The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Return to Movies (Part 3)

In 1966, Bat-mania joined Bond-mania, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. followed suit...

...combining elements of both genres into the new season of TV episodes, and the next couple of feature films.

Note: the movies were now based on two-part episodes to cut down on the amount of new footage needed to achieve 90-minute to 2-hour running times!

Due to lower ticket sales, this was the last U.N.C.L.E. film until the recent reboot to play in American theatres.

All the remaining movies played in theatres overseas and went direct to American TV.

Based on the 2nd season opener, "The Alexander the Greater Affair", One Spy Too Many added footage of future Batgirl Yvonne Craig as UNCLE commander Alexander Waverly's niece, Maude, working in communications tracking Solo and Kuryakin on their assignment.

Craig also appeared in new scenes shot for...

... as "Wanda" replacing scenes of another actress who appeared as Wanda, a communications technician in the two-part episode this film was edited from, "The Bridge of Lions Affair".

Did You Know?...This was the only UNCLE episode or movie adapted from an existing novel (which didn't feature anybody from UNCLE); The Bridge of Lions by Henry Slesar.

Based on "The Concrete Overcoat Affair", Spy in the Green Hat added outtakes considered too violent for broadcast TV...but no new footage was shot!

 Did You Know?: Will Kuluva, who played UNCLE head Mr Allison in the Solo pilot that sold Man from U.N.C.L.E. to NBC and the UNCLE movie To Trap a Spy adapted from it, is the title character, a THRUSH bigwig!

No new footage was shot for this movie, edited from the two-part episode "The Five Daughters Affair", but footage cut by NBC censors due to violence was added back, along with a new music score.

Based on "The Prince of Darkness" two-parter, this film added only a couple of minor shots cut by NBC for violence and sexual content.

Appropriately, the final feature film was derived from the final two episodes of the TV series and was released after the show was cancelled.

It's also the only film not to have any footage added, not even already-shot material cut by NBC censors!

BTW, you can catch the Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series Sunday nights at 10pm ET/7pm PT on MeTV as part of their...

...lineup which also includes the original Mission: Impossible, Get Smart, and, The Saint!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Return to Movies (Part 2)

We Have Already Seen...

Pleased with the overseas box-office success of To Trap a Spy, MGM decided in 1965 to release another feature consisting of the episode "The Double Affair" with new footage added to extend it to 90 minutes or so.

And, this time, they put the flick in American theatres as well!

You'll note that the American poster mentions U.N.C.L.E. and the fact you'd see the characters in color.

That's because the TV series' first season was produced and aired in black and white, a common practice since most American households still had b/w TV sets!

Here's the trailer for the film...

In 1966 both films were released as a double-feature in response to a similar move by United Artists doing the same thing with their earlier James Bond films (and raking in big bucks doing so)...

At this point, the TV show was both in color and at the height of its' popularity, so the posters no longer needed to play up the "in color" angle!

The feature film fun continues...tomorrow!

BTW, you can catch the Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series Sunday nights at 10pm ET/7pm PT on MeTV as part of their...

...lineup which also includes the original Mission: Impossible, Get Smart, and, The Saint!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Return to Movies (Part 1)

The new Man from U.N.C.L.E. film is not Solo and Kuryakin's first cinema appearance...

...but it is the first time the entire movie was shot for theatrical release.

Let me explain.

In 1964, spies were the hot pop culture commodity thanks to the runaway success of Sean Connery's James Bond films Dr No and From Russia with Love.

Hoping to capitalize on the fad, all three TV networks demanded series pilots featuring spies.

MGM's entry was Solo, starring Robert Vaughn as U.N.C.L.E. agent Napoleon Solo. along with David McCallum in a minor role as agent Illya Kuryakin.

NBC liked it and bought the show, but demanded several changes, including retitling the show.

The pilot aired as "The Vulcan Affair", with several minor changes including reshooting all the scenes with the head of U.N.C.L.E., who was recast, and dubbing "THRUSH" into everyone's dialogue to replace "WASP" as the name of the badguys' organization.

One other note: "The Vulcan Affair" was broadcast in black and white (as was the entire first season of the show) since most American households still only had b/w TVs!

To recover costs for the expensive pilot, MGM shot several additional scenes with actress Luciana Paluzzi as a WASP agent trying to seduce and kill Napoleon Solo to get the running time up to about 90 minutes and released the finished film as To Trap a Spy!

You'll note there's no mention of "U.N.C.L.E." on the poster, since the show hadn't aired outside of the US at that point, so it was promoted as a Bond-like spy pic!

Here's the theatrical trailer for the movie...

...which mentions, at the very end, the tv series as the basis for the movie.

It did moderately-good box office overseas, which resulted in another theatrical release, which we'll show you...tomorrow!

