Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Honor Blackman, Linda Thorson, Ian Hendry
• Writers: Sydney Newman
• Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: April 24, 2001
• Run Time: 364 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005ABET
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,451 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Avengers - '63 Set 4" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This final set of episodes from the 1967-1968 season of The Avengers follows the delightful, pop-surreal series through the concluding chapter of Diana Rigg's involvement as agent Emma Peel. On tap is "The £50,000 Breakfast," in which a ventriloquist is discovered to be carrying a stash of diamonds in his stomach, leading Mrs. Peel and John Steed (Patrick Macnee) into an investigation that involves murder, dummies, and borzoi dogs. "Dead Man's Treasure" finds a mortally wounded fellow agent hiding important documents in the home of a racing enthusiast--whose driving "simulator" nearly kills poor Mrs. Peel with a lethal dose of electricity. Tape two includes the terrific "You Have Just Been Murdered," in which a gaggle of blackmailers and assassins accosts prospective victims with toy weapons to prove they can easily be killed. Steed and Mrs. Peel enter the fray, just as they do in "The Positive-Negative Man," a tense but amusing plot about an electrically charged killer dispatching members of a scientific research team (and very nearly our heroes) with one touch of his high-voltage finger. The final tape includes the dark and scary "Murdersville," in which Mrs. Peel is kidnapped in a town full of killers-for-hire. Following that is the cheeky "Mission Highly Improbable," featuring Steed and Emma as shrunken versions of themselves after being subjected to a miniaturization device. The series ends--rather sadly for worshippers of Mrs. Peel--with "The Forget-Me-Knot," introducing Steed's next partner, Tara King (Linda Thorson), in a story about a traitor within the intelligence community. A coda in which Steed and Emma say goodbye is indeed unforgettable. Fortunately, the good times and quirky humor and whimsical sexuality between this perfect pair live on forever in this boxed set. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

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 Liebenson"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early adventures for Steed, December 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Avengers - '63 Set 4 (DVD)

For all the fans of The Avengers familiar with the Emma Peel/Tara King era of the show, these early episodes featuring Cathy Gale and Venus Smith may come as something of a disappointment. In fact, fans of the later shows may find it hard to believe that they are even part of the same TV series!

After the initial run of 26 episodes featuring Police Surgeon David Keel and his cohort John Steed had aired in the UK in 1961/62, the producers of the program opted to bring Steed to the forefront of the action and give him a number of different "assistants." Thus, for season two, 26 further episodes were made and broadcast in 1962/63 featuring Steed abetted by Martin King, Venus Smith or Cathy Gale. Mrs. Gale turned out to be the most popular and successful foil for the suave agent, and the other characters did not return after season two. Unlike the later Peel/King stories which were all made on film, these studio based TV shows are much more reliant on dialogue and plot than visual elements, and can be somewhat heavy going as a result.

A&E is releasing these stories in a somewhat confusing order, and has started with season three. The first two sets released, Avengers 64 1 & 2, feature the LAST six episodes of season three. Next comes Avengers 63 sets 1 & 2 which comprises of the first half of the season. Next up in the release order is 63 sets 3 & 4 which precede 1 & 2 in running order and in fact feature the last seven stories from season two, plus the first from season three. Confused? Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, since thankfully there's no real reason to watch the stories in chronological order anyway.

What is interesting is the development of the production standards. 63 sets 3 & 4, featuring the latter stories from season two, are far more rudimentary in terms of production quality. The sets are extremely small and sparse; The direction very slap-hazard; Camera work shoddy; Sound is extremely poor; and the acting is negligible. With no budget for editing or reshooting, all the actor's fluffs and goofs stayed in. Steed's character is far less suave and sophisticated then he became later during his familiar role alongside Mrs. Peel, and the relationship with Mrs. Gale in particular is at first downright hostile with very little warmth between the two. He seems to get along much better with Miss Venus Smith, a night club singer who he engages at various gigs to act as his eyes and ears. Venus is a very odd character, and played strangely, but enthusiastically by Julie Stevens. She looks about 12, sings like she's forty, and dresses like anything in between. She also seems extremely naïve and it's hard to imagine why Steed engages her to help him at all. The far more intelligent and elegant Mrs. Gale does eventually warm up to Steed, and in the season three stories where she is the exclusive companion to him, their relationship develops nicely and they become much warmer and closer to each other.

The production values on season three are also much better than the earlier episodes. The sets became larger and more elaborate. The direction, lighting and sound improved greatly and the acting was much less wooden. Some editing was clearly allowed on these later stories, whereas the earlier ones clearly were broadcast as if they were live. There's a terrific blunder in "Six hands across a table," where Cathy is called "Ros" in one scene, and both actors realize the mistake, but keep going.

The quality of the DVD's is somewhat disappointing, even accounting for the age of the material and the production values mentioned above. It may not be the case, but it certainly appears that A&E have made no attempt whatsoever to re-master the original tapes, and the flaws, jumps, scratches and sound blips are too numerous to mention. Virtually every episode on 63 sets 3 & 4 are hampered by picture and sound flaws and defects. Things do improve for 63 1 & 2 and 64 1 & 2, but the quality is still disappointing. Mind you, it appears they have done nothing to clean up the Tara King episodes either!

As a big fan of the series, I wouldn't even consider not having these episodes in my collection, but if you're looking for the wacky camp humor and the tele-fantasy of the Peel/King eras, these stories may not be for you.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Before Steed met Mrs Peel......., July 30, 2006

By 

Jeanne Tassotto (Trapped in the Midwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Avengers - '63 Set 4 (DVD)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Give Me Emma Peel! (Or should I say, Diana Rigg?), August 15, 2000

By 

blender - See all my reviews

This review is from: Avengers '67: Set 4 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Oh to have been an adult in the 60's! Diana Rigg in color as Emma Peel is a beauty to be reckoned with. Okay - aside from the hokey self-defense techniques with which Emma dispatches her antagonists with (how sad that we have grown accustomed to the real thing that anything less disappoints us - see the Matrix), Diana Rigg is unquestionably the prettiest secret agent to have graced the Small Screen (aside from perhaps Agent 99?).

This box-set of The Avengers was a treasure to find, as I grew up remembering the black and white TV series. A&E has done a wonderful job in compiling and arranging these tapes in collections that make sense, chronologically as well as "historically". Although I must admit that I am spoiled by the kind of theatrics and special effects that present more of a "believable" suspension of disbelief, these videotapes provide more than just tongue-in-cheek humor. It is also comical to view them as an historical comment as to what TV viewers found "racy" or "tough". Bring Steed & Mrs. Peel back! We need classy characters who know how to bring down the bad guys!

Enjoy these tapes...

Peace out.