[SuperScrounge]

Some computers and some TVs can hook up via Bluetooth (or something like that) so IF you have the right computer & TV you could play the DVD on your computer and have it broadcast to your TV.

I was helping my dad with his Roku TV and while looking around it's menus I noticed an option to connect to a home computer wirelessly, so I know it's, at least, possible.

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS:  The Curious Case of the Countless Clues
The Murderous Blackmailers Case   (6 of 10)

Two criminals murder people, leaving multiple clues behind, in order to frame rich men who they can blackmail for their expensive paintings. What a clever twist!

It might work, except, when they REPEAT their crimes, and someone (John Steed, with help of Tara King, despite her being in a wheelchair with a broken ankle) is investigating, you'd think it would quickly become PAINFULLY obvious there's a pattern being repeated. Murders and blackmail victims in isolation is one thing, but as soon as someone realizes there's more than one in each case, SOMEONE ELSE being responsible must become apparent. It also gets worse, when after agreeing to return the murder weapons to the people being blackmailed, the blackmailers, not once but TWICE, decide they want ANOTHER painting from each of them... they're just going too far.

And then they make the mistake-- after seeing some mysterious character they identify as "John Steed" pop up at the scenes of their crimes-- that HE is some kind of nuiscance who must be eliminated. And instead of KILLING Steed-- they decide to frame HIM-- for killing Tara King! (I'm surprised Tara didn't taunt them by saying, "You DON'T KNOW what Steed DOES for a living, DO you?")

Sure, if you think it through like this, of course it sounds stupid!

Anthony Bate, Tony Selby ("Sabolom Glitz" from DOCTOR WHO) and Kenneth Cope (RANDALL AND HOPKIRK DECEASED-- he being the deceased part) are criminals "Earl", "Stanley" and "Gardiner" (a joke I somehow missed until I looked the episode up at the IMDB). The sheer ARROGANCE of Earl is his undoing, while it was fun to see Steed beat the CRAP out of auto repairman Stanley BEFORE he even started to question him. That's the problem with repeating yourself when you commit the same crime over and over. George A. Cooper (DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE) and Edward de Souza (THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE) are the 2 blackmail victims, both of whom become even more infuriated when the criminals come back for a 2nd go at it. Tracy Reed (DR. STRANGELOVE) plays de Souza's sister, who clearly has a thing for Steed, is frustrated he came to visit her brother, not her, but goes straight to Tara's apartment to tell Steed when her brother is being hassled by the criminals. (Interesting that she knew Tara.)

I had ONE major beef with this story, which I must pin down directly on Philip Levine. Once Tara is warned to lock all her doors, she allows herself to be distracted by a 2nd phone call (from the criminals), before stumbling upstairs to put the chain on her door lock (the design of her apartment NEVER made any sense to me AT ALL), while failing to lock the UPPER lock on the same door, and also, neglecting to have locked the downstairs door FIRST, when she was already down there! Then, when she gets back down, she somehow, impossibly, fails to notice the killer is ALREADY inside her apartment. All of this makes Tara look STUPID... and Tara King is NOT a stupid girl. It's just so damned contrived, to build anxiety and sympathy in audiences by putting her in danger from which she'll need to be rescued, but it just all falls flat, and nearly ruins what until then had been a pretty decent story.

The only thing that makes up for it... is when she does turn the tables, and, EVEN with an injured ankle, managed to take out BOTH baddies, single-handedly, even KILLING one of them with Steed's own gun... before Steed arrives to "rescue" her. TAKE THAT, Mrs. Peel!

I'd just like to know how this episode was broadcast 19th but is 3rd on the Blu-Ray set. And WHY the end credits (but not the rest of the episode) are almost TOO DARK to see or read. Tsk!   

[SuperScrounge]

[I'd just like to know how this episode was broadcast 19th but is 3rd on the Blu-Ray set.

The production order of the Tara King season was quite messed up.

According to the Avengers Forever site The Curious Case of the Countless Clues was filmed second... before The Forget-Me-Knot which said goodbye to Emma and hello to Tara.

