U.N.C.L.E. Week: How To Steal The World

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. aired its 105th and final episode on January 15, 1968 after four and a half seasons (NBC replaced it with ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN). It was Part Two of “The Seven Wonders of the World Affair,” both parts of which became the eighth and final U.N.C.L.E. feature film. Only the first three U.N.C.L.E. features received major theatrical releases in the United States, but all eight were hits in other countries where either THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. or just these particular episodes weren’t televised.

Renegade U.N.C.L.E. agent Robert Kingsley (Barry Sullivan) has developed a gas that makes its subjects docile. He kidnaps six other scientists, and plans to use these “Seven Intellectual Wonders of the World” to control the minds of everyone on Earth and eliminate hate and wars. Men from U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) want to prevent Kingsley’s plan, while THRUSH agents Webb (Peter Mark Richman) and Margetta Kingsley (Eleanor Parker) plot to steal the gas for their own nefarious means.

Fatigue seems to have set in the U.N.C.L.E. team in the fifth year. Vaughn and McCallum appear bored, Norman Hudis’ script is patchy and unclear, and footage seems to have been hastily assembled. More than the usual amount of dialogue is patched in off-camera to cover story lapses. Only the visually inventive Sutton Roley is having a good time playing with producer Anthony Spinner’s toys. Los Angeles International Airport and Vasquez Rocks substitute for Kingsley’s Himalayan base (which is surrounded by desert!).

U.N.C.L.E. Week: The Helicopter Spies

U.N.C.L.E. men Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Kuryakin (David McCallum) are sent to Iran to retrieve a fantastic death ray from the vault of evil Persian scientist Kharmusi (John Dehner). While Solo flirts with Kharmusi’s sultry wife Azalea (PETER GUNN babe Lola Albright), Kuryakin creeps into the compound with notorious safecracker Luther Sebastian (Bradford Dillman), who will receive amnesty from all 22 countries in which he’s wanted for completing the task.

Unfortunately for U.N.C.L.E., Sebastian doublecrosses the agents and plans to use the death ray to conquer the world in the name of his cult, the Third Way, which is led by a silent old man (John Carradine) who will speak only when the Third Way is in control of Earth. Joining Solo and Kuryakin’s investigation are Annie (Carol Lynley), who wants revenge against Sebastian for framing her fiancé for murder, and four circus acrobats (all amusingly played by H.M. Wynant).

An improvement over the previous U.N.C.L.E. movie, THE KARATE KILLERS, THE HELICOPTER SPIES is one of the series’ best. Dean Hargrove’s exciting screenplay is packed with witty dialogue and imaginative action sequences that are staged by Boris Sagal at a brisk clip. The twist at the halfway point is a real surprise (unless you’ve already seen the film’s trailer). The film was originally “The Prince of Darkness Affair,” the next-to-last two-part episode from THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.’s truncated fourth season.

Is it ironic that the director of THE HELICOPTER SPIES was later killed in a tragic helicopter accident?

U.N.C.L.E. Week: The Karate Killers

“The Five Daughters Affair,” a two-part episode from THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.’s third season, hit foreign theaters as THE KARATE KILLERS. MGM furnished producer Boris Ingster with extra money for two-parters, knowing they would easily recoup the cost and more at the box office.

The result of the higher budget meant a stellar guest cast—movie stars like Curt Jurgens (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME), Herbert Lom (RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER), and Joan Crawford rarely did episodic television—and bigger action sequences. KARATE KILLERS’ opening scene with the super-cool U.N.C.L.E. car being pursued by rocket-launching miniature helicopters stands up to the chases in many more expensive spy flicks of the era.

Unfortunately, KARATE KILLERS has too much star power for its own good. The disinterested Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are supporting players in their own movie and have barely more screen time than their stunt doubles. Norman Hudis’ episodic screenplay appears more interested in creating broad cameos for the guest stars than in giving the stars anything meaty. The “treasure hunt” scenario is not a bad one in theory, but director Barry Shear (ACROSS 110TH STREET) helms Hudis’ more like IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD than James Bond, right down to a “comic” fight scene.

