The Avengers Dossier, Page Twenty-three

Throughout the year, we've been providing mini-bios of actors who have appeared on episodes of "The Avengers" that've been reviewed in this space. Today, we're breaking the pattern, and, instead present mini-bios of the series' stars--Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.

PATRICK MACNEE

Born in 1922, Patrick Macnee was raised by his mother and her lesbian lover after his father gambled away the family fortune and ran off. He began acting as a teenager, making his film debut at the age of 16 as an extra in "Pygmalion" (1938). His career was interrupted by WW2--during which he served in the Royal Navy--but as the 1940s came to a close, Macnee was unhappy with the acting roles he was landing in Great Britain, so he relocated to the Americas.

During the 1950s, Macnee took a smattering of theatre roles (including a stint on Broadway), but focused mostly on television. He appeared in both American and Canadian television series and made-for-TV movies, and even dabbled in producing. When he returned to England in 1959, he was cast as John Steed in "The Avengers", the character with whom he is most closely associated. Originally, Steed was just a supporting character, but during the show's Second Season, and the original lead dropped out of the show, Steed became the new focal point and he had a rotating set of sidekicks that came and went until Emma Peel (embodied by Diana Rigg) entered the picture at the beginning of the Fourth Season.

Macnee has the additional distinction of being the only actor who was with "The Avengers" through all six seasons of the original series, as well as "The New Avengers" in the mid-1970s. He even voiced the character of Invisible Jones in the Avengers Big Screen outing in 1998 (where Steed was portrayed by Ralph Fiennes and Peel by Uma Thurman).

During the 1970s and into the 1990s, Macnee was a familiar face and voice on American television and the played supporting and guest-starring roles in numerous television series and movies, primary among them being "NightMan" (1997-1998); the "Thunder in Paradise" series and made for television films (1993-1994); and "Super Force" (1990-1992); and "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-1979).

Macnee was also a regular in B-movies, mostly horror and sci-fi films. Whether he was playing a hero, villain, or victim, he was always a bright spot, no matter how wretched the film around him might be. 

Starting in the late 1990s and continuing into the 2010s, Macnee worked primarily as a voice actor, including making recordings of numerous audio books. His final on-screen role was as the mad scientist in the sci-fi spoof "The Low Budget Time Machine" (2003), which made for a total 170 different characters played on-screen. He passed away on June 25, 2015. 

DIANA RIGG
Born in 1938, Diana Rigg began her professional acting career in earnest upon joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. While busy with theatre roles, she still sought out television roles. In 1964, she auditioned for the role of Emma Peel on a whim. She had never seen an episode of "The Avengers", and, although her casting was a hurried, last-minute replacement for the actress who had originally been cast in the role, Rigg went on to become the actress most closely associated with the classic television series. She also has the distinction of appearing opposite Patrick Macnee in more episodes than any other regular on the series. 

Rigg played Emma Peel for two seasons of "The Avengers", standing as an equal next to John Steed from the very beginning. Emma Peel was also the only Steed sidekick who got a proper send-off episode instead of just dropping of the story to never be heard from again.

Rigg left "The Avengers" in 1967 to play the female lead in a James Bond film (as, coincidentally, the other most-famous female Avenger, Honor Blackman, had also done), and from that point on, her star kept climbing: Whether Rigg was appearing on stage, on the big screen, or television series or made-for-television movies, she always the lead, or at least a character that was pivotal to the action and plot.

While television remained a cornerstone in Rigg's career, she also remained devoted to appearing in live theatrical performances (sometimes crossing the two), and she was recognized by the British Crown for her contributions to the theatrical arts by being awarded the title of Dame. Meanwhile, film-goers and television viewers got to enjoy her hosting the PBS anthology series "Masterpiece Theatre" (1989-2003); see her as the hilarious human center of "The Great Muppet Caper" (1981), and dozens of other performances in historical dramas, comedies, spy thrillers, and even a few horror movies. The roles she is perhaps be best remembered for, aside from Emma Peel, are Tracy Bond, wife of James Bond ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service", 1968); amateur detective Adela Bradley (in five made-for-television movies, "The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries", 1999-2000); and as noble matriarch Orlenna Tyrell (in the television series "Game of Thrones", 2013-2017).

