The Avengers Dossier, Page Twelve

With the Year of the Avengers at the halfway point, we present another look at a supporting cast member from the fourth season.

ATHENE SEYLER
In "Man-Eater of Surrey Green", Athene Seyler plays a botanist who joins Steed and Peel in a battle to save Earth.

Born 1889, Athene Seyler dreamed of being an actress from a young age, and by 1909, she had already made a name for herself in British theatre. With the coming of film, she pursued the new horizons and once again found success--first in early movies and then in early television as a character actress who could be relied upon to deliver quirky performances that were always as British as British could be. 

Seyler was at her busiest during the mid-1930s, but her less-frequent screen appearances as the years wore on were not because she wanted for work, but because she was very picky about the roles she accepted and also because she turned her attention back toward theatre work.

Throughout her eight decades as a working actress, Seyler appeared in every mainstream genre of film and television show, from screwball comedies to dark horror films. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles in "Night of the Demon" (1957) and "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" (1958), as well as her numerous turns as matronly characters in screen adaptations of Charles Dickens stories. 

Seyler literally worked as an actress her entire adult life. She make her final stage appearance in 1990, at the age of 101, mere weeks before she passed away.

Aside from her role in "Man-Eater of Surrey Green", she played a different character in an episode that aired in 1964, "Build a Better Mouse Trap".

The Avengers: Man-Eater of Surrey Green

Man-Eater of Surrey Green (1965)
Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Athene Seyler, Derek Farr, Gillian Lewis, and William Job
Director: Sidney Hayers
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Government agents Steed (Macnee) and Peel (Rigg) investigate strange happenings near a botanical research facility and discover that Earth is about to be overrun by flesh-eating plants from outer space.

From one point of view, I just broke my own rule for not providing spoilers in my teaser summaries, by revealing the bizarre nature of the foe that John Steed and Mrs. Peel must overcome in this episode. However, I think the plant-based alien invader, while absolutely the main plot point in the story, is one of the least interesting things about "Man-Eater of Surrey Green".

There are two major problems with the alien plant story, neither of which are fatal, but both of which prevent this from being a great installment of the series.

First, although it may have looked like a great idea on paper, the special effects crew of "The Avengers" either didn't have the time or the budget to make it look quite right; as a result, some scenes that should be intense instead come across as goofy and the overall presentation of the alien is inconsistent in quality. (And I say this as someone who's sat through hundreds of movies with truly awful effects and who oftentimes doesn't mind them. It's when they feel uneven, like they do here, that their inadequateness to convey the needed results is emphasized.)

Second, a plant from outer space just doesn't feel quite right for "The Avengers". While I recognize that our heroes have battled psychics, killer robots, mad scientists with weather control machines--and more!--space aliens feel wrong to me. It doesn't help that several decades of space exploration has passed between now and when this episode was made, and thus Mrs. Peel's comment that vegetation has been detected on the Moon destroys my ability to suspend my disbelief.

All that said, however, this episode still has some great moments that make it worth watching. The dread builds throughout the episode as characters begin to behave strangely and the sense of danger closing in around Steed and Peel is palatable, even as the alien plant effects get silly. The sense of dread is so strong, and the possibility that our heroes may save the world but not live to tell the tale seems so real, that when Steed takes very necessary, very coldhearted "for the greater good" action, it feels like we're about to say goodbye to one of the show's main characters. For viewers in 1965, this possibility must have seemed even more real; it wasn't until the second season of the series that Steed emerged as the fixed lead character and his partners and sidekicks had always come and gone. For all audiences knew when this show first aired, another major change was coming. Alien invasion silliness aside, this is a very intense and dramatic episode. In fact, aside from some very slight Peel & Steed banter, I don't recall any humorous touches at all--other than Steed declaring, "I'm a herbacidial maniac, which is quite possibly one of the best lines of the entire series.

"The Man-Eater of Surrey Green" is furthered lifted up by the presence of veteran actress Athene Seyler, whose career began in silent movies and whose screen-presence allowed her to turn what seems like it may have been conceived as a Miss Marple-esque comic relief character into a formidable presence that can stand side-by-side with Steed and Peel as they prepare for their final confrontation against the alien menance. Seyler's Doctor Sheldon is another one of those one-shot "The Avengers" characters that I wish could have come back in another episode or two.

In final analysis, this may not be one of the best episodes, but it's still worth the time you'll spend watching it.

'Night of the Demon' is terror-riffic!

Night of the Demon (1957) (aka "Curse of the Demon")
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall McGinnis, Liam Redmond, and Athene Seyler
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

An American (Andrews) travels to England to help investigate a demonic cult, and he finds himself targeted by supernatural forces unleashed by the cult's leader (McGinnis).

"Night of the Demon" is a by-the-numbers horror film where a skeptic is beset by supernatural forces and the only way he can survive is to turn the tables on those who have unleashed them. The fact that it's straight-forward with only one unexpected and shocking moment isn't a strike against it, because the story is expertly paced and structured, and so excellently acted by ever cast member that the predictability of the story becomes irrelevant.

The mood grows increasingly intense as the film unfolds, and the trainyard climax is perhaps one of the best finishes to a horror film I've ever seen. What's better, the film delivers its scares through quality acting, lighting, sparse use of soundtrack music, and perfect pacing; who could have imagined that a piece of paper fluttering away on a breeze could be such a source of suspense? I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes their horror with a minimum of gore.

With all the praise I'm heaping on the film, you may be wondering why I'm only giving it a rating of Eight Stars? It's because of the film's one and only misstep; it establishes right from the beginning that the supernatural powers of the villainious cult leader (played with just the right amount of slimeness and pomposity by the underappreciated character actor Niall McGinnis) are real. While on the one hand, it accelerates the viewer's sense of apprehension for the death-marked hero, it undermines takes away any mystery in the story. We don't even the a startling reveal of the demonic creature, as that, too, is shown to us in the very beginning. It's hard for to judge if the film would have been better with the more standard "is it all a hoax or is it supernatural forces" approach, but I leaning toward thinking it would have. Therefore, I am assigning it a rating of a High Eight.

"Night of the Demon" was released in the United States in 1958 under the title "Curse of the Demon", with a running time that's roughly 7 minutes shorter than the original British version. The most recent DVD release contains both cuts of the film, and I was sure that part of the cut material would be from the opening sequence where we see a character get killed by fire demon. I was wrong; instead, character building bits, and a crucial exposition scene were cut from the film.