Tag: Cathy Gale

The Avengers: Mandrake

Mandrake (Episode 03-18, January 1964).

steed-cathy-mandrake

I had intended to try to keep to the order in which these episodes aired, but I cannot hold my tongue about one of my favorite Avengers episodes.

In Mandrake, Strange things have been going on in the graveyard of Tinby, including the burial of an abnormal number of men who were never in Tinby in their lives. Steed’s interest is piqued with the death of a work colleague and his burial in the same graveyard. Steed and Cathy set about investigating the deaths, which leads them into a seedy world of a two-man Murder Inc., made up of Dr. Macombie (John Le Mesurier) and Roy Hopkins (Philip Locke), who help heirs to organize the murder of prominent men.

Mandrake has so much to recommend it, I don’t know where to begin. The secondary cast elevates the episode – Le Mesurier and Locke are both excellent character actors in their element here (they pop up in earlier and later episodes, making them among the most dependable doppelgängers in the series). The addition of Annette Andre as Judy, a shopgirl who works for Hopkins, provides some of the most charming repartee in the episode. She and Steed develop a quick flirtation with such easy, light chemistry it almost makes one wish that Andre had come back a few more times (she does crop up in a much later episode of spin-off series The New Avengers, but has no scenes with Macnee).

Mandrake also balances its two leads admirably, giving Steed and Cathy plenty to do together and separately. Cathy goes off to interview the vicar of the Tinby church where the murdered men have been buried, while Steed trails Hopkins and flirts with Judy. Steed roughs up the son of his old friend, and Cathy has an exciting graveyard fight with the local gravedigger – a fight which ended with Blackman accidentally knocking out her opponent. While there’s a bit of a dearth of Steed and Cathy banter to be had here, it’s more than made up for by the exchanges between our leads and the secondary characters.

Sharp and tightly written with excellent pacing, Mandrake really stands at the top of the Cathy Gale series, and is arguably one of the best Avengers episodes period.

The Avengers: Killer Whale

Killer Whale (Episode 02-26, March 1963).

killer-whale-steed-cahty

Killer Whale, the final episode of Season 2, takes Steed and Cathy into the underground world of boxing and its unlikely connection to the perfume trade. Steed has discovered a possible link between the boxing ring belonging to ‘Pancho’ Driver (Patrick Magee) and the illegal smuggling and sale of ambergris, a key ingredient in the production of perfume. Steed enlists Cathy and her young boxing protege Joey (Ken Farrington) to infiltrate Pancho’s ring and discover who’s doing the smuggling and how. Meanwhile, the bowler-hatted one draws the more cushy job of hanging around a perfumier and fashion designer’s establishment, under the guise of obtaining a wardrobe for his “niece,” to see where the ambergris is actually going. This being The Avengers, complications naturally arise, including murder, imprisonment, and the use of Cathy’s judo skills.

In some ways, Killer Whale is a last hurrah for the more underworld-themed episodes of Season 2. Season 3 will be a bit more refined – though not without its deviations – and occupied far more with the British upper-classes. As such, Killer Whale is a nice transition, with the charming Joey facing off against the less-charming Pancho, and expanding upon the connections between a criminal underworld and the clean-cut upper world of fashion designers.

Although the boxing angle is quite fun, the best parts of Killer Whale take place at the perfumier’s. Steed has a slightly tense tete-a-tete with a posh young man who keeps referring to him as “sport” – another chance to underscore class conflict, as the same young man turns out to be the most vicious criminal of the bunch – as well as the chance to make eyes at the attractive young models wandering around. Steed certainly draws the plumb job on this one, his not-inconsiderable charm in full force right alongside his inherent ruthlessness. Cathy meanwhile has to do the dirty work, which usually gets her either imprisoned or tied up.

Killer Whale concludes the second season on a fairly high note, with our two heroes getting along pretty well (and Cathy moved into a brand new apartment). When they return in Season 3, two against the criminal factions, they’ll do so with slightly less conflict but, oddly enough, slightly more distrust. Season 3 will feature Steed possibly turning traitor more than once, and a tightening of their friendship that will make them, in the end, the most complicated relationship that The Avengers will ever feature.

