"The Second Time Around" is a fun and fitting sequel to "The Great Casino Caper" from earlier this season. And of course credit for much of the fun goes to the footloose and fancy-free Fred Astaire as Alister Mundy! Adolfo Celi reprises his role as Eric "the Red" Redman, among the corniest Cold War monikers ever hung on a baddie (Red Man, get it?). Did the producers expect audiences to believe this eminently Italian actor was a Scandinavian? (Then as now I suspect audiences--me among them--saw only Emilio Largo without the eyepatch!).
After bungling the earlier job thanks to Alister and Alexander Mundy, the "Other Side" (as Wally euphemistically refers to them) inexplicably invite Redman in on an even bigger job, one involving pallets of gold bricks enough to turn Goldfinger green with envy. But first Redman has to prove to his Iron Curtain employers that the meddlesome Mundy & Son have been eliminated.
In a winning scene, Alister deftly deflects charges by flirty gossip columnist Alice Ghostley that he is in cahoots with master thief Le Panther. As the conversation grows increasingly incriminating, a rooftop sniper attempts to bring a St. Valentine's Day Massacre to Astaire's Holiday Inn chateau. From double entendre to daring rooftop leaps, Alister captures the would-be killer, and with a knee on his neck demands to know who sent him. "Eric the Red," he chokes. Hmm, this must be where James Bond learned how to extract Blofeld's whereabouts in the pre-title opening of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER a couple years later.
Speaking of influences forwards and backwards, this story is greatly indebted to a pair of outstanding MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episodes. The primary plot, once we get past the pulse-pounding preliminaries, is for the Mundys to set Redman up for a big fall with his Commie controllers. Like many a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE plot, the plan is to pit bad guy vs. bad guy and keep one's own hands clean. The SIA know Redman has been entrusted with a stockpile of gold bricks. If they can steal the gold and leave Redman holding the bag, Redman will soon be in a bag (of the body bag variety). How to accomplish this? Alister will distract Redman and play upon his vanity and greed with high stakes games of roulette, baccarat, and billiards, while Al makes the gold "go bye-bye," as Alister quipped earlier in the story.
You've seen this all before if you've enjoyed the "Odds on Evil" episode of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. But it's enjoyable all over again with Alister playing cat n' mouse games with the increasingly cocky Redman, who forgot to his peril the proverb about pride going before destruction.
Playing Redman's right-hand man Helmut is the stalwart Bill Fletcher. I just can't help believing his casting was an intentional nod to the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode "The Legacy," in which Fletcher was prominently featured and from which this show's writer cherry-picked a plum and pivotal plot point. And why not? Its revelation surprised me here just as it did the first time around.
"The Great Casino Caper" and "The Second Time Around" are a fun pair of connected stories, but fall short of my favorites: "The Thingamabob Heist" and "The Galloping Skin Game." Yeah, Adolfo Celi brought Bond villain creds to the role, but he lacked the style and sophistication of Ricardo Montalban's Nick Grabbo in the earlier two shows.
Also appearing in "The Galloping Skin Game" and the present story was the mini-sized but malicious Martin Kosleck, who here played the Commie go-between Ziegler (or Sightler or Zeitman--pronunciation varied). Edward Binns really shined here as Wally Powers, making me (almost) forget Malachi Throne's Noah Bain. Binns played light comedy with aplomb, making funny faces and parleying with Alister, but never slipping into a parody of the clueless boss. I couldn't imagine Throne or especially John Russell's Dover playing those scenes with such affable charm.
Alice Ghostley, then playing the recurring role of Esmeralda on BEWITCHED, guest starred as the gossip columnist (and aspiring winner of a Phyllis Diller lookalike contest). She was a weak link in an otherwise strong cast. I winced when she turned up at Redman's casino in one of those coincidences confined to Dickens' novels and television shows. Ghostley and Astaire's chemistry can best be summed up by the game she kibitzed through--baccarat, meaning zero. (Another coincidence: The next episode also boasts a BEWITCHED ensemble player--Bernard "Dr. Bombay" Fox.)
