The Persuaders - Complete Series [1971] [DVD]

Between heroic spells as the Saint and James Bond, Roger Moore was teamed with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders, a derivative but fun series about a couple of millionaire dilettante adventurers who swan around the world competing for the attention of beautiful women and getting involved in perplexing mysteries. Moore is Lord Brett Sinclair, an upper crust Brit of impeccable breeding, while Curtis is Danny Wilde, an up-from-the-streets self-made man whose trademark is a pair of brown gloves. The allegedly tasteful Brett and the crasser Danny both model a succession of garish early 70s fashions while their pursuits of duplicitous crumpet usually wind up with the women getting away and the heroes stuck with each other. Given all that, this may well be the most blatantly homoerotic of all the buddy television pairings (see the eponymous stars of Starsky and Hutch, Regan and Carter in The Sweeney, Bodie and Doyle of The Professionals) that ran ove! r the screen in the 70s, in which the male leads sublimated their feelings for each other by pulling out their guns and shooting at baddies. --Kim Newman

The entire cult 1970s action series. In 'Overture' playboy Lord Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore) and millionaire oil tycoon Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) are brought together as a crime-fighting team by the crusading Judge Fulton. 'Angie... Angie' sees Danny attempting to break off the partnership when Fulton suspects one of his old friends of being a hitman. 'Five Miles to Midnight' has the playboy crime-fighters charged with getting an assassin-turned-informant out of Italy. 'The Gold Napoleon' finds the duo investigating a failed attempt on Danny's life. 'Take Seven' has them become involved in an explosive situation after coming to the aid of an attractive heiress. In 'Greensleeves' Brett returns to the derelict Sinclair family home when he discovers that it has acquired a new and unwanted occupant. 'Powerswitch' has Danny and Brett investigate the murder of a beautiful girl whose body is found floating in the Cote d'Azure. 'The Time and Place' sees the duo's attempts to help a pretty young woman backfire when she disappears and the body of a dead man turns up nearby. In 'Someone Like Me' Danny encounters someone who is masquerading as Brett. 'Anyone Can Play' sees Danny playing the roulette tables in Brighton as a result of being mistaken for a communist paymaster. 'The Old, the New and the Deadly' has Danny and Brett become involved with an embittered ex-Nazi. 'Chain of Events' sees Danny chained to an attache case containing a bomb when he and Brett go camping. In 'That's Me Over There' Danny poses as Brett in order to expose a corrupt millionaire, but his ploy goes awry when the real Brett is kidnapped. 'The Long Goodbye' finds Danny and Brett investigating a case of murder after discovering a skeleton in a crashed plane. 'The Man in the Middle' has Brett go undercover at a dangerous secret rendezvous. 'Element of Risk' sees Danny pinned with some bullion robbery charges. 'A Home of One's Own' has Danny stumble upon a nest of criminal activity when he buys a cottage in the country. 'Nuisance Value' finds Danny caught up in the aftermath of a fake kidnapping plot. In 'The Morning After' Brett wakes up to discover that he is a married man. 'Read and Destroy' sees Brett and Danny on the case of a spy who plans to publish his memoirs and thereby reveal all his contacts. 'A Death in the Family' finds the globe-trotting duo on the trail of a killer who has been bumping off Brett's relatives. 'The Ozerov Inheritance' concerns a private journal and an old lady's marriage to a member of the Russian Royal family. 'To the Death, Baby' has Brett and Danny try to place a spanner in the works when a gigolo begins courting an heiress. Finally, in 'Someone Waiting', Brett becomes the object of murderous attentions when he takes up racing driving again.