The Avengers (TV Series) A Chorus of Frogs (1963) User Reviews

Venus and Steed gets caught up in trouble on a ship in the Mediterranean

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 May 2017]

After a diver is found dead having apparently been to a depth of a hundred fathoms Venus gets a job singing on a ship sailing in the Mediterranean and Steed stows away. It turns out the diver was one of four, known as 'The Frogs', and his three friends think he must have been murdered and are determined to get there revenge. It turns out Steed had told them about their friends death but he wants to know what happened and why. It turns out that the diver actually died in an accident during an experiment to find a way for divers to work at greater depth without the need for lengthy decompression. If this works it could be valuable to businesses that work at depth or foreign powers; valuable enough to kill for.

Sadly this is the last of Julie Stevens's performances as Venus; it is interesting how her character developed over her half dozen episodes. She is far less naïve now. It was fun to see how she reacted to finding Steed in her room… she knew there was going to be trouble. The setting is interesting although more could have been done to make it feel like they were at sea… there is no obvious movement and not even a hint of engine noise; this is a small quibble though. The cast does a solid job; it is quite a bit bigger than in many episodes so there are plenty of possible suspects and possible victims. Overall I found this to be an enjoyable episode.

Fake settings

[slabihoud · 6/10 · 7 September 2022]

This episode asks for an enormous amount of fantasy. The story itself is rather trite, but a little exotic scenery would have helped since the story evolves around a yacht in the Mediterranean sea and deep sea diving is a major part. Well, can you imagine? Because, you never see the yacht, although almost all scenes take place on the "yacht" (100% studio setting), we see interiors (which never move and which could at least have reminded us to be on a ship), we don't even see water although deep sea diving is an important part of the plot!

Sadly, it is the last episode with Venus Smith, who seems to really enjoy herself and appears as if she were constantly amused by all this fake settings! I will miss her!

Final episode for Venus.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 28 January 2024]

Steed's holiday in Greece is interrupted by an assignment, he's asked to look into the death of an experienced, deep sea diver, who died of the Benz during a routine mission. He happens to bump into Venus Smith.

It's quite an enjoyable episode, I rather enjoyed the story, and I definitely liked the variety of characters. It's always good to see Steed teamed up with Venus.

Two very well known faces here in Eric Pohlmann and John Carson, both are rather good I thought.

Notable for being the final episode for Julie Stevens, I will really miss her character, one thing I won't miss however, the god awful singing, some of the numbers in this one are excruciating.

I didn't mind the sets here, I thought the sets look rather decent, it's just a shame that the ship is in a permanent state of silence.

Overall, this one was quite good fun.

7/10.

Bathysphere of DOOM

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 27 December 2022]

A diver is accidentally killed during an experiment wherein a scientist is trying to find a chemical mix that will allow men to go deeper and stay longer than normal. His friends, a team of diver-smugglers, contact British Intelligence, who send Steed to look into it. The entire story takes place on board the huge yacht of a man named Mason, who's financing the experiments for possible profit should they be successful. One of his many guests happens to be singer Venus Smith, who gets VERY annoyed when she finds stowaway Steed hiding out in her cabin, while swearing he had nothing to do with her being booked to perform there! (We never learn if he lied about this or not, but, it does seem too much of a coincidence to be one.)

At a mere 49:26, this is one of the shortest episodes of the season, which may explain why there isn't even a single establishing location shot to be found in its entire length! Director Raymond Menmuir also did "The Nutshell" in season 3, another story told in a very claustrophobic environment.

The guest cast makes this one. Eric Pohlmann plays the too-laid-back millionaire, eager to turn a blind eye to any bad things going on around him if they interfere with his making money. Aside from supplying the voice of Blofeld in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, he was also the main villain in the excellent low-budget espionage thriller NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS (highly reccomended!).

