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The Persuaders!, Set 1

The Persuaders!, Set 1

List Price: $79.95
Your Price: $71.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nitro and Glycerine
Review: "Take two relatively harmless compounds, say 'nitro' and glycerine' mix them both together and you have a very potent combination, handle it carelessly and it could blow your head off"

That analogy sums up Curtis and Moore's characters perfectly in this stylish 70's series about a couple of bored Playboys looking for the next challenge.

Old tv shows from the 70's can look either very corny or very stylish these days, The Persuaders falls into the latter, a lot of money was spent making this show, with two big names in the lead roles, expensive and luxurious locations throughout Europe, no expense was spared making this show drip with wealth to make these Playboys lives appear exciting and believable, even the cars they drove, Curtis drove a Ferrari Dino 246GT and Moore a rebadged Aston Martin DBS.
Originally Broadcast in 1971 the series was originally planned to run for five seasons of 26 episodes but after it was placed against Mission Impossible in an American ratings war the second season was cancelled. In 1971 The Persuaders had been sold for Broadcast to every country in the world apart from Albania, China and the USSR.

I recall watching the series as a kid in the 70's and still enjoy seeing it today.
Incidentally the UK release has all 24 episodes of the First and only season, if anyone doesn't want to hang around for box set two, then look on Amazon.co.uk for it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Show!!!!
Review: As a long time Roger Moore fan, i enjoy most of his work. I had seen some of the Saint episodes many years ago, but became very happy when BBC-America began broadcasting them; in fact, I enjoyed them so much I purchased the Megaset(which contains all the color episodes from 1966-'69). I have also began purchasing the early episodes(the B&W episodes from 1962-'65) available from only selected distributors of which, sadly, Amazon is not. Anyway, I've never seen the Persuaders before, but since I like R. Moore and Tony Curtis, and since many user reviews were very positive, I decide to go for it. What a great choice!!! Excellent show. Top- notch writing, excellent direction, and gorgeous vistas make this a show not to be missed. If you like R. Moore, The Saint, and/or Tony Curtis, you'll love this. The cammraderie of Moore and Curtis is great. The back and forth stlye and bantering plays out a lot like Redford and Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Absolutely wonderful. Buy it with confidence; you will NOT be disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great fun especially for Moore and Curtis fans
Review: Back in the later 60's Tony Curtis ran afoul of the MJ laws in California, so he moved to Merry Ole England to work. Strange to think of him doing that, and even farther back, Robert Mitchum doing time because of simple infractions that today would barely get a fine in California. A lot of the work Curtis did during that period was just paying the bills, but this sort lived series (two years), did a wee bit more...or should that be Moore? In his post-Saint removal of halo, and pre-Bond days, Moore joined with Curtis to make a great mix of Who Dun Its. Sort of Charlie's Angels for the ladies!

Moore plays the typically upper crust Brit born with the silver spoon in his mouth, Lord Britt Sinclair, old money in other words...Curtis is brassy new money in Daniel Wilde, a self-made Yank Millionaire. They naturally dislike each other intensely, but come to a grudging respect when Judge Fulton (Lawrence Naismith doing his "Bosley routine") sets them to solving crimes that Scotland Yard cannot touch. They are super tales done with panache, when Moore and Curtis were at their peak. With witty dialogue, fast paced scripts directed by Roy Ward Baker, the series was fun from beginning to end. Especially funny was the episode that was a take off of the Old Alec Guinness Movie..."Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) where Guinness played nearly a dozen family members being systematically bumped off. Moore gets to do a nifty turn in various family roles who are being eliminated with Moore next on the list.

So don't wait till someone persuades you...a must more any Moore and Curtis fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great fun especially for Moore and Curtis fans
Review: Back in the later 60's Tony Curtis ran afoul of the MJ laws in California, so he moved to Merry Ole England to work. Strange to think of him doing that, and even farther back, Robert Mitchum doing time because of simple infractions that today would barely get a fine in California. A lot of the work Curtis did during that period was just paying the bills, but this sort lived series (two years), did a wee bit more...or should that be Moore? In his post-Saint removal of halo, and pre-Bond days, Moore joined with Curtis to make a great mix of Who Dun Its. Sort of Charlie's Angels for the ladies!

Moore plays the typically upper crust Brit born with the silver spoon in his mouth, Lord Britt Sinclair, old money in other words...Curtis is brassy new money in Daniel Wilde, a self-made Yank Millionaire. They naturally dislike each other intensely, but come to a grudging respect when Judge Fulton (Lawrence Naismith doing his "Bosley routine") sets them to solving crimes that Scotland Yard cannot touch. They are super tales done with panache, when Moore and Curtis were at their peak. With witty dialogue, fast paced scripts directed by Roy Ward Baker, the series was fun from beginning to end. Especially funny was the episode that was a take off of the Old Alec Guinness Movie..."Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) where Guinness played nearly a dozen family members being systematically bumped off. Moore gets to do a nifty turn in various family roles who are being eliminated with Moore next on the list.

