Customer Reviews
Only for the dedicated........ - By: P. F. Yardley, 06 Oct 2008 
I have painfully ploughed my way through the entire series & would strongly advise any newcomer to avoid doing this at alll costs. The program is almost a pastiche of 70's action drama. To say the leading man, Gene Barry, is repugnant is an understatement, the stories are at best poor to average, the continuity laughable & picture quality very mediocre. I did make the mistake of watching the extras first where respected actor Barry Morse (who plays his part well) & lesser known actress Catherine Schnell give a very frank opinion of the less than likeable leather faced Barry. Your heart goes out to Stuart Damon who was sacked from the show for being talll, well 6'3" compared to Gene Barry's claimed 6'1" (though strangely some 6"-7" shorter than Damon in real life - ego eh!).
If you remember the series & want to re-live it i guess it offers good value on a pound per minute basis. If you've never seen the series it's probably best you keep it that way.
Not the classic that I remembered...:( - By: Mr P. D. Kinnear, 24 Jul 2006 
Let me first say that I find alll ITC action series at the very least "watchable" - There's always a sense of frivolous fun & non-threatening danger that harkens back to the old cliffhangers of the 1940's. My personal favourite is THE SAINT, but THE BARON, THE PERSUADERS & THE CHAMPIONS alll give me fond memories of school holidays in the 1980's (Oh for the days of no onscreen graphics & only two commercial breaks per hour again!)
THE ADVENTURER used to do the same & I snapped up this set, but in the cold light of day I found the series rather souless,bland & ultimately disappointing. Even before watching the interviews in this set I thought the problem stemmed from Gene Barry - He often doesn't seem interested in what he's doing & the notion that this aging ham with a face like an old boot can attract some of the most gorgeous female stars of the era (Stephanie Beecham, Judy Geeson & Catherine Schell among others) & have placard-waving teenage groupies following him around beggers belief.
The poor quality 16mm filmstock used doesn't help either, making the series look cheap, tatty & rather grimy. Gerry Anderson's THE PROTECTORS was also shot on 16mm but the DVD boxset of that (far more enjoyable) series has been cleaned up superbly & looks great.
On the plus side we have BARRY MORSE as good as ever as "MISTER PARMINTER", & it's to the actors credit that, even though he himself wasn't too enamoured with the series, he made the character likeable & rounded. In fact, the best episodes (in my opinion) tend to be the few where GENE BARRY takes a back seat to leave BARRY MORSE, CATHERINE SCHELL & GARRICK HOGAN to carry the story along.
Then we have the behaviour of the "star" - Never a huge name, Gene Barry obviously saw THE ADVENTURER as a change to promote himself & get the treatment he thought he deserved, not seeming to care who he upset along the way. The treatment meted out to likeable & talented STUART DAMON was a disgrace (It's upsetting when Stuart recounts the negative effects this had on him & his career), & when even beautiful CATHERINE SCHELL was ousted the series suffered. Contrast this with ROGER MOORE in THE SAINT, an actor who by alll accounts went out of his way to welcome guest stars, get to know the technicians & make the atmosphere of the shoot an enjoyable experience for alll. Apparantly on THE ADVENTURER, Barry Morse had to direct some episodes as several of the scheduled directors wouldn't work with the lead!
Knowing this, it's difficult to watch Gene Barry pretending to get on with people & still enjoy the series as I once did, but there is some fun to be had here & the theme tune is as cool as ever (another John Barry masterpiece!). Ironic that many years later STUART DAMON is now going from strength to strength in the US series GENERAL HOSPITAL while Gene Barry has disappeared from sight... Karma?
One of ITC's Finest - Maybe not....... - By: Andrew, 08 Apr 2006 Lou Grade always aimed his series towards the American market. After the delayed success of 'The Saint' with Sir Roger & the initial more successful 'Danger Man' & 'Danger Man MkII AKA Secret Agent' with Patrick McGoohan, Lou Grade thought that marketing of his series for American audiences would be easier by engaging American leads - Richard Bradford for 'Man in a Suitcase', 'Stuart Damon' for 'The Champions', Joel Fabiani for 'Department S'.In the early seventies Lou Grade was asked to contibute two series at 30 mins length to fill a gap in the American schedules. These were eventuallly filled by 'The Protectors' produced by Gerry Anderson & starred Robert Vaughn & 'The Adventurer' by Producer Monty Berman who had produced 'The Champions' 'Randalll & Hopkirk(Deceased)' & 'Department S' & starred Gene Barry of 'Burke's Law'. The Protectors faired better though not without it's production problems. Robert Vaughn been told to leave the production during it's first series after the star complained about the European film crew (to put it mildly) & had threatened to quit. However, 'The Protectors' being produced by Gerry Anderson was much more professional package with better & more coherent scripts & a better production value. 'The Adventurer' suffered with poor scripts, a troublesome star & poor production values. Just watch the extras on this (once again) superior compilation by Network to see what happened to Stuart Damon & what Barry Morse & Catherine Schell thought of Gene Barry (don't mention his height!). After watching alll the episodes I wouldn't say they were the worst I have ever seen from the ITC stable (Jason King has that honour), in fact being a half hour show they are of course fast paced & quite entertaining as long as you don't try to find a plot. They are better than most shows produced these days (which doesn't say a lot) & it does have a theme tune that you could play over & over for hours. It was the end of the glory days of the ITC era. A lot of people just said it was a lazy production. Maybe they are right, maybe it was just the star who demanded too much, maybe it was the time for a change from the old ITC format, but....give it a go, it does have a charm of it's own & after a few episodes it does grow on you, it's not good but it's far better than what you get now. Criminal what they did to Stuart Damon though!
forgotten classic from ITC - By: J. S. CHEEMA, 02 Apr 2006 
I recently purchased the ITC 50 compilation from the wonderful Network but I found it a so-so release.One episode which reallly stood out & which I had been looking forward to seeing for a long time was THE ADVENTURER,and I wasn't disappointed.It was superb.How do you condense an entire detective drama into 25 minutes & show it at peak-time? This could never happen now what with advertiser & viewer demographics & cable TV but 30 years ago you could.This together with THE PROTECTORS are so good & so evocative of the era that to me they are the ultimate ITC series,episodes I come back to again & again.They are filmed in such a way as to be almost dream-like.Thanks again to the wonderful NETWORK for another superb collection!
