'Duel In Venice', the third 'Return' instalment to be broadcast in the U.K., is popular with fans, and even Ian Ogilvy cites it as his favourite episode. I.T.V. chose it for their 'Best Of British' season in the summer of 1982. I take a different view though.
It opens ( as you would expect ) in Venice, where Simon is on holiday with his best friend's daughter ( aye aye! ) Sally ( Cathryn Harrison ). He is called away from their restaurant table by a phone call. But the caller rings off without giving his name. Templar returns to the table to find Sally gone. A waiter tells him that she left with a man. Finding a radio at the scene, he hears the voice of a man he had thought long dead - ex-mercenary Jed Blacket ( Maurice Colbourne ) tells the Saint that he plans to kill Sally in six hours time, and challenges him to find and stop him.
Around the girl's neck is a collar with an acoustic trigger. Should she try to shout for help, it will tighten to the point of decapitation. Enlisting the aid of lady gondolier Claudia ( Carole Andre ), Templar goes on a quest, facing booby-traps and gangsters galore, to find Sally before it is too late...
So what don't I like about this? Well, the name of the villain for one thing. 'Jed Blacket'? Blimey, that's a pre-John Buchan era name if ever I heard one. I would have liked to have known a bit more about the character's backstory. Just what was Templar doing in Mozambique five years ago anyway to get involved with such a man? As Blacket, the late Maurice Colbourne ( best remembered for the Thatcherite soap 'Howard's Way' ) is too hammy to be taken seriously. Not only does he physically resemble Leslie Crowther on a bad day, but his manic laugh put me in mind of Frank Gorshin's 'The Riddler' from 'Batman'. As was the case with 'The Nightmare Man', a different actor ( such as say Colin Blakely ) as the villain would have been a big improvement.
The plot bears a strong resemblance to 'The Deadly Quest Affair', an episode of the fourth season of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', also produced by Anthony Spinner. Maybe he suggested the idea to Terence Feely.
The late Feely was, like John Kruse, one of the original series' writers, penning amongst other things 'The Convienient Monster'.
Nice Venice locations. Some good physical stuff for Ogilvy ( or rather Ogilvy's stand-in ). Cathryn Harrison is the daughter of Noel, who was 'Mark Slate' in 'The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.'.
So, while this is not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, it is not the classic it is often made out to be. For me, its just an O.K. story.
( One final point - Blacket works alone. So who made the phone call to Simon at the beginning of the episode? It could not have been Blacket himself, he was too busy kidnapping the girl. )
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