Patrick Macnee Movies

During its first season on Britain's ITV, The Avengers was by and large a "straight" espionage adventure series, with no sci-fi/fantasy trappings, and with two male secret agents -- Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Ian Hendry as Dr. David Keel -- handling the bulk of the action. Beginning with its second season, The Avengers adopts its more familiar format: fanciful, tongue-in-cheek spy shenanigans, occasionally incredible or downright improbable in nature, teaming Steed with a sexy female partner. In fact, during season two Steed is provided with two female teammates: Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), a widowed anthropologist and martial-arts expert with a fondness for leather outfits, and Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), a nightclub singer who manages to perform one song in all of the six episodes in which she appears. Also, briefly upholding the "all-male" tradition established in season one, Steed is partnered in three episode with Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason), who like his predecessor, has joined the secret service in order to avenge the death of a loved one, thereby tenuously "justifying" the series' title. By the middle of the second season, the popularity of Honor Blackman was such that Steed was permanently partnered with Cathy Gale. Not only is the character one of the first British action heroines who was thoroughly capable of fending for herself without the hero's help, but there is also the implication that Steed and Cathy are lovers in their off-hours. Although they seldom touch one another except in the line of duty, the warm and intimate verbal rapport between the two characters speaks volumes! Like season one, season two of The Avengers was produced in black-and-white and on videotape. Several of the season's 26 hour-long episodes survive, albeit in kinescope form. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Avengers' sixth season marks the first anniversary of the series' switchover from black-and-white to color -- and alas, the swan song for Diana Rigg in her signature role as leather-clad, demurely sexy martial-arts expert and amateur secret agent Mrs. Emma Peel. Fortunately, Rigg's co-star, Patrick Macnee, would remain in the role of soft-spoken, bowler-hatted, eminently resourceful professional spy John Steed until the series' final episode two years later. Although the budgets have been lowered on this season's abbreviated manifest of eight episodes, the series' action content and tongue-in-cheek scriptwork are still of the highest calibre. Highlights of The Avengers' sixth season include "Return of the Cybernauts," "You Have Just Been Murdered," "Murdersville," and the season finale, "Mission: Highly Improbable." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth season of The Avengers was the first season to be telecast in the United States, the first to be filmed rather than videotaped -- and, most importantly, the first to feature Diana Rigg. When series co-star Honor Blackman decided to leave the series at the end of the third season to revitalize her film career (which she did, spectacularly, as "Pussy Galore" in Goldfinger), the search began for an attractive and athletic actress who could successfully fill Blackman's boots as the very resourceful, very sexy partner of bowler-hatted British secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee). Like Blackman's character, Cathy Gale, the new "Avenger girl," Emma Peel, is a talented amateur whose sang-froid in the face of danger, to say nothing of her outstanding martial-arts skills, come in quite handy whenever Steed -- and by extension the British government -- needs a good operative to smash an enemy spy ring or stop a maniacal master criminal in his tracks. The producers' first choice to play the leather-clad Mrs. Peel ("Mrs." because her husband has been missing and presumed dead for several years) was actress Elizabeth Shepherd; however, after appearing in one "test" episode, "The Town of No Return," Shepherd was deemed competent but unsuitable, and Diana Rigg was brought in to appear in the refilmed version of the above-mentioned episode. As it turned out, Rigg was perfect for the role, and she would remain as Mrs. Peel for the next three seasons.

