The Pink Panther (1963)

 "You do the walking and I'll do the drinking."

Yes, I know, forty-seven and have only just seen this... 

Anyway, it's fascinating to see the actual film behind the Pink Panther cartoon and that seminal Henry Mancini tune that we all know so well; these things in themselves are a seminal achievement, as is the opening titles. It's all very well shot. But... well, asa comedy, it's a curate's egg.

Of course, as with the original curate's egg, parts of it are excellent. This isn't a comedy of verbal jokes, exactly, but the script is particularly witty in its sexually charged conversations between David Niven's Sir Charles (and his nephew George to some extent) and both Simone Clouseau and the Princess. This is top quality flirting and there's a lot of it.

Plus the setting- the Swiss Alps and Rome- is visually arresting, and the plot is enormous fun. But, well... we need to talk about Inspector Clouseau. I mean, Peter Sellers plays the part very well, and it's not that I don't enjoy slapstick comedy or farce. But the character isn't that funny. Oh, I do enjoy the extended sequence in the hotel room with Simon where both Sir Charles and George hide from him. But all the falling over and bumping into things just gets tired very quickly.

Still, a film doesn't have to be the greatest ever example of its genre to be good. This is no Life of Brian, but it is, at least, quite funny, and the flirting scenes are genuinely brilliant. Iwasn't blown away... but I enjoyed the film. And that's what matters.

The Prisoner: The General

“Nothing’s impossible in this place.”

Another intriguing episode this time, with yet another very ‘60s and very British view of freedom and repression- the conceit is that the “Professor”, with the aid of the “General” is able to create subliminal educational courses which can deliver a three year degree in three minutes. This is, of course, an obvious means of brainwashing, as we see. And the “education” it imparts is of doubtful value- learning by rote set phrases about the Treaty of Adrianople does not impart any real understanding, as Number Six immediately sees.

Number Six is aided, however, by Number Twelve, whose rebel sympathies are  never actually exposed, and it’s ambiguous whether he gets away with helping Number Six. He is played, of course, by a shockingly young John Castle, whom I know well from I, Clavdivs and RoboCop 3. It’s also odd to see Colin Gordon back as Number Two but with no suggestion that Number Six has met this particular Number Two before. Will this keep on happening as previous actors return?

The conclusion to all this is fascinating; the “General” turns out to be a very ‘60s advanced computer, covering a whole wall and with spoils everywhere. And we end with a very ‘60s viewpoint of computers meaning control and repression, of computers as calculating decision makers rather than toys for entertainment, of man needing to make his own decisions. If only they could look ahead...

The Prisoner: A. B. and C

"This is a dreamy party..."

Well, that was certainly different.

I suppose this is early in the series, it's too soon to have fully explored the possible formats, but this one is decidedly odd. Yes, we again begin with Number Six waking in the village- will we always? There's a new Number Two- will there be a different one each time? I was amused to note we had the same opening dialogue between Numbers Six and Two, but with a different Number Two. Will this be a thing?

All that was familiar. And yet...

This week we don't really explore the Village, although I note Number Two has by now accepted a maid. No, instead we follow a science fiction scheme to control Number Six's dreams to attempt to find out which of three possible individuals from within the spy world Number Six was attempting to sell out to. And we may actually have discovered something; we don't know why Number Six resigned, but he wasn't switching loyalies to another side.

And that's pretty much it. Number Six gets a bit of agency in that he realises what is happening and ends up taking control of his own dream narrative. But it all feels suspiciously like filler, as I understand many of the seventeen episodes pretty much were.

This isn't a bad episode. But compared to its two predecessors it feels a little perfunctory.

Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones

Part One


"It's a flying beastie!"


Once again, I'm really appreciating the luxury of actual footage, and DVD quality no less. And one of the first things we see is a 60s copper with one of those old comedy chinstraps! It's little things like this that make me miss footage so much. A good start from this Malcolm Hulke chap- I wonder if we'll ever hear from him again?

Our heroes get separated within seconds- is this a record? I notice that it's Jamie the Doctor finds first, and he's only mildly concerned about finding the others- favouritism? As many said in the Macra Terror thread, Jamie has now become his fully-fledged permanent self, and the on-screen rapport between Troughton and Hines is now at full strength fabness.

This is very well-directed, which along with the script makes it all seem very reminiscent of The Avengers, not a type of story I remember seeing before- this is most pleasing as recent stories, though good, have not been as innovative as they used to be.

