The Avengers (TV Series) Man with Two Shadows (1963) User Reviews

Deadly doppelgangers

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 18 May 2017]

As this episode opens a man, who we later learn is William Gordon, is undressing in his hotel room. He opens the wardrobe and is confronted by a gunman who looks just like himself. The doppelganger shoots him and proceeds to take his place. Around the same time an agent surfaces; he has been treated by some sort of new brain washing technique; he now has several very different personalities; most of what he says is gibberish but he does mention that three British people in important positions are to be replaced by doppelgangers. After an unrecognisable body turns up it is believed that Gordon has indeed been replaced. He is staying at a holiday camp so Steed and Mrs Gale go there. Gordon is given a medical and dental examination which convinces Steed that he is in fact a double.

Not surprisingly one of the people due to be replaced is Steed. The double waits in Steed's room for his return and shortly afterwards 'Steed' emerges; he tells Cathy that he has killed his double but Cathy suspects he might really be the double; when she passes on her concerns she is told to kill him. Meanwhile those who had arranged Steed's replacement contemplate having their Steed kill Cathy.

This episode gets off to a great start and keeps up the high standard right up to the morally ambiguous finale. The story is of course rather far-fetched; it wouldn't be 'The Avengers' if it wasn't. The way Gordon's replacement manages to pass himself off is done in a believable way; it was particular good how he not only continued the relationship with Gordon's girlfriend but also proposes to her. I don't imagine anybody will think Steed was really killed by his double but it was good that we weren't shown exactly what happened. We are never told just who the villains are working for or why Gordon was one of those copied but that doesn't really matter; in fact it just made it more intriguing. There is a degree of darkness to the story as it is made clear just how badly mutilated the real Gordon's body is even though we obviously aren't shown it. The cast does a fine job; I was particularly impressed by Terence Lodge's portrayal of Borowski, the agent with multiple personalities, as he brilliantly switched between these very different personalities and looked believably distressed. Overall I found this to be a superior episode of this enjoyable series.

Double trouble

[kevinolzak · 8/10 · 22 January 2011]

"Man in the Shadows" was a superior entry, one of the three third season episodes to feature an appearance by one of Steed's superiors, in this case Charles (Paul Whitsun-Jones), who would show up again in "The Wringer" (Ronald Radd pops in once as Quilpie in "The Outside-In Man"). Daniel Moynihan ("The Hour That Never Was") starts things off with a bang as William Gordon, shot dead by his identical duplicate, an enemy agent who has been trained for nearly three years for the moment when he can take over on the other side. Charles accompanies Steed on a visit to see the brainwashed Peter Borowski (Terence Lodge, "The Wringer" himself), who leads them to believe that a total of three agents have been targeted for replacement, with Steed on the short list, having spent four days as a prisoner with the enemy five years before, also the only one known to have escaped. This was the second and last time that Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale appeared clad only in a bra and underwear (see her very first episode, "Death Dispatch"), completely relaxed as Patrick Macnee's Steed cannot stifle a huge cake-eating grin at the delectable sight! Fittingly, there is more to their personal relationship than was usual, because Cathy is ordered to kill the fake Steed, the question being how to tell? It all adds up to the best duplicate story done on the series, and certainly not the last ("Two's a Crowd" "Who's Who???" "They Keep Killing Steed" to name a few). Philip Anthony later did "The Outside-In Man," but returning were Geoffrey Palmer ("Propellant 23"), George Little ("The Removal Men"), and Douglas Robinson ("The Decapod").

The DOPPLEGANGERS

[profh-1 · 8/10 · 21 February 2023]

A spy ring operating out of a luxury holiday camp are involved in killing and replacing highly-placed people with exact duplicates, who have spent years training to impersonate people. An agent who learned of their plans was brainwashed with multiple personalities so that most of what he says is gibberish... but, he says just enough to ensure that Steed goes to the camp to investigate. And, sure enough, a FAKE Steed is waiting there for him!

James Mitchell (CALLAN) supplies his 5th, final and finest script for the series, a story that would prove to be very inspirational, as multiple later stories involved doubles, including the one most like this, "Faces", which in the late 70s became my favorite episode of THE NEW AVENGERS.

Paul Whitsun-Jones turns up as "Charles", the first of Steed's bosses with a name rather than a number. He brings Steed up to speed during a particularly harrowing interrogation scene where the two try to make sense of what their rescued agent "Borowski" has to say. Later, he visits Cathy at her apartment to inform her they suspect there may be a duplicate Steed on the loose, but, they have NO idea if the "switch" has occured yet-- or if it ever will. So she has to watch him-- carefully-- and if he's an imposter-- KILL him. Whitsun-Jones would return in 3 more episode, one of them again as "Charles". I've also seen him in 4 SAINT episodes, a Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO I never cared for ("The Mutants"), and a brief but very memorable scene in THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. It's funny, but he kinda resembles a client I had whose name was also "Charles".

At one point, Steed enlists the aid of an agency doctor and dentist to determine if nuclear scientist "Gordon" is the real one or not; the doctor is sure he is, but the dentist is certain he ISN'T! "Dr. Terrence" is played by Geoffrey Palmer, who no doubt I'll always remember most for AS TIME GOES BY.

