My buddy Michael Eugene Wilson happens to be the biggest Barbara Steele fan I know. (Mike has his own blog: michaelsmovieworld.blogspot.com.) He recently sent me a YouTube link for an episode of the 1960s British TV spy series DANGER MAN, in which Steele was a guest star. The title of the episode was "The Man On The Beach", and it was originally broadcast in 1966.
In the episode British agent John Drake (Patrick McGoohan) is sent to Jamaica under secret orders to ferret out a double agent. Drake winds up being accused of being a double agent himself, and while trying to avoid his own superiors, attempts to discover who has set him up. During the mission he encounters the slinky Cleo (Barbara Steele), a mysterious woman who goes out of her way to attract his attention.
I haven't seen very many episodes of DANGER MAN. It has never played in syndication on any of the channels I've had access to over the years. Watching "The Man On The Beach", I can see why the show doesn't have the lasting cult status of, say, THE MAN FROM UNCLE or THE AVENGERS. DANGER MAN is a more dramatic and lower-key look as espionage--it's far from James Bond territory. Patrick McGoohan's John Drake isn't a charming, heroic ladies man--he's quirky, acerbic, somewhat insolent, and he manages to rub just about everyone he meets the wrong way. (According to some sources, McGoohan had those attributes in real life.) DANGER MAN deals with the grubby, non-glamorous world of intelligence gathering. (In America, the show was retitled SECRET AGENT MAN, and the title sequence was changed to include Bobby Rivers' song, which is probably more well-known now in the U.S. than the program it inspired.)
Barbara Steele's best attribute was her unique screen presence, and "The Man On The Beach" makes full use of it. We first see her sitting at a hotel bar, languidly smoking a cigarette, the epitome of the exotic, intriguing woman. Steele's Cleo doesn't waste time making herself known to Drake--but her interest in him has more to do with espionage than romance. (Patrick McGoohan, a married man who took his personal life very seriously, didn't want John Drake to be the typical bed-hopping secret agent.)
Seeing Steele in this episode makes one realize how gorgeous she was in contemporary clothes--the actress didn't get any chances to wear modern-day fashions during her many Italian Gothic horror stints. Viewers watching this episode will also get the opportunity to hear Steele's actual voice, which is always a plus. I wish Steele had gotten more to do in the episode, but she did get main guest star billing, which was important back in 1960s television.
Unfortunately Steele's character isn't around for the last segment of the story, and I have to say my interest waned a bit without her presence. (This episode of DANGER MAN was an hour long, and one can tell that there was some padding added to the main story to fill out the running time.) The plot of "The Man On The Beach" was diverting enough, although it's quite obvious the episode was shot on indoor sets in Britain instead of outdoor Jamaican locations. Director Peter Yates (who would go on to helm features such as BULLITT) goes out of his way to bring some visual vitality to the story, despite the low budget and the studio sets. There are a couple fight scenes, but these are presented in a realistic manner, and after them Drake is shown as worn out and disheveled--he doesn't come out of them with perfect hair and clothes.
Considering how well Barbara Steele fit into this episode, and considering how much time she spent in Italy in the 1960s, one wonders why she wasn't involved in the many 007 Eurospy kncok-offs made during the same period. (Perhaps she was approached to be in some of them, and she turned them down for whatever reason?) With her exotic, almost mystical quality, Steele would have perfect as a Bond lady or a femme fatale involved in international intrigue. "The Man On The Beach" proved that Barbara Steele could do much more than Euro Gothic.