The Avengers: Bullseye

Bullseye (Episode 02-04, October 1962).

steed-cathy-bullseye

Only four episodes into Season 2, Cathy Gale gets her first opportunity to strike out on her own in Bullseye. Faced with a murder at a small arms company that may be tied to gun-running in Africa, Cathy joins the company’s board of directors as a shareholder, plunging herself into industrial espionage and conspiracy. Steed is on hand but remains solidly in the background for this one, only showing up once or twice to tease Cathy and smoke cigars.

Cathy uncovers a series of nasty coincidences as more fellow board members are murdered, narrowing the range of suspects to about three by the end of it. It’s all tied in with a takeover bid by industrialist Henry Cade (Ronald Radd), who intends to purchase the company and carve it up at a profit. Cade is suspect number one, as each of the directors dies after meeting with him, but there are several others that are equally nasty pieces of work: Doreen Ellis (Judy Parfitt, who pops up pretty consistently through The Avengers), and Mr. Young (Felix Deebank), a ladykiller with a smarminess all his own.

Giving Honor Blackman her own episode this early in the season was a gamble for The Avengers (regardless of production order), and it’s a shame she didn’t get a better one. As with a number of these early episodes, Bullseye suffers from the combination of a preponderance of plot, and dialogue that fails to drive it. Steed’s absence does not have to harm an episode (check out The Big Thinker if you don’t believe me), but in this case poor Cathy has very little to occupy her time. The villains are fairly clear from the outset, and the ending both unsurprising and anti-climactic. Cathy has no opportunity to show off her fabulous judo skills (despite setting up a villain with whom she could easily grapple), and much of the interesting action takes place off-screen.

However, Bullseye is not all bad. On a second viewing I actually found it more enjoyable, with at least two scenes that create excellent tension and remind us that Cathy is quite the badass. Ronald Radd’s Henry Cade is simply delightful, an irascible millionaire entirely at home in his business. The episode pops when he’s onscreen. Finally and as always, the few scenes between Cathy and Steed have an energy all their own, as their combative relationship makes even a friendly meeting into a battle of the sexes.

So put Bullseye in the “miss” category. It isn’t a bad episode by any means, but there’s not a great deal to be said for it.

The Avengers: Six Hands Across A Table

Six Hands Across A Table (Episode 02-25, March 1963).

steed-cathy-six-hands

Following Venus’s departure, Cathy Gale returns for an episode more or less on her own – and for the first (and last) time, romance is in the air! Cathy has become involved with shipyard owner Oliver Waldner (Guy Doleman), ostensibly on the strength of her schoolgirl friendship with his sister (?) Rosalind (Sylvia Bidmead). But there are nefarious dealings afoot when one of Waldner’s business colleagues dies a suspicious death after refusing to participate in a deal that would give Waldner and friends control of a large section of British shipbuilding. Steed is on hand, of course, to prove that Cathy’s boyfriend is a killer.

Six Hands Across A Table suffers from a number of confusions between characters, both personally and professionally. Waldner and his colleagues are apparently attempting to push through a deal that would keep British shipbuilding in their control, while the murdered man and his son, who takes over his father’s company, attempt to work with a French firm that would take some shipbuilding out of the country. The plot is a little complex for an hour episode, and unfortunately focuses a bit too much on some rather complex backroom business deals to be interesting.

The other source of confusion appears in Cathy’s relationship to Oliver and Rosalind. At first I thought Rosalind was Oliver daughter, based on the way they relate, but Oliver is far closer to Cathy’s age and her and Rosalind were meant to be at school together. Some of the confusion is a result of Cathy visibly being in her early to mid-thirties, while Rosalind looks much younger. It is at times difficult to understand the relationship of the characters as a result.

Beyond confusions in the plot, however, Six Hands Across A Table hangs together rather well. It is the only time that Cathy has a romantic interest – and she makes quite a terrible choice. Waldner is a cold-blooded killer who treats murder like a business venture. When Steed warns Cathy of her lover’s possible criminal activities, she attempts to dismiss him – but is obviously shaken. Blackman gives an excellent performance here; she’s gotten in too deep and made the mistake of falling in love with a man she’s supposed to be investigating. While Steed offers little solace, couching his suspicions in his usual flippant manner, he’s earnestly concerned to keep her out of trouble.

There’s a touching scene that highlights Steed’s increasing sensitivity, and inherent decency, as well as Cathy’s intense guarding of her emotions. More and more we see that these are two people who protect themselves from emotional pain, but actually care very deeply for one another. The episode is worth it for that scene alone.