BTW, you can catch the Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series Sunday nights at 10pm ET/7pm PT on MeTV as part of their...

...lineup which also includes the original Mission: Impossible, Get Smart, and, The Saint!

Captain's Library MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Human Bottle Affair"

Here's something a little different...a prose story with illustrations...

...from the British weekly TV Tornado., which ran strips and stories based on other British and American tv series, as well as a couple of features not based on video shows!

TV Tornado ran U.N.C.L.E. text stories like this, but no strips, like The Saint feature we ran last week.
However, in the hardcover annuals that TV Tornado (like other weekly magazines produced), there were U.N.C.L.E. strips...and they were in color (or colour, as the British spell it)!

The Spies Who Love ME-Week 5

Here's some facts and trivia about the eps in Sunday's...

...group of shows...

10pm (ET) Man from U.N.C.L.E.

"The Deadly Game Affair" has a mad scientist ready to revive Adolph Hitler is he can find someone with the right blood type.
Alexander Scourby, a popular tv/radio narrator who also played authority figures (both good and evil) on tv handles the Nazi scientist role with scenery-chewing relish.
Janine Gray, whose character, Angelique, was meant to be an ongoing villainess with a lust for Napoleon Solo, had appeared on numerous British shows like The Saint, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), and The Avengers. She was also in the pilot for Get Smart.

11pm (ET) Mission: Impossible

"The Question" is one of the few foreign espionage episodes in the final season.
Defector Gary Lockwood is a familar face to genre fans, playing both the transformed Gary Mitchell in the Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" as well as doomed astronaut Frank Poole in 2001: a Space Odyssey!
Lynda Day George, though listed in the credits, doesn't appear due to her pregnancy.
Elizabeth Ashley served as the IMF's femme fatale in her second time on the show. (Ironically, the first time, Ashley played a mobster's wife whom George's character, Casey, impersonated!)

Midnight (ET) Get Smart

"Maxwell Smart: Alias Jimmy Ballantine" features Tim Herbert as safecracker Jimmy Ballantine.
Herbert also played Killer Moth on the 1960s Batman tv series...in an episode the public never saw that was loosely-based on her first comic book appearance!
But you lucky ducks can see it HERE!

"Casablanca" gives Don Adams a chance to do his Humphrey Bogart imitation as well as featuring Gordon Jump as the Chief's aide, Hobson.

1am (ET) The Saint

"Island of Chance" shows a tuxedoed Roger Moore in an enviroment he'd become very familar with as James Bond, a high-stakes casino!

Be here on Sunday for a classic comic story based on one of these series!

The Spies Who Love ME-Week 4

Here's some facts and trivia about the eps in Sunday's...

...group of shows...

10pm (ET) Man from U.N.C.L.E.

"The Shark Affair" features one of leads of another 60s spy series as the...well, not so much villain as anti-hero!
Robert Culp, who would play secret agent/tennis pro Kelly Robinson on I Spy a year later, delivers an astounding turn as Captain Shark, a Captain Nemo-esque survivalist who plans to ride out nuclear armageddon with the best and brightest mankind has to offer, whether they want to join him or not.
Also in the cast are two familar faces from Star Trek; James Doohan (Scotty), and Meg Wilie (The Keeper, the head Talosian from "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" as well as The Last Starfighter.

11pm (ET) Mission: Impossible

"Boomerang" is one of the "IMF vs Organized Crime" episodes that dominated the final season.

Midnight (ET) Get Smart

"Strike While the Agent is Hot" features Max taking over as the union rep for CONTROL's agents, trying to solve a puzzle and prevent a crime while discovering KAOS has better working conditions for their agents!
"The Only Way to Die" has Max declared dead so he can go undercover.
Look for a very young Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati) in his first appearance as Hobson, The Chief's assistant before Larabee.

1am (ET) The Saint

"Simon and Delilah" features future James Bond Roger Moore with his Miss Moneypenny, Lois Maxwell when both are involved in the kidnapping of a starlet from a big-budget biblical movie set!
And, no, there are no romantic scenes between them!
But there are a number of moviemaking in-jokes, especially about Italian movies!

Be here tomorrow for a classic comic story based on one of these series!

The Spies Who Love ME--Week 3

Here's some facts and trivia about the eps in Sunday's...

...group of shows...

10pm (ET) Man from U.N.C.L.E.

