A peace conference is due to take place in a country house somewhere in England. Enemy agents Arcos ( Ray McAnally ) and Zerson ( Norman Jones ) want to sabotage it by creating a double of John Steed, who is there - along with Tara King - as an 'observer'.
Unhappy with the initial result, Arcos orders that the real Steed be kidnapped and brought to him at once. This is then done. But Steed manages to throw a spanner in the works - and suddenly the conference is awash with lookalikes of himself ( does not say much for the security there, does it? ) who murder each other. Tara is confused, especially as a dead man with Steed's features was found in a hotel room. She joins forces with Baron von Curt ( Ian Ogilvy ), a dashing Teutonic aristocrat with a fondness for the ladies and sword-fencing...
Originally to have been filmed on location in Spain ( under the title 'Too Many Oles'! ), this is a sprightly little adventure, benefiting from a great performance by Ray McAnally ( a fabulous actor who died well before his time ) as the villain, and a blonde Ian Ogilvy - a decade before inheriting Roger Moore's halo - as 'von Curt'. One has to wonder whether the character was in any way inspired by 'Adam Adamant', the Victorian adventurer portrayed on B.B.C.-1 a few years earlier by Gerald Harper ( and for whose series Brian Clemens had written ).
A running gag in the Thorson series was 'Mother' ( Patrick Newell ), the head of Steed's department, forever turning up in unusual locations, such as a swimming pool or the top of a double decker bus. Here he is in an underwater office! Not to be outdone, the villains have an unusual base of their own - beneath an abandoned car in a quarry. Patrick Macnee gets the chance to have some fun playing evil duplicates of his character.
The explosion at the end was stock footage - and looks it. I wonder which picture it came from.
Unhappy with the initial result, Arcos orders that the real Steed be kidnapped and brought to him at once. This is then done. But Steed manages to throw a spanner in the works - and suddenly the conference is awash with lookalikes of himself ( does not say much for the security there, does it? ) who murder each other. Tara is confused, especially as a dead man with Steed's features was found in a hotel room. She joins forces with Baron von Curt ( Ian Ogilvy ), a dashing Teutonic aristocrat with a fondness for the ladies and sword-fencing...
Originally to have been filmed on location in Spain ( under the title 'Too Many Oles'! ), this is a sprightly little adventure, benefiting from a great performance by Ray McAnally ( a fabulous actor who died well before his time ) as the villain, and a blonde Ian Ogilvy - a decade before inheriting Roger Moore's halo - as 'von Curt'. One has to wonder whether the character was in any way inspired by 'Adam Adamant', the Victorian adventurer portrayed on B.B.C.-1 a few years earlier by Gerald Harper ( and for whose series Brian Clemens had written ).
A running gag in the Thorson series was 'Mother' ( Patrick Newell ), the head of Steed's department, forever turning up in unusual locations, such as a swimming pool or the top of a double decker bus. Here he is in an underwater office! Not to be outdone, the villains have an unusual base of their own - beneath an abandoned car in a quarry. Patrick Macnee gets the chance to have some fun playing evil duplicates of his character.
The explosion at the end was stock footage - and looks it. I wonder which picture it came from.