Did you really think we’d get through an entire ITC series without them using ‘that’ footage of a white jaguar going over a cliff? ITC were very fond of that particular piece of footage and recycled it for about a dozen of their shows. As a result whenever you see a character driving about in a white jag in the likes of The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) or Jason King, it inevitably means they’ll be going off a cliff at some point. Presumably this stunt was quite expensive to film, using multiple cameras and destroying a vehicle in the process, and ITC were determined to get their money’s worth out of it. Few could argue that they didn’t succeed, one of the earliest appearances of the white jag footage was in a 1966 episode of The Saint, and it was still being trotted out as late as 1984 in an episode of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.
For the record, here the white jag footage is used to depict the fate of Julian Hunt, a private investigator and one of two friends whose deaths Gene is determined to avenge. Both have met their end as a result of investigating the Castle Delguedo in Italy (the other, insurance agent Chris Burley was found face down in a river) and since Gene is well acquainted with the Contessa Maria Delguedo (Stephanie Beacham) getting an invite to the Castle Delguedo comes easy to him. Consider that all this backstory is related to us in the first two minutes of this episode, and it should give you an idea of how much plot exposition this show likes to burden its audience with. As well as an excuse to re-use the white jag footage, this pre-credits scene also serves as the obligatory excuse to plug Chevrolet cars, with Gene showing up to Hunt’s funeral in his silver Stingray, while the helicopter that Parminter gate-crashes the funeral with has been seen enough times in this series to raise suspicions of product placement too.
If the title hasn’t already clued you in, this episode finds the series once again getting bitten by the 007 bug and attempting to sell Gene as a small screen answer to Bond…a more accurate title for this episode would be ‘Icons are Forever, because Diamonds have already been taken’. Still, you can see the logic in the series’ cashing in on James Bond, taking into account that this episode was first broadcast in March 1973 and ‘Live and Let Die’ was due out a few months later in July 1973. What with the publics’ appetite wetted for both a new Bond film and a new Bond, the timing for The Adventurer to once again go all 007 on us can’t be faulted. It is unusual to be able to credit an Adventurer episode with being in touch with the times it was made in. There may even be a case for this episode being slightly ahead of its time, due to the Contessa Maria’s latest hobby being Kung-Fu. Icons are Forever’s showcasing of Kung-Fu anticipating the craze for both Kung-Fu movies and martial arts itself that wouldn’t hit Britain till about a year later. Not that Gene is too enamoured by the idea of a woman practicing Kung-Fu and using her uncle’s security staff as sparing partners. “Whatever happened to needlework and knitting” Gene complains to her uncle, Luigi Del Santo Holvera (Noel Hillman) who has turned the Castle Delguedo into a veritable fortress riddled with bugging devices and surveillance equipment, supposedly in order to protect the family’s treasures and art collection.
After a good few episodes in which the whole ‘Secret Agent’ side to Gene’s life has largely been forgotten about it is a little jarring to see him back in full-on bargain basement Bond mode. Dressed in a smart red tuxedo and sporting all manner of fancy gadgets (including an electric shaver that doubles as an anti-bugging device) Gene is also surrounded by a cast who may have conceivably been in running for Bond girl or Bond villain roles at some point, but had to settle for appearing in The Adventurer instead. As The Adventurer is so unabashfully doing Bond here, Icons are Forever allows for a more colourful variety of bad guys than we’re used to from this series. Gene’s main nemesis in this episode being Holvera’s head of security Darron (Alfred Marks) who is especially hung up on protecting a Russian icon that is in the family’s possession, and has a tendency to snuff out anyone with an interest in it, including Hunt and Burley. Gene’s sudden appearance at the castle, close relationship with the Kung-Fu Contessa and wandering eye for the icon puts him too on Darron’s hit list.
