"A sad end to a classic series."
Steed, Gambit and Purdey are in Toronto once more on the trail of The Fox, an elusive master criminal whom Canadian Intelligence want badly. Problem is nobody has any clue as to his identity. However, a lead finally surfaces when the mastermind leaves a palm print on the roof of a collaped out old car called Emily as it is named by its dotty owner Miss Daly (Lane Mallet). The Avengers embark on a treacherous journey across the countryside to transport the car to forensics to identify the criminal, in which Steed is forced to tape his bowler hat to the roof in order to preserve the print. Along the way, The Avengers face enemy agents bent on destroying them and the car as well as the police after Gambit is forced to shoot and kill a spy at a filling station. "You're looking for an old Plymouth disguised with a bowler hat" the gobsmacked police sergeant tells his men who can hardly believe it either!
Just about the last gasp from this classic series, which went rapidly into decline when financial trouble raised its head and production moved to Canada due to the producers securing financial backing there. The result is a feeble chase comedy that does no credit to the original series or its predecessors. Macnee, Hunt and Lumley are sadly wasted here except for one amusing scene where Gambit attempts to subdue a hard nut with a taste for home made scrumpy and Purdey gets the better of him by being the one to knock him out and Gambit cannot bare Purdey being the one to get the better of his opponent and knocking him out for him. Apart from that this is a one joke film and a joke that's not very funny- three agents (portrayed as bunglers here which they most certainly were not) as they are forced to drive across Canada in a rough old car with a bowler hat stuck to the roof. Avengers purists will hate it as even Dennis Spooner who contributed to the series on and off since the Honor Blackman days is at a loss here. This is the episode that tends to disappear from the TV schedules during repeats, hardly surprising!
Just about the last gasp from this classic series, which went rapidly into decline when financial trouble raised its head and production moved to Canada due to the producers securing financial backing there. The result is a feeble chase comedy that does no credit to the original series or its predecessors. Macnee, Hunt and Lumley are sadly wasted here except for one amusing scene where Gambit attempts to subdue a hard nut with a taste for home made scrumpy and Purdey gets the better of him by being the one to knock him out and Gambit cannot bare Purdey being the one to get the better of his opponent and knocking him out for him. Apart from that this is a one joke film and a joke that's not very funny- three agents (portrayed as bunglers here which they most certainly were not) as they are forced to drive across Canada in a rough old car with a bowler hat stuck to the roof. Avengers purists will hate it as even Dennis Spooner who contributed to the series on and off since the Honor Blackman days is at a loss here. This is the episode that tends to disappear from the TV schedules during repeats, hardly surprising!
- jamesraeburn2003
- Nov 19, 2006