 | This article is missing information about the film's production, and theatrical/home media releases. (April 2018) |
| Dark Intruder | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Written by | Barré Lyndon |
| Directed by | Harvey Hart |
| Starring | Leslie Nielsen Judi Meredith Mark Richman |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Jack Laird |
| Cinematography | John F. Warren |
| Editor | Edward W. Williams |
| Running time | 59 minutes |
| Production company | Shamley Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | July 21, 1965 |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Dark Intruder is a 1965 horror TV movie that was released theatrically, and starring Leslie Nielsen, Mark Richman and Judi Meredith. The film is set in San Francisco in 1890 concerning playboy sleuth and occult expert Brett Kingsford. This atmospheric black-and-white film, only 59 minutes long, was directed by Harvey Hart and was the pilot for a failed television series called The Black Cloak. It was written by Barré Lyndon.
The Black Cloak was to be produced by Alfred Hitchcock's television company, Shamley Productions, which also produced Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Suspicion, as well as the film Psycho. When the pilot was deemed too scary and violent for mid-sixties television, NBC sold it to Universal Pictures, where Hitchcock was under contract. Universal re-edited the pilot into a feature film and distributed it to drive-in theaters as the second feature to a double bill that also included William Castle’s I Saw What You Did (also 1965).
In plot and character it greatly resembles Chamber of Horrors (1966), which was made the next year and had a similar fate. Critic Leonard Maltin wrote that Dark intruder featured: "Intricate plot and exceptional use of the time period blending with suspense" and that this made it "a one-of-a-kind movie." Dark Intruder showed up from time to time on late night TV throughout the 1970s. In the 1971 Night Gallery episode "The Dear Departed", Harvey Lembeck's character suggests, while reading through a newspaper, going to the movies to see the double-feature Dark Intruder and Destiny of a Spy.