Donn Mullally's 'The Night Of The Grand Emir' opens with Jim and Arte on assignment - to protect the 'Grand Emir El Emid' ( Robert Middleton ) who is in the States for an operation. A dancer tries to blow him up, but Jim saves his life. He follows her as she escapes in a carriage. She drugs him using her special ring. An exile called 'Dr.Mohammed Bey' ( James Lamphier ) is her boss. Jim is suspended from a ceiling by strait-jacket. The dancer - the wonderfully-named 'Ecstasy La Joie' ( Yvonne Craig ) - is given a tambourine which, when thrown like a frisbee, will cut the head off of anyone unlucky enough to be in the way...
Usually television plots where the hero has to act as bodyguard to a visiting monarch or dignitary bore me rigid. But this one is well above average, thanks to the ingenious 'Avengers'-like concept of a club of gentleman assassins, led by ''T.Wiggett Jones' ( Don Francks ). Richard Jaeckel - 'Sergeant Bowren' of 'The Dirty Dozen' - is one of their number. The club wants the Emir dead to acquire a stretch of the Suez canal. Jim is placed in a cubicle where the air will cut out unless he agrees to join up. Fast-moving fun. And it goes without saying that Yvonne 'Batgirl' Craig is an absolute knockout as the luscious Ecstasy! Her tambourine must have been made by the same firm responsible for Oddjob's bowler hat!
Usually television plots where the hero has to act as bodyguard to a visiting monarch or dignitary bore me rigid. But this one is well above average, thanks to the ingenious 'Avengers'-like concept of a club of gentleman assassins, led by ''T.Wiggett Jones' ( Don Francks ). Richard Jaeckel - 'Sergeant Bowren' of 'The Dirty Dozen' - is one of their number. The club wants the Emir dead to acquire a stretch of the Suez canal. Jim is placed in a cubicle where the air will cut out unless he agrees to join up. Fast-moving fun. And it goes without saying that Yvonne 'Batgirl' Craig is an absolute knockout as the luscious Ecstasy! Her tambourine must have been made by the same firm responsible for Oddjob's bowler hat!