THE AVENGERS - "Who's Who???" (1967)

This evening's Saturday Night Special is Season 5, Episode 16 of "The Avengers," and especial it is. I get so tired of trying to find interesting things to watch, and then something like this pops up, and I'm re-invigorated for a week or two, and now I'm going to tell you why!

This episode of "The Avengers" from 1967 was titled "Who's Who???" and boy did they mean it! The title might be the only thing they were serious about. This thing is a cluster from the get-go. and I loved each and every minute of it!

The writers must have been having a real good time when they came up with this sub-title. but it's absolutely true. That's exactly what happens!

'The Villains' in this show are Patricia (Blood Beast from Outer Space) Haines as Lola, and Freddie (Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed) Jones as her significant other Basil, and they both do an exceptional job!

These are the real John Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel. This is the last time you'll see them as themselves for a while!

Arnold (The Revenge of Frankenstein) Diamond is whack job scientist Dr. Krelmar. He's invented this amazing mind-meld machine that is capable of transferring or exchanging the mind of one person with another person. Steed has been captured by the loathsome Lola and Basil, and is about to have his mind exchanged with Basil's.

Let the exchange party begin! Those red and blue dice are Basil's good luck pieces.

Now it's Lola and Mrs. Peel's turn.

Meet the new Avengers, aka Lola and Basil.

Twice during the course of the show, they break for an "Important Announcement."

The announcement is to let any late comers or otherwise confused peoples know that these two people who look like 'The Villains,' are in reality, Steed and Mrs. Peel.

And these two, who look like Mrs. Peel and Steed, are really "The Villains."

Patricia Haines should have won an award for her fantastic portrayal of Mrs. Peel, and I think she might be the only other actress who ever got to play the role besides Diana Rigg.

All her mannerisms are right on the money, and Freddie Jones playing Steed is equally impressive!

But the real fun part is watching 'The Villains" as Steed and Emma, because you get to see Steed and Emma act in ways you've never seen before.

Fans of "The Avengers" all know that these two have an interesting but quite platonic relationship, so to see them getting cozy is just crazy! Drinking Ale and smoking cigars, the Mrs. Peel character starts dancing.

'The Villains' plan is to destroy the whole "Floral Network," one flower at a time. They do get as far as killing Daffodil, Pansy, Bluebell, and a few of the other blossoming agents.

Steed finds out that the head of his new body is a lot smaller than his old one, and his boulder hat no longer fits properly!

The bodies of all the wilted flowers just keep piling up!

It's hilarious to watch Mrs. Peel as a gum chewing ditz!

And then it happens, something you've never seen before in an episode of "The Avengers," John Steed and Emma Peel share a romantic and passionate kiss. Of course it's not them, but it looks like them, so it's just plain good old fashioned weird!

After enough time passes Lola and Basil decide they like themselves better as Steed and Mrs. Peel, than they do as themselves. Life is better, they're better looking, and they have cooler stuff, so they decide to go ahead and finish the job, and rub out the real Steed and Mrs. Peel. That's when their caper goes astray, and they get caught and turned back into themselves again. I'll let you figure out who is in this last shot.

~ A FEW TABONGA! LAFFS FOR A FRIDAY ~

Short day today, here are a few attempts at humor in the form of some Tabonga! Laffs. Hope you like them and they give you a little chuckle or two!...

Well, there you go, a few laffs for a Friday!!

DEMIR PENÇE - "Iron Claw The Pirate" (1969)

 

It's time for yet another Weirdass Wednesday in The Dungeon and another classic 60's Turkish turkey!

 

 

This film is titled "Demir Pençe," "Korsan Adam," and/or "Iron Claw The Pirate," whichever way you want to go!

The music is not by Iron Butterfly...............

 

...........But is very cool, just the same!

This dancer is from the opening sequences of the movie.

Although there are many scantily clad women throughout this film, including this exotic dancer, there is no real sex or actual nudity in the movie. This is about as racy as it gets.

The life of a hero can often be quite lonely!

Cool location for a fight scene.

60's Turkish filmmakers were shameless, and borrow whatever they want to use however they feel, so you end up with notorious French villain Fantomas as the the bad guy known as Fantom'un Adami.