U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH are in a race to find a murdered scientist’s formula for transforming seawater into gold. The clues lie with the scientist’s stepdaughters, who are scattered around the globe. Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (McCallum) compete against THRUSH agent Randolph (Lom) to find Margo (Diane McBain), now married to a jealous Count (Telly Savalas); Imogen (Jill Ireland), who’s in the custody of a London constable (Terry-Thomas); and Yvonne (Danielle DeMetz), the plaything of Swiss von Kesser (Jurgens). On Randolph’s side are four kung fu henchmen who wear identical costumes like on BATMAN. Solo and Kuryakin get beaten up a lot, which doesn’t humanize them or make them more vulnerable. It just makes them look clumsy.

Not among the better U.N.C.L.E. movies, THE KARATE KILLERS is still entertaining with good pacing and sets. Ireland, who wears a bikini, was married to McCallum at the time and appeared on THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. five times. Gerald Fried composed an original score for the film version that apes Nelson Riddle. Every Mothers’ Son, an MGM Records act, sing their hit “Come on Down to My Boat” over the main titles.

U.N.C.L.E. Week: The Spy In The Green Hat

When Boris Ingster produced the two-part episode “The Concrete Overcoat Affair,” THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. had already begun its BATMAN-inspired slide into camp that would culminate in the unfortunate sight of Napoleon Solo frugging with a gorilla—surely the series’ nadir. The heightened budgets of the U.N.C.L.E. two-parters allowed Ingster, executive producer Norman Felton, and director Joseph Sargent (ONE SPY TOO MANY) to hire name guest stars, such as Jack Palance (THE PROFESSIONALS) and Janet Leigh (HARPER), who otherwise weren’t doing a lot of episodic television at the time. This practice gave “Concrete Overcoat” extra marquee value when MGM cut it together and released it in overseas theaters in 1967 as THE SPY IN THE GREEN HAT.

Palance is at his most unrestrained as Louis Strego, a megalomaniac who recruits a Nazi scientist, Heinrich von Kronen (Ludwig Donath), to reroute the Gulf Stream and transform Greenland into a lush paradise from which THRUSH can rule the world. Even more amazing is Leigh playing Miss Diketon (!), Strego’s insatiable secretary, who conceals a knife high on her thigh under a short skirt. It’s hard to imagine that Leigh’s erotically charged performance, which includes a clear exclamation of lust when she drives a knife into the spine of Strego’s incompetent henchman, passed NBC’s censors unscathed.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Peter Allan Fields included a ludicrous subplot about three elderly Italian gangsters who hunt Solo (Robert Vaughn) and force him into a shotgun wedding with their niece Pia Monteri (Letitia Roman), whom they believe Solo deflowered (strangely, this time he didn’t). Pia’s sexy catfight with Miss Diketon is one of the film’s highlights, so I guess her story isn’t a total bust, but the humor falls flat and really slows down the film’s momentum. Roman contributes a couple of from-the-back nude shots and—I swear—a side nipple flash that couldn’t have appeared in the TV show.

Felton hated Nelson Riddle’s original score, probably because it sounds like a BATMAN reject. Felton also tried to squeeze this film into theaters before the episodes aired on NBC, but the network rejected that plan.

U.N.C.L.E. Week: One Of Our Spies Is Missing

The second-season two-part MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. episode “The Bridge of Lions Affair” became the fourth U.N.C.L.E. movie to hit the big screen. Gerald Fried composed an original score for the film, including a real gone main title, and director E. Darrell Hallenbeck shot new scenes of soon-to-be-Batgirl Yvonne Craig playing a flirtatious U.N.C.L.E. agent to pad the running time. Although it was written by the great Howard Rodman (the creator of HARRY O) from a Henry Slesar novel, ONE OF OUR SPIES is among the weaker U.N.C.L.E. movies, mainly due to its lack of a strong villain.

While Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) is in Soho investigating a string of stolen kittycats, Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll) sends Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) to Paris to find out how an elderly biochemist (James Doohan) could have de-aged thirty years in three months. The dual subplots come together when both agents discover Madame DeSala (Vera Miles) and her scientific rejuvenation process.

Hardly a feature-worthy threat, particularly behind journeyman Hallenbeck’s dutiful direction. Miles (PSYCHO) is a fine actress, but a fizzle as an adversary for U.N.C.L.E. because her performance just isn’t “big” enough.

U.N.C.L.E. Week: One Spy Too Many

MGM chose wisely in expanding one of its best MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. episodes into a feature film. Taken from the second-season opener, “Alexander the Greater Affair,” ONE SPY TOO MANY was the biggest U.N.C.L.E. hit, particularly in London, where 007-mania was at its apex.

