Steed replaces a courier who was murdered when no one can figure out why. Shadowed by Cathy, they hop from country to country until they find out the information being carried included the travel itinerary of an American ambassador, whose assassination will cause chaos and allow a coup to take place.
This is NOT your normal AVENGERS episode by any means!
The murdered man, Alan Baxter (Hedger Wallace) reminded me, as someone who's actually read all of Ian Fleming's novels, of the James Bond of the books. So imagine Bond getting bumped off on a routine assignment; who will take his place? Who else by Patrick Macnee's John Steed, in full-on "George Sanders" mode. He's casual, he's cavalier, he seems more out to have fun than do his job, and at one point, he drives a wimpy embassy official (who has NO idea he's really a SPY!) up a wall.
Steed's recurring boss at the time, "One-Ten" (Douglas Muir) oddly is the one to call Catherine Gale into things, rather than Steed himself. One would get the impression this has been going on for some time... so imagine my surprise when, although this was Cathy's 9th story aired, it was her 1st filmed! Honor Blackman is so RELAXED for most of this episode, it feels more like a 3rd-season story than early-2nd. Perhaps this is why it was held back so far. In most of her early episodes, she seems very annoyed at Steed's behavior and attitude, yet here, they feel more like old friends.
The main villain, Miguel Rosas, is a very cool customer-- until his daughter finds out he's up to NO GOOD. I've seen actor Richard Warner in a 1954 SHERLOCK HOLMES episode ("The Shoeless Engineer"), as well as one of my favorite SAINT stories ("Interlude In Venice").
His murderous henchman, Monroe, looks like he would have made a good SPECTRE assassin. I've also seen actor David Cargill in 2 DANGER MANs, 2 SAINTs, and one of the nastiest UFOs.
Perhaps the main reason this story seems so unusual for this series is writer Leonard Fincham. Apart from it being his only AVENGERS (and the last thing listed on his resume), he was both writer & story editor on the earlier series INTERPOL CALLING (39 episodes from 1959-60), whose format involved a tough globe-hopping operator. This story could easily have been a leftover script from THAT series!
I recently found out they did a "remastered" DVD set in 2009, but only for Region 2. I'm still watching the 2006 set (before they were cleaned up), but was delighted that the SOUND on this one was EXCELLENT.
This is NOT your normal AVENGERS episode by any means!
The murdered man, Alan Baxter (Hedger Wallace) reminded me, as someone who's actually read all of Ian Fleming's novels, of the James Bond of the books. So imagine Bond getting bumped off on a routine assignment; who will take his place? Who else by Patrick Macnee's John Steed, in full-on "George Sanders" mode. He's casual, he's cavalier, he seems more out to have fun than do his job, and at one point, he drives a wimpy embassy official (who has NO idea he's really a SPY!) up a wall.
Steed's recurring boss at the time, "One-Ten" (Douglas Muir) oddly is the one to call Catherine Gale into things, rather than Steed himself. One would get the impression this has been going on for some time... so imagine my surprise when, although this was Cathy's 9th story aired, it was her 1st filmed! Honor Blackman is so RELAXED for most of this episode, it feels more like a 3rd-season story than early-2nd. Perhaps this is why it was held back so far. In most of her early episodes, she seems very annoyed at Steed's behavior and attitude, yet here, they feel more like old friends.
The main villain, Miguel Rosas, is a very cool customer-- until his daughter finds out he's up to NO GOOD. I've seen actor Richard Warner in a 1954 SHERLOCK HOLMES episode ("The Shoeless Engineer"), as well as one of my favorite SAINT stories ("Interlude In Venice").
His murderous henchman, Monroe, looks like he would have made a good SPECTRE assassin. I've also seen actor David Cargill in 2 DANGER MANs, 2 SAINTs, and one of the nastiest UFOs.
Perhaps the main reason this story seems so unusual for this series is writer Leonard Fincham. Apart from it being his only AVENGERS (and the last thing listed on his resume), he was both writer & story editor on the earlier series INTERPOL CALLING (39 episodes from 1959-60), whose format involved a tough globe-hopping operator. This story could easily have been a leftover script from THAT series!
I recently found out they did a "remastered" DVD set in 2009, but only for Region 2. I'm still watching the 2006 set (before they were cleaned up), but was delighted that the SOUND on this one was EXCELLENT.