Death at Bargain Prices

"Death at Bargain Prices." The Avengers. 1965. Charles Crichton, dir. Brian Clemens, script.

Pinters Department Store is converted into an atomic bomb, to be triggered when a luckless customer takes an elevator to the basement. (Source: James Murray, "The 'Avengers' Top Twenty Episode Guide," Cinefantastique 30.3 [July 1998]: 49.) Cf. and contrast The Guns of Navarone (1961); note conversion of a banal institution—a department store—into an encompassing, high-tech threat. (RDE, 10/06/98)