The Avengers: Conspiracy of Silence

Conspiracy of Silence (Episode 02-23, March 1963).

steed-conspiracy-of-silence

Circus clowns! The Mafia! Assassination attempts! Knife-throwing! This episode should have it all. So why doesn’t it quite come off?

Conspiracy of Silence starts off well. Circus clown Carlo must assassinate Steed or face dire consequences from the Mafia’s envoy. The assassination attempt fails (as it would) and Steed sends Cathy to hang out at a local circus in a bid to locate the assassin who failed to kill him. There Cathy finds herself (once more) in the midst of family drama, as the wife of the circus clown cum assassin apparently has no idea where her husband is. Meanwhile the Mafia man hangs around in the hopes of finding Carlo and forcing him to do the job.

The drama here takes a front seat to the actual plot, with Cathy trying to be sympathetic to everyone involved. The wife fends off advances from the Ringmaster, the Mafia man threatens loudly, and the various clowns and performers are all suspect in helping to keep Carlo under wraps. Unfortunately this seems to mean that a lot of nothing happens for most of the runtime, with the best action packing into the last ten minutes or so. Carlo is a somewhat sympathetic antagonist, caught between having to commit a horrific crime or be sent back to Italy, where the Mafia will do away with him. Yet I found it difficult to feel any real sympathy for a whiny and weepy character, or his oft-hysterical wife.

What Conspiracy of Silence has, though, are two excellent scenes between Steed and Cathy, highlighting their inherent differences and the development of their characters. When Steed appears at the circus to discuss Cathy’s findings, they stand at odds with each other: Steed wants to force Carlos into the open, while Cathy tries to convince him that it’s better to offer Carlos a deal rather than frightening him. Steed accuses her of idealism, she accuses him of cynicism, and the whole thing ends with Steed shaking his fists and storming off. It’s a dynamic little scene, complemented by the later sequence in which Cathy hears two gunshots and believes that Steed has been murdered. When she discovers that he survived, the pain on her face is real – her fear of losing him shows the chinks in her otherwise impenetrable emotional armor. It’s a brief moment, but it ends the episode with a strange poignancy for The Avengers. Cathy has truly begun to care about Steed, even though she doesn’t want to show it. 

At the end of the day, though, Conspiracy of Silence is one of the lesser episodes, despite a setting that offered many opportunities for some campy fun.

The Avengers: The White Dwarf

The White Dwarf (Episode 02-21, February 1963)

steed-cathy-white-dwarf

The Avengers regularly grappled with post-war terrors and Cold War realities, involving spies from vague foreign lands (most of them with Russian accents), double agents working within Great Britain, secret plans, secret weapons, and secret programs. But only seldom did the show look into the farther reaches of space and engage with threats from without rather than within.

The White Dwarf is one exception. Unlike its Space Age successor Man-Eater of Surrey Green – the only episode to introduce the concept of aliens into The Avengers universe – The White Dwarf treats of a far more realistic threat from the outer regions.

Steed and Cathy are tasked with investigating the death of an astronomer who predicted that the end of the world was near when he observed the progress of a “white dwarf.” His theory postulates that within nine months the dwarf would swallow up the sun, and the earth with it. In an effort to keep people calm, the British government has kept the discovery under wraps until it can be verified by a further observation within a few weeks’ time.

While Steed remains at home to “have a good time while there’s still time,” Cathy heads down to the observatory to discover the reasons behind the astronomer’s death. She meets a group of frightened people, none of whom seem to have much of a reason to commit murder – especially if everyone is going to die in a months anyways. Steed embarks on his own investigation at the Ministry, and discovers that several someones have been buying up large shares of stocks, and that one such person is the brother of a Ministry official who just happens to know about the white dwarf.

The White Dwarf is a bizarre story for The Avengers because it seems so dire. It’s difficult to believe that either Steed or Mrs. Gale would be so calm in the face of imminent disaster, even if they don’t really have faith that the prediction about the dwarf is accurate. As a result, the episode suffers from a confusion of tone, with Steed’s cheerful quips seeming ill in keeping with the situation, and the violent deaths of more than one astronomer off-setting any sympathy we might feel for the lesser villains.