[profh0011]

It's nuts, I have 3 of Dave Rogers' books on the show, but apparently, a 4th (5th?) explained how ABC in England (Associated British Corporation) felt the show had "gone too far", needed "pulling back", and so, FIRED Brian Clemens, Albert Fennell (the producers) and Laurie Johnson (the music composer-- WHAT??) and hired John Bryce (who'd been story editor early-on, then took over as producer halfway thru season 2 and all of season 3).

But (and this part I read in the earlier books) he had ZERO experience working in film (only videotaped shows).  Also, he ignored Clemens' short list of likely replacements for Diana Rigg (who only left because ABC was too cheap to pay her what she was clearly worth). After multiple actresses were tested, they hired Linda Thorson fresh out of DRAMA SCHOOL with zero experience.  I'd say she did incredible work under the circumstances... but when ABC saw the first 3 episodes, they realized, "This isn't working.", FIRED Bryce, then BEGGED Clemens & co. to come back!

The first 3 they'd done all wound up altered to one degree or another and run later in the season...

"Invasion of the Earthmen"
"Invitation to a Killing"  (finished as "Have Guns Will Haggle")
"The Great Great British Bank Robbery" ("Homicide And Old Lace")

They wanted Tara to be a blonde, so they BLEACHED Thorson's hair with something so toxic it made her hair fall out.  When Clemens returned, he wanted her to be her natural brunette, but she had to wear a wig until her hair grew back.  For the 3 early episodes, they filmed scenes of her putting on a blonde wig... while the rest of those episodes, she wasn't wearing a blonde wig... it was her real hair that had been bleached blonde.  Crazy S***.

I still haven't been able to make sense out of "The Forget-Me-Knot".  APPARENTLY... if I get this right... it was the last episode Diana Rigg did, perhaps for the next season, before she suddenly QUIT.  Once Linda Thorson was there, Clemens went back, shot new scenes with Thorson, and then, asked Rigg to come back for ONE new scene... her farewell.

Network execs are ALWAYS getting in the way of creative types............


It's funny, I wrote only a handful of Rigg reviews, but yesterday, I was so incensed by that "Tara is in danger" scene that went on and on and on, which made her look stupid... I got inspired to write that review and lambast Philip Levine about it.  I loved how she took out those 2 A**H***s all by herself... but the prolonged sequence before it, really infuriated me.  To me, it seriously needed a rewrite.

I forgot to mention, straight off, she's a government secret agent.  WHY in the HELL are both her doors UNLOCKED in the first place?   

The more I think about it, I think Levine made EVERYBODY in that story look stupid...  The criminals were too arrogant, Steed took too long to piece things together, and Tara (who otherwise seemed smarter than Steed) had that scene where her brain shut off.  Online reviewer "The Critical Drinker" would probably say, "Tara acts stupid here because the story needs her to."   

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS: Split!
"BLACK FRIDAY", part 2 (6 of 10)

In a very high-security building, an agent receives a phone call that appears to be a wrong number. But right after, he murders a fellow agent, then goes back to work as if nothing happened, before noticing the dead body on the floor and reporting that someone has broken in and killed someone.

Not unlike a few Dennis Spooner episodes of THE NEW AVENGERS, it's pretty clear what's going on before the story title comes up. But Steed, Tara, and everyone else involved, still have to take their good time figuring out what's going on! (And whatta ya know-- Spooner, uncredited, was apparently involved in this one as well. My impression is that he never quite understood the format of this series, that you're not supposed to let the audience know what's going on until at least 3/4ths of the way into a story-- not RIGHT at the beginning. It makes the heroes look stupid.)

The big clue is that the man who reported the murder (who is then murdered himself by yet another agent) had a letter he was working on, written in 2 completely-different handwriting styles, and it eventually works out that the 2nd style exactly matches one "Boris Kartovsky"-- who Steed shot thru the heart in Berlin back in 1963.

Christopher Benjamin (DOCTOR WHO: The Talons of Weng-Chiang) is "Swindin", the handwriting expert who talks like "Elmer Fudd".