Rigg had been a smoker since she was 18 years old, and for years she'd regularly smoke a pack of cigarettes in a day. The habit eventually caught up with her, first causing her heart problems which necessitated surgery in 2017, and then lung cancer struck and eventually claimed her life in 2020. She never retired, working straight up until shortly before her death, and the film in which she made her final appearance ("Last Night in Soho" (2021)) was dedicated to her by the director and producers.

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As a bonus, here are a few pictures from one of the stranger promotional photo-shoots that Macnee and Rigg did to promote "The Avengers."

Picture Perfect Wednesday with Rose McIver

Born in 1988, Rose McIver hails from New Zealand. She's been a professional actress and model her entire life, getting her start while just a toddler and making a successful transition from child performer into adult star while carving something of a niche for herself in roles in television series with a sci-fi/fantasy bent: She's played a teen trying to save her world from destruction ("Maddigan's Quest", 2006), took a turn as a Power Ranger ("Power Rangers RPM", 2009), had a recurring role as Tinkerbelle on "Once Upon A Time" (2013-2017), and played an undead, brain-eating crime-solver ("iZombie", 2015-2019). As of this post, she is starring in the U.S. version of the sit-com "Ghosts" (2021), where she's a young woman who can see dead people and who lives in a very, VERY haunted house.

It's the Little King's Day Out

A Royal Good Time (1934)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but it's basically a silent movie)
Director: Geo. Stallings

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

The Little King heads out for a day at the funfair and ends up causing chaos.

"A Royal Good Time" is one of nine cartoons that the Van Beuren Corporation produced based on "The Little King" comic strip (which ran from 1931 to 1975, ending with the death of its creator and only artist/writer Otto Soglow). Van Beuren licensed The Little King as the strip moved from "The New Yorker Magazine" 

Like many of those adaptations, this one opens with a segment that embodies the look and feel off Soglow's strip, but swiftly veers into territory that's comfortable and typical for the Van Beuren writers and animators: Loosely designed, rubbery characters embroiled in zany, surreal situations and chase scenes full of non-stop sight gags. 

Not unexpectedly, "A Royal Good Time" follows this pattern. The opening plays like a Soglow cartoon put into motion with the Little King heading off to the funfair to use his own rifle at the target game. Once he reaches the fairground, however, the look of the characters change, as does the nature of the story. As I've mentioned before, there is a significant different in the character designs between the Little King and those who work as servants in his palace and in his government, and the common people in the rest of his nation. Those differences in character designs are even more striking here, especially because the Little King has to pass through a "checkpoint" to get into the realm of these commoners (the fairgrounds). Up until watching this installment of the series, I was leaning toward chalking these differences in character designs to the Van Beuren operation wanted to keep a certain look about their cartoons. However, I am coming around to the idea that lead animator Jim Tyre, who reportedly was dedicated to making "The Little King" faithful to Soglow's original strip and the highest quality possible, was actually using character designs to set the king and his court apart from the rest of country and showing how they, essentially exist in different worlds. It's an element that doesn't add a whole lot to the simple and chaotic storylines of the episodes, but I think that I've been giving too little credit to Tyre for his work on this series, which I already thought was pretty good.

All that said, compared to other "The Little King" episodes that Tyre helmed, this one is at the lower end of the quality spectrum. The Carnie/Van Beuren-look characters are a bit unstable in their looks from scene to scene, and the backgrounds aren't quite as well done as in other Tyre efforts (although they are still worlds beyond what is typical in some "Tom and Jerry" episodes. The main chase scene is also initiated by an event that doesn't make any sense--basically, The Little King disrupts a magic act in such a way that I think would be just as impressive to the audience as if it had been executed the right way. Nonetheless, the magician gets angry and proceeds to chase The Little King with a sword, intend on killing him. The ending is also very weak and feels very much like "we don't know how to end this, so here's a bit of surreal silliness that doesn't connect to a darn thing you've just sat through." (I think a straight-up "non-ending" like what we got in "Jolly Good Felons" would have been preferable to how "A Royal Good Time" ends.)