 

The hero, a sort of Batman character has a female caped sidekick to assist him, and they ride around on motorcycles.

This is one of the oddest looking sets I've ever seen.

Fantom'un Adami's henchmen are a bunch of F'ers, which makes for a continuous sight gag, intended or not.

This movie is not in English, and the copy I was able to round up doesn't have any sub-titles, so I really didn't know what the Hell was happening most of the time, like it really matters.

Fantastic imagery like this is plentiful!

It's very commonplace for them to tie up women in these vintage Turkish films.

Fantom'un Adami's right hand man Iron Claw is there on on the left.

Just to be fair, they like to tie up guys too!

There's even a little time for a romantic moment like this!

Here's a nice closeup of our hero as played by Demir Karahan. With 67 credits to his name, Demir was still acting up to last year.

We've been through this before.

A couple of  F'ers guard this bridge to the other side.

One of our hero's super powers is he knows how to shoot a gun!

This is actually a shot from earlier in the movie, but seemed like as good of a place as any to end.

Well, now that I'm done, I did a search and found a copy of this film with sub-titles, so now I can go back and watch it again myself. It might even possibly make sense the second time, but maybe not!

As a public service, here's a location where you can watch or download it yourself.

DEMIR PENÇE - "Iron Claw The Pirate"

TALES OF TOMORROW / "The Great Silence" - 1953

Here's a fun little episode near the end of the run of Tales From Tomorrow. It's kind of a comedy with creepy moments for balance. The main stars are Burgess Meredith and Lilia Skala, Burgess was one busy actor (for good reason, he's an animated guy!)  with 182 acting credits. Lilia has 72 credits, her first movie was in 1931 and worked until 1990, she was born in 1896 and passed on in 1994 at the grand old age of 98!

In this story, a strange phenomenon is taking place in the Pacific northwest, and it is spreading from there across the US. People are losing their ability to speak as it effects the vocal cords. The government goes on the radio and TV to say that they believe the problem is the result of an experimental H-Bomb test, and the radiation is causing the loss of speech. And they say it is only temporary, don't worry, things will be back to normal soon...

An illiterate couple, Paul and Mathilde, are messing with each other since they can't speak. Mathilde is hungry (portrayed in pantomime) and threatens to shoot Paul unless he goes out and brings back a rabbit to eat! NOW!! 

So, Paul goes out in the woods but sees something lying on the ground, and it freaks him out! What in the HELL!

He walks back and picks the thing up... It's a small weird looking glove with only two fingers on it! Now come on, that's creepy.

Then he sees a spaceship hidden by some brush, and at top is a smoke machine, that's actually the reason for the loss of speech, and it's spreading across the country from this ship!

Paul crawls up to the window and looks inside. What he sees sends chills down his spine and he heads back to the cabin.

The little monster dude inside has fairly creepy makeup for this episode. The 'visitor' is played by Glenn Styres, he has one acting credit, for Tales Of Tomorrow, this one and he played the Martian in "Plague From Space" which I've already reviewed.

Back at the ranch, Paul shows up without a wabbit and Mathilde is angry! But, Paul tries to explain what he saw in the woods. She's not getting it until Paul turns a cup upside down on a saucer. After he lays the cup on the table, he picks the cup up and points inside. She's starting to believe him and even picks the cup up and looks inside it!

Paul listens to the radio, the announcer says that the radiation is ready to hit D.C. and a second later he stops talking, since he's in D.C. and all.

The only thing Paul can think of doing is go to the county commissioner....

The Commissioner is played by the always entertaining Paul Ford. Paul (in the story) is illiterate and so acts out the story. There's only so much to work with in the office so Paul points to a star on the flag indicating their state, he walks around using his fingers as devil horns, grabs the Commissioner's cigar and blows the smoke in his face, indicating the smoke coming from the ship...

The Commissioner goes along with the whole thing until he pushes a button and Paul is escorted out of the building.

He goes back to the cabin and gets an idea!! There it is, a pack of TNT...

Paul lights the long fuse but steps on a bear trap and cannot get away!

The explosion goes off and the spaceship is blown to pieces, including the visitor!

Suddenly, Mathilde shows up and thinks Paul has been killed, but he's alive and they can speak again, Paul covers his ears as she screams his name!