Needless to say, the world does not end at the end of The White Dwarf, and thankfully The Avengers did not try to use the same sort of story in any later episodes. While The Avengers sometimes does deal with serious issues, ranging from mad villains and sadists to those who want to cause World War III, the show is at its best when it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The Avengers: The Golden Eggs

The Golden Eggs (Episode 02-19, February 1963).

steed-cathy-golden-eggs

With Dr. Martin King out of the way and Venus Smith still struggling to decide how old she is, Dr. Catherine Gale returned once more for The Golden Eggs. A scientist’s laboratory is broken into, the results published in the headlines. Although Dr. Ashe (Donald Eccles), an expert in diseases, claims that nothing has been stolen, Steed suspects something and dispatches Cathy to discover what’s going on. It turns out that the burglar did indeed get away with the loot: two ‘golden’ eggs containing a deadly virus. The audience learns what’s happening before Steed and Cathy do, meeting one villain (Peter Arne) obsessed with clockwork and his diabolical partners. The pair have to find the eggs before the baddies do, or risk unleashing the virus on England.

The Golden Eggs has all the makings of a stellar early-season episode. The episode opens (properly) on Steed and Cathy having breakfast together as they discuss the case; though we are of course assured that Cathy is only staying in Steed’s apartment temporarily and Steed is living in a hotel. The few scenes of repartee between them are the best parts of the episode, from Steed returning to his flat to shave, brush his teeth, and shatter a piece of pottery, to Cathy’s proper messiness and Steed’s horror at her inability to keep the refrigerator stocked. Cathy’s deep sympathy with the wife of the burglar, her fanagling of Dr. Ashe, and entertaining fight with one of the baddies shows off her character to great effect. It’s no wonder that Cathy won out and became Steed’s sole partner in season three.

But The Golden Eggs falls short in the villain realm, a pretty amazing feat given that the villain Julius Redferne bears all the marks of a James Bond baddie and is played by the deliciously snarky Peter Arne. Yet somehow the whole does not hang together, with Arne going up on his lines more than once (problems of live TV) and one of his two assistants changing sides in the middle of it all. The final fight comes off somewhat truncated, with Steed conspicuously absent from the action (he just sort of wanders off at the end of one scene and we don’t see him again until the end).

Watching these early seasons, I’ve come to realize that The Avengers is not terribly well written as a rule. The best episodes depend on the charm and dedication of the actors, both lead and secondary, and fall to pieces if anyone is not quite on point. While the plots sometimes have pop, it’s all on the shoulders of our heroes to make us believe them.

The Avengers: The Big Thinker

The Big Thinker (Episode 02-12, December 1962)

steed-cathy-the-big-thinker

Like Emma Peel after her, Cathy Gale gets a few opportunities to strike out on her own, largely sans a male counterpart. The first such episode is actually Bullseye, which I will get to reviewing one of these days. The Big Thinker is another. I’ll go right ahead and admit that I’m reviewing it instead of Bullseye because it’s a far more enjoyable episode.

The Big Thinker sees Cathy investigating the goings-on at a missile defense computer facility where the main computer “Plato” is being sabotaged. There are a number of suspects, but the main one is resident mathematical genius/total douchebag Dr. James Kearns (Antony Booth), who knows Plato inside and out. Cathy cultivates Kearns’s friendship, even down to going out with him once or twice, in order to discover if he’s the one sabotaging Plato, and why.

The episode belongs to Honor Blackman and, unlike the rather turgid Bullseye, she makes it work. Scenes of bamfery abound, from Cathy handling a few card sharps like a pro to icily tearing down Kearns’s advances with a mere roll of her eyes. She’s helped along by Kearns himself, who’s played with a strong personality (even if he is in the ‘annoying young man’ category). Steed, meanwhile, hangs out in the background, popping up every so often to trade a few sarcastic jibes with Cathy, and dashing in when the going gets really tough.

Although this episode is light on the Steed/Cathy repartee, there are a few moments that exhibit the development of the characters’ relationship. There are shades of jealousy in Steed’s reaction to Kearns – he even shows up in Cathy’s apartment late at night to ‘protect’ her. Another scene highlights the increasing domesticity of Steed and Cathy’s relationship when he attempts cooking an omelette at her apartment. These scenes lend a sense of fun to the episode, and begin to draw out the interesting friendship and tension the characterizes the two main characters. While it’s a matter of conjecture if Steed and Cathy ever crossed the line from friends to lovers, they certainly share some strong sexual tension.

