Price: $53.00 as of 11/21/2009 21:57 EST
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
EAN: 9786305299950
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
ISBN: 6305299951
Label: A&E Home Video
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
MPN: AAED70016D
Number Of Items: 2
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 13, 1999
Running Time: 340 minutes
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: March 28, 1966
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Studio: A&e Home Video Release Date: 01/29/2008 Run time: 340 minutes Rating: Nr
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This is a very enjoyable old TV classic. So my review will only deal with the video quality. And that was a very well done re-master of the old film. The quality does not match current DVD offerings, but I was impressed how well they restored the old videos; I don't know how they could have done better. Therefore I am giving this a rating of 5.
Rating: -
This set involves a series of thrillers from our friends, Steed & Peel. May be the best of the many volumes out. Hard to pick a favorite among this group. I'd buy this volume before any others, if you just want a taste of this great series.
Rating: -
While all of the episode on this DVD are terrific, A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Station stands above all. If you like trains, this story is for you. Virtually the whole episode takes place on a train or on train platforms, with compartments, dining car, and even the engineer's car. Full of witty dialogue, such as Steed's "pop goes the diesel" when the villain explains to him his intention of blowing up the prime ministers car; and strangeness, a groom who hums "here comes the bride" before gunning people down.
Speaking of Steed, I can't verify this but Patrick Macnee must have been on holiday during filming of the second half of this story, because he disappears about 20 minutes in and isn't seen again until the very end. It's explained in the plot that he was captured and held hostage by the villains. Steed's role is taken over by railway loving eccentric Crewe, played by John Laurie, who acts as Emma's sidekick in helping bring down the enemy. A terrific actor, John Laurie will definitely remind the viewer of Christopher Lloyd's professor character in Back To The Future, in character as well as in looks.
Also, a very subtle reference to how The Avengers was at the time being written with an American Audience in mind. Steed discovers a clue, a slip of paper bearing the numbers "4-7-67". Emma thinks a minute and blurts out, "July 4, 1967?, Independence Day!", before the revelation of the actual meaning of those numbers. It's unlikely that a simple reference to an American holiday, especially Independence Day, would have slipped in the series in the grainy, black & white videotape days.
We also get a hint of Steed & Peel's political leanings. The prime minister in question, by all accounts, is labor party Harold Wilson, who was prime minister of Britain at the time. Steed and Mrs. Peel during the tag scene quip to each other that they didn't vote for him, and quietly sneak out the back. Tories til the end. Gotta love it. As if we didn't already know.
Rating: -
Prior to 1967, "The Avengers" was yielded in black-and-white. Going to color was a definite improvement!
This DVD package, (2 DVDs, individually cased and further packaged in a box, this is "Set No. 3," color-coded GREEN), is just one of FOUR sets which take in all the 1967 episodes. The marketing of "The Avengers" can be quite confusing so I wanted to get that information out up front. This is also the BEST way to buy the DVDs (by the "set") for any season, from 1963 through 1968.
1967 was Diana Rigg's last season as Steed's partner. Her career really launched in 1965 from this fine series in her role as Mrs. Emma Peel, the sexy and lively partner to the refined secret agent Englishman, John Steed, who was shrewdly played by Patrick Macnee. In fact, in the U.S., most of us didn't even know about Honor Blackman and Macnee's other (earlier, '63 and '64) partners until many years later.
Diana Rigg can probably claim about 60% of the credit for the vast number of U.S. audience members who were glued to their TVs when "The Avengers" finally hit here. The other 40% (not forgetting Macnee's fine performances) had to do with the presentation of the series. Starting in 1965, with Rigg, the filmscore was notably updated and played more prominently throughout the story, enhancing the action and suspense. Also, the action itself was boosted. Never a dull moment with Steed and Mrs. Peel. And these episodes were all FUN -- one embraced a sense that Macnee and Rigg were having a great time in making these films. Now that I've seen episodes from "The Avengers'" earlier years, ('63 and '64), I can see that they dragged quite a bit during that earlier era and were much more soap opera-ish.
Each 52-minute episode is futuristic and on the cutting edge of excellent television productions. I know of no series, "The Original Star Trek Series" excepted, which has remained as timeless as "The Avengers". You'll encounter, in these episodes, every nemesis ranging from a killer nanny to a mind-transfer device!
Here, we're talking about six very enjoyable, action-packed, color episodes.
Volume 5:
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Station" -- British agents are killed as they try to get to the bottom of suspicious activities on a mysterious train car. Steed and Mrs. Peel must act quickly to resolve the issue because the Prime Minister is about to take a train ride. A great episode.
"Something Nasty in the Nursery" -- A child's ball becomes a deadly instrument of espionage. The balls are treated with a chemical that makes people revert to their early youths -- and they're used on British officials, all of whom have lots of top secret stories to tell! Surreptitious and furtive activities seem to be centered at a local school for nannies. It's here that Steed discovers that he's a less-than-adequate baby-sitter, which gets pointed out to him by Mrs. Peel. There are some really malicious nannies at this place!
"The Joker" -- A maniac enemy of Steed and Mrs. Peel has escaped prison and is out for vengeance! Mrs. Peel writes an astute article for a bridge players' magazine and an old, renowned bridge player, a certain "Sir Cavalier," is so impressed that he invites her to his isolated manor house for the weekend. Once there, she finds Sir Cavalier gone and then faces more than one lunatic who is set on killing her. An attempt on Steed's life is narrowly averted but he's barred in getting to Mrs. Peel's aid due to a heavy fog. This is about the darkest and creepiest Avengers episode I've ever viewed.
Volume 6:
"Who's Who???" -- Minds get traded in this unusual "sci-fi" episode. A shrewd but evil professor invents a "mind transfer machine," and a male and female swarthy duo of spies lure in Steed and Mrs. Peel. Once the mind transfers have taken place and the spies are using the bodies of the two Avengers, they attempt to obtain all the secret information that Steed's and Mrs. Peel's smiling faces will gain them access to. But Steed and Mrs. Peel are not about to allow these two second-rate thugs to misuse their excellent bodies.
"Return of the Cybernauts" -- Remember those nasty, destructive Cybernauts back from the early Avengers black-and-white days? Well, the darned pesky things are back! Since the original evil inventor was killed, thanks to Steed and Mrs. Peel, the two are stumped now as to who could be behind producing the high-tech, dangerous robots again. In the meantime, important scientists are going missing and some are even turning up dead! And who stars as the evil inventor this time? It's the BROTHER of the original inventor and he wants ecstatic revenge against Steed and Mrs. Peel. This "mechanical Frankenstein" show is even further enhanced as the great Peter Cushing is cast in the role of the evil brother! You won't want to miss this superb "sequel" episode. ... Read More
Rating: -
I bought this set on the basis of "Who's Who???", a classic laugh-out-loud color episode, with a fantastic opening sequence (check out Steed and Emma's discovery of the evil spies' first victim, "Rose" Hooper), marvelous byplay between Macnee and Rigg, and a to-die-for performance by the incomparable Freddie Jones, who almost outclasses Macnee as John Steed, if you can believe that! The plot is absurd, the action non-stop, and the dialogue some of the wittiest of the series. And, even better, there are several more classics on this set, including the extremely bizarre "Something Nasty in the Nursery", complete with machine gun toting nannies! I don't think The Avengers ever got any more surreal (or better) than they are on this group of episodes.
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