Episode 30: Cathy Gale Era
Page 30 of 192

 

  A.K.A.

 Missive ŕ mort

 Despacho Mortal

  Other Viewpoints

• Visitor Reviews
• The Young Avenger

DEATH DISPATCH

Steed goes globe-trotting
Cathy practices her Spanish*

Production completed: 23 June 1962
UK Premiere (London, Season 2): 22 December 1962
US Premiere (A&E cable): ca. 12 February 1991

When a British courier is murdered in Jamaica, Steed and Cathy are called in to track down the killers. The trail leads to Lima, Perú via Bogotá, Colombia, where the duo engage in some humorous espionage. Then it's off to Santiago for a tense face-off with the politician behind it all.

 IMHO

Golly, what a difference a co-star makes! This episode is banging on all cylinders! Although the story is straightforward and by-the-numbers, the dialog is snappy, the performances are bright, and the considerable globe-trotting involved gives the settings flavor.

It was pleasantly startling to see Cathy in her underwear in one scene (something that could not have aired in the U.S. in 1962, as bras were not allowed), and also somehow unnerving to see Steed cavorting with the young girls in Jamaica and making suggestive remarks to Cathy on the phone while casually puffing a cigarette.

Cathy seems very tolerant of Steed's patently sexist behavior, but since this was the first episode produced starring Honor Blackman, it's a good bet that her character had not yet begun to develop. Strangely, the next episode to be produced ("Warlock") was written as Steed and Cathy's first meeting, which then had to be edited because, owing to the jumbled broadcast order, she'd already appeared in eleven episodes.

 Trivia

Carlos Pagés of Argentina reports that, although the Spanish nonsense spoken by several characters at the Dos Pájaros (Two Birds) tavern is hilarious, Cathy's Spanish in the Lima hotel sequence with Steed is very good and clear—surprising, because care with languages is quite uncommon in 60s television.

Guest actor Gerald Harper (Travers) starred as Steed's counterpart in the quasi-Avengers-ripoff Adam Adamant Lives.

*This unofficial subtitle is by Yours Truly.

 Best Scene

Steed's bantering with the inept Travers at the British embassy is utterly hysterical.

 Best Line

Steed phones Cathy while she is half-dressed and asks, "Are you decent?"

 Essential Reading

DEATH DISPATCH

Teleplay by
Story Editor
Designed by
Producer
Directed by

Leonard Fincham
John Bryce
James Goddard
Leonard White
Jonathan Alwyn

Full production credits

CAST

John Steed
Cathy Gale
Miguel Rosas
Monroe
Anna Rosas
One-Ten
Travers
Baxter
Rico
Singer
Pasco
Thugs
 
Chambermaid
Customer

Patrick Macnee 007
Honor Blackman 007
Richard Warner
David Cargill
Valerie Sarruf
Douglas Muir #
Gerald Harper #
Hedger Wallace #
Michael Forrest #
Maria Andipa 007
Alan Mason
Geoff L'Cise #
Arthur Griffiths
Bernice Rassin
Jerry Jardin

# DOPPELGANGERS

Michael Forrest

The Hidden Tiger

Gerald Harper

The Hour That Never Was
Homicide and Old Lace

Geoff L'Cise

The Gilded Cage

Douglas Muir

Mr Teddy Bear
The Removal Men
Warlock
Immortal Clay

Hedger Wallace

Angels of Death
 

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This website Copyright © 1996-2017 David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

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