How do you even begin to describe Alfred Marks’ appearance in this episode? His glasses, moustache and cigar combo plus a dress sense that favours sports outfits, suggests a man who can’t decide if he wants to cosplay as Groucho Marx or a PE teacher and eventually decided on a mixture of both. By rights Marks’ bizarre appearance should make him this episode’s natural scene-stealer, but he isn’t without competition as we also get a young, wild Alan Lake playing Darron’s second in command. To cast Alan Lake in anything was to put in an order for a slice of ham, but cast him as a hot headed Italian who knows Kung-Fu and you were pretty much guaranteed the entire pig on a spit roast. True to form, Lake is reliably over the top here, with his out of control sideburns, overblown Italian accent, plus all the snarling and eyeball rolling he gets up to in the Kung-Fu sequences, Lake effortlessly looks like a man possessed…or a man coked to the gills. Icons are Forever captures Alan Lake in all his 1970s hellraiser glory…praise the Lord and pass the amyl nitrate!!!
While the Italian settings and accents in this episode don’t always convince they do result in Icons are Forever evoking the more colourful end of the late 60’s Eurospy genre. Films, generally made in Italy that attempted to hitch a ride on the James Bond gravy train, and saw predominantly European casts playing opposite slightly bland, has been American actors like Ray Danton, Ken Clark, and of course the lad himself Gene Barry. Gene’s path to The Adventurer being paved with films of that ilk like Subterfuge, Maroc 7 and Istanbul Express (which saw Gene sharing the screen with euro sex symbol Senta Berger and French actor/musician Moustache).
The late 60s Euro vibe to Icons are Forever is added to by the fact that someone involved in this episode would appear to be well acquainted with Mario Bava’s 1960s classic ‘Danger Diabolik’. Specifically, the middle-section of Bava’s film in which masked criminal Diabolik scales the wall of an Italian castle, and steals a priceless necklace, outwitting the CCTV system by taking a photograph of the room with the necklace still in it then placing the photo in front of the camera. Thus, allowing Diabolik to steal the necklace from under the noses of the dim witted security officers, who are unaware that they are watching a still photograph of the room. If that scheme was good enough for Diabolik, then it was certainly good enough for Gene Bradley too. The centrepiece of this episode finding Gene scaling the wall of an Italian castle and stealing a priceless Russian icon, outwitting the CCTV system by taking a photograph of the room with the Russian icon still in it then placing the photo in front of the camera. Thus, allowing Gene to steal the icon from under the noses of the dim witted security officers, who are unaware that they are watching a still photograph of the room. Coincidence? Hmmm….the ‘placing a still photograph of a room in front of a CCTV camera’ has been done in so many films and TV shows, and I suspect that Danger Diabolik wasn’t the first to do this. Yet, the Italian castle setting and the scaling of the walls of the castle that precedes the robbery do push you towards the idea of Danger Diabolik being an influence here. Unlikely as a Mario Bava-The Adventurer connection might sound.
Who did it better Gene Bradley or Diabolik?
As to why Gene has turned master criminal and is trying to get his hands on a Russian icon? Well to be honest, I’d urge you not to concentrate on the plot of this one too deeply, and instead just approach it as a simple heist caper that pits superspy against a then hi-tech surveillance system. Attempting to gain a firmer grasp on the intricacies of Icons are Forever’s plot is only likely to lead you down the usual head scratching alleyways, as only The Adventurer can. For those brave enough to wrestle further with this plot though, it seems stealing the icon is merely a front for Gene’s real purpose at the castle which is to help Maria escape to Rome where she plans to marry her true love Philippe. Once a married woman, Maria will be able to take control of the family estate away from her uncle who has fallen under the spell of the crooked Darron. As to why the icon is considered to be so valuable? Well, it seems it contains a hither-to unknown form of alloy, the ownership of which will put Darron in a position of power over the world’s business leaders…or something like that.
Despite its plot being typically confusing around the edges, Icons are Forever might well be the highpoint of the later Adventurer episodes. Alfred Marks, Stephanie Beacham and even Alan Lake’s crazed muggings lend the series a much needed shot in the arm of charisma, and the Eurospy vibe helps give this episode a distinct, if unoriginal, personality. Let’s face it, if you’re going to pilfer from both James Bond and Mario Bava you really can’t go wrong…the sight of a lycra clad Stephanie Beacham Kung-Fu fighting with Alan Lake is merely the icing on the cake.
This blog post is dedicated to all the characters in ITC shows who died by driving a white jag over a cliff. RIP
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