Nigel Davenport (NIGHTHAWKS) is "Lord Barnes", a top Intelligence man called back to England to investigate the case, without realzing that he is and will soon be one of the victims.

Julian Glover (DOCTOR WHO: City Of Death) is "Peter Rooke", another agent who winds up on the same line of thinking as Tara, and who mistakenly concludes that Barnes was really Boris Kartovsky after a plastic-surgery job.

John G. Heller (KELLY'S HEROES) is "Hinnell", a foreign agent in charge of an unusual project going on at an unassuming country hospital.

Bernard Archard (DOCTOR WHO: Pyramids Of Mars) is "Dr. Constantine", who is eventually revealed as a raving-mad scientist who's found a way to not only keep a nearly-dead man alive in a bed filled with ice, but also, to "imprint" that man's thought patterns into someone else's head, so the effect is there being TWO distinct personalities present in the SAME brain. The plot somewhat resembles that of the 1940 film BLACK FRIDAY, where a doctor apparently saved a man's life by physically transplanting part of a just-killed gangster's brain into the head of another man who was almost killed in a road accident. But that never quite made sense to me, while in this variation of it, it actually DOES seem far more believable.

A couple of odd points. The entry hall and main room of Lord Barnes' house is the IDENTICAL set seen as Mother's house in "The Forget-Me-Knot". Tara is once again made to look a bit dim, when she stops by what appears a roadside accident. When I see a car by the side of the road, I NEVER stop to see what's going on-- and I'm not a government AGENT working on an urgent case! Finally... the "target" opening credits were originally seen in just about the entire 1st half of all of Linda Thorson's episodes, while the outdoor "suit of armor" credits (with the "playing card" end credits) were on the 2nd half of Thorson's run. Yet, as I watch the 2015 Blu-Ray set, the first several episodes in a row have MIXED one set of opening credits with the other set of end credits. Somebody at Studio Canal is SCREWING UP.

On top of that, in this episode, EVERY rear-projection shot of Steed or Tara driving, the color is completely out-of-whack. HOW can the entire episode's color look so good, but be so AWFUL in just those specific shots?

[lyons]

Prof - your expertise in television and movies is amazing.  Thanks for being a member.

[profh0011]

Thanks!  It's nice I have a use for all this "useless information".   


"Useless information
Tons of useless information
Seems to fill my head
with nowhere else to go...
Isn't it amazing?"



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUOES6v5o7Q

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS: Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers...
The Idiotic Clown Murders Case   (4 of 10)

Several men involved in a real-estate company working on an underground bunker for government officials, are being murdered by a pair of Vaudeville Clowns. Further, they're getting their marching orders at a home for retired stage performers, from someone operating a Punch And Judy puppet show. Shades of "How To Succeed... At Murder", coupled with the general style of "EPIC", but taken to the 9th degree.

I like humor with my mysteries, but there is a definitely difference between "funny" and "stupid", and this one crosses the line-- in the extreme. Over the years, it's struck me as odd how writer Dennis Spooner was capable of so much good material on various Gerry Anderson shows and on DOCTOR WHO, but with most of his AVENGERS episodes, he never quite seemed to "get" the proper balance. (I rank "Forward Base" and "Emily" as two of my least-favorites.)

Bernard Cribbins (YOU MUST BE JOKING) and John Cleese (MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL) are two of my favorite English funny actors, yet the situations they're in in this story annoyed me more than they amused me. Even within the context of a comedy, certain things should MAKE SENSE. And here... they just don't.

With Cleese, you have the idea of someone who's spent 20 years of his life painting Copyrighted clown faces on eggshells-- the most delicate, easily-damaged things imaginable. And then you have them stored on easily-knocked-over shelves, placed too far from the walls and WAY too close to NARROW walkways, and having the man's office being at the far back end of the room, instead of up-front with the eggs in the BACK. And any sense of logic would say, that IF one were to paint faces on eggs, they shouldn't be real eggs, but made of HARD PLASTIC. I want to laugh at this whole scene, but it just made me annoyed the longer it went on.

