The Equalizer
The Equalizer was a US TV show made for CBS in the 1980s, it ran from 1985 through 4 series until 1989.
Edward Woodward played the character Robert McCall an ex-secret serviceman who patrolled the streets of New York clearing out the muggers, rapists, kidnappers, drug dealers, murderers and other undesirables for the good of the people and the city.
Advertising in newspapers, he came to the aid of people who had nowhere left to turn and provided his services for free.
The series provided a good stepping stone for guest appearances and one of the first to be featured was Adam Ant who had just started in his career as an actor, Adam played the main villain in the fourth episode of the first series alongside future Tank Girl Lori Petty.
The DVD of the first series that includes the Adam Ant episode "The Lock Box" is now available.
A run through of the episode can be read below:
The Lock Box
Series 1, Episode 4
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After the Griffith family arrive in New York for a vacation from the midwest they have their luggage stolen by an illegal cab driver at the airport and then end up being ripped off in their hotel.
Shortly afterwards, Edie, the Daughter (Paige Lyn Price) leaves their hotel room to go and look for a magazine and ends up walking around the streets on her own in the dark to see the sights of the city.
Later on in the evening she is accosted by a man in the street and then seemingly "rescued" by a smart looking Englishman, Frances DeGraumont (Adam Ant), who offers her a lift in his car back to her hotel, once inside the car she realises that she has been tricked as the driver who locks the doors is none other than the man who hassled her earlier.
At the police station, the following morning, her parents Sam (JT Walsh) and Eleanor (Maureen Anderman) try to report her as a missing person but the police tell them to go back to their hotel as she has just probably wandered off and will turn up again.
Whilst waiting, Eleanor is handed a newspaper clipping from a homeless man in the station
ODDS AGAINST YOU? NEED HELP? CALL THE EQUALIZER 212-555-4200
After leaving the police station, in desperation, they call the number and meet up with The Equalizer, Robert McCall (Edward Woodward).
As this is happening we see Edie's fate as she has been handcuffed to a bed in an old warehouse with a smug DeGraumont looking on.
McCall then starts to trawl the seedier part of town, through the sex shops and strip bars as he rightly believes that Edie has been kidnapped and forced into the sex industry.
He is pointed into the direction of hooker, Brandy (an uncredited Lori Petty - the future Tank Girl) who tells him that after being missing for 4 days the girl wouldn't be turned out yet unless she was getting a crash course in a closed house or a "Lock Box". This would be a place where "anything goes" she then gives him the name of Scavosa (Jaime Tirelli) to follow up his investigation.
McCall gets more information from Dana (Ray Baker) a middleman sex industry fixer who informs him that Scavosa works for DeGraumont, the man who runs the "Lock Boxes". Dana tries to warn McCall off telling him that he cannot back away once he's into DeGaumont's world. A meeting is arranged with McCall posing as a sex customer with money to burn ($3500).
Meanwhile Adam's character is being painted a further darker shade as he offers Edie to another prospective customer to do with as he wishes for an undisclosed sum (as long as he doesn't bruise the face).
At the meeting McCall is shown into DeGraumont's office, hands over his cash and then takes on his Equalizer role, knocking out Scavosa with the bag that he had brought with him. Taking out a hidden gun from the secret compartment in his bag he proceeds to chase after the escaping pimp DeGraumont, handcuffing him to some pipes after a very short chase on the rooftop terrace. This after dispensing with a couple of burly bodyguards and disrupting the goings on occurring in the Lock Box rooms where we see dwarves, transvestites and bondage clad people fleeing from their nefarious afternoon activities.
He eventually finds and rescues Edie and gets her returned to her parents where we are left to imagine the horrors that she has had to endure.
Due to DeGraumont's high up connections, he is to avoid a prison sentence or any other form of punishment and is to be deported to Sri Lanka. A furious Sam Griffith heads to the airport to confront the monster and exact his own revenge. McCall learns of these plans and the three parties meet in an airside corridor for the programme's showdown.
After a small scuffle where Sam confronts DeGraumont threatening to shoot him, Sam loses the gun and ends up being on the wrong side of the barrel where McCall has to step in and finish the job off with a spring loaded dagger that ends up in DeGraumont's chest.
Equalized!
Full details of the cast and plot are detailed
here
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