There are things I did like about "A Royal Good Time"--and liked a lot. Several of the sideshow acts The Little King witnesses are vehicles for some funny sight gags, as well as just being clever little story elements all by themselves. The Sword Swallower who put the tip of the sword through to the chair he is sitting might make for a nice real-world magic trick, and the giant who is actually a dozen lilliputians in a trench coat are actually a better act than what they're being passed off as. The mind-reader bit was an old gag when this film was made, but it's still funny the way it's timed and executed here.

If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you could do worse than spending them watching "A Royal Good Time", which I've embedded below for your convenience! Check it out and let me know what you think! 

Musical Monday with Kylie Minogue

There are worse ways to start the work week than enjoying some poppy electronica while watching Kylie Minogue dance around in very little clothing. Enjoy.

Bones Coffee's French Toast

It's Sunday, so it's time for another post about coffee I've consumed! And click here for music to read the review by: "Caffeine Swing" by Hopalong Ginsberg!

What is Joan Crawford dipping in her coffee? French Toast?

BONES COFFE COMPANY: FRENCH TOAST
Like most of Bones' flavored blends, this one is based on medium-roasted beans. As it brewed and after it was finished and I took a whiff of what I poured into my cup, there was no discernable aromas other than that of coffee. 

When I drank it straight and hot, it tasted like a fresh cup of high-quality medium-roast coffee with perhaps a little sweetener of some sort added. After the third or fourth sip, I began to detect a flavor that I imagine what toast dipped in coffee might taste like. As I continued drinking, the flavor of syrup and maybe a little vanilla, crept in, but all these additional flavors very subtle. I may have been imagining the syrup, because it's a flavor I associate with French Toast...

And, although I enjoyed the French Toast blend, I didn't find it very French Toast like flavor-wise. Unless I have a wrong idea of what French Toast is--bread dripped in beaten eggs and milk and then fried in a pan? And maybe there can be berries or fruit or syrup or powered sugar on top? (Although personally, I eat it without any "dressing", more often than not.) This coffee really just tasted primarily like toast dipped in coffee. It wasn't a bad taste, it just didn't quite capture what was claimed on the package.

As I've previously mentioned, I'm something of a wimp when it comes to coffee, which is why I go for the flavored blends or you see me drinking mochas and lattes and so on. The French Toast blend, while tasty, is on the line of what I can tolerate tastewise--I can enjoy it straight, but it was more enjoyable once I added unsweetened almond milk or sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer to the cup. It really only needed a touch of either--just enough to take a little of the edge off but still allowing the very excellent coffee flavor to come through. The taste of syrup seemed to grow stronger with the addition of the almond milk or creamer, but not to the point of overwhelming the coffee. 

When I tried this blend iced, the flavor of toast was present but very faint. Mostly, this just tasted like it was a lightly sweetened medium roast iced coffee... and it was delicious. Again, just a dash of almond milk or creamer was all that was needed to take this from being a good drink to a great drink. 

Comparing the iced and hot versions of the drink, I think I prefer this one hot. I even tried drinking a cup of it with French Toast (at least with what I think of as French Toast) and it paired great. I think Bones Coffee's French Toast blend may be a better breakfast blend than some actual Breakfast Blends.

It's a Sala Saturday

"A Haunted Head" is an unpublished one-page story from the late writer/artist Richard Sala. It dates from the early 1980s, and it's an art style that he would move away from during the 1990s, as he developed as an artist and began to favor heavier, cleaner lines. It, however, is the Sala Style that most people probably encountered, as it's what appeared in the "Liquid Television" segments he created for the animated anthology series on MTV in 1991.

You can watch all six segments of "Invisible Hands", edited together in one video, on YouTube by clicking here. We'd embed it in this post, but it's in color, and we don't want to shock anyone's sensibilities!

A word from our new sponsor!

The Shades of Gray blog was banned from the Google Ad Sense program a year or two ago due to "shocking content". We weren't told WHAT was so shocking, so we're assuming it's the general monochrome environment, which we refuse to address, so we remain banned. Fortunately, we now have a sponsor, the Slaughter Valley Tourism Colloquium. Here's the advertisement that's been provided!

And while you're visiting beautiful Slaughter Valley, be sure to attend a Tree Ballet performance. It's a regional art and a cultural experience that you won't find anywhere else!