While The Big Thinker wins no awards for clarity – I got halfway through the episode before realizing that I wasn’t entirely clear why anyone would want to sabotage Plato in the first place – it’s a quirky little entry with some fun performances. It’s also a chance to be reminded that while Emma Peel solidified the notion of the intelligent, capable female agent, it was Dr. Catherine Gale that started the ball rolling. 

The Avengers: Immortal Clay

Immortal Clay (02-16, January 1963)

immortal-clay-steed-cathy

I mostly prefer to think of this episode as the one with the Turkish Bath, because that’s pretty much the highlight of the whole thing. Steed and Cathy are once more on the job, this time investigating a man’s death in a pottery that has been developing (maybe) an indestructible clay. The danger is that this will fall into the wrong hands, so Steed’s superior dispatches him to learn everything there is to know about pottery in 24 hours. Meanwhile, Cathy already knows everything.

They enter into a family melodrama of epic proportions. The pottery is run by the Marling brothers, one of whom has a wife who may have been having an affair with the dead man. The other is stuck on Mara, a beauty-pageant runner-up who dreams of marrying rich so that she can become an actress. She’s being pursued by one of the potters, who is so violently jealous that he might kill her, himself or anyone else at a moment’s notice.

The plot within itself is a good one – the idea of an unbreakable ceramic with worldwide implications, the little battles of intrigue going on in the pottery – and might have paid off. Unfortunately, far too much time is spent with the frankly dull secondary characters and not enough with Steed and Cathy. The success or failure of an Avengers episode usually depends on how much time the leads spend in the same space, and this one gives them very little to do together. There’s a good villain in the form of De Groot (Steve Plytas, an early-season doppelganger), but he appears late and does not do much until the end.

I mentioned the Turkish bath scene, though, which provides a few minutes of watching Steed strip off and rub himself down with a towel … which for me is worth the price of admission. There are also one or two scenes between Steed and Mara that have a bit of pop. Cathy is sadly underused, doing little aside from smoking a few cigarettes and glaring at Steed when he makes a pun.  Even this late in the game, the uses of her character seem to elude the writers, who sometimes give her plenty to do and other times push her off to the side in favor of other character development that won’t really matter in the long run.

But there is that Turkish bath…

steed-turkish-bath

The Avengers: Intercrime

Intercrime (Episode 02-15, January 1963). 

steed-cathy-intercrime

Intercrime marks The Avengers’ foray into a Murder, Inc. style plot. Steed cons Cathy, as usual, into infiltrating a criminal organization. First he gets her arrested, then she switches places with a vicious German assassin. Her assignment is basically to infiltrate the organization, find out what they’re up to, and report back. This being The Avengers, things get complicated quickly and Cathy finds herself in the middle of an attempted coup by Intercrime’s second-in-command. Steed, meanwhile, gets the easy part, chatting up beautiful blondes and trying to avoid being shot in the head by his own partner. 

Intercrime is (I think) the first appearance of Kenneth J. Warren, who will go on to be one of the most recognizable ‘doppelgängers’ in The Avengers (actors who appear in multiple episodes playing different roles). Warren is Felder, one of the leaders of Intercrime, and a deliciously enjoyable, even likable villain. While he might get more to do in his memorable turn as crazed film director Z.Z. von Schnerk in the Emma Peel episode Epic, he’s still interesting to watch. The entire episode, in fact, boasts of good character performances, particularly Julia Arnall as the assassin Hilda Stern.

Macnee and Blackman are, as always, tons of fun. Blackman gets a bit more to do in this episode, putting on a fake German accent, trying to defend the life of a criminal in trouble with Intercrime, and attempting to bluff her way through when the assassin she’s replaced turns up alive and well. Macnee also gets a few good moments as he tries to convince the girlfriend of one of Intercrime’s leaders that she’s in danger, and laying it on thick as Cathy’s supposed attorney. The episode is nicely balanced between the two of them, although it doesn’t do much to showcase their chemistry.

Intercrime falls short of being a favorite episode of mine – there’s not enough humor or Steed/Cathy repartee, but it’s a fun outing, and a slightly more serious/believable plot line.