DANCE OF THE DEAD
DIE ANKLAGE

 

PREVIOUS EPISODE:

NEXT EPISODE:

 

     

 

Production circumstances result in a different GB and USA order of episodes. The German order, in turn, is also different for no apparent reason.
The so-called English standard episode order is given here.
But as for the episode action no particular running order is required. Almost every country would have an order of its own.

More order of episodes... (English PDF available)

 

 

"I AM NOT
A NUMBER.
I AM
A PERSON."

"SIX OF ONE,
HALF A
DOZEN OF
THE OTHER."

 

 

SCREENPLAY Anthony Skene, George Markstein
DIRECTED by Don Chaffey
GERMAN EPISODE 7
GERMAN VERSION by Joachim Brinkmann
FIRST GERMAN BROADCAST: ZDF 03.01.1970

MORE: EN-TITLE-D
DUBBING DIRECTOR JOACHIM BRINKMANN
DIESE SEITE AUF DEUTSCH

APPRECIATIVE EXAMINATION

ACTORS AND
GERMAN VOICES
COMPLETE CAST

Patrick McGoohan
Number Six
Bernd Rumpf
Angelo Muscat
Butler
non-talking role
Mary Morris
Number Two
Doris Gallart (?)
Norma West
Observer
Ingrid Capelle
Duncan Mcrae
Doctor
n.n.
Aubrey Morris
Town crier
Walter Reichelt
Denise Buckley
Chamber maid
Gusti Kreissl

Number Six finds a corpse washed up on the shore which he returns and hoping it would carry his identity to the outside world. But where is that radio receiver from that's transmitting cryptic messages? In the Village carnival is announced. The event turns into a trial against Number Six and the mad crowd in costumes chases him. He confronts a special Number Two and is to learn a bitter lesson.

RANKED 4th Surrealism outweighs the plot weakness - it’s timeless. Multiple viewing recommended.

 

Don't read any further
unless you know THE PRSIONER already
and you want to delve more indepth
into theoretical discussions and facts
around the history of the production.
-
Be seeing you!

By Arno Baumgärtel
thanks to Michael Brüne

If there is something like the PRISONER touch, a trait, an air pervading all episodes, then that thing called prisoneresque is founded in this very episode, "Dance Of The Dead".

Watching the action only will leave you dissatisfied with this episode. As often, relating the contents by far does not convey the proper spirit of the episode, ever so if dream theory is involved, the psychology of the unconscious as well as literary and cinematic surrealism that's left it's hallmark quite clearly. Just to name Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Jean Cocteau's ORPHEE (both as films, too) and "The Trial", Franz Kafka's novel. But it appears it wasn't Kafka's novel that inspired script writer Anthony Skene, rather it was the movie THE TRIAL made by Orson Welles, featuring Anthony Perkins in the title role. To indicate this, there are some "Dance" scenes that were shot almost identically to those of the Welles movie (German language).

On the surface it's two stories into one. And there may be those among the audience who'll find the meandering storyline hard to follow. On the one hand there is Number Six trying to get in touch with the outside world via the

TWILIGHT ZONE ON THE BEACH... PETER PAN ALIAS NUMBER TWO
EXPLAINING HIS WORLD TO MR. TUXEDO ALIAS NUMBER SIX

Number Two You're waiting for someone, Mr. Tuxedo?
Or expecting soemone?
Number Six Mister Peter Pan...
Number Two So it seems.
Number Six With his shadow.
Number Two You're being hostile again.
What were you looking at?
Number Six A light.
Number Two A star.
Number Six A boat.
Number Two An insect.
Number Six A plane.
Number Two A flying fish.
Number Six Somebody who belongs to my world.
Number Two This is your world. I am your world. If you insist on living a dream you may be taken for mad.
Number Six I like my dream.
Number Two Then you are mad.

The name of Peter Pan remains unmentioned in the German version of THE PRISONER. And so does the story of the boy who would never grow up and who had lost his shadow. [1.]

