The White Elephant
by Terylene
An attractive yet not too original story written by John Lucarotti,
"The White Elephant" is, however, a true window for those loose
ends the production—and even the direction in this case—would leave
irremediably engraved on videotape. One has to admit that by the end of 1963
very few cared about "polishing" episodes to be aired only once
and then consigned to oblivion. Not even in their wildest dreams would
someone have imagined that almost 40 years later our critical eyes and ears
would analyze bit by bit these glorious shows thanks to video and DVD.
The fact is that, probably in an attempt to give the episode an
exceptional realism, the production made sure to show a variety of real
animals, either free or caged. Gone are the times Steed lived with his dogs
during the first two seasons (1961-1963); in this episode—and for the first
time in The Avengers—the public had the chance to see an assortment
of monkeys, birds, a parrot, a small snake and even a leopard living
together in "Noah's Ark." Ironically, the main
"character" of the story, an elephant named Snowy, was never seen,
presumably due to the understandable difficulties in putting such a big
animal into a TV studio. Now, it's normal for birds to make their voice
heard, and that was what it happened throughout the episode in every
one of the different places it was set, particularly at the gun shop. Sure,
we cannot rebuke the birds for their likable background noise, but maybe the
crew could have done something to avoid it, at least during the scenes
played at the gun shop, where no birds whatsoever were in sight.
Anyway, don't worry, I won't focus the present review on this fault.
Besides, Psittacine Sandy already gave a most complete account of it.
Fortunately, the episode has other attributes to entertain everybody, in
which the performances appear quite strong. The most recurrent villain of The
Avengers, Mr Edwin Richfield, who not only held the absolute record of
six episodes, but also had the rare privilege of meeting all of
Steed's partners (from Dr Keel and Venus Smith to Tara King), does his job
in "The White Elephant" and ends up in the floor knocked down by
Mrs Gale. The second recurrent baddie, Judy Parfitt, a forthcoming target
for similar beatings on the part of Mrs Peel and Miss King, completes the
staff of bad guys along with the novice Scott Forbes. And, of course, a
veteran of the Keel era, Godfrey Quigley, plays a Noah definitively devoted
to zoophilia, who's frequently seen with snake round the neck or parrot on
the shoulder.
There are also interesting Steed-Cathy moments, and two of them come
close to the extravagance of the Peel times. Both take place at Steed's
flat, when he and Cathy discuss their investigation at Noah's Ark while
practicing some concentration exercises (or yoga maybe?), wherein Steed, as
always, isn't the hardest-worker of all... an identical result he attains in
another scene, when both are playing chess with extremely original pieces.
Such scenes have a lot in common with many of those Steed and Emma played
together while talking about business affairs, particularly during the
monochrome season—Emma playing the tuba in "The Murder Market"
or jumping up and down on the trampoline in "The Master Minds,"
or fencing with Steed in "The Town of No Return,"
and such.
However, as noted in the main review page, the
contrasting thing of this episode—something we nowadays watch with obvious
disapproval—is that the customary fight sequence was set just amid the
cages, especially those keeping the monkeys and birds. Someone should have
warned the producers that animals are not actors and, unlike the
villains being chased up, the disorientation and agitation the animals
suffer in the midst of a paraphernalia of runs and blank bullets was real.
A shame really, considering this is a story where a message in defense of
animals was intended to be imparted.