It was also the last U.N.C.L.E. film to receive a major American release, as MGM was beginning to draw criticism for charging money to see something already aired on free TV. As a bonus to ticket buyers, ONE SPY TOO MANY offers new footage of a bikini-clad Yvonne Craig (BATMAN) as an U.N.C.L.E. agent.

The first beneficiary of executive producer Norman Felton’s idea to pump up the budgets and star power on two-part episodes intended for later theatrical release, ONE SPY TOO MANY features a terrific turn by Rip Torn (THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW) as Alexander, a megalomaniac with an Alexander the Great complex who wants to rule the world. Based on producer David Victor’s clever story, Dean Hargrove’s razor-sharp screenplay sketches Alexander as a fascinating villain—a man so fantastically self-absorbed that his plan for world domination involves facing down God Himself.

He finances his scheme by committing crimes based on the Ten Commandments and leaving behind a stone tablet with a numeral inscribed on it. He also has a yen for colorful deathtraps, including one based on “The Pit and the Pendulum” that threatens to turn one U.N.C.L.E. agent into two. Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) pursue Alexander to Greece, where they reluctantly team up with their prey’s ex-wife, Tracey (Dorothy Provine), who’s after the alimony owed to her. Superbly directed by Joseph Sargent (THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE), ONE SPY TOO MANY is exciting and humorous without descending into the deadly camp that would eventually infect THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

U.N.C.L.E. Week: The Spy With My Face

It took THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. only eight episodes to do an “evil twin” episode, which director John Newland (ONE STEP BEYOND) later expanded to feature length. “The Double Affair,” along with sexy new footage of Robert Vaughn cavorting with beautiful guest stars Senta Berger and Sharon Farrell, first played theatrically overseas in 1965 before hitting U.S. theaters on a double bill with the first U.N.C.L.E. movie, TO TRAP A SPY, in 1966. Aside from the racy new scenes, the main draw was the chance to see U.N.C.L.E. in Metrocolor, since the first season of the series was broadcast by NBC in black-and-white.

Slinky THRUSH agent Serena’s (Berger) mission: to distract U.N.C.L.E. agent Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) long enough for her boss Darius (Maurice Evans) to replace him with a surgically altered Solo double. Knowing Solo’s close friendship with Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) may blow the double’s cover, Darius tries unsuccessfully to bump off the Russian using missile-firing toy robots! Newland and producer Sam Rolfe hilariously try to pass off the Griffith Park Observatory for the Swiss Alps, where Darius and Serena take Solo, while the duplicate infiltrates U.N.C.L.E. headquarters to steal a super-weapon.

I wonder why this episode was chosen to release as a feature. Perhaps because Berger was an international box office draw? Vaughn leads THRUSH on an entertaining chase through Griffith Park, though the observatory is too familiar a landmark to play anything else. Fred Koenekamp’s color photography is quite nice, and Vaughn pulls off his double role with aplomb, particularly in the finale when he has to fight “himself” (give editor Joseph Dervin a big hand too). Morton Stevens, who scored “The Double Affair,” also composed some new cues for the feature version.

U.N.C.L.E. Week: To Trap A Spy

MGM tried to squeeze extra revenue out of its MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. television series by editing together two-part episodes and releasing them theatrically. It’s easy to see why overseas audiences would flip for this, but Americans also bought tickets to see an U.N.C.L.E. movie they’d already watched for free.

At least TO TRAP A SPY offered U.N.C.L.E. fans something new: color. The MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. pilot, “The Vulcan Affair,” was filmed in color, but only aired on NBC in black-and-white, the same as every other first-season episode. Perhaps the thrill of seeing Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin in bright Metrocolor was enough to lure fans to their neighborhood theater.

Producer Norman Felton, who had the idea for creating U.N.C.L.E. movies almost from the beginning, and director Don Medford (THE ORGANIZATION) also gave the paying fans something extra by shooting racy new scenes not in the TV episode. The most significant addition is sultry guest star Luciana Paluzzi (THUNDERBALL), who wasn’t in the pilot. She receives a major subplot in the feature as a WASP assassin named Angela, who helps kill an U.N.C.L.E. agent in the prologue and then plays a sexy game of cat-and-mouse with Solo, which leads to a crackerjack action sequence at her home.