"The Quadripartite Affair" finally gives Illa Kuryakin equal on-screen time and features David McCallum's then-wife, Jill Ireland as the innocent character caught up in the intrigue...who is irresistably-drawn to Illya.
The initial plan was to make her a recurring character, but when Illya proved to be incredibly-popular with women, it was decided to leave him romantically-unattached.
Jill would appear the next year on Star Trek as Mr Spock's first love in "This Side of Paradise".
The ep features a veritable whos-who of '50s-'60s genre performers including...
Roger C Carmel, who would play loveable rogue Harry Mudd in both classic and animated Star Trek, as well as the only villain to battle both Batman and The Green Hornet, in a rare heroic role.
He would also reappear on UNCLE as other, evil, characters.
Anne Francis would play the first recurring UNCLE villainess before becoming karate-chopping private eye Honey West in her own short-lived series.
John Van Dreelen seemed born to play arrogant villains, and did so in everything from Mission: Impossible to Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, to Wonder Woman and even Get Smart!
Richard Anderson was going through a period in the 60s-70s playing bad guys on The Green Hornet, Mission: Impossible, and other shows before being cast as good-guy Oscar Goldman on Six Million Dollar Man.
Trivia note: both Anne Francis and Richard Anderson appeared in the 1950s classic Forbidden Planet, but had no scenes together!

11pm (ET) Mission: Impossible

"Underground" is from the final season of the show, when the IMF battled organized crime more than Communists and terrorists.
Guest villain Peter Mark Richman was equally at home playing heroes and villains for several decades on shows from the original Twilight Zone and Outer Limits to Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Midnight (ET) Get Smart

"Last One In is a Rotten Spy" was the final episode of the first season.
Alice Ghostly, who appeared in literally every comedy series in the 50s-60s-70s, steals the episode.
She would make one more appearance as a different character two seasons later, but the producers were so pleased with her work that they cast her as the second lead on their 1967 super-hero spoof, Captain Nice, playing the hero's annoying mother!
"Anatomy of a Lover" opened the second season with the return of Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot.
Laurel Goodwin, who played the Chief's niece was Yeoman Colt in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage".

1am (ET) The Saint

"Counterfeit Countess" features two actresses with numerous genre credits.
Villainess Kate O'Mara menaced Doctor Who, The Persuaders, Department S, and Adam Adamant, among others.
She also appeared in a rare good-girl role as Miss Moneypenny's assistant in the documentary Welcome to Japan, Mr Bond, about the making of You Only Live Twice.
Alexandra Bastedo was best-known as the telepathic heroine of the super-spy team The Champions. She also had roles in The Starlost, Department S and its' spinoff, Jason King (as different characters), the original Casino Royale,.
Her final on-screen appearance was in Batman Begins.

Be here tomorrow for a classic comic story based on one of these series!

The Spies Who Love ME--Week 2

Here's some facts and trivia about the eps in Sunday's...

...group of shows...

10pm (ET) Man from U.N.C.L.E.

"The Iowa-Scuba Affair" is the first regular episode of the series.
Several months passed after the pilot was shot, so there are a number of changes, including a new character as the boss...Leo G Carroll as Alexander Waverly, a pre-title sequence explaining directly to the tv audience who they are, and very little Illya (one of the reasons he's featured in the "explanation scene").
The re-shoots involving Mr Waverly used in "The Vulcan Affair" to replace scenes with original boss Will Kuluva as Mr Allison were done during the fiming of this episode.
Director Richard Donner has numerous genre credits including the original Omen (1976) and Superman the Movie (1978).
Scriptwriter Harold Jack Bloom also co-wrote the James Bond film You Only Live Twice, making him the only writer to work on both Man from UNCLE  and James Bond live-action projects.

11pm (ET) Mission: Impossible

"The Merchant" is a couple of seasons later than the episode that aired last week.
Martin Landau as Rollin Hand and Barbara Bain as Cinnamon Carter had been replaced by Leonard Nimoy as Paris and Lesley Ann Warren as Dana Lambert.
It's also the final episode for both characters.
(BTW, if I have to tell you who Leonard Nimoy is, you're reading the wrong blog.)
The villain is George Saunders, who played both heroes (The Saint and The Falcon in film series) and villains (Mr Freeze on Batman, and twice as THRUSH agent G Emory Partridge, one of the few returning baddies on Man from UNCLE)

Midnight (ET) Get Smart

"Humbert's Unfinished Symphony" features Richard Webb, who played TV's Captain Midnight, as a police officer.
The concert hall owner is Bert Freed, who usually played someone loathsome and/or sleazy in films like Invaders from Mars and on TV shows like The Green Hornet and The Rifleman.
The episode originally-aired before last week's "Ship of Spies" two-parter, and also featured Victor French as Agent 44.
The villain in the other episode, "Shipment to Beriut", is Lee Bergere, whom Star Trek fans will recognize as the pseudo-Abraham Lincoln from the episode "Savage Curtain"

1am (ET) The Saint

"To Kill a Saint" features two actors best-known on TV for their voices, rather than their faces.
Casino owner Paul Verrier is Peter Dyneley, who was the voice of Jeff Tracy, father and leader of the Tracy family who operated International Rescue in the 1960s Thunderbirds TV series and two feature films, Thunderbirds are GO! and Thunderbird 6.
He also appeared in two earlier Saint episodes (as different characters).
Francis Matthews, who plays Verrier's aide Andre, used his amazing vocal similarity to Cary Grant to voice the lead character of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (whose appearance was based on Grant).
Matthews had also appeared previously on The Saint as another character.

Be here tomorrow for a classic comic story based on one of these series!

Captain's Library MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Pixelated Puzzle Affair" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our MeTV Heroes......

Receiving a cryptic message in the form of a puzzle from missing UNCLE agent Peter Wheelwright, Solo & Kuryakin are lured into a trap by THRUSH commander Baron PD Quick, who uses unique methods to train THRUSH cadets...

Written by Dick Wood and illustrated by penciler Mike Sekowsky and inker Mike Peppe, this story from Gold Key's Man from U.N.C.L.E. #7 (1966) followed the show's new emphasis on "camp" in it's 1966-67 season after the debut of Batman in January on ABC had most existing adventure shows adding more outlandish plots and colorful villains in an attempt to match the Caped Crusader's record-breaking ratings.

Captain's Library MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. "Pixelated Puzzle Affair" Part 1

After you enjoy the Spies Who Love ME on MeTV...

...have a look at this comic book tie-in from 1966.

Be here tomorrow for the thrilling climax!

Written by Dick Wood and illustrated by penciler Mike Sekowsky and inker Mike Peppe, this story from Gold Key's Man from U.N.C.L.E. #7 (1966) follows the show's new emphasis on "camp" in it's third season after the debut of Batman several months earlier on ABC had most existing adventure shows adding more outlandish plots and colorful villains in an attempt to match the Caped Crusader's ratings.

The Spies Who Love ME--Week 1

Here's some facts and trivia about the eps in Sunday's first...

...group of shows...
10pm (ET) Man from U.N.C.L.E.

"The Vulcan Affair" is both the first episode of the series and a b/w re-edit of the never-aired color pilot for Solo (the original title for the show.)

The color footage for Solo was reused (along with some new footage featuring Luciana Paluzzi as a WASP agent trying to seduce and kill Napoleon Solo) as the color movie To Trap a Spy, released theatrically after the end of the 1964-65 tv season.

You'll note I said Palluzi was a WASP agent.

In To Trap a Spy, the enemy was not THRUSH...but WASP!

But, in both the Solo and U.N.C.L.E. versions of "The Vulcan Affair" the evil organization is THRUSH.

In a major difference in both Solo and To Trap a Spy, Napoleon's boss at U.N.C.L.E. was not Mr Waverly, but Mr Allison, played by Will Kuluva.

Will Kuluva, David McCallum, and Robert Vaughn

When NBC execs saw the Solo pilot, they said "Get rid of the guy whose name begins with 'K' ".

They meant Kuryakin, David McCallum's Russian character!

But the producers replaced Kuluva, whom they weren't happy with, saying they did as the network asked.

The scenes with Kuluva were reshot with his successor, Leo G Carroll as Alexander Waverly for the aired version of "The Vulcan Affair".

BTW, both Solo & To Trap a Spy are available on DVD!

As to the guest stars:

Fritz Weaver has a long history in genre media including the original Twilight Zone, Martian Chronicles, and playing Sherlock Holmes on Broadway!

William Marshall was Dr Richard Daystrom, the Bill Gates of the Star Trek universe in "The Ultimate Computer", played the King of Cartoons on Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and portrayed Blacula in two successful feature films!

11pm (ET) Mission: Impossible

"The Cardinal" is a typical third-season episode featuring noted Broadway actor Theodore Bikel (Fiddler on the Roof) as the villain with Barbara Babcock (Star Trek, Green Hornet, Hill Street Blues) as his henchwoman.

Midnight (ET) Get Smart

"A Ship of Spies" Parts 1 & 2 is one of the last episodes of the first season, and won the 1967 Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy.

It also features the final appearance of Victor French as supporting character Agent 44 (The CONTROL agent who's always hidden in lockers, mailboxes, and other odd places.

When the character reappears several seasons later, he's played by Al Molinaro.

1am (ET) The Saint

"The Art Collectors" is one of the few episodes to be made into a novella (rather than a novella or novel becoming the basis of an episode).

It was published in the anthology The Saint Abroad by Fleming Lee ghost-writing for Leslie Charteris.

The scriptwriter, Michael Pertwee was the older brother of Jon Pertwee (the Third Doctor on the long-running Doctor Who) and uncle of Sean Pertwee (Alfred in the new tv series Gotham)!

A genre veteran leads the guest cast:

Peter Bowles, who's now known for his comedic skills, played numerous villains during the 60s-70s on Space: 1999, Sherlock Holmes, and, (in four different roles in four episodes) The Avengers!

Be here tomorrow for a classic comic story based on one of these series!