The third act is very tense. We don't see what happened between Steed and his would-be murderer, and while viewers watching the show can probably be certain Steed came out on top, Cathy-- AND the bad guys-- aren't so sure. At one point, SHE believes he's the imposter, but at that same moment, THEY think he's the REAL one! Things get really tense when Cathy enlists the aid of a government minister; Steed already learned HE was an imposter, but Cathy HADN'T. By the end, it becomes obvious Cathy found out the truth, but, just like the intended murder of Steed, we don't SEE when that happens, either! It's the kind of storytelling that forces one to really pay attention in order to not get lost.

Some FABULOUS camera work from Don Leaver in this one! Also, one shot where a microphone boom dipped into view, but we'll just try and ignore that one (heh).

The 2010 Region 2 Studio Canal DVD has mostly-clear picture and sound; however, act 2 is much louder than acts 1 & 3, and the sound is muffled in the epilogue. Still, that's better than a lot of these, and I'm certain this was a major upgrade from my 90s videotape recorded off of A&E; that channel was really BUTCHERING every episode, cutting them down to fit more commercials in. What a joy to finally see them all UNCUT!

Doppelganger plot

[bobforapples-40146 · 8/10 · 26 July 2023]

Being a spy show there definitely had to be at least one ep like this. An agent is killed and replaced by a doppelganger. Another doppelganger ( one who resembles Steed) working for the same organization as the first tries to kill Steed and take his place. But Steed gets the better of his would-be- assassin and triumphs. The first doppelganger is allowed to continue in his own imposter role and he married the murdered agent's beautiful girlfriend. The last act is done with Steed's knowledge that the man in indeed an imposter. Not sure how well this ep figures into the rest of the show but it is a fine stand alone ep. Venus Smith would have been just as good as Cathy Gale in this one.

This Script...This Script

[create · 5/10 · 17 September 2015]

Unbeknownst to the agency, one of their technical operatives, a William Gordon (Daniel Moynihan) is shot dead while on vacation. They don't know it, because Gordon was shot dead by his doppelganger, a man so eerily similar in body and face that Gordon is taken aback when he encounters him, and doesn't try to resist when the trigger is pulled.

The only clue the agency has to this replacement plan is Peter Borowski (Terrance Lodge), an agent with all the information on the program that the villains of the unnamed agency are running. The villains let Borowski live (?) when he stumbles upon their plans, but they brain- wash him so that he all he can do is deliver little pieces of information (?) to the agency's superior, Charles - a One-Ten replacement.

With this small little clue, Charles sends John Steed to investigate Gordon. But at the same time, Charles introduces himself to/visits Mrs. Gale, and informs her to watch out for Steed; for he might have been replaced, too. And if she finds that Steed has been replaced, Charles orders Cathy to kill John on the spot.

This spy-craft episode begins with a bang, and meanders through to the end. The opening sequence where the doppelganger murders Gordon is by far the most visually arresting image during the Mrs. Cathy Gale era. Give credit for that to Don Leaver, who directed several black & white episodes of the Avengers, including two of the best Mrs. Peel episodes: How To Succeed At Murder, and The House That Jack Built.

The script by James Mitchell isn't able to keep up. I'm certain that after The Manchurian Candidate movie came out, that it must have seemed sexy to have a brain-washed agent in the storyline. But Borowski's presence was problematic from the start. Why would this unnamed organization - that shoots first, and asks questions later - let this trove of information live? Later on, one of the villains offers an explanation as to why they let Boroski live, and it's just laughable.

In the end, Borowski's survival dooms the enemy organization.

It's just confusing. I would find it hard to believe that The Avengers was the only show broadcast without a production bible; yet, many of the mistakes that Mitchell made showed he hadn't reviewed it. If so, he would have known, as has been detailed in many episodes, Mrs. Gale doesn't know much about the British Agency for which Steed works. Charles is only the second superior she has met, if past episodes are to be a guide - and we never see her meet One-Ten, we are just told that she has. Yet, Charles would give her an order to kill Steed?

Update 1/23/2023. In review, not all the blame should be on Mitchell. With a bunch of reading over the years on the Avengers, these programs might have been a hit, but there was a lot of drama behind the scenes. Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman didn't like the scripts. ABC Television Weekend/Brian Clemens and Sydney Newman were having problems with each other. And the broadcast times between British and American TV were not good.

Of the Honor Blackman years, I had the chance to watch this episode the most. Many hotels that I stayed at, that would broadcast the Avengers with Honor Blackman showed it, probably because of the battles at the end. Yet, most of them would only show about 40 minutes of the program. And the editing to get to 40 was awful. A&E who originally broadcast the show, showed it at 47 after the first time that it broadcast it. (The first time A&E broadcast these shows of the Avengers, they broadcast it in an 1:30 show. After that they cut it down to American size of 48 minutes. That was the American standard in 1991. Then it went to 41 minutes. Now you are lucky to get it at 39.)

This show needs at least 50 minutes of its 52 in order to at least be understandable.