Peter Pan, played by Number Two, a woman, suits well here. In past theatrical performances Peter Pan would often be played by young women, mostly in Robin Hood attire. Number Two actress Mary Morris had played the character earlier in her stage life. So, when THE PRISONER production suggested to her to play Pater Pan rather than "Old Father Time" in the carnival scenes she was quite pleased.

Number Six' and Number Two's encounter on the beach at twilight is a stand-alone scene. It is certainly one of the best known of the series, unique and compelling. The previous scene has Number Six meet his former colleague Roland Walter Dutton. At the end of the beach scene Number Two invites Number Six to join her to the Town Hall and to the carnival event. What is it, a dream, a drug-induced hallucination? Who or what is speaking here from this dialogue? McGoohan, Number Six, the unconscious?

Number Six, too, has lost something: his identity as a human being, his freedom as a personality. Number Two, here, is also his mirror, she's brought the missing "shadow" Number Six is alluding to. In "Once Upon A Time" Number Two warns Number Six of becoming a "lone wolf", remaining outside society. Number Six has resigned, he doesn't want to play according to certain rules. Metaphorically speaking: he isn't growing-up.

James Bond - Number Six' more or less his distant relative - confesses in the film "Tomorrow Never Dies": "It comes from not growing up at all.”

corpse washed ashore, thereby transmitting the paradox message "It's me, I'm still alive." as well as keeping his personal integrity intact (a radio receiver announcing mysterious news causes irritation but could establish a connection to the outside); on the other hand there is Number Two and her efforts to obliterate this particular distinction between the Village and the rest of the world, between an inside and an outside world, presenting to Number Six her world as the one and only valid (the dialogue scene on the beach, carnival, costume ball and the tribunal).

THE ANTHONY SKENE TRILOGY (PDF)
DAVE BARRIE: DARK DREAMS AND LONG SHADOWS
(GERMAN)
MORE: INTERVIEW WITH DAVE BARRIE

STRANGE CARNIVAL: ELISABETH I, JULIUS CAESAR AND NAPOLEON
SITTING IN JUDGEMENT ON NUMBER SIX

With this episode we enter the realm of fantasy. Indeed one might belive, that No. 6 has wandered into Alice's Wonderland. One of the original batch of four scripts, author Anthony Skene believed this would be the second episode. Influenced by a number of factors he was inspired to conjure up an episode that has as many detractors as admirers. It is easy to see why the former hold their view DANCE is dream-like, almost intangible in its hunt for a recognisable plot, surreal, confusing, just plain weird. On the face of it we have primarily a montage of ideas, undisciplined and, at times, non-sensical, crowned with an improvised ending. The plot is even more perplexing by deviating crucially from the script when No. 6 is writing his letter to the outside world before casting the corpse adrift. The episode deals in shadows, it hints rather than states, it haunts rather than strides openly.
With stress being laid upon No. 6 holding up his suit for the maid to see
("It means that I'm still myself.") and the scene on the beach at twilight when No. 2 strips away the last reminders of reality, No. 6 descends into the carnival, perhaps a descent into the underworld of his own unconscious.

I said "Dance Of The Dead"...

FILMCUTTER JOHN S. SMITH

He said, 'Oh, don't mention of it, it's given me so many headaches.' I said, mind if I take a look at it? It looks really good.
'Really? See what you can do!'
So I went through it and found all the outtakes. Lots of pieces weren't shot. Actually it wasn't totally filmed. So, I was left with it and I put it together and I waited, when he was in a good mood I showed it to him. And he just made one or two suggestions and passed it.
[2]

Skene suggested Jean Cocteau and the 1944 film THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER may have been an influence. ... Like Cocteau Skene is fascinated with the myth of the labyrinth.

This episode, perhaps more profound and dealing in magic and the underworld of the mind more than any other, repays repeat viewing. The world of the unconscious is realized and No. 6's inner journey resonates with us and echoes on and on. - Dave Barrie [1]

But the most remarkable thing about this episode is that nearly there wouldn't have been any at all. "Dance Of The Dead", it seems, belongs to the "unloved child" category, scheduled second as some dialogues indicate, the footage was shot in the fall of 1966 together with "Arrival", "Free For All" and "Checkmate", but it was then shelved. It is said McGoohan was responsible for it because he didn't like it or something about it, it is not known what it is.
Film editor John S. Smith told the audience at the 2006 PRISONER convention that footage of shot sequences had disappeared and that, by chance, he rediscovered it and re-edited it with McGoohan's consent. Thus, Dave Barrie calls Smith the real saviour of this episode. So, the surrealism about THE PRISONER in general appears not to have been a strategic plan from the start but rather the result of a couple of coincidences, something that tends to evade the rational mind - which is quite according to the surrealists.

