The Affair at Castelevara

I have been tracking the spy gadgets that show up in the Danger Man / Secret Agent series, and as of three episodes before this one we had hit gadget number eight in 'Such Men are Dangerous'; a standard issue round, metal eavesdropping device (bug) mated to a radio receiver (using the IMDb sequence of episodes).

The same bug appears in this episode. But, for the first time the gadget does not belong to John Drake. Rather, he spots the bug in his room planted by the opposition. So does it count? Well I would say the gadget count remains at eight if for no other reason than it's the same gadget already cataloged. Is it worth even mentioning though? Apparently yes, because I'm posting this review. ;> We will see this handy device again before the series ends.

When former South American revolutionary leader Ramon Torres returns to his home country, he is imprisoned and sentenced to death. Drake teams up with an American agent to free Torres.

Set in one of those fictitious South American country so beloved by ITC, The Affair at Castelevara is one of the weakest episode of Danger Man. It's quite talky and dull. Even Patrick McGoohan seems a little bored. There's a fight scene midway through the episode with a glaringly obvious stunt double for McGoohan as well.

The guest actors are good overall. Eric Pohlmann gives a touching performance as a bitter cinema projectionist, and Aubrey Morris is good as a comically inept policeman assigned to tail Drake. The great André Morell is wasted in a small role.

One more interesting point: in the cinema, there's a poster of actor John Fraser, who guest starred as Rawson in Don't Nail Him Yet.

Like most episodes of "Secret Agent", "The Affair at Castelevara" is set in some fictional country. And, like many of these shows, the fictional nation is a thinly veiled version of a real country. In this case, it's clearly set in Spain. The police wear hats just like Spanish police and the political climate is that of the Franco-era Spain.

The show begins with the ex-leader of a group of revolutionaries, Ramon Torres, returning to his native land to live out his final years (this is pretty stupid if you think about it). He soon is arrested and the government plans on executing him for various atrocities. The British and Americans want Torres rescued--and, oddly, so does apparently everyone except for the government. Along the way, there are lots of government agents, spies and some smuggled film. One of the government agents is a bit of a buffoon who, oddly, Drake seems to like and he rescues the guy!

At about 35 minutes into the show, Drake is fighting with folks in a movie theater. However, I was very surprised that the use of a stunt double was done so horribly here. Usually the show does this rather seamlessly. Here, however, when 'Drake' is up on stage, it's clearly--VERY CLEARLY--not him! Watch it yourself. This, combined with the talky nature of the episode, make for an adequate episode at best. Not bad...nor all that good.