Frank Gatliff is scientist Pitt-Norton, who does care about the loss of human life, and only agrees to work with the wrong side when his own life is threatened. Apart from 4 other AVENGERS episodes, I've also seen him in THE IPCRESS FILE, a DANGER MAN, a Jon Pertwee DOCTOR WHO, a RETURN OF THE SAINT, and a MISS MARPLE.

Yvonne Shima is Chinese Communist agent Anna, who pushes her way into things for purely political reasons, commits murder to prevent interference and has no compuction about putting Venus' life in danger to complete the experiment. She had a brief but memorable role as "Sister Lily", who welcomed James Bond & Honey Rider to the villain's lair in DR. NO.

Collette Wilde is Helena, on of the divers who believes the accident was really a murder, and wants revenge; Steed runs afoul of her early-on, but later, he uses her justifiable anger to his advantage to put things in order.

John Carson is Aristos, another diver who fails to get anywhere with Venus, and winds up liking Steed, believing he will get to the truth for them. I've seen him in many things, but the one that most stands out for me was TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA.

Writer Martin Woodhouse did 7 AVENGERS episodes over seasons 2, 3 & 4. Before that, he did no less than 22 episodes of SUPERCAR!

I suspect that within the fictional world of the series, Steed may have realized that it was wrong to keep putting his friend Venus in so much danger, which may explain why this was the last time we saw her.

The 2009 Region 2 DVD had somewhat grainy picture but CLEAR sound on this one; this episode also has an audio commentary with Julie Stevens! I'm looking forward to listening to that.

Julie Stevens bows out of the series

[kevinolzak · 4/10 · 29 December 2010]

"A Chorus of Frogs" was the last of the six episodes featuring Julie Stevens as nightclub singer Venus Smith, and the weakest since the first. The two songs she sings are the worst yet, and the ho-hum plot never really gets moving, but an excellent cast makes up for the dullness. Michael Gover, last seen in "Man in the Mirror," makes his second and last appearance as One Six, who here summons Steed away from a Greek vacation to investigate the mysterious diving death of Andreas Stephanopoulus (Makki Marseilles), member of a small time group of international smugglers known as The Frogs. Steed stows away on board a ship owned by Mason (Eric Pohlmann), where Venus Smith is currently singing, and meets up with other Frogs- Ariston (John Carson), Helena (Colette Wilde), and Jackson (Alan Haywood, later seen in "The Gilded Cage"), all vengeful as to how and why their fallen comrade died. Mason's ship houses a secret laboratory where Dr. Pitt-Norton (Frank Gatliff, previously seen in "One for the Mortuary" and "The Sell-Out," later seen in "Love All") conducts experiments mixing gases to grant deep sea divers greater safety to go further down, while villainous foreign agent Anna Lee (Yvonne Shima) tries to keep things under wraps by harpooning a spying Jackson, whose murder is branded an accident (Stephanopoulas is revealed to be a willing volunteer for a fatal experiment in a mini-submarine, his body pulled up and later dumped overboard). The last of the globe-trotting episodes not set in Britain, with little banter between Steed and Venus, who initially responds angrily to discovering his unwelcome presence in her cabin, but later reverts to her usual smiling pushover (the climactic fisticuffs find her crawling along the floor to a secure hiding place). From here on, it would only be Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson for the final 111 episodes. Eric Pohlmann's voice is instantly recognizable as that of the unseen Blofeld in the James Bond features "From Russia with Love" (1963) and "Thunderball" (1965), while pistol-happy Colette Wilde, best known as one of the scantily clad beauties in the shocking "Circus of Horrors" (1960), was later seen in "The Grandeur That Was Rome." The most humorous performance belongs to John Carson, a standout actor who did two later episodes, "Second Sight" and "Dial a Deadly Number," but remains best known for roles in Hammer horrors "The Plague of the Zombies" (1966), "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1969), and "Captain Kronos:Vampire Hunter" (1972), directed by AVENGERS writer Brian Clemens, and featuring a cameo from Ian Hendry (the original AVENGER himself, David Keel).