The Avenger

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S4 (The Avenger) (2)

"You! You! Yooouuuuu!" I remember the first time I saw this it was a singularly chilling experience. S&H had gone up against cult leaders, vampires and assorted evil before this, but never something so subtle and personal as the unsettled mind of Monique Travers. What makes it more disturbing is the realistic way the episode is played, far from the comedy and self-parody of some, assisted by a different directing style which features a lot of handheld camera work to put you closer to the action and emphasise the unsteady nature of the story, or shots that play to the audience's fears, such as Monique standing up, her face right in front of the camera while Starsky's position is made to look precarious and weak by his small size in the background sitting down, unaware of the coming storm that's about to wreak crazy vengeance upon him, Monique talking slowly and clearly, almost in monotone, before turning and moving robotically away. But the most terrifying sequence of all (aside from Minnie the lab technician at Police Headquarters who's practicing kung fu in the wee hours when Hutch calls her for results on the hair and broken glass he and Starsky discovered at the hotel room), is the hatred and rage on Monique's face as Starsky falls into a drug-induced state from her camomile tea and 'special spices.' His vision blurs, everything goes into slow motion and the familiar wobbling synth horror music we've heard before (though without percussion this time, which used to be the standard horror marker), screams out in accompaniment to the vixen's murderous rampage, the camera bending and falling at nightmarish angles as Starsky fights for his life!

It's an incredibly effective sequence, made more horrible by the fact that Starsky has no way of knowing Hutch is even still up at that hour and desperately attempts to fight off his attacker, before padlocking himself in the greenhouse while the enraged Fury snarls and claws at the pitifully thin glass separating her from her prey, eventually smashing it with a shovel. But Hutch, when he's got something caught in his mind, is tenacious in pursuing it, his cop's gut instinct pulling him along to reexamine the identikit that was given for Harry Ashford. That was the earliest clue that 'Harry' wasn't quite what he seemed, but I'm impressed with how they handled the mystery: the first killing, of unfortunate Phil who showed Monique about as much respect as a piece of meat and paid the price, is strange, but we don't have the slightest inkling of just how strange, it's just a nasty attack by what appears to be a man in a suit and hat, wielding a kitchen knife (effective use of the kettle's whistle signals the coming sentence of death, which pays off later as it unsettles us when Starsky's there and the same ominous whistle is heard). The only clue is the unnatural voice we hear when Harry comes a-calling to 'protect' Monique's 'honour.' The next clue is that the San Francisco police have no records of him from his earlier offence of killing another of Monique's boyfriends. The only evidence of his existence is an artist's impression, presumably from Monique's description, which looks quite soft-faced, almost effeminate, which should be enough to hint that it was no man, but a woman in disguise.

The second attack, of Roger, the guy who thinks so much of himself, is where we're given the knowledge, but far from being a relief to finally see the murderer it chills even more: for it is Monique herself, pulling off her wig, suiting up, be-hatted and be-knifed, the Harry personality completely taking her over for a violent rampage on the completely unsuspecting and unprepared victim, whom, like others before him, had merely used her and then shown little interest. It makes you wonder how many men she brought back to her place - the others must have treated her slightly better, or not done anything to arouse Harry's temper, or perhaps she was simply unsuccessful in her endeavours, but it seems hard to believe from what her sister, Bobbie, says of her, or her attitude to men, so I do wonder what went on before these two murders. After this, Dobey's on high alert and puts S&H on the case as decoy's for this mysterious man that doesn't exist. There's a little of the competitive banter between them over who should be the one that hangs out with Monique, but in keeping with the heavy atmosphere the comedy isn't played up. Though there are lighter scenes with Huggy at the beginning and end of the episode, right from the aftermath of the first murder there's an impression of seriousness and intent from the manner of shooting, with the handheld style occurring while Hutch looks around Monique's place to the noise of police bustle.

Delaney the Medical Examiner almost qualified as one of the series' usual eccentrics in that he seems happy in his grisly work and trades a bit of banter with S&H, but it's all very mild. In fact the episode is almost devoid of the eccentrics, running jokes, references or anything but the serious matter at hand, until Hutch gets chatted up by a large girl at The Cellar disco. She's not really that much of a crazy character, but it's almost a callback to the first episode of the season, 'Discomania' (they should have brought Judith back, but Suzanne Kent does fine - oddly, I just saw her in an episode of 'Taxi' where she played a similar role of a person sensitive about her weight). Minnie's the only truly wacky type, but then that was her in her off hours, taking advantage of the emptiness to use the lab (the same beige-tiled set we've seen before), for exercise, and as soon as Hutch is asking questions she's all business. It breaks up the constant heaviness of the episode and allows for new tension to mount as Hutch (accompanied only by Pinky or Perky), pieces together the evidence in the early hours using archaic identikits to get a match for… at first it's a blind as he thinks Bobbie could be the culprit and storms round her place. In the first, I'm surprised she'd be up after midnight when he visits, as Starsky's ordeal happens during one night (but she was religious so she could have been up praying), and in the second it's a testament to her that she doesn't respond badly to Hutch's belligerent attitude, coming across as a caring individual that only wants to help her sister despite the lifestyle she leads.