So don't wait till someone persuades you...a must more any Moore and Curtis fan.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Danny Wild and Lord Brett Sinclair ...simply the BEST!!!
Review: Curtis and Moore are just GREAT!! Yeahhhhhhhh Baby!!!
I too can't wait for the set #2 to come out. I hope it's soon...
Very soon!!!! It is ONE of the GREAT classics of GOOD GUYS vs. bad guys..... I was 10-11 yrs old when I first saw and it in Italian (I was living in Italy) and I never forgot it!! A MUST for Curtis and Moore fans!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Going back in the past with style
Review: For those who love old TV series this is a dream come true ! The Moore and Curtis combination is dynamite!!! I am just waiting for the second season !

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chance purchase yields great entertainment!
Review: I bought this series based on the two listed stars. I had never seen any of the episodes and was completely unaware that it ever existed. Now having been brought up during the Golden Age of Television Detectives (Columbo, Kojack, Streets of San Francisco, Banacek, etc.) I would have expected a rip-off of some sort. To my delight, this exceeded my expectations by miles! Roger Moore and Tony Curtis are great together. They are somewhat hammy but this series has a charm that can't be explained that make all of it fun. It is not cheap! They have on location adventures in some of the most fascinating places in Europe. It is a colorful work of art. A true 70's "Austin Powers" atmosphere and seems to be a cross between that and 'The Avengers' without the English eccentrics bent on taking over the world. There is occasional camp, but it is funny! Roger Moore wore his own line of clothes in this series and now I know where he got the idea of the Safari jacket. Tony Curtis is an American in exile (as an Actor) and filled in his time while in England with Moore in this series and he is older but still has that "Great Leslie" personality (from 'The Great Race") to carry him through awkward moments. The story writers do a good job here and the character of "the Judge" is our old friend "Argus" , the builder of the ship Argo from "Jason and the Argonauts". There is a lot of Psychedelic lunacy included and plots revolving around interesting things. This is well worth your time and attention and I look forward to the next DVD set! It was only on for one season but you have a full 26 episodes in Volumes I & II together.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hugely enjoyable series
Review: I first encountered "The Persuaders!" on a cable channel that showed episodes from the series as part of its "Mystery Friday" offerings. In a way it was a "missing link" in the transition from the great spy shows of the 1960s and the detective dramas of the 1970s, with elements from the former and foreshadowings of the latter. I was soon hooked, partly by the concept of two ridiculously wealthy men who had the freedom to stand up to the various crooks and murders they encountered, and partly by the interplay between Moore and Curtis (it's obvious that the two liked each other and had great fun doing the show).

Now A&E has released the first set of DVDs from the series' single-season run. Containing 13 episodes, they show Moore and Curtis resolving all sorts of wrongdoing as they jet set across Europe. The stories themselves are of uneven quality (everybody who enjoys the show will have their favorites; mine are "Take Seven," "Greensleeves", and "The Time and the Place"), but all of them run on the Moore-Curtis chemistry, as well as the uniformly strong performances of the other actors. As other reviewers have noted, fans of the two actors will enjoy this set, as well as those who like classic British action series from the 1960s like "The Avengers" and Moore's earlier show "The Saint," (especially since writers from both of these shows contributed scripts for this series).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent!!
Review: I remember watching it when I was a kid, it was and remains one of my favorite TV show ever, along with the Saint, The Avengers and The Prisoner. This is indeed one of the best TV show of the seventies. It has everything! from action to humour, Moore and Curtis are absolutely great. A MUST SEE! Great for kids too! Do not hesitate. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surprisingly lavish production values, great pairing!
Review: I saw an episode of this once randomly, and didn't get into it. But then I got the DVDs for Christmas, watched the amazing pilot, and I was hooked. I've blown through the rest of the episodes here at an amazing rate, and can't wait for the next set, though I'm sad there will only be one more. I definitely recommend seeing the pilot first. I think that's why I didn't like the episode I saw years ago. The pilot sets up the chemistry between the stars, and the humor.

What surprised me the most was how high-budget this show appears to be. I'm used to watching Secret Agent and The Saint, both of which I love. In those British shows, whenever the characters are in a foreign location, there is a quick stock-footage establishing shot of the location followed by the same studio backlot. Which is fine, once you're used to it. I was expecting the same thing from The Persuaders, but was thrilled to see the actual actors, clearly on location in spectacular settings throughout Europe, mainly on the beautiful French Riviera. The pilot includes a car chase (well, race actually) between Moore's Aston Martin DBS and Curtis's Ferrari Dino along beautiful windy roads (forshadowing the similar Aston Martin/Ferrari race on the same roads in the Bond movie Goldeneye two decades later). The sequence is shot in split-screen, which is again very unusual for the British adventure shows of the period that I am used to. There was obviously money spent on this show, and you can see it everywhere on screen, from the great cars and locations to the talented film directors like Peter Hunt (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and Val Guest to the big stars themselves. Moore and Curtis have great chemistry together, and make a teriffic team. This is definitely one of my favorite British TV shows, and can't recommend it enough, especially to fans of The Saint, The Avengers and Secret Agent.

One slight complaint about the dvd is that on my discs the dialogue is slightly out of sinc on the second two episodes (presumably after the layer change), which is not detrimental, but is distracting. I don't know if I just have defective discs, or if they're all like that.

One final note: anyone who enjoys this show or the others I mentioned should definitely check out Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series of the 1960s by James Chapman. It's a great book that covers all those shows up through The Persuaders.


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