Then you have the clowns-- entertainers who've spent their entire lives making people laugh-- who are not only easily conned and pushed into committing a series of MURDERS-- but in the case of the gag writer, a man who was an OLD FRIEND. WHAT? This killer must be even more deranged that "Stewart Kirby" was (Peter Wyngarde).

But the absolute height of unbelievable had to be when the clowns slowly unrolled a red carpet under a door and all the way across the floor of the room beyond-- and the TWO people who were sitting in the room-- completely failed to notice the carpet moving across the floor RIGHT BETWEEN where they were sitting. This is the sort of thing one expects from a Bugs Bunny or Road Runner cartoon-- not THE AVENGERS. The camera-shot looking DOWN as the body fell toward the ground was quite impressive... and even disturbing.

John Woodvine (DOCTOR WHO: The Armageddon Factor) proved to be the only one taking this even remotely serious, but that only made him all-too-obvious as the one behind it.

The guy trying to BURN a woman in half with a blowtorch was horrifying-- why wasn't he in an insane asylum, instead of a "rest home"? But the "quick change artist" business just made less than zero sense.

Assuming the 2015 Region 2 Blu-Ray set are in (mostly) production order (completely different from how they were run on PBS in the 80s, or listed in Dave Rogers' first 3 books on the show), I'm glad to know there are FAR-BETTER stories coming for Tara King. Here, she's still got the black wig, and the cool maroon car. (I prefer this car to her later one.) I wonder how Steed's car changed from green to bright pale yellow? As a complete aside, whoever's in charge of the sets this season really has an obsession with the color PURPLE.

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS:  My Wildest Dream
“Aggreso-Therapy”   (8 of 10)

A man undergoing psycho-therapy is urged to MURDER someone who is holding him back at work. It's all "fantasy" acted out in the doctor's office. But soon, we see the man do it FOR REAL. Just before the murder happens, the doctor's nurse anonymously calls Steed to warn him-- but, too late. And the killer falls out a window to his death. Before long, it happens again. This time, Steed & Tara arrive before the murder, warn the intended victim, but as they're leaving, they see the killer arrive, and are AGAIN too late! But this time, the killer is still alive, and a ministry doctor is working hard to get the man out of whatever kind of drug-induced trance he's in.

Now... several times, I've seen writer Dennis Spooner do stories for this show where there is NO mystery, because by the time the story title appears onscreen, the audience already knows exactly what's going on, and have to sit through the heroes looking stupid as they try to figure it out. That's just what this LOOKS like. But, here, writer Philip Levine is trickier than that. I was wondering, WHY is the nurse calling Steed? Is she aware something bad is going on and wants to stop it? But if so, why do it anonymously, and, wait until the last second to warn him?

Then comes the shocking scene where Steed locates "Dr. Jaeger", who gleefully explains to Steed EXACTLY what he's doing, but stresses the 2 men he "helped" eliminate their stress came to him "too late", and he was distressed when he learned they actually went out and committed the murders for real. Steed leaves his office, and, like the audience, must be wondering, does this man have more nerve than anyone could believe-- or-- can he be telling the truth?

The fact that this story starts out appearing to have NO mystery about it, but in the 2nd half turns out to BE a mystery regarding who the actual villain of the piece is, sets it above several other similarly-structured stories. Assuming the 2015 Region 2 Blu-Ray set is mostly in PRODUCTION order, I'd have to rate this as the BEST Tara King story so far! How strange that when this was run in America, it was broadcast NEXT-TO-LAST, apparently, because of the violent nature of the murders (people being stabbed repeatedly with very large daggers). Censorship was ramping up in America in the late 60s, first going after Saturday morning kiddie shows (turning the 70s into a wasteland) and then going even further with Prime Time in the late 70s.

I can tell this is one of the "early" Tara episodes, because she's still wearing black wigs and driving that gorgeous maroon AC 428 convertible. Steed has now moved onto his huge white Rolls Royce (his previous green car finally having broken down once and for all), but "Mother" has yet to resurface as a regular.

