Sat 7 Feb 2015
A British TV Review: THRILLER “Lady Killer” (1973).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[11] Comments
“LADY KILLER.” An episode of Thriller, ATV, England, 14 April 1973. (Series 1, Episode 1.) US title: “The Death Policy,” as part of ABC’s late-night program Wide World of Entertainment. Robert Powell, Barbara Feldon, Linda Thorson, T.P. McKenna, Mary Wimbush. Screenwriter & series creator: Brian Clemens. Director: Bill Hays.
I have some good news. According to TVShowsonDVD, the complete version of this highly acclaimed British TV series will be available on DVD in the US sometime early this year. The first series of 10 episodes came out here in 2006, but while I have a copy, the set has been out of print for quite some time. All six series, 43 episodes in all, have been available in the UK for a while, but that’s been it for anyone in the country without a multi-region player.
This is good news, indeed, so I wish I didn’t have a few nits to pick with the story line. It isn’t the players. Robert Powell (The Italian Job, The Thirty-Nine Steps) does a villain very well, and Barbara Feldon (Get Smart) is a marvelously wonderful victim, an innocent from Indiana and on a leisurely visit to England, only to fall prey to a clever con man’s scheme.
Part of the fun of watching a program such as Thriller are the twists and turns of the plot, so I’ll do my best not to tell you more than I should. Linda Thorson is part of the story, and she’s excellent as well, something I thought I’d never say, having “hated” her for such a long time for her audacity in replacing Diana Rigg in The Avengers.
Even though I think the world of Brian Clemens, who died about a month ago — the producer of such noted shows as The Professionals and the aforementioned The Avengers among several other ventures — it’s the writing, most surprisingly, that I had a few issues with. Perhaps it’s the British style, or perhaps it was in 1973, but the suspense in “Lady Killer” is allowed to build only gradually, and then sputtered along on matters that puzzled me more than thrilled me.
You know from the beginning that Jenny Frifth is going to be the victim, but of what? An ordinary scam, with only money involved, or does Paul Tanner (Powell) have murder in mind? (Well, so says the title.) And who is his accomplice?
But here’s the rub. If I were to be carrying out a plot such as his, I’d be sure to carry out my conversations on the telephone with my accomplice somewhere other than in a room downstairs when my victim is supposed to be asleep upstairs with a phone next to her bed. I would also confront and take care of an interloper in my plans the same way, not downstairs with the lady sent upstairs.
And for a gentleman supposed to be such a cool-minded criminal, why does he go to pieces when the lady decides to please him by putting on makeup and redoing her hair?
What for me was even more off-putting was the business with the phone and the lady picking it up. For whatever reason, it was never brought up again. The aforementioned interloper also played his role very poorly, not thinking his plans through carefully enough. Here was a perfect example of Too Little Too Late, or at least Too Late, but thankfully (and luckily) not for Barbara Feldon’s character.
You may think at this point I hated this little play, but I didn’t. The acting is superb throughout, and so are the settings, including a manor house of some magnitude, of course, and an isolated path along a rocky cliff overlooking the sea. I enjoyed this first episode in the series immensely, trying to outguess the writer at every step of the way, maybe even trying too hard. I’d still have to say that I’d have staged it a bit differently. It would not have been difficult. My nits are just that, major in their own inimitable way, but they could easily be overcome.
February 7th, 2015 at 9:39 pm
Steve, I always like your reviews, but I also am amused by how often you apologize for not liking something. It is ok to dislike the script. Clemens was a prolific writer who wrote some of the worse scripts I have ever seen, and he wrote some very entertaining scripts as well.
As for Linda Thorson, more people are forgiving her. Anyone who had tried to replace Diana Rigg was doomed, especially a young inexperienced actress who was given a badly thought out character.
February 7th, 2015 at 9:46 pm
This one seemed hurried, but I would like to see it without being stretched out as it was when I watched it on ABC a hundred years ago. It must have been memorable though, because I recalled it just from the credits.
Granted replacing Rigg was a thankless job, but neither Thorson nor the part were up to the job. She would almost have to be better in anything else.
You left off Powell’s most famous credit. Jesus in the Zeffrelli mini series.