The Doctor and Jamie don't seem all that enthusiastic to help Polly find Ben, and they seem to lose Polly rather easily! And Ben doesn't seem to be in this episode much at all, especially towards the end. A very unusual episode- the only real sci-fi element until the cliffhanger arrives is the ray gun.


Part Two


"We have ways of dealing with such people!"


Back to the recon, then, which is good for one thing at least- the captions along the bottom ain't half good at getting you to learn the names of all the guest characters! Things slow down an awful lot with this episode- the eye chart stuff is blatant filler, and you begin to notice how little is happening. It's not too much of a problem, at least not yet, as you're still curious about what's going on. But things need to start happening soon. And this may be competently written but after The Macra Terror it all looks a bit formulaic.

It's Pauline Collins! Er, that's an interesting Liverpool accent. Very Z-Cars... Of course, I barely recognised her as the photo's very fuzzy. These old Loose Cannon recons are noticeably much less good than the recent ones, although the fact that mine is a 50,000th generation copy probably isn't helping!

Ah, Ben finds Polly and looks around for a phone. Not the kind of scene you see much of in drama today...



Part Three


"All right, stay here. After all, they can only murder me. Ta ra!"


The Doctor's being menaced by a sinister surveillance camera. Makes you think, that- back in 1967 surveillance cameras were the stuff of Orwellian nightmares!

I'm loving the relationship between Jamie and the clearly-intended-as-a-possible-companion Samantha. And Jamie gets pulled up on why he always does what the Doctor says, which seems to be a developing theme.

Er, where have Ben and Polly gone?

Part Four


"It'll cost you 28 quid. Pounds, to you."

"Ach, but that's a fortune! I've never seen that much money in my life!"


I've only just noticed, eight episodes into the new title sequence, that the music has changed as well! Duh. It's also becoming very noticeable that this is a very old recon- perhaps there's a more recent one? The photos are not clear at all and there's no footage from the surviving episodes used for recaps, the first time I've seen this.

The deathtrap set here for the Doctor, Jamie and Samantha is in no way evocative of a certain 60s film, and I have no doubt that no one above me in this thread can possibly have quoted the line "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"

Ooh, a mention for Ben and Polly!

Once again we get some obvious padding out of the episode to fill up the time as Meadows is found not to be on duty. The episode ends intriguingly though- it's a crying shame we can't see Jamie's 18th century reaction to being on a plane!

Part Five


"Polly, then Ben, now Jamie..."

A swanky space station in Earth orbit may not be particularly futuristic now but, of course, in 1967, six years before Skylab, this stuff was all in the zeitgeist. Plus we get miniaturised people! In filing cabinets!

At last, the all important exposition scene... what? An explosion, er, destroys the identities of the Chameleons? oh dear. Still, nicely surprising when the Inspector turns out to be a duplicate- and the Director, no less!

Good old Doctor- cheerfully going on to the chameleon plane without any sort of plan! Nurse Pinto's really quite incredibly brave too. They completely fluff their bluffing, mind- Pinto still refers to the "chameleon" who's ostensibly switched bodies from Meadows to the Doctor as "Meadows" and we're to expect Blade won't smell a rat!

Oh, and it's just dawned on me- the Inspector / Director is none other than good old Bernard Kay!


Part Six


"We are the most intelligent race in the universe!"


Interesting line spoken by Blade about both Pinto and the Doctor: "I checked at the medical centre. You're both human!" So, it's not as though the Doctor has, say, an alien physiology or anything! Still, he does have tendencies towards vandalism, which he demonstrates rather splendidly with the Chameleons' machine. I love the Trout!

Samantha leaves rather abruptly after all the proto-companioneering, but at least she and Jamie get to snog each other, according to my recon at least. And we actually get to see Ben and Polly again. Yay! I was genuinely fearing they were about to be Dodo'd. It's a bit of a coincidence that this is the exact date they left, of course, but we get a wonderfully evocative pair of lines between Polly and the Doctor that should be much better known: "The thing is, Doctor... it's my world." "Yes, yes, you're very lucky... I never got back to mine."


Well... I didn't think much of that really. It was competently structured, perhaps, and what we could see of it looked good, but things just happened so bloody slowly. This is the first time in the marathon I have to trot out the old cliché about a six parter being two episodes too long. But it's not just that- it all just felt so formulaic, and felt oddly humourless. Where was the sparkle in the dialogue? Still, I liked Samantha, and the Doctor / Jamie double act (and, I'm sure, shipping!) properly starts here. 2/5