Villainess Review: Mary Howell Dannon (Remington Steele)

Decades, a cable channel that (similar to MeTV and Antenna) airs nothing but classic TV, often has a "Weekend Binge," where a weekend long block of a certain show airs nonstop. Recently, Decades' show of choice was Remington Steele, a show I've been familiar with for a long time. The series ran for five seasons between 1982 and 1987, and regarding the synopsis, well, I'll just borrow from the words of one of the main characters, Laura Holt:

"Try this for a deep, dark secret: the great detective, Remington Steele? He doesn't exist. I invented him. Follow. I always loved excitement, so I studied, and apprenticed, and put my name on an office. But absolutely nobody knocked down my door. A female private investigator seemed so... "feminine". So I invented a superior. A decidedly "masculine" superior. Suddenly, there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm...until the day HE walked in, with his blue eyes and mysterious past. And before I knew it, he assumed Remington Steele's identity. Now I do the work and he takes the bows. It's a dangerous way to live, but as long as people buy it, I can get the job done. We never mixed business with pleasure. Well, almost never. I don't even know his real name!"

Stephanie Zimbalist co-starred on the series as Laura Holt, and she had a bit of an established career entering the 1982 premiere. While the same could not be said for the titular Remington Steele himself, Pierce Brosnan, the show did jumpstart his own career, which included playing the iconic role of 007 himself, James Bond, in four films. The show was quite amazing and had its share of memorable villainesses, with one appearing in the episode, "Altared Steele."

The episode centered on Frank Dannon, who woke up with three things: no memory, a belief that someone was out to kill him, and an attempt on his life (an arrow shot into his room). He becomes Steele and Laura's client, and he mentions an image of a woman wielding a hatchet at him, while presenting the arrow. The investigation leads them to an army surplus store, but while they are talking to the owner, a villainess puts on a pair of gloves and loads up an automatic machine gun before turning it on. After Steele tosses a grenade at the gun, he, Laura, and Mildred Krebs decide to fake Frank's death and stage a funeral, and what follows is the trio, along with Frank, seeing five women emerge in mourning--with all of them introduced as Mrs. Frank Dannon.

The five wives were named Mary Howell, Terry Lowell, Nancy Stinson, Barbara Troy, and Stella Martino. While Frank regained his memories of his marriage, Steele and Laura had five potential suspects, and it became more intense when shots were being fired at Frank. Nancy, Barbara, and Stella were each interrogated, but they all denied attempting to kill their shared husband, and they ended up eliminated as suspects. That still left Mary and Terry, and the climax saw Frank reunite with the former while Steele and Holt talked to the latter. A charm bracelet was the key, and Terry's had the date of her wedding to Frank on it. Meanwhile, Frank ended up recognizing the clock from his vision, and as it chimed, the image played again, and it ended up revealing the attempted murderess: Mary.

Shortly after Frank put two and two together, Mary emerged with a bow and arrow, and later informed her husband that he was harder to kill than the others (say what?!), but she relished the chance to finally eliminate Frank. Her shot ended up blocked by Laura, but she would be on the receiving end of a humorous defeat by Steele--he accidentally knocked out Mary with an open door. Mary was arrested, and regarding that "others" statement, it turned out Mary was a black widow murderess; she had killed seven of her husbands, and Frank was going to be #8! Her motive was money, and she had been behind all of the failed attempts: the hatchet, the army surplus attack, the gunshots, and twice with the bow and arrow. Wow!

"Altared Steele" was the fourth episode of Remington Steele's second season, and aired on October 11, 1983. The episode featured Monique van de Ven as main villainess Mary Howell Dannon, and she was quite the evil murderess. I wasn't expecting her to be a black widow serial killer; I figured that whichever wife was behind the attempts would be portrayed as scorned. Mary was quite ruthless enough prior to that particular reveal, especially with her attempt to eliminate Frank at the army surplus store, but her unveiling as a black widow murderess makes Mary even more ruthless and bloodthirsty than advertised. Regarding van de Ven's performance, she was amazing in the episode, especially when it came to Mary's reveal and her sadistic demeanor when she (again) attempts to kill Frank in the climax. Her villainous role makes "Altared Steele" one of my favorite episodes.

Born in the Dutch province of North Brabant, Monique van de Ven acted in several films and TV series in her native country of The Netherlands, and also directed the 1996 Dutch short film, Mama's Guinea Pig. van de Ven also appeared in an episode of Starsky and Hutch, portraying the protagonist, a Russian ballerina.

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Check out Mary Howell Dannon's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!