The Avengers - '63 Set 4
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DVD details
Actor: Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman, Ian Hendry, Linda Thorson, Patrick MacneeCinematographer: Gerald Gibbs
Cinematographer: Walter J. Harvey
Editor: Frank P. Keller
Editor: John Glen
Writer: Sydney Newman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Box set, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 364 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
DVD Reviews of The Avengers - '63 Set 4
DVD Review: The height of the Cathy Gale era
Summary: 4 Stars
These episodes are considered the beginning of the Avengers to most fans of the show today. These are probably the best episodes with the Cathy Gale character. As she is forced to become deeply involved in criminal organizations undercover with the direction of Steed. Each episode has a theme of a murderous criminal minds, and it is not truly apparent who is behind it all until the end.
This dvd set is a better bargain than most of the Cathy Gale era with 7 instead of 6 episodes. However, 2 of them are with the spunky Venus Smith instead of Gale.
Agian my biggest complaint of these A & E dvds is the lack of special features. It comes only with production stills. Still at least we can get to see episodes of a classic series that was not orginally aired in the US at the time they were made.
DVD Review: Avengers in top form
Summary: 5 Stars
This Pre Emma Peel Avengers is in many ways superior although the Emma Peel set gets more attention,. The is more understated with and Honor Blackman is really a better actress than Diana RiggDVD Review: No real standouts
Summary: 4 Stars
Not that much different from the other Blackman DVD sets, though the ending of the last episode contains a few too many references to "Goldfinger". The biggest surprise is that Steed calls up an unnamed female replacement for Cathy immediately after she departs. Don't be fooled into thinking that any Diana Rigg outtakes exist from this time though; she hadn't even been cast yet.DVD Review: OJ prosecutors should have seen this
Summary: 4 Stars
One wonders if the prosecutors in the OJ Simpson trial had seen the Avengers episode, 'Brief for Murder' they woould have asked OJ to try on the gloves. Uncanny how the premeditated ploy used by the Steed's lawyers in this, 40+ years old episode, bring the OJ trial to mind. Worth checking out for this alone.DVD Review: Before Steed met Mrs Peel.......
Summary: 3 Stars
there was Mrs Gale and Venus Smith.
These seven episodes of pre-Mrs Peel Avengers episodes. The series was originally meant to be a more serious spy adventure series about two agents Dr. Keel and a much less debonair John Steed. The second series (season to Americans) focused more on Steed, eliminating the Dr. and teaming him with Venus Smith and Cathy Gale among others. Cathy Gale, an accomplished, educated, self confident woman with considerable martial arts training is very much Steed's equal despite being an 'amateur' agent. She has very much in common with Emma Peel although her relationship with Steed, at least in the earliest episodes, is quite antagonistic and quite lacking the playful banter that would characterize the Steed/Peel exchanges. Venus Smith is a very young (perhaps 20) nightclub singer who has no apparent secret agent skills or qualifications other than her admiration for Steed. In many ways, her youth, inexperience, enthusiasm and adoration of Steed, she is a forerunner of Tara King.
The stories include: "White Dwarf" - an sci-fi sort of tale about the possible end of the world; "Man in the Mirror" - suspicious suicide and the living dead; "Conspiracy of Silence" - undercover at the circus to stop a Mafia drug ring;"A Chorus of Frogs" - deep sea murder and foreign agents; "Six Hands Across A Table" - corrupt businessmen attempt to control British shipbuilding; "Killerwhale" - smuggling in the boxing world; "Brief for Murder" - corrupt lawyers use every means to free their clients.
"Man in the Mirror" and "A Chorus of Frogs" feature Venus Smith, (and 'showcase' her singing), the rest pair Steed with Cathy Gale. These are very low budget productions, completely lacking in the polish that appears in later years. The stories are all in black and white, with rather sparse sets. Camera work is jerky, sound quality uneven giving the whole thing a feeling of being shot live (which it was not) even to the point of leaving in obvious errors, like forgotten or wrong lines.
So why get these dvds? For Avenger fans it is interesting to see the beginnings of their favorite secret agent, John Steed, to see him before he developed his lighthearted, polished sophistication. Cathy and Venus are the forerunners of Emma Peel and Tara King and paired with Steed face not the campy eccentrics of the later series but instead more gritty serious villians. In the later series the emphasis was on the flashy visuals, the campy comedy punctuated by adventure here the reverse is the case, the spy adventure is at times sprinkled with bits of comic relief.
Description of The Avengers - '63 Set 4
This boxed set dips deeper into the vaults for seven vintage, rarely seen episodes from The Avengers' second season. For series devotees, these episodes, shot on video, have a crude fascination. At this early stage, the fledgling series was more serious with less way-out stories or bizarre characters. Three of these episodes rank as among the best costarring a pre-Goldfinger Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale, Steed's resourceful and often leather-clad partner. "The White Dwarf" is an early dabbling in science fiction, which would become this series' stock in trade in later years. Is a white dwarf star on a collision course with Earth? Can worldwide panic be avoided? Leave it to Steed to vow to "have a good time while there's still time to have it." In "Six Hands Across a Table," Steed must sink a scheme to control British shipbuilding launched by none other than Gale's new lover. In "Brief for Murder," Gale is a very delicti corpse as Steed goes undercover to entrap the Lakin brothers, two elderly defense lawyers with a gift for acquittal. "A Conspiracy of Silence" and "Killer Whale" are average episodes. Of special interest to Avengers buffs are two episodes costarring Julie Stevens as Venus Smith, a perky jazz singer whom Steed unaccountably recruits to help him. "Man in the Mirror" is one of the worst in her brief tenure with the series, while "A Chorus of Frogs" is perhaps her best. Venus is the entertainment on a ship on which Steed has stowed away to investigate a smuggler's death. Still, you might want to fast-forward through her two songs. --Donald LiebensonGeneral DVDs
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