Only one more Fred Astaire appearance to go as the series presses towards the fast approaching 1970 Rubicon and into the homestretch of its three-year run.
After bungling the earlier job thanks to Alister and Alexander Mundy, the "Other Side" (as Wally euphemistically refers to them) inexplicably invite Redman in on an even bigger job, one involving pallets of gold bricks enough to turn Goldfinger green with envy. But first Redman has to prove to his Iron Curtain employers that the meddlesome Mundy & Son have been eliminated.
In a winning scene, Alister deftly deflects charges by flirty gossip columnist Alice Ghostley that he is in cahoots with master thief Le Panther. As the conversation grows increasingly incriminating, a rooftop sniper attempts to bring a St. Valentine's Day Massacre to Astaire's Holiday Inn chateau. From double entendre to daring rooftop leaps, Alister captures the would-be killer, and with a knee on his neck demands to know who sent him. "Eric the Red," he chokes. Hmm, this must be where James Bond learned how to extract Blofeld's whereabouts in the pre-title opening of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER a couple years later.
Speaking of influences forwards and backwards, this story is greatly indebted to a pair of outstanding MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episodes. The primary plot, once we get past the pulse-pounding preliminaries, is for the Mundys to set Redman up for a big fall with his Commie controllers. Like many a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE plot, the plan is to pit bad guy vs. bad guy and keep one's own hands clean. The SIA know Redman has been entrusted with a stockpile of gold bricks. If they can steal the gold and leave Redman holding the bag, Redman will soon be in a bag (of the body bag variety). How to accomplish this? Alister will distract Redman and play upon his vanity and greed with high stakes games of roulette, baccarat, and billiards, while Al makes the gold "go bye-bye," as Alister quipped earlier in the story.
You've seen this all before if you've enjoyed the "Odds on Evil" episode of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. But it's enjoyable all over again with Alister playing cat n' mouse games with the increasingly cocky Redman, who forgot to his peril the proverb about pride going before destruction.
Playing Redman's right-hand man Helmut is the stalwart Bill Fletcher. I just can't help believing his casting was an intentional nod to the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode "The Legacy," in which Fletcher was prominently featured and from which this show's writer cherry-picked a plum and pivotal plot point. And why not? Its revelation surprised me here just as it did the first time around.
"The Great Casino Caper" and "The Second Time Around" are a fun pair of connected stories, but fall short of my favorites: "The Thingamabob Heist" and "The Galloping Skin Game." Yeah, Adolfo Celi brought Bond villain creds to the role, but he lacked the style and sophistication of Ricardo Montalban's Nick Grabbo in the earlier two shows.
Also appearing in "The Galloping Skin Game" and the present story was the mini-sized but malicious Martin Kosleck, who here played the Commie go-between Ziegler (or Sightler or Zeitman--pronunciation varied). Edward Binns really shined here as Wally Powers, making me (almost) forget Malachi Throne's Noah Bain. Binns played light comedy with aplomb, making funny faces and parleying with Alister, but never slipping into a parody of the clueless boss. I couldn't imagine Throne or especially John Russell's Dover playing those scenes with such affable charm.
Alice Ghostley, then playing the recurring role of Esmeralda on BEWITCHED, guest starred as the gossip columnist (and aspiring winner of a Phyllis Diller lookalike contest). She was a weak link in an otherwise strong cast. I winced when she turned up at Redman's casino in one of those coincidences confined to Dickens' novels and television shows. Ghostley and Astaire's chemistry can best be summed up by the game she kibitzed through--baccarat, meaning zero. (Another coincidence: The next episode also boasts a BEWITCHED ensemble player--Bernard "Dr. Bombay" Fox.)
Only one more Fred Astaire appearance to go as the series presses towards the fast approaching 1970 Rubicon and into the homestretch of its three-year run.
