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The “Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?” Affair
by Frank Campbell
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This may come as a surprise to many of you but the recent trend of making feature films out of old television series (especially series from the 1960s) is nothing new. Heck, back in the 1960s, we could go to the theater and see feature films based on series that were still on the air!
Don't believe me? Well, we had such sparkling, cinematic gems as MUNSTER, GO HOME! (1966) based on the popular CBS comedy series THE MUNSTERS. MCHALE'S NAVY got not one but two feature films, MCHALE'S NAVY (1964) and MCHALE'S NAVY JOINS THE AIR FORCE (1965). Cartoons were popular too, as both Yogi Bear and Fred Flintstone made it to the big screen in HEY THERE IT'S YOGI BEAR (1964) and THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE (1966), respectively.
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Perhaps the granddaddy of them all was the feature film BATMAN (1966), from the wildly popular ABC series. The film starred Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin battling a quartet of their most famous foes: The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and The Catwoman (Lee Meriwether). The film had its world premiere at Austin's Paramount Theatre as part of Aquafest, an annual summer festival that is now defunct. The stars were in attendance in their character costumes for a matinee showing and returned in formal evening wear for the after dark screening. The film had an Austin connection: the Batboat which made its' debut in the movie was built by Austin's own Glastron Boats and Motors.
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And then there were all of those great MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies. Wait a minute, I hear you saying. There weren't any MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies in the 1960s. You're right. And you're wrong.
The so-called "movies" were actually two-part episodes of the NBC television series edited together to form a feature length film. So, while they weren't original, made for the movies productions, they did nevertheless qualify as MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies of a sort.
The series ran on NBC television from 1964 to 1968 and was one of many television series that cashed in on the spy craze of the 1960s that was spearheaded by the series of James Bond films starring Sean Connery. Other "spy shows" of the '60s include THE AVENGERS, I SPY, SECRET AGENT, THE WILD, WILD, WEST, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. and GET SMART.
THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum as agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin. Vaughn oozed oleaginous charm, while McCallum, with his mop-top "Beatles" haircut, was the brooding, silent type (and far more popular with the show's female teenage fans). Their boss, Alexander Waverly, was played by Leo G. Carroll in a neat bit of casting which echoed Carroll's character in the Alfred Hitchcock classic NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).
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U.N.C.L.E. stood for United Network Command for Law Enforcement. Operating out of their headquarters in New York City, Solo and Kuryakin went forth each week to battle the minions of the worldwide criminal organization THRUSH (and no, we never did learn what those letters stood for.) The episodes, each of which was entitled "The (something) Affair" usually involved a regular civilian getting mixed up in the adventure. The other elements which added to the show's success were a surfeit of beautiful women, nifty high-tech gadgets (including the communicators disguised as pens) and guns. Lots of guns.
The first season was in black and white and it's generally regarded as the best season. When the show went to color in the second season, the emphasis on humor (which had previously been only a minor element of the show) veered the proceedings into the land of camp. During the height of the show's popularity, a spin-off series was produced. THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E., starring Stephanie Powers as April Dancer and Noel Harrison as Mark Slade, ran for one season (1966-1967) on NBC. THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E also produced a slew of merchandising tie-ins including comic books, paperback novels, action figures, model kits and toy weapons.
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Silly as it sometimes was, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. was always fun to watch. MGM and Arena Productions, which produced the show, did a remarkable job of depicting international intrigue and globe-trotting action and adventure even thought the production company never left the confines of southern California. THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E was canceled half-way through its final season and was replaced on the NBC schedule by ROWAN AND MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN in January, 1968.
Recently, Turner Classic Movies ran an all day marathon of the MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. movies. I recorded them and am here to report on a couple of them. The first one I watched was ONE OF OUR SPIES IS MISSING (1966), which is a bit of a misleading title since no spy is ever missing during the course of the film. The movie is actually the two episodes of "The Bridge of Lions Affair" (which originally aired in February, 1966) edited together. The story involves the creation of a so-called "fountain of youth" formula and the efforts of a villainous woman to acquire said formula. She wants to de-age her lover, a Churchilian elder statesman and return him to political power, so she can run things from behind the scenes.
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Okay, the plot is daft but the guest cast makes it fun to watch. The lovely Vera Miles is the evil woman and Maurice Evans (who would go on to fame in the cinema of the fantastic with roles in both ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) and PLANET OF THE APES (1968)) is the statesman. James Doohan (Scotty of STAR TREK fame), makes a small appearance as the inventor of the formula. The fetching Yvonne Craig (who played Batgirl on BATMAN) is an U.N.C.L.E. communications officer. Bernard Fox (Malcolm Merriwether on several episodes of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW) is a THRUSH agent out to hi-jack the formula. And the de-aging device itself is a sauna steam-cabinet topped by the head of Robby the Robot (FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)).
The other film I watched is ONE SPY TOO MANY (1966), a cobbled together version of the two part "The Alexander the Greater Affair" which opened the show's second season in September, 1965. UT-ex Rip Torn plays Alexander, a wealthy industrialist out to rule the world. He steals a bio-chemical weapon from the U.S. military and promptly goes about breaking each of the Ten Commandments in spectacular fashion. Huh?
Dorothy Provine provides the eye-candy as Alexander's ex-wife who gets involved in the affair with Solo and Kuryakin. There's a nice car chase shoot-out set piece staged in the legendary Bronson Canyon in Hollywood and the cliffhanger, which now takes place in the middle of the story (!), involves Solo and a wicked, slowly descending razor sharp pendulum. Yvonne Craig is in this one also as an U.N.C.L.E. communications officer who is revealed to be Mr. Waverly's niece at the end of the film.
While these films are far from classics, they are a ton of fun to watch and they serve a vital function for those of us who might have missed both episodes in the dim, dark pre-VCR days when we couldn't record our favorite shows. Imagine being able to go to the theatre and see both parts of that MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. show you missed. For a fan of sixties spy shows like me, it was pure bliss.
Open Channel D!
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Frank Campbell, an Austin writer, is the Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble in Round Rock, Texas. A native Austinite and graduate of Austin High School and the University of Texas, he is one of Austin's most astute film buffs and is considered by many to be the city's foremost expert on James Bond films.
Campbell lives in Manor, Texas with his wife Judy and their three children, Andy, Barney and Grady.
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