong. Because of his relationship with birds, only high buildings can serve as his hideout. Luckily, no building is too high to breathe in, particularly when the building is not yet complete.

But it makes it tough to find this Native American. Meanwhile, it seems his spirit has been going around for a lot of years. The weapons of this spirit are deadly.

Good thing the night stalker is on the job.

I thought it was interesting, yet far fetched. The actorthat played the old Indian explaining the concept of Diablero to Kolchak was very convincing. Same actor played the father on the "Miracle Worker" 1960s. This episode was on METV 5/15/22.

Yes, I know this is a contentious assertion, particularly with "The Zombie", "The Spanish Moss Murders", "Horror in the Heights", and probably a few others.

But "Bad Medicine" is my favorite for several reasons. One is Kiel's towering presence, and the fact he isn't obscured in moss. The "old McDonald"'x bit in the highrise is goofy, but otherwise the Diablero is impressive.

Another is the music, particularly the "stings" when the Diablero reverts to his human form. The producers must have agreed, because they reused them in the future.

Ramon Bieri as Baker is surprisingly good. Sure he's a jerk: he wouldn't be a Kolchak captain if he wasn't. But I like his bemusement,("What's a diablero, some kind of Italian racing car"), his "Uh huh" back at Kolchak, and McGavin' sheepish look in response when he can't explain why the diablero is stealing gems.

It's also one of the few episodes where they make good use of all the cast. Emily supports Kolchak but calls "Finally!" when Kolchak says he's going to get a new suit, Updyke is finicky and caught in the threeeway phone juggling with Kolchak and Emily, and Vincenzo is... Vincenzo. Whether he's sleeping in his office to try to catch Kolchak when he comes in, or his half-hearted protest when Kolchak goes through Updyke's desk. This is presumably what McGavin meant when he said he was going for an office comedy.

There's also little bits. Watch Kolchak's parking at the gem exchange, and when the officer trieds to get out of his car but can't because Kolchak parked too close. Or Kolchak trying to pass himself off as a "Kolworth" at the auction.

And Victor Jory and his "posse"'s bemusement when Kolchak seizes on Jory's explanation of how to kill the diablero. Like "These are just fairytales: this nutter believes us?!?"

Overall, I consider "Bad Medicine" the best of the series.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, "The rich are different than you and me." They sure are. They got more money. But there wasn't enough money in the world to save some of the members of Chicago's upper crust from a fiendish force so dark, it can only be called diabolic."

With those words, Carl Kolchak begins a new episode, this time investigating two Chicago socialites who killed themselves the same night and lost their precious gems. This leads him to the Native American legend of the Diablero, a sorcerer who is gathering a fortune in gems, to pay off its eternal curse.

Diablero is played by Richard Kiel, who was not Native American, but who did play Eegah and Jaws in the James Bond films. The highlight of this episode is when Karl goes to battle the legend itself at the Champion Towers, bringing along a small mirror as seeing its reflection is the only way to stop this monster. Of course, Karl gets spooked and drops the mirror, shattering it and is alone, afraid and up against pure terror.

Despite going up against a force that can hypnotize people into doing whatever it wants, Karl finds a mirror in the bathroom and transforms it into a skeleton and then dust. And keeping up the trend of white people in Native American roles, Canadian actor Victor Jory plays Charles Rolling Thunder. That pales in comparison to the fact that the tribe in this, the Yoshone, do not exist.

This episode was directed by Alexander Grasshoff (The Last Dinosaur) and was written by L. Ford Neale and John Huff, both of whom wrote the Burt Reynolds movie The Hunter's Moon.

The makers of Kolchak must have really liked Kiel, as he would return the very next episode to play the Paramafait in next episode, "The Spanish Moss Murders."

'Bad Medicine' is a hoot of an episode as far as this series goes. It's never terribly scary, but it does succeed at creating a fairly interesting mythology and an otherworldly quality. Rich old society types are turning up dead, and they're also being robbed of their jewels. Who, or what, could be the culprit? The answer is a towering Indian spirit named a Diablero, played by the hulking Richard Kiel of "The Spy Who Loved Me" fame and "Eegah!" infamy. The Diablero has the ability to transform into a variety of animals, including a crow and a coyote.

Star Darren McGavin is hilarious as in this outing he truly makes a nuisance of himself, insisting on being there every step of the way as cops work the scene of a murder / robbery. He once again makes life miserable for editor Tony Vincenzo; one can't help but feel sorry for Vincenzo for having to put up with such a strong personality on a regular basis.

There isn't much in the way of suspense here, until the eerie finale taking place in the top floor of a high rise apartment building. (In a funny twist, Kolchak had to walk most of the way up.) The laughs are in abundance, fortunately, especially in the major set piece where Kolchak involves sweet old Miss Emily in his schemes and, in his attempt to get some critical information that he knows Updyke is privy to, has Emily and Updyke move from phone to phone. It's also much too funny when Kolchak tries to scam his way into the gem auction. However, we know this irrepressible reporter won't be denied his story, no matter what he has to do in the end.

The guest stars make this a pleasure to watch, including the grim faced Kiel, Ramon Bieri as the latest in the long line of lawmen driven up the wall by Kolchak's antics, Alice Ghostley as a helpful expert on Indian lore, and especially Victor Jory as the wise old Indian who gives Kolchak vital information.

Even if this episode is heavier on the comedy than the horror, it does have to rank as a solidly entertaining episode.

Seven out of 10.