Thu 21 Oct 2021
A British TV Episode Review: THILLER “Lady Killer†(1973).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[10] Comments
THRILLER. “Lady Killer.†Associated Television [ATV], UK, 18 January 1973. (Season one, Episode one.) Robert Powell, Barbara Feldon, Linda Thorson, T.P. McKenna, Mary Wimbush. Screenwriter/creator: Brian Clemens. Currently streaming on Shout Factory TV.
At least at the present time, all six seasons of this Brian Clemens-created mystery series are available to be seen online. Clemens is known best, of course, for his involvement with The Avengers, but he also had more than a hand in producing The Baron, The Persuaders!, and The Protectors, plus a few other British TV series not nearly as well known as the one that brought Diana Rigg to the world’s attention as Emma Peel, John Steed’s sexy partner in some of the more bizarre cases of crime-solving in television history.
As much as I’ve been looking forward to sampling the series, “Lady Killer†doesn’t get Thriller, the series, off to the best start possible, at least it didn’t to my most considered satisfaction. It begins with a shy, pretty but not quite beautiful girl from Indiana (Barbara Feldon) being picked up by a handsomely dressed young chap (Robert Powell) in a British resort hotel and almost literally swept off her feet.
Every single viewer watching this knows he’s a scoundrel from the first time they see him, but it’s also clear that the young lady he has his eyes on has not had much experience in matters such as this.
After they’re married, while his plans for her are not yet clear, we know – and probably too soon, for the sake of the story – that he does have plans for her. Could the new housekeeper be involved? Or the man who stops by thinking he has recognized her new husband? She doesn’t know something, however, that the viewer knows, and that is that Linda Thorson’s name was quite openly visible in the opening credits.
The newly married couple’s new house is close to the sea, with a steep cliff down to the water below. What we have, in other words, is disaster of some kind ahead, and the story doesn’t waste a minute letting the viewer know about it. Which is probably where my disappointment in the story comes in. Semi-spooky, but even though there’s a twist in the tale ahead, too obvious to be really spooky, if you know what I mean.
On the other hand, it was nice to see Barbara Feldon’s acting ability wasn’t limited to playing Agent 99 on Get Smart, that other show that made her famous.
October 21st, 2021 at 11:13 pm
Ha! On me. I realized after only five minutes into this one that I’d seen it before, but since I was enjoying myself and didn’t remember much of the story line, I kept watching.
What I didn’t remember is that I wrote a review of it and you can find it here on this very same blog. I found it very interesting, over five years earlier now, and you may, too:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=31875
October 22nd, 2021 at 6:51 am
Martin Marshall has recently published a book of over 700 pages titled A THRILLER IN EVERY CORNER. It discusses the TV series in detail. I just ordered a copy from Lulu. Price around $40 plus postage.
October 22nd, 2021 at 7:25 pm
If I weren’t in the process of downsizing the amount of “stuff” I own, Marshall’s book would be a must for me. As it is, it looks like maybe I should write my own. There were 40 plus episodes over four seasons. At one a month, say, how long would that take me?
October 22nd, 2021 at 3:21 pm
Robert Powell later matured into a fairly engaging TV-screen presence; though I’m not sure he had many opportunities as he might have wished. His haircut in these stills doesn’t flatter him but other, better productions did.
Personal note: the sickly florid wallpaper in those little British bedsits, semi-detached cottages and flats brings back old nightmares for me. Yipe.
October 22nd, 2021 at 7:21 pm
A standard 1970s haircut, I should think, except for me. My sideburns have gone up and down,and there’s less of it now, but I’ve had the same haircut since the 1950s.
The first photo is of a hotel lobby, the second taken in the bedroom of a huge manor house. Makes no difference, though. Still sickly florid.
October 22nd, 2021 at 4:36 pm
Echoing what “Lazy” said, I was startled to see Robert Powell as a villain here.
I think of him as a hero in later films like MAHLER and THE 39 STEPS. He was born to play Good Guys.
October 22nd, 2021 at 7:17 pm
Having never seen Powell in anything else before (that I remember), he played a villain just fine in this one. A good actor!
October 22nd, 2021 at 9:51 pm
Powell fared better in the short lived Edwardian adventure series HANNAY as John Buchan’s Richard Hannay that followed the success of his THIRTY NINE STEPS film, and of course as Zefferelli’s Jesus in that mini series and later in a pretty good Australian supernatural film.
While this series had good episodes it was never quite what it might have been. The casts were usually good, and a few really stand out, but far too many episodes were as predictable as this one with the twists so obvious they might as well have explained them to the audience before the episode aired.
October 23rd, 2021 at 7:35 pm
He’s an alumnus of the original Michael Caine ‘Italian Job’
October 24th, 2021 at 1:05 pm
Powell is probably best known here in Britain as one half of ‘The Detectives’, a sitcom he made with comedian Jasper Carrott which ran for five series in the ’90s. An amiable spoof of police dramas that followed the hapless pair through endless disasters, it was quite popular without ever becoming one of the favourites of the era.
He’s also played Hercule Poirot on stage, which is difficult for me to imagine.