The Avengers
3.15: The
Gilded Cage
An engaging
episode on several fronts, from JP Spagge and his scene-stealing major domo to
the significant detail that our villains keep keeping one step ahead of Steed
and Cathy. It’s also a tour de force for the latter, with Honor Blackman first
under the illusion that she’s been banged up for murder and then finding
herself out-on-a-limb, trying to walk the tightrope of convincing the bank
robbers she really is intent on
robbing the bank.
Cathy: How can
I go through a whole trial and not remember anything?
That’s
because Steed, who has procured the services of Spagge (Patrick Magee, possibly
best known for A Clockwork Orange these
days, he also featured in Season 2’s Killer
Whale), “a sort of entrepreneur of
crime”, has been shut out of the picture as the gang attempt to assess Mrs
Gale’s bona fides and straight-up-ness, or lack thereof. She first appears to
have been banged up for the murder of Spagge, although this is never the most
convincing of ruses, as Cathy points out.
Abe Benham: Friends,
I give you my latest offering. It’s simply called ‘Gold Vault’.
Edric
Connor, a rare prominently-cast black actor in the show, registers solidly on
the plank-ish scale, which is a tad unfortunate as Abe Benham is the gang
leader and so gets the lion’s share of the dialogue (also featuring is Martin
Friend, Styggron in The Android Invasion).
He has gusto, though, I’ll give him that.
Cathy’s coolness
under pressure is the main appeal of these scenes, as they move up the date of
the robbery and grill her on her knowledge of gold (for which she has to prove
well-versed about Fort Knox, handy for her 007
outing the following year). The actual robbery, gas mask clad and in a rush of
knockout fumes, is memorable, but Cathy having done all the hard work, it’s for
Steed to show up and start shooting the bad guys; he even exits set left with
those he’s apprehended/maimed, leaving Mrs Gale to have a roll around with one
of the remaining villains.
Spagge: I do
believe you’re a snob, Fleming.
Fleming: Naturally,
sir. That’s what I’m paid for.
Engaging as
the heist plot is, though, easily the best part of the episode is Norman
Chappell’s erudite butler Fleming (Chappell’s third of six Avengers guest spots). He’s entirely enamoured of Steed’s boundless
class (“A gentleman of obvious quality”),
and most upset to find he’s working with the police.
This element
too, with Steed realising his phone has been tapped and staging his own death
(very symmetrical) in order to fool the villains, leads to amusing exchanges,
as Fleming, who has “seldom known a man
with such exquisite taste” expresses the inclination to send him a floral
tribute (“Thirty bob in exchange for
forty years”).
Roger
Marshall’s teleplay is a solid one, then, but The Gilded Cage doesn’t quite ascend to the level of first rate,
partly down to Blackman having to pull all the weight in her scenes. The
ending's very good fun, though, as Spagge tries to dob his manservant in while
Steed is having none of it (“He’s also a
very good butler. I can find a niche for him”) … until Cathy tells him
there’s a 10% reward for the man’s arrest.
Agree? Disagree? Mildly or vehemently? Let me know in the comments below.