Peter Vaughan is "Dr. Jaeger", a character who is so obviously sinister, it's quite jarring when you suddenly begin wondering, IS he really a bad guy-- OR NOT? I've seen him in so many things, including THE SAINT, RANDALL AND HOPKIRK (DECEASED), MADIGAN: The Lisbon Beat, THE PROTECTORS, TIME BANDITS, BRAZIL, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE and most memorably, SHERLOCK HOLMES: The Boscombe Valley Mystery (with Jeremy Brett). It's no wonder his face was so familiar, I'm just surprised he was never on DOCTOR WHO.

Philip Madoc (DOCTOR WHO: The Brain Of Morbius) is "Slater", one of the people brainwashed by Jaeger, while Edward Fox (THE BIG SLEEP, FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE, THE MIRROR CRACK'D) is Freddy, a would-be suitor of Tara who's just too stupid to take "no" for an answer. (Given his situation, I wonder if his first name was inspired by Jeremy Brett's character in MY FAIR LADY?)

One of my favorite moments is when Tara is attacked in her apartment, and not for the first time, we see her flip someone over her shoulder, only this time, when his body slams into a wall, a SWORD that was hanging on it is knocked loose, falls, and impales the would-be killer, KILLING him. And some people say this episode wasn't funny!

The idea of people acting out their aggressive fantasies in safety was later reused by Jack Kirby in an issue of the 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY comic-book (1977), as well as in the Sean Connery film WRONG IS RIGHT (1982).

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS:  They Keep Killing Steed
The Not-So-Secure Peace Conference   (9 of 10)

Steed & Tara are assigned as "observers" at a peace conference. However, a scientist working with foreign spies has invented a chemical which can affect the molecular structure of a person's face, to effect a sort of (in Steed's words) "instant plastic surgery". When his initial try goes awry, he realizes he must kidnap Steed in order to use his face to create a perfect duplicate. In classic Steed fashion, Steed manages to create multiple face masks based on himself, which are delivered to several different assassins at the same time without the delivery boy (or his employers) being aware of what's happened! Even while being a prisoner for half the story, Steed STILL manages to SCREW with the bad guys' plans.

When Steed goes missing, Tara enlists the help of a dashing young stranger, "Baron Von Kurt", who, it turns out, owns the large chateau the conference is taking place at. When multiple fake Steeds start turning up dead (they kept mis-taking one another for the real article), the man in charge of security orders that ALL remaining Steeds be shot on sight. Which is right about when the real one turns up, to prevent a bomb from going off...

I first saw this when it was first-run, and loved how it showed just how much Tara cared about Steed. Somehow, this episode eluded me in syndication for 20 years, until it turned up on PBS on Christmas Day in the late 80s. At which point, I was suddenly reminded that Tara's new friend was played by none other than one of my very favorite actors, Ian Ogilvy, the person who first got me hooked on the character of "Simon Templar" on RETURN OF THE SAINT. I also realized that the story's format, with Tara teamed up with someone other than Steed, seemed an obvious fore-runner of the later revival, THE NEW AVENGERS.

The sci-fi gimmick used to create imposters was swiped outright from THE OUTER LIMITS episode "The Hundred Days Of The Dragon", but utilized in an otherwise COMPLETELY-different story! But back in the 60s, I hadn't seen that story, so this was my 1st exposure to the concept.

Ray McAnally ("The Positive-Negative Man") is spy & scientist "Arcos", who brags to Steed about how his invention works, and later tells Steed what the imposter is supposed to do once he infiltrates the conference. This, of course, allows Steed to then thwart the assassination plot. Tsk! Before this, it's fun watching them verbally fence with each other while playing chess. When I checked the actor's resume, I was genuinely surprised that the ONLY thing I'd ever seen him in was 2 different episodes of THE AVENGERS. I guess that just shows what an impact he made in those.

Norman Jones (DOCTOR WHO: The Masque of Mandragora) is "Zerson", Arcos' main henchman, who winds up responsible for the last person to die in this story.

Bernard Horsfall (DOCTOR WHO: The Deadly Assassin) is "Col. Smythe", whose security is not so secure. How else can one explain SO MANY fake Steeds ALL entering the conference, all thru the same door and past the SAME man on the door? Ever since I learned that Horsfall once played Albert Campion in 1959-60, I've WISHED those episodes could turn up on Blu-Ray.

The music in this is some of the DARKEST and most OMINOUS ever heard on the show-- until the climax, when Steed steals a car and winds up leading Tara & Curt to the baddie's hidden lair, when Laurie Johnson's thrilling track from "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station" is heard.

This became my favorite Tara episode. It's a shame that the next one in production order was one of my LEAST-favorites, and how odd both involved Tara teaming up with someone OTHER than Steed.

[profh0011]

THE AVENGERS:  Killer
WHO—is “Remak”???   (8 of 10)

A group of foreign agents have hired a scientist to work on a project inside a factory, then, when it's finished, have him murdered by "Remak". Soon after, a whole series of Mother's agents, one more incompetent after another, follow up leads on "Remak" and each one winds up dead-- some from a LONG list of things (why so many at once?) and all with severe damage to their eardrums. And at this point, Tara goes off on a well-deserved holiday, so Steed is assigned to work with the slick, smooth and ultra-efficient Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney. Each season of the series, the stars would take turns having a week off, and I guess this time it was Linda Thorson's turn. (It sort of balances things out for her having worked with different partners in both "They Keep Killing Steed", which I loved, and "Wish You Were Here", which I always find extremely painful to sit through.)

James Bree (SHERLOCK HOLMES: The Six Napoleons) is "Arthur Wilkington", the scientist who makes the usual mistake of spending months of his life working for obvious bad guys-- FOR MONEY-- and never gets to collect or spend his ill-gotten payment.

Harry Towb (SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE SAINT) is "Paxton", apparently a double-agent, as Mother's men know him, who keeps turning up having just been fatally-injured, and pointing the agents to where they can find "Remak". By the time he gets the drop on Steed, his routine has become either annoying-- or hilarious, depending on your attitude.

William Franklyn (THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA) is "Brinstead", one of the gang, who Lady Diana finds ransacking the dead scientist's flat, and gets into a terrific fight with. At one point, when the 3 villains are sharing a drink together, their sheer arrogance is so overpowering, you can't wait to see them all get what's coming to them.

Grant Taylor ("General Henderson" on UFO) is "Merridon", the leader of the gang, who winds up even nastier and more sociopathic than his character on the Gerry Anderson show ever was.

Richard Wattis (THE PRISONER: The Chimes Of Big Ben) is "Clarke", the greedy partner of Wilkington, who makes the same mistake when he tries to blackmail the villains instead of telling Lady Diana what he suspects.

Jennifer Croxton (IT'S AWFULLY BAD FOR YOUR EYES, DARLING, which she co-starred on with, incredibly, Joanna Lumley!) is "Lady Diana Forbes-Blakeney", beautiful, classy, intelligent, an agent who's every bit Steed's equal. Re-watching this, it struck me she reminded me, more than anyone else, of Mary Tamm's "Romana" on DOCTOR WHO, only more serious. (I actually found myself wishing Mary Tamm had played this part!) I was really impressed with her, especially when it was obvious she did her own fight scene (gee, just like in the older videotaped episodes). I always like Tara, but it would have been really nice to see Lady Diana come back in future episodes, perhaps working WITH Tara.

I believe I first saw this in syndication sometime in the 70s. Unlike some mysteries, this one held my attention WITHOUT making the solution too obvious (and, frankly, it annoys me the IMDB sypnopsis BLOWS it for anyone reading, before they get a chance to SEE the thing). When I first saw the climax, as Steed goes into the factory, the sequence BLEW MY MIND. Ever since, this has remained, along with "Legacy of Death", "Noon-Doomsday", "They Keep Killing Steed" and "Take Me To Your Leader", one of my FAVORITES from this season. Anyone who dismisses this final season as inferior to the Diana Rigg episodes just hasn't been watching the right stories.