Thriller (TV Series) Where the Action Is (1975) User Reviews

It's all in the game...

[canndyman · 7/10 · 6 February 2022]

This was never one of my favourite episodes of Thriller - but I have to say it's grown on me over the years, and I really enjoy it now.

The plot concerns American Eddie Vallance (Edd Byrnes) who is drugged at a casino - only to wake up in the mansion of billionaire 'Daddy Burns', played by James Berwick.

Burns is an obsessive gambler who has to win at all costs - and has devised his own ultra-gambling duel where losing spells death for his opponent.

Vallance soon finds he has no choice but to indulge Burns in his games. He also finds there is no escape from the mansion - whose grounds are kept secure round the clock, and is therefore trapped in an 'open prison' not unlike Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner.

Ingrid Pitt really shines here too as Burns' moll, and steals every scene she's in.

Vallance is smarter though than Burns has anticipated - leading to a tense conclusion where there can be only one winner. But who will play their trump card?

This is an unusual and engaging story - nearly all set in the mansion, but spurred on by good acting and the real hope that Vallance can finally overcome his captors and win the day.

Ingrid steals the show

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 17 January 2023]

A professional gambler is abducted and held against his will in a mansion owned by a man who likes to coerce fellow gamblers into a deadly card game which results in his opponent's deaths.

This is an episode of a TV series called 'Thriller' - a show I have never seen - which I gather is a series of self-standing episodes featuring suspenseful storylines. This one had a pretty good set-up and central idea, although I did feel the ending could have been thought out a bit better. But undoubtably the best thing about this, is the presence of Ingrid Pitt. Her screen presence and charisma is in abundance here and she easily steals the show from every other player. It makes you wonder why on earth she wasn't a massive movie star back in the day, as opposed to a cult heroine. Whatever the case, if you are a fan of hers, then I would certainly advise checking this out.

The Ace in the pack.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 22 May 2018]

After a fairly average start to Series four I'd say it ended in some style, following on from the menacing 'A Killer in every corner' comes the intriguing, slick and very imaginative 'Where the action is.' I wouldn't necessarily say this episode comes under the heading of thriller, but it's 70 minutes of tantalising, claustrophobic and tense drama, you definitely feel a sense of foreboding and injustice for the central character Eddie. As an episode it could have been written for one of several shows, for me it very much had a Man from Uncle vibe about it, concealed weapons, sinister bodyguards, maniacal, if eccentric villain.

Edd Byrnes is excellent as Eddy, James Berwick is certainly very memorable as Daddy, but without a shadow of a doubt the episode is stolen by the presence of Ingrid Pitt, who is just magical, she's beautiful, sinister, alluring, calculating, and just a huge presence. No wonder she's worshipped worldwide, not just as the Queen of Horror.

The story is so clever, the writing is brilliant, Brian Clemens at his very best.

Series Four signs off in style with this surprise package, I'll admit when it started, and I got the jist of the story I switched off, as it's not really my idea of a tense thriller, big mistake, this is a great episode. 9/10

Remarkable

[analoguebubblebath · 30 March 2006]

'Where The Action Is' ended Thriller's fourth series on a high note. It is a very involving and compelling story which snatches the viewer's attention from the very outset and carries on providing a series of clever twists and tricks until the final frame.

Eddie Vallance (played by Edd Byrnes) has been forcibly summoned to the house of Daddy Burns, a notorious gambler with a penchant for coercing promising yet reluctant opponents into a series of challenges that are heavily stacked against them. Burns meets his match in Vallance who also has to cope with the attentions (and fight his own desire) for the highly sensual girlfriend of his host - Ilse (superbly portrayed by the beautiful Ingrid Pitt).

The episode is quite action-packed and relatively claustrophobic given the confined nature of the surroundings. Burns' servants are a motley crew of addicted shysters and add a rather desperate and uneasy aspect to the narrative.

With excellent performances throughout, Where The Action Is can only be categorised as an unforgettable episode and a further example of the series quality and its ability to entertain.

Where the Action Is (Was this a lost Secret Agent plot?)

[eno2000 · 10/10 · 26 December 2014]

Watching this just now, I'm amazed that no one else has noticed the strong similarity to the feel of the Patrick McGoohan series, Secret Agent (AKA Danger Man). From the very start, I kept telling my wife that this episode was making me miss Secret Agent. As the show went on, I kept thinking, this really is something you could drop John Drake into easily.

Looking at Brian Clemens writing credits, he was involved with ten episodes of Secret agent, five of them as a writer. The similarity can't be coincidental. I'd have to guess that this was a Secret Agent plot that was either un-produced or perhaps rejected for some unknown reason. Edd Byrnes also has some similar facial features and expressions to Patrick McGoohan, making it all that much easier to imagine this is an episode of Secret Agent from the 10th series had the show run through 1975.

So if you're a Secret Agent fan and you haven't watched Thriller, you really should watch this episode. Amazing.