User Reviews

This, the second surviving episode from series one of 'The Avengers' sees Steed seeking Dr Keel's help to expose an underworld character known as 'The Deacon'. Word is out that two of his men are going to put the frighteners on somebody in the Chelsea area. Steed and Keel intervene during the assault and capture one of the attackers. Afterwards Keel treats victim Jeremy de Willoughby but he is keen that the police aren't brought in. After pressure is brought to bear on the thug Keel manages to find The Deacon and learns that he has been hired by a powerful man who doesn't want de Willoughby anywhere near his daughter.

I really enjoyed this early episode; it certainly had a darker tone than most of the later, more surreal, episodes. It was certainly to see Steed threaten a thug with a cut-throat razor then Keel tells the man he has a broken neck and could die any moment! If that weren't enough he later threatens to squirt acid in a man's face… later proved to be a bluff. The story is gritty and about nasty criminals rather than spies or 'criminal masterminds'. The cast does an impressive job; Ian Hendry is impressive as Dr Keel and Patrick Macnee is great as Steed. The guest cast are good too; especially those portraying the variety of unpleasant characters. As well as a good central story there is some humour, notably in the final scene where de Willoughby is exposed as a cad. Overall This was an impressive episode that fans of the series will probably enjoy.

A criminal known as "The Deacon" hires out his services to "frighten" (translation: beat up badly) people his clients want to "send a message to". His current client is a rich, arrogant architect trying to protect his daughter from a lowlife with a long record of gambling, welching on debts, writing bad checks, and so on. The police are after The Deacon, but haven't been able to get hard evidence. And that's where John Steed and his friend Dr. David Keel come in.

A dark, gritty and at times violent crime drama, John Steed here reminds me a bit of Mr. Moto from the Peter Lorre movies. In those, the polite yet RUTHLESS Moto was, officially, an agent of Interpol. But in at least one installment, we found out that was just a "cover", as he was really working for the Japanese Secret Service. Looking back in retrospect, we know Steed is employed by British Intelligence, which is not even hinted at in this story! One gets the feeling they loan him out to the C. I. D. (Criminal Investigation Department) just to keep him "busy"!

In contrast with Steed's suave, casual attitude, is Keel's serious, intense persona, as he's really the obsessed one on a personal vendetta. At one point, he cons a thug into believing his neck's been broken, and if he doesn't cooperate he could die without urgent medical help. This leads to a confrontation with The Deacon, who he then threatens with a hypo filled with ACID. These criminals are so hard-boiled, even these methods only barely get the desired results!

Although the plot seems spelled out in detail from the start, this story winds up more complicated than normal, even for this series. By the end, it seems nobody's "clean", with the exception of the architect's daughter, who by then realizes her father was right about her intended-- even though his methods were completely vile and wrong-headed.

What a guest-cast! Neil Wilson has a small part as an Italian shopkeeper (I mostly remember him from the Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO story "Spearhead From Space"). David Andrews is Nigel, the bookie who's in trouble with his bosses because his friend keeps putting him off. He really shone as the high-born criminal genius "Vincent Spaulding" in the Douglas Wilmer SHERLOCK HOLMES story, "The Red-Headed League", before switching over mostly to directing. Philip Locke is the too-eager brutal thug Keel winds up giving his own medicine to (so to speak). I mostly remember him as "Vargas", the SPECTRE assassin in THUNDERBALL. And then there's Stratford Johns as the architect, who epitomises everything wrong with "the upper classes". Soon after this, he really made his mark as "Chief Inspector Barlow" in 126 episodes of Z CARS (1962-65), as well as its multiple follow-ups: SOFTLY SOFTLY (91 eps / 1966-69), SOFTLY SOFTLY: TASK FORCE (56 eps / 1969-72), JACK THE RIPPER (6 eps/ 1973), BARLOW AT LARGE (29 eps / 1971-75), and SECOND VERDICT (6 eps / 1976). Funny enough, Johns & Locke both appeared in the Peter Davison DOCTOR WHO story, "Four To Doomsday". (I rank that as one of the worst-written episodes in the 26 years of that show, but I don't hold it against any of the actors. Well, except maybe Matthew Waterhouse-- heh.)

I spent quite some time after watching this plowing thru the "photo galleries" of Season 1, and long before I was done, it got me all the more distressed that nearly-all of these episodes are "LOST". So many varied and intriguing stories, so many wonderful actors I'm familiar with, and such strong odds that I'll NEVER be able to see any of them. What a shame!

I had a bit of trouble following parts of this one, because of the sound quality. Adding to the problem were actors speaking under their breath, actors racing through pages of dialogue at HIGH speed (I was reminded of several episodes of the Robert Vaughn series THE PROTECTORS on this score), and the further combination of accents and British slang. Still, this was nothing compared to a few of the episodes on the 2004 box of Season 2. I'm looking forward to comparing the quality between the 2004 and 2009 boxes.