February 7th, 2015 at 10:11 pm
I almost went with an initial draft of this review, Michael, one I wrote last night that was almost totally negative. When I started getting it ready to post today, I started thinking about all of the parts I really enjoyed. If the end result is a mixture of yesterday and today, well, that’s the way it is!
As for Linda Thorson, I may just have to watch those AVENGERS episodes again, but as I think more about that last season, it was the character of Mother that I really hated.
February 7th, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Mother was a really bad idea, why they brought it back for the awful movie I cannot imagine.
February 7th, 2015 at 10:43 pm
The problem Thorson faced was after the kickass women played by Blackman and Rigg her character was very feminine and young.
The audience wanted the kinky (remember the song “Kinky Boots”?) strong woman character they had come to expect from the show. Earlier the audience rejected Julie Stevens (Venus Smith) over Honor Blackman (Cathy Gale) for much the same reason.
Clemens got his start writing B-movies including “Tell-Tale Heart” (1963), according to BFI Screenonline, it was this experience churning out 70 minute “quickies” that Clemens used to create the series “Thriller.” The series was pre-sold to American thus the number of Hollywood actors. Clemens did all the storylines and wrote the scripts to most of the 43 episodes. The series featured some great talent not only in the cast but with such writers as Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner.
February 8th, 2015 at 12:52 am
I just took a look at Linda Thorson’s list of credits on IMDb. I don’t know why I never looked before, and I should have. I’m impressed. She started on THE AVENGERS when she was only twenty. It essentially was her first part on either TV or in the movies.
This role in “Lady Killer” came four years later and was her first since THE AVENGERS ended. She doesn’t seem to have stopped working since. I’ll have to look some more into her career. (And of course I still feel guilty for “hating” her for so long.)
February 8th, 2015 at 11:58 am
Though Diana Rigg is a big favorite with me, I also liked Linda Thorson a lot and I never really had a problem with her on the Avengers.
Concerning the British Thriller series, I bought my box set several years ago when it first came out in England. I’ve had multi-region dvd players for over 10 years now and I don’t see how any lover of films can do without one. Half the TV series and films that I watch are from foreign areas that American dvd players won’t play. Multi-region players are a must, very easy to obtain online and not expensive.
February 8th, 2015 at 7:24 pm
As someone whose first encounter with THE AVENGERS came with Joanna Lumley in THE NEW AVENGERS, I’ve never had a problem with Thorson. Interestingly, Clemens was essentially sacked by ABC after the Diana Rigg episodes were completed, and replaced with another producer. After the other chap couldn’t manage, they had to reinstate Clemens, who was left with a female star that he hadn’t chosen. The resulting series was done under great pressure and a great speed, and contains some of the best and worst episodes of the show.
One of the things about watching THRILLER nowadays is the way that the stories often play out more like stage plays rather than film or TV programmes. It’s possibly one of the side effects of being done on video-tape rather than film. There are a limited number of sets, and it’s more difficult to cut, so it makes more sense to play everything out in this little enclosed world. It’s not ‘realistic’ in a way that a more modern version would be, but a lot of British TV of that period was like that. I was watching an episode of RAFFLES from the 70s, and in the first episode nearly half of the show plays out in a single set!
February 8th, 2015 at 8:58 pm
Bradstreet
Thanks for pointing out that stories on THRILLER resemble stage plays in the way they were taped. It’s quite noticeable, and to me, I think it adds to the overall ambiance and atmosphere.
February 8th, 2015 at 9:36 pm
The Lord Peter episodes didn’t really move outside until FIVE RED HERRINGS late in the series and THE NINE TAILORS.
January 31st, 2021 at 12:29 pm
The comments above about the stories playing out almost like stage plays are very apposite. I have recently published a 700+ page book on the series (and related matters) titled ‘A THRILLER in Every Corner’. The aesthetics and studio based production are naturally examined alongside many other topics, with first hand testimony from Brian Clemens and many who worked on the show both sides of the camera.
The book is available worldwide at the following link:
https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/martin-marshall/a-thriller-in-every-corner/paperback/product-vqd6n5.html