User Reviews

I'm not a big fan of 'The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.' series. Its main problem ( apart from some extremely silly scripts ) is its under use of Stefanie Powers. Strange when you consider she is meant to be the star. Yet for most of the time her character - April Dancer - is sidelined while her co-star - Noel Harrison's 'Mark Slate' - gets the lion share of the action.

'The Low Blue C Affair' ( what on Earth does the title mean? ) manages to be one of the better episodes. It opens with a gun battle in a cemetery in an East European country. The killer has just shot dead the head of state, and Mark tries to catch him. Before he can escape, he is shot himself, falling neatly onto a grave whose headstone carries the inscription 'Rest In Peace'.

Soyil Irosian ( Broderick Crawford ) is next in line for the throne, but someone else, a Salvation Army officer living in London, also lays claim to the honour. Major Stella Irosian ( Hermione Gingold ) is reluctant to live in a country whose economy is principally based on gambling, but Mark and April talk her into returning. Before they can get there, however, they have to save her from various assassination attempts...

Written by Berne and David Giler, this manages to provide some decent laughs while boasting a few impressive action scenes. Throwing a bomb into a soup tureen at the London mission, April causes everyone's bowls to be unexpectedly refilled. Soyil has at his disposal a machine capable of causing the ball on a roulette wheel to land wherever he wishes. In an amusing scene, as Soyil and the Major play, the ball keeps skipping from one winning number to another, an action caused by April and Soyil's men fighting for control of the machine.

While Crawford's 'Soyil' is hardly a great villain, he's a lot better than some of the buffoons this show featured. Gingold is, as ever, delightful. Sadly, Berne Giler died only a few weeks after this was first broadcast. David went on to produce the 'Alien' movies.

Energetically directed by Barry Shear.

I love this episode. Broderick Crawford plays a crooked gambling chief, who is almost next in line to be ruler of a small country, based on Monaco. The only surviving relative is his cousin, a Salvation Army Major, played by Hermoine Gingold, who is always delightful to behold. She is reminiscent of Bea Lillie's character in "Around The World In 80 Days." She is reluctant to lead a nation whose economy is based on gambling. Stanley Clements is Broderick's son, the black sheep who went to school. When you have a great cast such as this with the right material, you can't go wrong. Broderick is hilarious playing a music-loving gambler who is also quite the sousaphone player. The only thing missing from this episode would be Sheldon Leonard as a co-hort. Also, the great Leonid Kinskey, a wonderful Russian character actor, makes a hilarious appearance as an eccentric scientist, albeit Italian. Kinskey, along with Vito Scotti, was adept at playing almost any ethnic character.