The Avengers: A Sense of History

A Sense of History (1966)

Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Patrick Mower, Nigel Stock, John Ringham, and Jacqueline Pearce

Director: Peter Graham Scott

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

John Steed (Macnee) and Emma Peel (Rigg) go undercover at an elite university to find who murdered a leading economist by shooting him in the back with an arrow. They discover a plot to shape the economic future of a united Europe by murdering key politicians and researchers. But which scholars are involved, and who is the mastermind?

I am torn when it comes to this episode. There are things I really like and there are things I can't stand.

On the one hand, I love the set-up and the nature of villains, from how they're characterized, to what motivates them, and through to the plot twists and turns of who the mastermind behind the plot truly is. I also loved the way one cliffhanger resolved into another cliffhanger as the episode reached its climax during a masquerade ball.

On the other hand, the mix of the sinister and the goofy stereotypical Sixties Youth Culture that embodies the student group at the heart of the episode gets tiresome quickly. It becomes downright annoying once it's clear how wrong-headed they are in their destructive beliefs--I just wanted Mrs. Peel to punch each of them in the mouth as soon as it they opened them--but maybe it's a combination of the passage of time and my own worldview that's causing that reaction, or maybe those characters were just supremely annoying. (They're in the same mold as the villains in "A Touch of Brimstone", but far more irritating, partly because their evil here is flavored with wholly undeserved self-righteousness.)

I also felt like the writers wasted too much time on the hipster evil of the young set. This is an episode with a really convoluted plot and a story that is slightly over-stuffed with characters, and some of it doesn't reach its full potential because of the writers belaboring certain social points. 

 

The student group was so annoying to me that I almost rated this episode at the low-end of average (which is a Five of Ten Stars here at Shades of Gray), but as I thought about it, the witty banter between Steed and Peel, plus the Robin Hood puns and sly references scattered throughout, turned my attitude toward "A Sense of History" (even if one of them was a bit forced and nonsensical plot-wise). Emma Peel crossdressing as Robin Hood in short-shorts also went a long way to improving my outlook... 

All things considered, this isn't a terrible episode, but it's far from one of the best. (The end-of-episode gag with Steed and Peel driving off on a motorcycle--with Peel driving and Steed in the sidecar--is, however, among the best of those.)

The Unifying Theme with Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba is here on this Picture Perfect Wednesday to demonstrate the Unifying Theme at Shades of Gray.

Felix the Cat Breaks the Fourth Wall

Comicalamities (1928)
Director: Otto Messinger
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Felix the Cat and the Animator break the Fourth Wall for seven minutes straight, giving Felix a new girlfriend and sending him to the bottom of the sea in the process.

If you've been around this blog for a while, you know how fond we are of humor that breaks the Fourth Wall. There's some of it in almost every Felix cartoon--over the course of his adventures, he detaches his tail and turns it into a flute or a club, or any number of things--but "Comicalamities" goes further into that territory than any other Felix cartoons I've watched yet.

Like the Koko the Clown films by the Fleischer Bros., "Comicalamities" mixes live action and animation. Also, like in the Koko 'toons, Felix knowns he's a cartoon character and that he can, with the help of the Animator, manipulate and alter his world to fit his needs. Unlike Koko, where the relationship with the Animator is frequently adversarial, he is at Felix's beck-and-call and always helpful. 

There is very little about this excursion into strangeness that I don't like. In addition to the Fourth Wall antics--which I won't comment on because it would ruin the fun to not experience them cold--there are some nice visual puns in this film, with the scene of oysters resting on the seabed being my favorite among them. The only complaint I can think to mount against it is that I find the ending rather disturbing. It's probably the bit in the film that makes the most sense, but I still found it borderline horrific.

I've embedded "Comicalamities" for your viewing pleasure. Take a look, and if you disagree with my estimation (or if you agree), feel free to let everyone know in the comments section. (Also, maybe you can tell me what's going on with the Animator pouring ink into the ocean. Is he making it thicker so Felix can climb out? Is he making it darker so the creatures chasing Felix can no longer see him? I don't understand that scene.)

If you enjoyed that, maybe you need to treat yourself to some DVD collections of Felix cartoons that have been curated by film restorer and historian John Carpenter? They are tons of fun!