Murder Cartel

It starts off with an assassination attempt on an Arab oil sheik Kemal in Rome which fails.

Hendricks, an American intelligence friend of Simon Templar is convinced that there will be another attempt made. A notorious assassin called Brown has been hired from South America. A shadowy murder cartel is behind it.

Only when Hendricks is killed. The Saint is after the cartel himself and impersonates Brown after getting the real Brown involved in a car accident.

Only a blonde woman called Laura (Britt Ekland) has latched onto Brown in the hotel he is staying at. Vidal (Helmut Berger) a representative of the cartel does not trust Brown as Templar tries to find the man at the top of the cartel.

Murder Cartel has a nice involving story, as Templar avenges the death of an old friend and stops another assassination.

Britt Ekland provides the glamour but it is very difficult to take her in her ultimate role seriously. The acting chops is left to Helmut Berger. He had a long association with the Italian director Visconti and had died a few weeks before I saw this episode.

Ian Ogilvy is no slouch here he does raise his performance because of Berger. In fact this is the first time I could see him as James Bond if Moore decided to quit once he completed Moonraker.