Auberjonois Week - Day one

To celebrate the birthday of René Auberjonois, this reviewer is kicking off a week long look at 7 guest starring roles from the 70's by the incomparable Mr. Auberjonois. So lets get started with day one: Charlie's Angels season one: The Seance. 

Wearing a dark brown suit and sporting a tidy, trimmed beard, R.A. plays Terrence, assistant to Madame Dorian, a so-called 'spiritual adviser'. The Angels are investigating a string of jewelery thefts and Kelly is posing as 'Miss Osling', a rich oil heiress who recently lost her father. 

Terrence speaks slowly, with an articulate and almost hypnotizing voice. Indeed, as soon as he gets Jill to leave the room, he puts Kelly under his spell with a little help from a music box. The melody that this ornament plays will be the trigger that puts Kelly into a trance and will make her reveal all her secrets to him. Later that night, during Madame Dorian's séance, Kelly reverts to a child on hearing the music box and starts to recount a trauma from her days at the orphanage. Of course Jill isn't clever enough to put two and two together and just laughs in her best friend's face. 

Up till now, Le Auberjonois has been giving a rather subdued performance. But this changes once Terrence orders entranced Kelly to visit him in the middle of the night. Instead of telling him all about her bank accounts (which he plans to plunder), Kelly tells him the truth about her job for the Townsend Agency. The moment he learns this, Terrence drops the silky smooth voice and begins talking high pitched and nasally. His entire act changes from a smooth, in control butler type to a nervous crook. It's like René is playing two different parts within the very same scene. It is also worth noting that it's quite common in Charlie's Angels that one of their covers gets blown. After all, the Angels usually neglect to use a false name while on a case. But to have the bad guy drop his act in the very same scene is a great twist. 

From here on, Terrence knows his game is up and tries to make one final grab of wealth before making a getaway. He occasionally drops his nervous 'actual Terrence' persona to give Kelly orders in his slow- talking 'hypnotist' voice. This is especially amusing since Kelly is shown to answer his questions even when he speaks in the nervous voice. During the final showdown, having already had a Angel Fu tussle with Jill, Terrence puts on the voice one last time to stop Kelly from pointing a gun at him, but by that point, Kelly isn't listening to anyone anymore. 

The caper ends up with all three Angels laughing and Terrence looking wide-eyed and lost - a look Auberjonois always pulls off well. Jill refers to him one last time as 'Terrence the Terrible' during the office wrap-up. But René Auberjonois' performance was good enough for him to return to face the Angels again in season four, an episode which we will look at later this week. 

As for this Seance, we give it 8 out of 10. Happy Birthday, René!

Auberjonois week will continue tomorrow with The Bionic Woman: The Dejon Caper!