The end of the episode is just "unclear" and strange. Number Six has escaped the masked and cheering crowd of the carnival session before. He ran through labyrinthine basement corridors into a room with semi-transparent mirrors. He is then tracked down by Number Two who wants not a brainwashed imbecile but him to join her with all his will. Beside Leo McKern Mary Morris is best cast as Number Two. This is not to diminish her part considering that Trevor

IMAGE
MASK
PICTURE PUZZLE
SELF AND OTHER

When everybody is masked at the carnival it is the norm and the one not in disguise will attract attention to his "costume".

There is fancy dressing at the carnival ball in "Dance Of The Dead". The three judges are dressed up like queen Elisabeth I, Julius Caesar and Napolean Bonaparte. Prior to it Number Six gets his own suit back. He sees it as a sign of his former life. It meant that he was "still himself". But the chambermaid mocks him saying it was to be "his costume". At the ball Number Two tells him the fact that he doesn't have a proper costume means he doesn't exist.

In "Fall Out" the member of the strange assembly all wear black and white face masks and white hoods. Number Six finds his own suit on a tailor dummy that has his face.

If it is correct to speak of a picture puzzle and the mirror images or multiplex masks, then what Number Six says of his own suit cannot be true, that it "means I'm still myself." It's vice versa rather, his own suit is actually the "initial" mask. Because there is no "self" in terms of a substance to be found in a nutshell. We have learned this from Foucault and other (post) strucuralist scholars. The self is something that has been brought into being, that's been made up and constituted over a historical period of time.

The fact alone that he is given back his suit by the Village tells us that it is no longer what it used to be, now it's a costume. Number Six in "Fall Out" tears a mask from the face of one of the hooded figures and an ape mask is unveiled. And behind that mask there's his own face. But what next, is this the end of the line? The definition of what makes a dress a costume (a disguise) and what doesn't is not within the piece of cloth itself, the way it has been created or what it looks like. It's the use of it and thus the circumstances of society.

And here were are, quite elegantly, with the self and the other, meaning Number Six and Number One. Paradoxically they are supposed to be one and the same personality. But maybe they are but two aspects of the same substance. Number Six, that much is clear, was masked when he arrived in the Village. Nothing is demasked that isn’t already an image, a mask, a picture-puzzle.

Fragments from a conversation with Jana Müller

Howard was first to play the role. Only for one short moment there is some hope that behind a folding screen the mysterious Number One could be found. But it's merely a ticking teleprinter. Like intestines Number Six tears some cables out of the body. When Number Two arrives the damaged device resumes its work as if nothing happened.

The last words of the familiar episode version:

Number Six: "You'll never win."
Number Two: "Then how very uncomfortable for you, old chap."

Number Two breaks into laughter when she sees Number Six' puzzled facial expression.

Roland Walter Dutton - once a professional colleague of Number Six. Why ist he known by his name? Number Six reads it on the termination order. Having a name printed on paper, all the more if the death sentence is brought out to someone would, without doubt, leave a deeper impression on TV viewers than just a numeral. Whether Dutton is really left as a babbling idiot or it was all theatre for Number Six' eyes only remains unsure.

The end of this episode looked quite different in the original script; that's the omitted scene:

Number Six: "But rewarding, old chap. (Pause) Being dead does have its advantages."

As he say this he picks up a heavy ashtray and smasches the telex machine.

Number Six: "Shall we dance?"

The girl and Number Six exit, leaving Number Two surrounded by paper rolls and broken springs.

