Donald Seymour
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Fatma Suarez
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
alexanderdavies-99382
ITC produced far superior shows in comparison with the above. "The Baron" doesn't impress me on the whole.
The sets are almost non-descript, most of the stories are poorly written (apart from a few that are reasonable) and Steve Forrest makes for a thoroughly dull leading actor. He is bland and wooden, he displays precious little enthusiasm from one episode to the next.
Another problem with this show, is the time when production was shut down for a while. This achieved utter confusion when production had been resumed because of the sudden change in the regular cast. Talented character actor Colin Gordon made a handful of appearances but he gets written out altogether. I consider that to be a sizeable loss to the series as Colin Gordon had a good character to play. Sue Lloyd is irritating as the female regular, I never liked her.
Episodes with Peter Wyngarde, Mike Pratt and Patricia Haines have some good highlights in all fairness. It's a pity the others couldn't have been entertaining. The plots tend to drag along and there is a definite lack of creativity.
I only recommend this in short bursts. Otherwise, you might be disappointed
jc-osms
I know that my mark is nostalgia-influenced, but I really can't mark down any of the 60's ITC escapist adventure series as they were such a fun part of my childhood, watching classic shows like The Avengers, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, The Champions, Man In A Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders and this.Yes, The Baron is a minor-league Simon Templar, a globe-trotting adventurer with an unlikely cover as an antiques dealer who invariably ends up in some foreign intrigue, yes, the production values are fairly low, with studio-bound sets and stock footage of international airports dropped in to futilely attempt to convince the audience the locations are authentic but it's all shot briskly and efficiently, routinely delivering 50 minutes of easily digestible thrills and spills before the stirring theme music comes around again to signal the end (almost every ITC show and certainly the ones I mentioned above all had memorable theme tunes).Steve Forrest, brother of Dana Andrews, lacks his sibling's personality and charisma but otherwise makes for an acceptable, well-dressed, chisel-jawed leading man while Sue Lloyd provided the glamour, parading the fashions of the day with no little humour, although she invariably is reduced to playing the damsel in distress, no Emma Peel her.The Baron is a somewhat derivative and fairly light entertainment and probably wouldn't appeal much to anyone who doesn't, like me, remember first watching it on a black and white TV as a child in the mid-60's. But that child was me and decades later, I still can't bring myself to criticise it too much for all its derivation and lack of originality.
perwilvil
Boy is this show appalling, and this is unusual for ITC classics. Take a minor league American star like Steve Forrest to appeal to American audiences (supposedly), and set him up as a wealthy adventurer a la Simon Templar. It might have worked if the stories were any good, but they really weren't, and the production values were extremely cheap. The Saint had cheap production values, but this could easily be overlooked with Roger Moore's charisma and interesting stories. Danger Man/Secret Agent had comparatively high production values with some nice location/second unit work, and was probably done for similar money. If you're going to watch an ITC show, try The Saint, Secret Agent, or The Protectors.But see for yourself. Anyone want to buy a half used DVD set of The Baron?
Spondonman
I watched this series first time round and remembered it fondly, never got to see it again when it was last repeated in the '70's but am now trawling through the entire series on DVD. And it holds up well enough too filmed on the usual ITC shoestring budget, old fashioned though it must look to most now used to flashy nervous roving cgi camera techniques. I've only read one Creasey novel - can't even remember the title now, but I believe the series was based more upon the TV Saint, there certainly was a similarity. They both had great theme tunes as well!"Diplomatic Immunity" broadcast 28.09.66: The first episode shown on UK ITV introduced us to Steve Forrest playing Captain John Mannering (not Mainwaring), and his London-centric world of antiques and cutting-edge British security issues. Over the eps plenty of gadgets cropped up for his use a la Bond, but post-digital they all look ancient enough to be made from Bakelite! Mannering is miffed when an expensive antique is stolen by an Iron Curtain (Pamaranea) state official and he decides (with UK Govt help) to get it back with no-holds barred. Sue Lloyd playing Cordelia is invaluable to him in this aim, but mainly to us as eye-candy. Nicely judged script, but along with most of the rest of the series unfortunately almost impossible to film in such a non-pc way nowadays - a lot of pre-'70's TV is in the same boat of course.Forrest was very similar in his style to his brother Dana Andrews - chunky, chiselled and dependable, I thought the Baron suited him down to the ground and something he never bettered. Great memories of ye olde TV programme entertainment standards.
