And for those who just can't get enough of the British '60s, the original Avengers have finally arrived on home video.THIS PAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PICPAL.COM THE PICTURE PALACE
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil's Bride) from 1968 is one of its best but least-known efforts, belatedly appearing on home video. Any fan who's missed it is in for a treat.
In 1925, Duc de Richleau (Lee, at his most debonair and dapper) is a "good" warlock who goes up against Mocata (Charles Gray), an Aleister Crowley-like "bad" warlock. At stake is Richleau's friend Simon (Patrick Mower). Though the satanic cult conspiracy plot is cliched today, it wasn't 30 years ago. And in any era, Richard Matheson's concise script, based on Dennis Wheatley's novel, is rock solid. Even if Hammer Films were all made on modest budgets compared to their American counterparts, they look terrific and this one is no exception. The transfer from film to tape is handled with the same care that Anchor Bay has given all of its Hammer releases. The crystalline image is slightly letterboxed.
And for those who just can't get enough of the British '60s, the original Avengers have finally arrived on home video.
Of all the TV series of that are now referred to as "cult classics," this one truly deserves it. As the prototypically liberated Mrs. Peel, Diana Rigg became an instant international star. Her partner John Steed is a dandy gentleman-spy. Patrick Macnee brings a light touch reminiscent of Buster Keaton to some of Steed's physical scenes.
The characters were created just as the James Bond-pop espionage craze was peaking, and so the series was powered entirely by style and attitude. The stories are featherweight confections not meant to be taken with any seriousness. Seen now, many of the sets and special effects are comically obvious. Was the quality of televised images simply that bad in the mid '60s or do the remastered tapes simply reveal the gaudy hand-painted flats meant to suggest time travel in one episode?
It doesn't matter. The shows have lost none of their charm. These days it's fashionable to demonize the '60s as the decade when everything went wrong; when drug use and sexual license ran rampant and family values were trampled. But they were really the years when artistic experimentation and creativity were valued for their own sake, when conventions were challenged and found lacking. Many of those lessons have been forgotten now. If nothing else, The Avengers can remind us how enjoyable sheer playfulness can be.
The first boxed set contains six episodes on three tapes. They're arranged in the sequence in which they were broadcast in 1967: "From Venus With Love," "The Fear Merchants," "Escape In Time," "The See-Through Man," "The Bird Who Knew Too Much," "The Winged Avenger."