Unlike Honor Blackman's subtly sensuous and down-to-earth Cathy Gale, Diana Rigg's Emma Peel is charmingly aristocratic and aloof. Also, in contrast with the implied intimate after-hours relationship between Cathy and Steed, it is abundantly clear that Mrs. Peel keeps Mr. Steed safely at arm's length -- though the twinkle in her eye, and that inimitable sly smile, suggests that she might not be entirely averse to a fling with her partner should the opportunity arise! Even so, Cathy Gale and Emma Peel have a lot in common, including a predilection for getting trapped in campily perilous predicaments: indeed, in her second Avengers episode, "The Gravediggers," Mrs. Peel is snugly tied to a railroad track as a deadly model train bears down on her and a tinkling silent-movie-style piano is heard in the background! Although not the first episode in which Diana Rigg appears, the first Avengers to be seen on American TV was the legendary "The Cybernauts," an outlandish sci-fi outing which perfectly exemplifies how far the series had come from its earlier "realistic" episodes. Of the remaining fourth-season installments, five were removed from the original American network run because they were deemed too provocative. These include "A Surfeit of H20," "Silent Dust," "The Quick-Quick Slow Death," "A Touch of Brimstone," and "Honey for the Prince" -- the latter offering the spectacle of Diana Rigg in a belly-dancer outfit, replete with a jewel in her navel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943. It so infuriated Winston Churchill, in fact, that he refused to allow its exportation to other countries, particularly the U.S. When Blimp finally did premiere in the States in 1945, it screened in a drastically cut version. The sweeping story covers several decades. It begins at the tail end of the Boer War, when handsome young British officer Clive Candy, recently back from the battlefront, is infuriated by his discovery that Deutschland papers have played up the British atrocities in South Africa, propagandistically. He grows so irate, in fact, that he travels to Germany to address the problem. Once there, he meets an attractive British educator, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) who spends her days teaching English as a second language to German students. They grow close, but Candy so aggravates the local indigenes that he winds up in a duel with a German officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The men wound each other and are sent to the same hospital, where they become friends. Candy - who doesn't yet realize he's fallen in love with Edith -- senses that Theo and Edith are attracted to one another, and encourages the couple's marital union. Candy subsequently returns to England, then falls for and marries Barbara (again played by Kerr), a nurse who bears a strong resemblance to Edith. She later dies, but Candy meets a third woman during WWII, Johnny (Kerr a third time), assigned to drive him from one locale to another during his campaigns. Meanwhile, Theo - disgusted by Nazi atrocities -- absconds to England, where he reencounters his old friend, now a prattering old shuffler rapidly approaching the end of his career and raving continuously about Nazi conduct (or lack thereof) in battle. Powell and Pressberger adapted Colonel Blimp from a comic strip; it became one of the hallmarks of their careers. ~ Sidney Jenkins, All Movie Guide

In this costume adventure set in France during the Reign of Terror, a mysterious man known only as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescues noblemen from the guillotine and leads them to safety across the English Channel. Chauvelin (Cyril Cusack) is determined to unmask the Pimpernel and bring him to justice. When evidence begins to suggest that the hero is actually foppish Sir Percey Blakeney (David Niven), Chauvelin blackmails Percey's wife, Marguerite (Margaret Leighton), into cooperating on the threat that he'll expose the criminal activities of her brother Armand (Edmund Audran). However, Marguerite doesn't much care for her husband, hardly believes he could be the heroic Pimpernel, and is startled when she finds out that he truly is the masked vigilante. The Elusive Pimpernel was originally shot in color as a musical, but the musical numbers were cut before the film was released, and the picture's American distributor chose to make only black-and-white prints (though the current home-video release is in color). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Future Avengers star Patrick Macnee stars in the 1951 British romantic drama The Girl is Mine. Macnee and Pamela Deeming play Hugh Hurcombe and Betty Marriott, part-owners of a charter boat. Their business success, and their budding romance, is threatened by vindictive dock owner James Rutt (Lionel Murton). American businessman Pringle (Arthur Melton) offers to help the young couple. Hugh accepts the offer, only to regret it later on when Pringle himself falls in love with Betty. The Girl is Mine was produced and directed by Marjorie Deans, one of a handful of female directors in England. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Three generations of a Scottish clan are chronicled in this melodramatic saga. The film starts with the death of a sickly med student in a Glasgow slum. His fiancee also dies in childbirth. Her brother, who survives, begins raising her baby girl who grows up to have an affair with a lab assistant. Her "father" disapprove and threatens to destroy the wedding. She retaliates by poisoning him and then gets married. She bears a son. Unfortunately she has never recovered from the guilt of her earlier murder and ends up taking her own life. Later her son grows up to discover a vaccine for a fatal disease. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Widely regarded as one of the best and most intelligent British war dramas of the 1950s, The Battle of River Plate is the story of Britain's first significant naval victory in WW2. John Gregson heads the cast as Captain Bell, skipper of the Exeter, one of several vessels engaged in pursuit of the "indestructable" Geman battleship Graf Spee. Taking refuge in the neutral harbor of Montevideo, the Graf Spee is covertly protected by the Uruguayan government. Eventually, however, German captain Langsdorff (Peter Finch) is faced with a difficult decision: either stand his ground and fight a losing battle against the Exeter and its sister ships, or scuttle the Graf Spee and save the lives of his crew. Battle of the River Plate was released in the US as Pursuit of the Graf Spee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This filmed stage play of Charlotte Bronte's novel features an orphaned governess who begins to love her married employer in 19th century England. ~ All Movie Guide

Adapted by Robert Anderson from a story by James A. Michener, the Robert Wise-directed soaper Until They Sail is set in World-War-II New Zealand. Paul Newman plays been-there-done-that U.S. marine captain Jack Harding, assigned to investigate servicemen's requests to marry local girls. An unemotional cipher, Harding begins to warm up when he meets war widow Barbara Leslie Forbes (Jean Simmons), a woman with three sisters (played by Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee -- what a gene pool!). The Newman-Simmons relationship is played against the romance between uptight spinster Anne Leslie (Fontaine) and good-natured officer Richard Bates (Charles Drake), and the dysfunctional marriage between the emotionally desperate (and nymphomaniacal) Delia Leslie (Laurie) and slimy Shiner Friskett (Wally Cassell), who is off in battle. The fourth sister, Evelyn (Dee), watches her sisters' amorous pursuits longingly, her mind occupied by her own true love, who is off to war. Until They Sail was a copacetic reunion between star Newman and director Robert Wise, who'd previously collaborated in Somebody Up There Likes Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nehemiah Persoff stars as Lanser, who inexplicably finds himself aboard a British ship in a fogbound sea in the year 1942. Somehow, some way, Lanser knows that the ship and its passengers are doomed to a watery grave, but no one will believe him. As it turns out, Lanser has "inside information" -- without giving the game away, it can be said that he is his own executioner. Future TV-series stars Patrick Macnee and James Franciscus appear in significant supporting roles. Written by Rod Serling and first telecast December 4, 1959, "Judgment Night" represents one of the few times that Twilight Zone ran into sponsorial interferences -- instead of drinking tea, the ship's very British crew consumes coffee, as prescribed by sponsor General Foods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of producer Walt Disney's more blatant efforts to duplicate the success of his early TV miniseries Davy Crockett, the eight-part Swamp Fox featured another flamboyant frontiersman hero who wore coonskin-style headgear and whose adventures were introduced with a catchy, memorable theme song. Based on a book by Dr. Robert D. Bass, The Swamp Fox stars Leslie Nielsen as real-life American patriot Francis Marion, a wealthy landowner who during the Revolutionary War led a hardy band of guerilla fighters against the Redcoats and pro-British tories in his native South Carolina. The villain of the piece (at least in the first few episodes) was another actual historical figure, the ruthless Banastre Tarleton (John Sutton), an officer in the British Green Dragoons (Marion and Tarleton later served as the models for the hero and villain, respectively, of the 1999 Mel Gibson film Patriot). In the first episode, Marion is prevailed upon by his friends and neighbors to help free South Carolina from the grip of British rule. His task is made difficult by the fact that his sweetheart, Mary Videaux (Joy Page), is from a pro-Tory family. "The Birth of the Swamp Fox" originally aired as part of the Walt Disney Presents anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide