3.11 - Build a Better Mousetrap

[darren]

Written by Brian Clemens

Directed by Peter Hammond

Production completed: 28 August 1963

[Ian Wegg]

For over a week now I have been laid up with a severe dose of flu, the only upside of which is that I have been able to catch up on some Cathy Gale era episodes recorded from the True Entertainment channel.

As I am unfamiliar with them I decided to watch a few before reviewing in order to get some consistency in my scoring. Having now done so my initial thoughts are that, in general, I don't enjoy these as much as the later episodes. I'm aware that many consider the video-tape programmes to be the best but I find that the confines of the studio sets also restricts my enjoyment, and consequently my favourites have turned out to be those with the greatest proportion of location filming.

My attitude may also be tainted by the fact that, unlike series 4, I have no memory of these from the original broadcast and therefore they lack the nostalgia element. Cathy Gale was very much my father's favourite whereas I've always been an Emma Peel fan.

So far Build a Better Mousetrap has been one of my favourites. As well as a small amount of exterior shooting it has a good story, some witty banter (the pub landlord's story of his wife's fox hunting exploit is a laugh out loud moment), a strong story and a very good denouement.

I've given this a benchmark 7.

~iw

[Sam]

For over a week now I have been laid up with a severe dose of flu, the only upside of which is that I have been able to catch up on some Cathy Gale era episodes recorded from the True Entertainment channel.

As I am unfamiliar with them I decided to watch a few before reviewing in order to get some consistency in my scoring. Having now done so my initial thoughts are that, in general, I don't enjoy these as much as the later episodes. I'm aware that many consider the video-tape programmes to be the best but I find that the confines of the studio sets also restricts my enjoyment, and consequently my favourites have turned out to be those with the greatest proportion of location filming.

My attitude may also be tainted by the fact that, unlike series 4, I have no memory of these from the original broadcast and therefore they lack the nostalgia element. Cathy Gale was very much my father's favourite whereas I've always been an Emma Peel fan.

So far Build a Better Mousetrap has been one of my favourites. As well as a small amount of exterior shooting it has a good story, some witty banter (the pub landlord's story of his wife's fox hunting exploit is a laugh out loud moment), a strong story and a very good denouement.

I've given this a benchmark 7.

~iw

Being in the US, I never got to see Cathy until the 1990's. There was a bit of an adjustment at first, due to the lower production quality, but nowadays a lot of my favorites are from her era.

[darren]

The quality of the original Gale episodes when released in America was awful - we had the odd one turn up on Contender videos.

I love this episode. It's a good fun script from Brian Clemens - shame he didn't do a rewrite for season 5. The wonderful two old ladies - any scene with them is just brilliant. It's not really a Peter Hammond showpiece but his direction has energy and spirited performances. It's great fun this one.

[Ian Wegg]

Being in the US, I never got to see Cathy until the 1990's. There was a bit of an adjustment at first, due to the lower production quality, but nowadays a lot of my favorites are from her era.

I'm finding it difficult to rate these with just one viewing, and getting past the production values is undoubtedly an issue. By comparison I'm also currently watching Scotland Yard on talking Pictures TV and the quality is an order of magnitude higher despite being made a decade earlier.

However I think that there is a strong possibility that I may return to some of these again and find a new appreciation. Time will tell.

~iw

[Rhonda]

9 for me. Experience shows in the elderly actors. They chose a great setting for the watermill that I tracked down with the help of the Avengerland site once. The early motorbike scenes involving Cathy are an eye opening moment - even in the rain.

[Frankymole]

I'm finding it difficult to rate these with just one viewing, and getting past the production values is undoubtedly an issue. By comparison I'm also currently watching Scotland Yard on talking Pictures TV and the quality is an order of magnitude higher despite being made a decade earlier.

They were probably made on film rather than videotape.

As David K. Smith says on The Avengers Forever:

"If there is a strike against this episode, then it must be the dreadful night filming of Cathy and friends riding their motorcycles, which is a real shame. Instead of filming in the day with a stopped-down camera, which is how such things are done ordinarily, they actually shot at night. After a transfer of the film to video for the original broadcast, then from video to film for local broadcast and archiving, and then from film back to video for home distribution, the result is unwatchable."

The sound on the DVD suffers from a lot of noise reduction, it seems, so I had to refer to the script to discern what some lines were.

Peter Hammond once again pulls the trick of having a lot of high angle shots and multi-level sets so it feels a much more "vertical" episode than many and largely escapes the feeling of being studio-bound. There are a lot of elaborately-painted floors, from cobbles to boards to rugs! And the sets feel like they surround us so we're in the action (such as it is). All the stuffed animals in the pub gave me the creeps - there seem to be more and more of them appearing as the episode goes on!

[Frankymole]

I'm fairly certain that isn't Dudley Sutton (who already had some fairly hefty leading guest roles in 1964 like the lower picture here from The Human Jungle episode Ring of Hate, and didn't look much like that extra playing "Pimples" in the biker gang):

notsutton.jpg (144.1 KiB) Viewed 140 times

sutton.jpg (104.04 KiB) Viewed 140 times

[mousemeat]

hard to say, but the first picture doesn't seem to look anything like the second pict...

[Allard]

For me the "rawness" of the outside motor riding shots worked well, gives it a sense of realism.