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Message # 10926.1.1.1.1.1.1

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ducking Stools and poles

Date: Wed 30/06/04 10:46:23 GMT

Name: MK

Email: wamtec@compuserve.com

Website:

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I am pretty sure the river scene is her, cos as I recall (having not checked the tape) she has the guy in a headlock with her legs as she comes up on the riverbank. And...when the suitcase is dropped from the bridge into the water, you clearly see Diana's face she she is wading in the river. The ducking stool scene is definitely her as well...cos I have a streaming video clip of that running on my site where you clearly see head shots as she is dunked in the pond.

I take your point about male body doubles doing stunt work dressed as women. The most famous stunt man of all time was Yakima Canutt...who..in his biography...recounts the countless times he dressed in drag to play women in various stunt scenes in westerns & serials. That is pretty much the case for all western cowboy films made prior to the 1950's...i.e. it was almost never a real woman riding that horse off a cliff into the river...it was always a male stunt man in drag. This is why I never bother to save vintage movie scenes (especially serials) unless you can clearly see that it is a real woman in the scene. There were very few women who did their own stunts prior to the 1950's....only a few actresses who worked with Chaplin and Buster Keaton could do their own water stunts....of course there was Pearl White (The Perils of Pauline) who did all her own water stunts.

While on this subject of body doubles....thats not Sophia Loren that you all see ih BOY ON A DOLPHIN either...all the swimming scenes were done by her body double Scilla Gabel

Here is a set of pics from the film with the last one where Sophia and Scilla pose in the same outfit..

http://www.underwaterchat.com/discus/messages/12237/23712.html

In reply to Message (10926.1.1.1.1.1)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Ducking Stools and poles

By idlewild - idlewild@12free.zzn.com Wed 30/06/04 07:40:05 GMT

Website:

Sorry if I'm spoiling your illusions but the high dive was not Diana Rigg but a "cross-dressing" Peter Elliott http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254601/ wearing Diana's clothes! Unfortunately, there was no shot of Ms Rigg getting out of the pool; after the commercial break, we see her sitting by the pool ineffectually towelling her hair - ineffectual because it isn't really wet. And although "wading thru a river to pick up a suitcase" might just have been her, it probably wasn't because in the following fight the girl in the catsuit was her stunt double Cyd Child (and Peter Elliott was playing her assailant!) In the pond ducking (filmed at Aldbury) you get a close up, so this at least is the real thing.

In reply to Message (10926.1.1.1.1)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Ducking Stools and poles

By MK - wamtec@compuserve.com Wed 30/06/04 04:05:28 GMT

Website:

I know what you mean...i.e. The Avengers Diana Rigg seasons were filmed in color in 1967-68...but we brits never actually saw it in color in the 1960's either...cos we did not get color tv in the UK until around 1970...so we only saw the first re-runs in b&w too.

FYI..thats why Star Trek, Lost in Space and numerous other color shows were bigger hits in re-runs in later years, than their original runs...cos we only saw all these shows in b&w in the 1960's..but when they were re-run again in the 1970's and we got to see them all in color, thats when those series like the Avengers and Star Trek achieved cult status and really took off.

This is also why some producers and production companies were such forward thinking geniuses...while others were complete dunderheads and cheapskates that failed to predict the future. What I am referring to is....many BBC shows in the UK being shot cheaply on video tape...and then Auntie Beeb wants to save a few pennies so it erases and recycles the tapes (hence...the 150 lost episodes of Dr Who and numerous other lost/erased uk shows like Sexton Blake, Adam Adamant, Take Three Girls, Do Not Adjust Your Set etc)....while you had other forward thinking geniuses like Gerry Anderson who fought hard to shoots all his series not only in color, but shot on technicolor film instead...at great additional expense. But the payback comes years later...cos those series shot in color and on film will survive for an eternity and live forever in re-runs.

This was also the great genius of Desi Arnez (who's production company also made Star Trek)...who would not allow his I LOVE LUCY series to be shot on cheap kinescope media as most 1950's series were...but shot on film instead...so it survives for decades.

As for Diana Rigg...she got wet in that purple catsuit at least 3 other times in her seasons on the Avengers (diving off a diving board into a pool, wading thru a river to pick up a suitcase, deluged by rain etc).

The rarer scene to find is the earlier seasons of the Avengers with Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale...when she climbs out of the river Thames in her leather catsuit. Those earlier seasons of the Avengers with Honor Blackman were 90% filmed on videotape...with only the last 5 minutes of each show being shot on film..i.e. exterior shots were used for the finale.

In reply to Message (10926.1.1.1)

Re: Re: Re: Ducking Stools and poles

By AnthonyX - anthonyx@jowc.net Wed 30/06/04 03:08:16 GMT

Website:

Unfortunate the caps of that scene don't include any close-ups.

I would never have guessed it was that scene... never saw the show in color (she was wearing black or dark grey so far as I was concerned), and according to my memory, she was attended only by a single tormentor (I guess I was too focused on her to remember that there was a crowd).

In reply to Message (10926.1.1)

Re: Re: Ducking Stools and poles

By MK - wamtec@compuserve.com Wed 30/06/04 01:23:37 GMT

Website:

The woman in purple is not "like" the Diana Rigg scene from The Avengers...that "is" the ducking scene from the Avengers. I have that videoclip running on my site at the moment.

The other wench dunking pics appear to be from UK events...probably the Alynick Fair I alerted folks about last week. I have several UK tv clips that look the same as those pics..i.e. same costumes and ducking pool being used.

In reply to Message (10926.1)

Re: Ducking Stools and poles

By AnthonyX - anthonyx@jowc.net Wed 30/06/04 00:31:12 GMT

Website:

Very nice.

Anyone remember an episode of "The Avengers" in which Mrs. Peel (Diana Rigg) was tied to a "ducking" pole (like the one in the pics of the woman in purple)?

In reply to Message (10926)

Bermuda Ducking Stool

By Drdamp - Tue 29/06/04 19:06:00 GMT

Website:

A couple of links to some nice pictures.They are new to me.

http://www.dale-tx.com/dunkingtool/dunked.htm

http://www.phillipwells.com/latest_news/Ducking.html

Hope the links work.

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