Bobbie's a really sympathetic character, no more so than when Hutch has managed to prevent Monique/Harry from stabbing Starsky, locking her up while she continues to snarl and rave like a thwarted animal. Rather than hang back in dismay or shock, Bobbie runs right over to soothe and comfort her schizophrenic sister in a touching moment of sibling care, while S&H sit in the wreckage of the smashed greenhouse catching their breaths. We've seen one or the other act in desperation to save the other many times before, but it never fails to disappoint - this time Hutch practically kicked Monique's front door off its hinges! You always feel that as long as the other guy's around, then whoever's in danger will be saved, and not just because of the logistics of it being a TV series in which you need both of them to make it work, so of course they weren't going to kill one, but when you're in that world and it's a reality, you believe in them as super friends that will do anything for the other, or for their other friends.

This time it's like S&H had swapped roles, as usually it's Starsky that has the unconventional ideas and Hutch who's the science guy, but in the running joke this week he's got his hands on some 'biorhythm calculator,' which Starsky considers baloney, while he insists that his friend's in trouble (which comes back at the end when they have a picnic with Hug that reminded me of Season 1 and Abigail Crabtree's picnic - only this time there's a very unrealistic-looking wasp that lands on Starsky's knee and stings him in the hand when he grabs it!). There's also the bigger deal of Starsky drinking Monique's herb tea which is usually health-conscious Hutch's domain, and not only that, but he picks up a guitar and sings a song! It was only fair, since we'd already had Hutch performing in 'Moonshine,' but it's usually his party piece. Starsky's is the dancing, and he gets to cut some shapes on the disco floor (good to see they were getting their money's worth on that set again!), with Monique, trying to make Harry jealous so he'll strike again, without realising Harry was who he was dancing with, in a way. I wonder if that was an original song he sang or one that already existed - it sounded genuine, but on the DVD there are no subtitles of the words or song title, nor is there any credit for it, so I'd be interested to know where it came from: Paul Michael Glaser's head?

One thing I can never work out in all the times I've watched this, is whether it's really Joanna Cassidy as Harry all the time. Sometimes you can tell it's her, like when she's cuffed against the wall at the end, the camera in her face as she impotently rages, but was it her doing the actual knife attacks? Presumably there was a stuntman involved for some of it, such as when Starsky kicks the assailant over his head, and some shots don't look like her, but when we see her pull off the wig in the bathroom, revealing straight black hair (apparently in contradiction to Bobbie's assertion that under the wig she wears she's actually a brunette like her), is it the actress? It must be, but I wonder if the black hair was also a wig or if that was her natural look because the rest of the episode the hair she has does not look fake whatsoever. It seems more likely that they were able to flatten down that under a black wig, especially as you can tell the wig she removes standing in front of the mirror is a wig, as it doesn't look like her hair throughout the episode. But that's enough about hair!

Cassidy (later to be immortalised in the Trek canon by playing T'Pol's Mother on 'Enterprise'), does a terrific job of this woman with a split personality, being both vulnerable, yet unable to help her addiction to men, horrified by the murders, completely unable to see it was done by her, the snarling, rage-filled, but also somehow moral Harry taking the place of conscience as he expresses her distaste for her own lifestyle, except taken to extremes. She claims that Harry helped her through a breakup, that she talked to him all night as they wandered the streets, and it must have been this jilting that turned her mind and created the alter ego. But she genuinely appears innocent of it all, hearing this voice, not wanting Harry to do what he's come to do, yet powerless to intervene. I wonder if the voice we hear is just her interpretation of it, and that what everyone else hears is probably not quite as weird, but it's still a distressing subject for the series to address - I wish there had been some explanation for the condition, but we're still in a time when mental health wasn't fully understood.

For once we get a timeline for much of the episode since Captain Dobey states that there have been two murders in three nights, and then S&H mention it's been three nights on the job trying to bait Harry before Monique gets Starsky alone and persuades him to take her home - we'll have to assume that the noisy disco prevented them from discussing things in detail before that point. I wonder what happened to S&H's day duties while they were on this special assignment? I suppose this was the case they were working on so that's what mattered, and two murders was incentive enough to keep at it. Dobey is characteristically blunt when Starsky complains about how many hotels there are for them to check out in the area: "Count 'em," Dobey replies! A shot of Starsky at The Cellar looks quite similar to one in the credits from a different episode, but it definitely wasn't the same. In terms of procedure the police really needed to step it up, since they failed to find the incriminating hat, suit and knife at Monique's, nor do they ever suspect her of carrying out the act - that can be explained away as she acts like one who genuinely believes it was this Harry, because she does. But she's not so shocked that she doesn't go out and pick up a second man! And still they don't suspect her.

There are a couple of amusing little gaffes, both from David Soul. He muffs his line when he's talking to the barman: "Her sister shaid she may have come in here." Maybe it genuinely was noisy in there, so he couldn't concentrate on the line? There's also the moment at the end when he helps his partner to sit, but pushes his head into a low-hanging lampshade! There's a good reference to Sherlock Holmes when Hutch actually emulates the deductive reasoning of the Great Detective and Starsky calls him that, so he returns the compliment, calling Starsky 'Watson' in response. I wonder if the moment Hutch checks the shower in Monique's bathroom was meant to be some sort of reference to 'Psycho'? Other than that it's all about the story, but there are some returning faces from the series of old: second victim, the moustachioed Roger, was played by Michael Delano who'd been Billy in Season 1's 'The Bait,' while the hotel clerk (GW Bailey), had been Slade in, fittingly, Season 2's 'The Vampire.' And finally, Charles Cyphers was back as Delaney (this time with Special Guest Star status, so I don't know what happened to his career to make that change appropriate), where he'd previously been Arthur Cole in Season 2's 'The Specialist.'

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