The TCM DVD label will be releasing a double-bill DVD of THE NIGHT WALKER and THE DARK INTRUDER, two Universal thriller from the mid-1960's. The street date is listed as November 3, 2015, and the format is listed as being widescreen. The films will be on one disc, but DARK INTRUDER only runs 59 minutes.
shareThankyou for that news! Both eerie little thrillers and Dark Intruder is an unsung 60's horror gem.
Now, hoping that a distributor can obtain the rights to release The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre on DVD somewhere in the future. That would be an event!
Cheers
NIGHT WALKER is widescreen, DARK INTRUDER is not. The latter title was originally a TV pilot (hence, the 59-minute running length and the 4:3 aspect ratio) that didn't sell and was later released by Universal theatrically. At that length, though, it was probably put out as a co-feature on double bills with more substantial titles.
Beware, though: I just received a copy of the disk from Amazon and both titles are time compressed (and/or taken from PAL sources that were originally encoded at 25 frames per second)! It really becomes apparent when you start watching the second feature (INTRUDER): In the opening scene after the prologue, Judi Meredith runs around babbling her head off, irritating the hell out of Leslie Nielsen -- small wonder in this version, because she sounds like a magpie, not like a human being at all.
It's been said that Universal has better elements in their vaults, but went with the PAL-sourced materials because they were much more easily accessible. Somebody like Scream Factory or another boutique label would probably have to negotiate to gain access to the superior elements.
NIGHT WALKER looks and sounds pretty good. The voices sound like Taylor and Stanwyck's regular voices. However, the voices in DARK INTRUDER do sound speeded-up. Leslie Nielsen sounds more like one of his comic/camp characters from the 1980's.
I did see DARK INTRUDER theatrically in 1963 or 1964. It was the co-feature with THE BLACK TORMENT, if my memory is correct.