108. Interior. Ball Room. Night.
A hectic formation dance in full swing. Elizabth I, Julius Cesar and Napoleon are dancing in a ring, hands joined to the quick music. They break to include Number Six and the girl. The all dance as if the Devil is playing.

109. Exterior. The Village. Night. Location.
Continue the music faster and faster, The Village is brightly illuminated. No none about. Pull back so the sea comes between us and it, until the Village is now only a glow in the darkness of night.

End credits.

This final scene makes the point of the story title more overt, it was never filmed. Perhaps McGoohan - most likely he would have - refused to take part in this kind of ballroom dancing as he, shortly before that, always kept a strict distance to his female companion or observer, thus delivering a very awkward image. A similar scene occurs in THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER which Skene had already used as a source of inspiration for his screenplay.

Inner world - outer world: the Village as a self-contained unit - literally a universe for itself - this thought is expressed by Number Two in "The Chimes Of Big Ben". And in fact, the producers had already imagined something which wasn't used in the televised version. It would have been the final, ultimate image of each episode. But it can still be viewed - animated Pennyfarthing

"NOWHERE IS THERE MORE BEAUTY THAN HERE..."

Dave Barrie's most favourite place during his guided tours of the Village is the Belvedere Outlook. The platform is the place of action in the episode "Dance Of The Dead" when Number Six is listening to the the radio receiver he come to possess illegally. The words from the radio, "Nowhere is there more beauty than here..." should be a perfect match, like they were created for the real Portmeirion.

The fact that the carnival costume event takes place in Town Hall, not in the recreation hall, thus enabling Number Six to explore places and rooms that otherwise wouldn't be accessible, most notably the basement room where he rediscovers the corpse he had set adrift only the day before, leads David Stimpson [3] to the conclusion that everthing was a scheme, "contrived" right until the culmination of the surreal trial.
But what, really, has been Number Two's true task in this episode? What did she gain except of making Number Six look like a fool by discouraging him and demonstrating that in the eyes of the outer world he is now dead? The mode of logic for television series' action has been abandoned here, more than anywhere else in THE PRISONER.

POP!

[1] Dave Barrie is the founder of THE PRISONER Appreciation Society SIX OF ONE. The cut scenes can be found in Robert Fairclough's book "The Original Scripts Vol 1"; with thanks to Michael Brüne.
[2] John S. Smith talking to nr6de in London, April 13th, 2016
[3]
David Stimpson in his blog, Jan. 3rd, 2015


Contact impressum filmtexte - texts on film deutsch english language
  "Wir sehen uns!" oder L'année dernière au Village The Prisoner · Nummer 6

 

top of page

 
f

PATRICK McGOOHAN


WIR SEHEN UNS! D
BE SEEING YOU! E
THE CAFE
FREE SEA
OLD PEOPLE'S HOME
CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU
WALK ON THE GRASS
6 PRIVATE
2 PRIVATE
GENERAL STORES
TOWN HALL
LABOUR EXCHANGE
COUNCIL CHAMBER
BAND STAND
CHESS LAWN
www.match-cut.de
DISKURSE

MEHR INFORMATIONEN
SIX OF ONE · 601
THE VILLAGE · DER ORT
CAMERA OBSCURA
WER IST NUMMER 1?
DIE NEUE NUMMER 2
"WEISSER ALARM!"
VILLAGE FACT FILES
"MUSIK SAGT ALLES"
VILLAGE STORY BOOK
"DIE ANKUNFT" SKRIPT
SPEEDLEARN VERZ.
THE TALLY HO VERZ.
Nr6DE FREUNDE & FÖRDERER
NUMMER 6 WEBLINKS
TV-MAGIC WEBLINKS
IMPRESSUM | FEEDBACK

DIE ANKUNFT

DIE GLOCKEN VON BIG BEN
A. B. UND C.
FREIE WAHL
DER DOPPELGÄNGER
DER GENERAL
HERZLICHEN GLÜCKWUNSCH
DIE ANKLAGE
SCHACHMATT
HAMMER ODER AMBOSS
DAS AMTSSIEGEL
SINNESWANDEL
2:2=2
HARMONY
---3-2-1-0
PAS DE DEUX
DEMASKIERUNG