LINDA BLAIR & MURRAY LANGSTON IN THE UNKNOWN 'NIGHT PATROL'

Title: NIGHT PATROL Year: 1984 Camp Value: ***

Murray Langston is not a hack comedian. Well actually, he is, deliberately... but when he appeared on stage for THE GONG SHOW, he was really a sack comedian: covering his face with a generic paper bag with poked holes for eyes and one for the mouth: And thus all those corny hack jokes became funnier, and with a skinny body nervously meandering around the stage, a cult star was born...

And eventually, finally unmasked, it was time for a motion picture... despite the fact that low-rent director Jackie Kong's NIGHT PATROL (written by Langston and GONG SHOW co-star Jaye P. Morgan) plays out like exactly what it has become: a straight-to-video train-wreck that only appears on cable stations very well past midnight...

Artwork from NIGHT PATROL

Wherein the funniest scene occurs halfway through, in what's (beyond the wannabe AIRPLANE ala POLICE SQUAD style of perpetual slapdash gags/visual one-liners) a police procedural parody and a chance for The Unknown Comic to showcase both his actual self and his bag-headed live act...

And after Langston's young/naive beat cop Melvin and experienced (yet hapless) womanizing veteran Pat Paulsen's Kent are paired, they eat at an all-night diner, exchanging some worthwhile banter... 

Pat Paulsen and Murray Langston bond in NIGHT PATROL

Or maybe these are merely a few lucky jokes that (beyond a barrage of downright embarrassing star-cameos from Pat Morita as a rape victim to Billy Barty's flatulent-driven sergeant to Jack Riley playing a shrink) actually land: like when Paulsen asks the price for coffee and the price for a refill (the refill being free), and orders the refill first...

As their likable Oscar & Felix chemistry actually kinda works alongside Langston's slow-building relationship with pretty cop Linda Blair (who he'd costar in the more mainstream and humorous UP YOUR ALLEY) and a murder mystery/wrong-man subplot involving The Unknown Comic: it's just too bad so much throwaway junk/filler often makes even these sporadic positive elements basically an ultimately unwatchable late-night viewing experience.  

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL

From NIGHT PATROL

From NIGHT PATROL

Linda Blair in NIGHT PATROL

Pat Paulsen and Linda Blair in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL

Lori Sutton in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston and Jaye P. Morgan in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Linda Blair

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Linda Blair

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Pat Paulsen and Jack Riley

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Billy Barty and Linda Blair

Murray Langston, Patrie Allen and Pat Paulsen in NIGHT PATROL

Patrie Allen and Pat Paulsen in NIGHT PATROL

Pat Paulsen in NIGHT PATROL with Lou Mulford, Donnie Downing and David E. Harshbarger

Pat Paulsen in NIGHT PATROL with Linda Blair

Linda Blair in NIGHT PATROL

Billy Barty in NIGHT PATROL

Jack Riley in NIGHT PATROL

Jayne P. Morgan in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL

Jaye P. Morgan and Andrew Dice Clay in NIGHT PATROL

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Jaye P. Morgan

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Pat Paulsen

Murray Langston in NIGHT PATROL with Pat Paulsen and Pat Morita

Billy Barty in NIGHT PATROL

Linda Blair in NIGHT PATROL