Oh, yes, that’s another change from the TV series. The name of U.N.C.L.E.’s evil rival is now WASP, rather than THRUSH, but for this film only. Actor Will Kuluva also steps in as the head of U.N.C.L.E., Mr. Allison; he was replaced in the series by Leo G. Carroll as Mr. Waverly.

The Bondian plot sends U.N.C.L.E. agent Solo (Robert Vaughn) against wealthy chemical magnate Andrew Vulcan (Fritz Weaver), who U.N.C.L.E. believes is a WASP operative planning to assassinate an African prime minister, Ashumen (William Marshall). Ashumen arrives at Vulcan’s mansion for a party, along with chief aides Soumarin (Ivan Dixon) and Nobuk (Rupert Crosse), but Solo hopes to thwart the assassination attempt with a guest of his own: Elaine May Bender (Pat Crowley), an Ohio housewife who dated Vulcan in college.

Action specialist Medford handles the exciting scenes like a pro, giving the setpieces a production value that may not equal the James Bond movies, but are certainly as thrilling as or more so than many of the low-budget Bond knockoffs filling theaters in the mid-1960s. Opulent sets constructed on the MGM lot and a Lever Brothers soap plant posing as Vulcan’s chemical operation makes TO TRAP A SPY look like more than a TV show, which, of course, it was.

TO TRAP A SPY may disappoint fans of David McCallum, whose Illya Kuryakin is only seen briefly in a couple of scenes. Illya was originally intended to be a supporting character, but when his popularity with fans skyrocketed as more episodes aired, he soon became Solo’s fulltime partner. Jerry Goldsmith composed the groovy score, including the iconic U.N.C.L.E. theme. MGM did well with TO TRAP A SPY and released seven more U.N.C.L.E. movies, though not all of them domestically.

The Thousand Coffins Affair

Next to STAR TREK and probably BATMAN, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. was likely the most successful television series of the 1960s in terms of merchandising. Lunch boxes, toys, model kits, you name it, some produced one with the U.N.C.L.E. logo on it. In addition to all of that, Ace Books published 23 original paperback adventures of U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo (played in the 1964-68 NBC series by Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum). Michael Avallone wrote the first U.N.C.L.E. novel, which was probably intended to be titled THE THOUSAND COFFINS AFFAIR, but ended up on shelves as the more marketable but less creative THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Avallone follows the series' premise fairly well, although it was likely penned early in the show's run, maybe even before it ever aired. As in early episodes, Illya is merely a supporting player stuck in the laboratory, although he does get to join Solo for the action climax. It took a few episodes for the show's producers to catch up to the massive popularity of Illya and actor McCallum, primarily among young women.

Solo goes to Paris and Germany to investigate the strange death of an U.N.C.L.E. agent who was found dressed with his clothing backward. Somehow, the murder is tied into a THRUSH operation that uses ultrasonic sound waves to turn people into mush. Avallone's choice as villain is intriguing and certainly more daring than any seen on television. Golgotha is a hideously deformed madman dressed in a hooded cloak who leaves all he faces queasy at the sight of him. Since Avallone never wrote another U.N.C.L.E. novel, Golgotha probably never returned to battle Solo and Kuryakin, but he's effective in this adventure, which evokes the horror of Dachau death camps.

Open Channel D

I have to admit I've never been the greatest fan of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. More artificial than I SPY, sillier and campier than MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, less relevant to Cold War politics than DANGER MAN/SECRET AGENT. However, when Amazon last week featured a one-day Gold Box sale of Time-Life's THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: THE COMPLETE SERIES for just $89, I had to pull the trigger. Retailing at $249.99 and usually sold for around $170, I couldn't say no.

And, just judging from the extras, I'm glad I did. Like Time-Life's exemplary GET SMART: THE COMPLETE SERIES box set, this one features terrific packaging and enough supplemental material to convince you that everything U.N.C.L.E. you ever wanted to know is right here. I watched four hours or so of bonus material last night, which has been scrupulously and lovingly assembled. Included is a 77-minute interview with stars David McCallum and Robert Vaughn together, where they talk about the show, their roles, and its influence on their lives. Other extras involve writers, directors, cinematographer Fred Koenekamp even. How many TV series box sets bother to chat with the cameramen?

Everything comes packed in a pretty sturdy briefcase with the U.N.C.L.E. logo on the lid. Looks pretty sweet in the living room. I guess eventually I'll have to watch the episodes. Of the 104 shows, I've seen probably a dozen or so. It's an okay series, but not one I ever thought I'd have to own. Until last week.