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50th Anniversary Viewing
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The Saint
"Portrait of Brenda"
Originally aired February 2, 1969 (UK); May 16, 1969 (US)
Xfinity said:
The search for the truth about a singer's apparent suicide leads Templar into a world of gurus and slain artists.
Simon resorts to the always-disappointing self-introduction, and does it riffing on Bond to boot..."The name is Templar...Simon Templar." IMDb had a totally bogus trivia post about how this was in celebration of Moore having learned he'd won the role of James Bond...never mind that when this episode was made, 1973's
Live and Let Die was three films away.
That Xfinity description was a bit confusing for me as Templar finds the body of a murdered male artist acquaintance named Alan in the teaser. He subsequently learns from a ladyfriend of Alan's, a singer named Diane (Anna Carteret), that Brenda, Alan's sister and the subject of a portrait that he painted, was the singer who'd apparently committed suicide some time before that.
Diane's initially in the dark about what happened to Alan, and Templar has the Bond-worthy exchange with her when she asks about his absence:
Diane: I know, he got cold feet.
Simon: In a manner of speaking, yes.
Simon learns that Alan was investigating a guru (Marne Maitland, a.k.a. Lazar from
The Man with the Golden Gun; his character here is billed simply as "The Guru"), whom Diane has already taken him to see at that point; and that Alan was keeping his file on the suspect hidden behind Brenda's portrait. The file leads Simon to the home of a man named Beardsley, who has the place regularly maintained by a housekeeper who's never seen him. Simon subsequently discovers that Alan had traced money given to the Guru as having been deposited in a Bombay bank by Beardsley; and that Brenda had been giving a lot of money to the Guru.
Having learned of Beardsley's answering service, Simon makes a blackmail appointment via phone. At the parking garage, a large thug named Tony who'd attacked him earlier in the episode and had since been following him around tries to shoot him, and when Simon gets the drop on him, is shot himself. Tony is played by a noteworthy guest I never would have recognized by face: David Prowse! This is just a crappy phone shot of my TV screen, but I couldn't allow the moment to go uncommemorated: Bond vs. Vader!
Simon proceeds to the Beardsley cottage, where he has Inspector Teal and the Guru and his manservant cooperatively waiting. The person they're waiting for, the real "Beardsley," is the Guru's female assistant, Mrs. White (Petra Davies), who handles all of his finances and has been siphoning the cash donations. But she wasn't Alan's killer. It turns out that was Tony, who was working for Johnny Fox (Trevor Bannister), Brenda and Diane's producer, after Alan had learned that Fox had taken a £14,000 check meant for Brenda after her death. Teal is covertly manning the recording booth when Fox admits to it.
Simon's female confidante throughout the episode is a neighbor of Alan's named Josephine (Anne De Vigler), who was on the scene when Simon found his body.
This will be the last episode of
The Saint that I'll be covering in 50th anniversary sync, as the rest of the final American season consisted of already-viewed episodes from the previous British season. I will, however, be covering several episodes from the final British season that evidently didn't air in the US first-run, as part of my hiatus catch-up viewing, organized by their UK airdates.
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The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 21, episode 30
Originally aired May 18, 1969
As represented in
The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show
Ed said:
Singing the hit song from their latest album--The Age of Aquarius, that's right now?--The 5th Dimension!
Yes, they're finally plugging the album's title track here, though the single has already peaked at #1. The audio sounds like it's straight from the single. After the song Ed brings the group over to relay compliments from Sylvia and Betty, whom Ed's Wiki page tell me are his wife and daughter.
Ed said:
A very funny guy, comedy star George Carlin!
George does his "Big 3 News" sketch, in which he plays multiple parts, including the anchorman, a commercial announcer, the sports reporter, and the famous Hippy Dippy Weatherman...
Al Sleet said:
The record high today was once again at Presidio, Texas, where 2,846 people got high, man.
Tonight's forecast: Dark! Continued dark tonight, turning to partly light in the morning.
Ed said:
Liza's taking her turn at covering "Didn't We?," which a quick search on tv.com reminds me John Davidson had previously performed on the January 19 show...an episode that also included Liza doing different numbers ("Frank Mills" having been the one shown on
Best of). Following this performance,
Best of shows an audience bow for author Jacqueline Susann.
Ed said:
One of the hottest groups in show business, here are The 5th Dimension!
This time the group is getting ahead of matters, performing what will be their next charting single in the summer--evidently not yet released at this point--"Workin' on a Groovy Thing".
This clip uses low-quality video from the performance.
Also in the original episode according to tv.com:
Music:
--The 5th Dimension - "Up Up & Away"
--Liza Minnelli - "You Made Me So Very Happy"
--The West Point Glee Club sings a medley of military songs.
Comedy:
--Joan Rivers - talks about weight problems, childhood, etc.
--Bill Dana (comedian, in character as 'Flamenco Dancer' Jose Jimenez) - interviewed by Ed.
Also appearing:
--Vino Venito (sword balancer from "Circus, Circus" in Las Vegas) - balances candelabra.
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