Why bring you an episode from a series I was never crazy for? Reasons why not below the show … reasons why to post it now though … weeellll, it’s lighter after the heavier material this morning.
Now for the series … what, imho, did not work? Tony Curtis. Alongside Roger Moore.
Curtis was ok in so many shows and films over six decades which required a NY Jewish Hungarian … there were certainly roles for him … but again imho, The Persuaders was not one of those … The List of Adrian Messenger was, for example. Curtis was a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, he did it hard and I can sympathise. While some things were easy enough for me too, there were always certain things in my upbringing which did not sit easily with the genteel, belied by my turn of phrase.
Plus, standing beside Roger Moore, in a British series, more diminutive in many ways, less polished … he chose to overact … plus Lew Grade played up the class differences … maybe not deliberately but it certainly turned out that way … it might seem strange for a fan of Roger Moore but methought Curtis was given a raw deal in this series … there was something slightly de-Grade-ing about what he’d accepted (sorry about that pun). He was too intense for mine as well.
Annette Andre in this episode? A bit wasted. I liked most of the repeat actresses in The Saint but in this episode … hmmmm. Just an opinion, mind.
Now, one more thing … filmmakers’ ideas, in the 60s, of “hip” music which the “groovy” set were dancing to … aaaggghhhh! A good word for it is “naff”. Truly naff and Moore and Curtis both “dancing”, gyrating, at the end with Annette Andre … I’m close to saying sickening … at a minimum ludicrous … I switched off. Even the denouement just before it was not wonderful.
But John Barry’s not getting off the hook that easily. To my mind, his scores in the Bond series and others could be excellent, most seemed to agree on that … but in his notion of “hip” young people’s music? Aaaggghhhh again! However … not wishing to wrong John Barry, were he not the actual composer of the incidental music:
