Avengers: Stay Tuned (1969)

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The 1960s British TV series The Avengers included several catfights, this being one of them.



In the episode Stay Tuned (Season 6) the main female character, Tara King (Linda Thorson, born 18.06.1947) is originally tied up by the villainous Lisa (Kate O'Mara, born 10.08.1939). Tara manages to trick Lisa into hesitation and after a brief fight, she comes out as a winner. She then ties up the unfortunate Lisa herself and wraps her mouth.



During her heyday in the '60s Kate O'Mara was a stunning looking high-cheekboned girl from Leicester, UK. Adding the devilish raven hair and shapely long legs, she could have even put Martine Beswick behind in the shadows in terms of physical presence. Indeed both these raven-haired women were a significant force in the British class B movie Hammer Studios.



In a recent interview for Daily Mail, Kate stated she would pose for Playboy if she'd be paid enough! Read here

One Million Years BC (1966)

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Second of the 1960s catfight classics comes from the Hammer Studios "One Million Years BC" remake. Starring Raquel Welch (born 05.09.1940; as Loana) and Martine Beswick (as Nupondi) both whom happen to become a love interest by the lead character Tumak played by John Richardson (who actually was Martine's long-time boyfriend in real life).



The all-important action sparks when Loana wants to examine a hunting trophy that Nupondi brought to her ex-lover Tumak, probably to lure him back away from the blonde rival. Nupondi is jealous and attacks Loana however after a tense scrap, she is pinned down and defeated. Loana is then called to follow the tradition and kill the brunette loser, but when a stone is given to her, she refuses to smash Nupondi's head and spares her life.

Martine Beswick later recalled (interview from 1984): "Raquel drove me and everyone else 'crazy.' But I had a great deal of compassion for her, because her ass was on the line. There was heavy pressure on her to be 'the' sex symbol, and she felt insecure dealing with the chauvinism so prevalent at the time. Overcoming that feeling of being 'meat' was a big challenge for all of us ladies to handle in that era -- especially since we had more of a sense of who we were than we were given credit for having. Of course, I was 'always' getting myself into trouble about that subject because I couldn't keep my big mouth shut."

From Russia With Love (1963)

Jamaican born Martine Beswick (born 26.08.1941) and former Miss Israel Aliza Gur (born 1942) made history with their catfight in 1963 James Bond classic "From Russia With Love". Their characters were named Vida (Gur) and Zora (Beswick).

Martine Beswick later recalled (interview from 1984): "It was serious work,. "We did three weeks of rehearsal...and then we did a week of shooting on the back lot." "Aliza Gur was a cow. We had terrible clashes and I was disgusted with her. I had a lot of anger inside me, so that scene was the perfect way to work it out...when we shot it, Gur was really fighting. Everyone encouraged me to fight back,
so I did. We got into a "real scrapping match".

You might say neither wanted to lose that fight and since they didn't like each other much, all the action was real.

Here are three pics from the fight. First shows both girls (Gur in red top, Beswick in green) ripping each other's hair.



Great pic where Aliza Gur traps Martine Beswick underneath and tries to gough her eyes out.



Beswick chokes Gur as intensity rises...



Gur pays back the favour and chokes Beswick



Well, as we all know, the fight ends prematurely when Aliza Gur is just about to smash a bottle over Martine Beswick's head therefore effectively winning the fight and seriously injuring the Jamaican brunette. It would be interesting to see that actually happening, but you can't have everything, do you? At least Beswick left the set without any scarfs.