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Not a masterpiece, but still suitable for framing, is "The Girl from Auntie," one of three episodes on this DVD from the 1966 season of
The Avengers, in which an art dealer, who supplies his clients "anything for a price" (including the
Mona Lisa!), kidnaps Emma for auction to enemy agents. This episode features perhaps the series' quaintest assassin, an elderly "lady" who dispatches her victims with knitting needles. Highlights and comical characters abound, including a game Emma Peel impersonator who gets the episode's best line. "Six bodies in an hour and 20 minutes," Steed remarks. "What do you call that?" "A good first act," she replies. In a wickedly funny Beatles reference, four corpses tumble out of a closet. Their names: John, Paul, George, and... Fred. "The 13th Hole," is not quite up to par, but the impeccable chemistry between Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg as gentleman spy John Steed and his ravishing partner, Mrs. Emma Peel, respectively, is palpable. Mrs. Peel scores a hole in one with the episode's best line. After he is nearly bogeyed by a golf ball, Steed credits his fortified hat with saving his life. Remarks Mrs. Peel, "It really is the height of pessimism to have a hat lined with chain mail." The final episode, "The Quick-Quick-Slow Death," has all the right moves, as Mrs. Peel goes undercover at a dance studio. The kinkiest moment comes courtesy of an Italian shoemaker. "Look," he gushes over Mrs. Peel's wiggling piggies, "they talk to me. You naughty little chatterboxes, you." The fade-out alone is worth the price of purchase. Instead of riding, rowing, or sailing off into the sunset as is customary, Steed and Mrs. Peel engage in a little Fred and Ginger action. All three episodes are in black and white.
--Donald Liebenson
