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.
