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Released by: Timeless Media
Released on: December 9th, 2014.
Director: Various
Cast: Patrick McGoohan
Year: 1960 - 1962
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The Series:
Before Patrick McGoohan became forever identified with his groundbreaking surrealist series, The Prisoner, he rose to prominence on British television as a secret agent named John Drake in Danger Man (also known as Secret Agent which is the title that it was broadcast under in North America). The first installment ran in half-hour installments on British television from 1960 through 1962 and the show was brought back in an hour-long format to cash in on Bond-Fever in 1964 and it ran until 1966. McGoohan returned for two full color episodes in 1968, but by that point had grown tired of the series and that was to be the end for John Drake. Timeless Media's Secret Agent (a.k.a. Danger Man) - The Complete Collection compiles each and every one of the episodes in one handy boxed set format so that fans and collector's alike can easily add the entire run to their collections.
When the show first aired in 1960, Drake worked for N.A.T.O. (although when the series was brought back he worked for M9) as a spy and the premise of the show basically just shuttled him around from one cool location to the next and had him solve a problem. The formula, when you really boil it down to its essentials, is really quite simple and that regard the show is extremely repetitive. Thankfully, there are other factors which play a big part in the show as a whole, and it's those factors that make Danger Man a pretty interesting and enjoyable suspense series.
First and foremost, is John Drake himself. While he doesn't play the part with the same kind of brooding and intensity that he brought to The Prisoner, McGoohan really is tailor made for this part and as such he excels with the material. He handles the dialect easily enough and is completely convincing in the role. Even if much of this material shows its age and is somewhat dated, you will believe that Patrick McGoohan is John Drake. He looks the part, and he brings a completely appropriate sense of cool to the role that has obviously had an influence on other secret agents to come on both the big screen and the small one. By the time that McGoohan decided he wanted to move on and left the series, he was the highest paid actor in the entire United Kingdom and a fairly recognizable star on the international circuit as well. Eventually, with the onslaught of James Bond knock offs brought on by the amazing success of Dr. No in 1962, the writers would introduce more ornate gadgets with greater frequency but even when things bordered on the ridiculous (they never quite got there but some episodes get closer than others), McGoohan always kept his cool and his John Drake remains on the consummate super spies of popular entertainment. It's also interesting to see how McGoohan handles the various disguises and characters that Drake must impersonate to make his way through the various stages of each episode's predicament. In this regard, as recognizable as McGoohan is, he's also a bit of a chameleon when the story calls for it and this gives the show and its star an interesting 'master of disguise' feel that serves the plots well. It's also interesting how Drake's character relies first and foremost on his own brainpower. There are times where he gets into fights and occasionally he'll draw a gun on an enemy but by and large he thinks his way out rather than shoots his way out. He's also a very cold and calculating man and we see this early on in the series where he contradicts traditional super spy behavior by not running about with shapely members of the opposite sex (of course there are exceptions to every rule and it happens exactly twice but never to the extent one would expect), instead dedicating himself completely to his work. McGoohan lets us know that this is how his character gets off, so to speak, by giving the camera a knowing glance now and then and carrying it all of with a preparedness and no small amount of style.
While McGoohan's screen presence was a huge factor in the show's success, there were other key elements that played a part in what made the show work as well, and these shouldn't go unnoted. Part of what made the Bond films exciting was the lavish exotic locations where the action took place. While Danger Man doesn't get quite as unique in that department as Fleming's creation, there's still plenty of great footage from locales far and near used to create an interesting environment for our hero to do his thing. The action travels from continent to continent with Drake finding action and excitement in America one week, Europe the next, and even Asia when his travels find him exploring the seedier side of Japanese subterfuge.
Then there is, of course, the gadgets. John Drake had a custom trinket on hand when he needed it, especially towards the end of the series' run, though they weren't as farfetched as those used by Bond (no laser wrist watches here, mainly tiny cameras and the like). While the earlier episodes rely more on his cunning and intellect to save the day, by the middle of the series the gadgets got to be just as identifiable with the show as McGoohan was and these episodes show some very creative (if rather silly) design work. These little 'toys' gave Danger Man part of its visual appeal as did the care and attention to detail paid to the lighting and the set design, which was almost always completely mysterious in nature. Whereas the other, better known British spy series of the same era, The Avengers, was pure comic book pop, Danger Man definitely had a darker and more ominous look to it that made it a little more intense even if it wasn't quite as splendidly entertaining. Adding to the somewhat realistic nature of the show was the fact that sometimes Drake's actions had unfortunate consequences. While it didn't happen all the time, there are episodes in the series that will surprise viewers by showing bad things happening to good people and with Drake powerless to stop any of it. This is something that shows like The Avengers just really didn't do, and it differentiates Danger Man from the pack.
For a series that ran for a substantial amount of time, the show doesn't have much to talk about in terms of co-stars. Later episodes introduce Hobbs (Peter Madden) as Drake's superior officer with a hidden agenda but other than that, there were no other recurring characters for Drake to spar with. While this was interesting in that it really made the series rely even more heavily on McGoohan and it allowed new viewers to pick up on the show without having to worry about continuity, it didn't allow the show to play with ongoing subplots or really develop much of Drake's character outside of each episode's requirements. In one way it works in that it keeps Drake mysterious and cold, but on the other hand those same qualities don't lend themselves to the viewer necessarily wanting an ongoing relationship with the character when there really isn't much to invest in. The only two-parter in the whole run are the last two episodes, and even then if you haven't seen the first part you'll still be able to figure out what's going on in the second one.
The show has gone on to have considerable influence, starting with the show's follow up, The Prisoner, which dealt with some of the same themes and in a similar visual manner. You'll see a penny-farthing bicycle on the wall in one episode if you look carefully and there are some similarities between the characters of John Drake and Number Six. There were Secret Agent comics published by Gold Key in the sixties as well as a few spin-off novels that continued Drake's adventures off screen. The animated Danger Mouse which aired around the same time in the UK (and which has also been released on DVD through A&E) was an obvious parody of the successful show. A cult following understandably developed around the series and it is still going strong to this day.
Sitting down and watching this material en masse is a chore due to the aforementioned repetition in terms of storytelling but Danger Man (or Secret Agent if you prefer) does hold up well now, decades after it was first made. It's still an interesting show with some truly effective moments in almost every episode. It gets predictable at times, but McGoohan is completely enjoyable in the lead and he makes the material his own. Age isn't always kind to television series, but in this case it hasn't really tarnished this material much at all. It's not as fresh as it probably felt in the sixties, but it is still very entertaining and well made.
Video/Audio/Extras:
These episodes were all composed for 1.33.1 television broadcast and that's how they're presented here. With the exception of the Koroshi and Shinda Shima episodes, everything is black and white (those last two episodes are in full color). Contrast varies a little bit in spots but overall it looks decent and while there is definitely a bit of print damage here and there, for the most part the picture is clean and clear enough that we can forgive the small blemishes that show up from time to time. Mpeg compression artifacts do pop up in a couple of darker spots though thankfully these are few and far between. Edge enhancement doesn't prove to be a problem though some aliasing and mild shimmering is fairly constant and none of the transfers are flagged for progressive scan playback. The color episodes look fairly vibrant though warmer colors reds look just a little flat - this could be the way they were shot, however. There are ITV logos all over the packaging for this release so maybe it's safe to assume these are the same transfers used on the Network DVD release that happened in the UK some time ago?
The English language Dolby Digital Mono presentation isn't perfect by a long stretch and there are a few episodes where it isn't hard to pick up on some background hiss in spots. Thankfully, however, more of them than not things at least sound decent if not great. Dialogue can be a bit soft in some episodes but in others it can be quite clear. These are far from reference quality tracks but they do get the job done and they could have been a whole lot worse. There are no alternate language or subtitle options provided.
All of these episodes do feature the original British opening, but the US opening sequence is NOT included as an extra. What is included in the set is an interview with Catharine McGoohan, the late Patrick's wife, who talks about how he was actually born in New York and then raised in Ireland. She then shares some stories about how he got into acting, how he worked, different roles that he played over the years, his respect for the technical side of the movie and TV industry, and of course, how they met and what their relationship was like. This piece is just under half an hour and it's quite a nice addition to the set. The box packaging says that there are bonus commentaries somewhere in the set but exactly where they are would seem to remain a mystery - there's nothing off of any of the menu screens on the seventeen discs in the set. The Network said mentioned earlier had a whole bunch of supplements but it doesn't seem that they were carried over to this domestic release.
The Final Word:
ecret Agent (a.k.a. Danger Man) - The Complete Collection is a great way to get the entire John Drake run in your collection in one fell swoop. While you're not going to want to sit down and watch every episode back to back, more often than not the show proves to be a lot of fun with some solid mysteries and interesting spy action. This material holds up well, particularly if you're a Patrick McGoohan fan.
