Secret Agent (TV Series) A Very Dangerous Game (1965) User Reviews

GREAT EPISODE

[aramis-112-804880 · 8/10 · 14 December 2021]

Lots of times John Drake (if that is his name) comes off as a bit of a lone wolf (another good episode where he isn't is "Say it with Flowers"). In this episode we go behind the scenes and meet members of M-9's "Q-branch."

Armed with gadgets and gizmos Drake assaults the Communist evil in Singapore, meeting lots of familiar supporting actors (including Peter Arne, whom he doesn't recognize from "Colony Three") and Geoffrey Bayldon. Anthony Dawson also makes a brief appearance.

Also in the mix is Burt Kwouk. Gotta love Kato in anything. And playing a good guy.

The tension and action are almost non-stop. It's not an episode that bogs down in gamble. A real winner letting us see a little of how M-9 works.

Spy Gadget Cornicopia

[CoastalCruiser · 6/10 · 29 March 2015]

(Although the 'spoiler alert' box is checked, I will just be mentioning some plot elements. Not giving away any punch lines.)

I would like to send kudos to reviewer 'rsoonsa' who pretty much nails this episode, and does so eloquently. It is surprising that as I post my review the post is getting five down-votes out of six. Not sure what people found to quarrel with? This episode IS a bit lacking. The makeup jobs attempting to turn Caucasians into Asians is what turned me off the most.

What is even more surprising is that this episode was written by series creator and now executive producer Ralph Smart, and directed by DM veteran Don Chaffey. We've learned to expect more from this duo. Even more interesting is that the show was co-written, with David Stone sharing the credit. Stone turned in about seven DM scripts. Why is that interesting? If you don't mind me indulging in some personal conspiracy theory, is I believe David Stone may be Patrick McGoohan. You can read my wacky postulation on that topic in my review of 'The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove'.

I will now go all the way out on a limb and postulate that Smart -who usually gets a secondary writing credit, but gets first mention here- may have in unusual fashion written this episode, and Stone (McGoohan?) "fixed" it... or at least tried to.

In the meantime, it's a regular spy gadget love-fest in this episode, starting with a first time visit to spy gadget headquarters, which appears to be some basement in some government intelligence building in London. We meet the obligatory, nerdy gadget creator type person, and we get to see how John Drake interacts with the 'little people' in his department.

The episode then unfolds the highest density of gadgets seen in one show to date. I counted six spy devices, Five of them never before seen. We first witness the now familiar wireless bug with a suction cup. In this show it is hidden in Drake's shoe.

Then we get a variation on the C02 cartridge based 'fishing pole' seen in 'Have a Glass of Wine'. It fires a cylindrical shaped listening device that embeds itself in some soft material such as wood. In this show the solution is miniaturized into a smoking pipe stem, and delivered with a strong exhale. Less range, but the gadget did its work just fine here. The receiver mated to the bug here is a new design. It has a spinning pickup extension reminiscent of a radar dish (but not really).

Drake then breaks from the tired old cliché of removing a section of a window with a glass cutter in order to access the handle (soooo 50's), instead opting for a tube of white 'glass dissolving paste'. Let's hope an agent never gets that stuff confused with his toothpaste!

And speaking of C02 cartridges, in this scene Drake breaks out a gadget with a longish barrel that uses C02 to fire a dart with a metal housing. He shoots three of these darts at the window he is about to open with the aid of the toothpaste tube. Once he scales the building and approaches the window He links the darts together with a wire harness, which somehow defeats the alarm system.

Let me just say one thing about this trick to bypass the alarm. If you're the type that tries to see the logic and science behind these spy devices, don't bake your noodle over this one. I used to work in the burglar alarm business and I promise you, this dart thing is 100% bogus. There is no way that silliness with that whole apparatus he attached to the window would work. Funny, it would have been very simple to do it right with an alligator clip lead.

Finally, we get a real treat... a full-on spy type apparatus... a concealed document with disappearing ink! Crack open the thin, innocent looking container, read the note, and a few seconds later, no note. How have we gotten by this long without something this radically cool?

Final comment; this episode marks one of the few times Drake actually uses the phrase "M9". He normally never admits it directly, but you will hear him say it in this show.

This brings the total count of spy gadgets seen up to this point in the 1/2 and 1 hour series to 20 (using IMDb show sequence).

Be seeing you...

Provides A Suitable Tone For Its Period, But Is Awkwardly Constructed And Plotted.

[rsoonsa · 6/10 · 14 July 2012]

Filmed during April and May of 1965 and initially telecast the following October, this episode of the ever-popular Patrick McGoohan-featured "Secret Agent" (dubbed as 'Danger Man' in the United Kingdom) is perhaps a cut beneath that which a viewer may anticipate from the series. Among other departures from a largely successful recipe, Secret Agent John Drake (McGoohan) utilises a dart secreted within a smoker's pipe, that emits a radio signal, and an acidic substance encased within an ersatz toothpaste tube that dissolves window pane glass. Additionally, the script is replete with plot holes for which the writers should be embarrassed and, notwithstanding that McGoohan, as ever, excels at his portrayal of an Englishman abroad, scenario-laden lapses in logic and continuity can not be overlooked, despite a spirited pace set by old hand director Don Chaffey. Although its setting is Singapore, with some stock footage furnished to give South Asian ambiance, the film was actually made on London's Shepperton Studio's new soundstage, the first "Secret Agent" narrative to be completed there. The episode here has Drake posing as a defected English lecturer of Renaissance period music named Simpson, who has been recently coopted in England by what apparently are Chinese Communists. It has been decided by Drake's handlers to send him into newly independent Singapore in an essay at penetrating the enemy camp. However, the Forces of Evil immediately cause trouble for the Secret Agent and his comeuppance at their hands is ostensibly in the offing. It seems somewhat absurd that the Chinese intelligence operatives can not determine any differences between Simpson and Drake, but then nearly all viewers of the "Secret Agent" installments will be prepared in the main to enjoy the charismatic acting of McGoohan. He is happily free for the most part from the use of makeup, unluckily not the case with "Chinese" spies performed by Peter Arne along with Yvonne Furneaux, whose tawdry eye treatment appears to be quite agonizing, but without providing the merest semblance of anything Asiatic.