User Reviews

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful Affair - 1966

This is the 61st episode of 1964 to 1968 spy series, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. The series ran for a total of 105 episodes. The first season was filmed in black and with the remainder shot in colour. Robert Vaughn plays agent Napoleon Solo while David McCallum plays Illya Kuryakin. Leo G Carroll plays Mister Waverly, the boss of the secret agency known as U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law & Enforcement) Their main enemy is THRUSH, an organization out to take over the planet.

UNCLE agent, Robert Vaughn is doing a bit of break and enter at a New York pawnshop. The shop contains a safe with some top secret THRUSH documents. Before he can complete the mission, he is attacked. The attacker is a beautiful woman, Willy Koopman, who tosses Vaughn around like a rag doll. Vaughn pulls his automatic and empties several full clips into the woman with no effect.

Vaughn decides that he should beat the feet and leave. When he tells his boss, Leo G Carroll and fellow agent, David McCallum, they put down the tale to a bit too much work. He is sent on a trip to rest up. While escorting Vaughn to the airport, both McCallum and Vaughn are attacked by the same woman. There is another brawl with lead bouncing off the woman. When she finally drops, the UNCLE agents whisk her to headquarters. There they discover that Koopman is really a cyborg.

Needless to say who is behind this. The boys at THRUSH have a scientist (Woodrow Parfrey in one of his half dozen appearances on the series) who is building the cyborgs by hand.

UNCLE agent Vaughn gains entrance to the THRUSH lair as a Swiss banker. THRUSH needs a billion dollars so they can set up an assembly line. They of course intend to use the cyborgs as a near unstoppable army to conquer the world.

In charge of the project is, Barry Atwater and his assistant, Pamela Curran. Needless to say there is also a pretty girl helping out UNCLE. The rather statuesque Jeannine Riley fits the bill in this episode. Now, there is the starting to get old, routine of getting captured, then the just in time escape, the flying fists and the shootout with the THRUSH types. (THRUSH villains must be the worst shots in the world) UNCLE of course disposes of the villains and destroys the cyborgs.

I quite enjoyed this series when I was a kid back in the day. Having said that, I'm finding that the further I go into the series now, (this is season 3) the less impressed I am. They are starting to play out like bad BATMAN episodes or rejected GET SMART scripts. The comedy bits are really not needed.

I've heard so many bad things about season 3, that I'm so far surprised that the first 2 stories in a row have been pretty good.

I had a feeling they might have recruited a new writer on the show, as a few odd things happened. For one, after countless bizarre circumstances, Waverly & Kuryakan both think Solo's had a nervous breakdown because he insists he was attacked by an indestructible woman. For another, while it often seemed every Thrush agent on the planet from early in season 1 knew Solo was an UNCLE agent, he goes undercover as a banker using his REAL name, and not one Thrush agent knows who he is! Did the writer of this story ever watch the show? (Maybe NOT!)

Quite a few familiar faces include Barry Atwater (who was an equally-evil baddie on a "VOYAGE" episode), Jeannine Riley (one of the original daughters on "PETTICOAT JUNCTION"), Woodrow Parfrey (always playing himself, this time as a dotty scientist who thinks Thrush is actually out to help the world, not conquer it), and Fritz Feld (actually playing it "straight"-- well, for HIM-- for about 2/3rds of the story (before finally giving in to silliness). William Lanteau as the UNCLE scientist must have thought he was on season 2 of "BATMAN", there was no call for his over-acting to be so awful. And in one scene, even Atwater's Thrush boss went on an insane, obsessive tirade. It takes a lot to make Woodrow Parfrey and Fritz Feld seem "serious" BY COMPARISON.

My favorite part, was when Solo suddenly convinced Thrush agent Margo (Pamela Curran) that he KNEW their operation was run by Thrush, that he had "ambitions" and didn't want to be a "white collar worker" for the rest of his life. He was SO good at this, SO convincing, it really surprised me that (to my knowledge), he'd never done this before in the previous 2 seasons!

Then the prolonged climactic chase & fight scene felt more like something from "THE MONKEES" without a rock song playing. Was somebody trying to be stupid here? (Yeah, I think so.) My jaw dropped when HARLAN ELLISON's name came up in the end credits. REALLY?? Boy. I knew he could do comedy... in fact, I wish he'd done MORE comedy. But this episode was just inconsistent in style, and might have been better if they'd picked one tone (serious or funny) and STUCK with it. Even so, I still think it was better than half of season 2.

Noted science author and critic Harlan Ellison has his name on two 'M.F.U.' episodes, this is the first ( 'The Pieces Of Fate Affair' being the other ). He claims to have done rewrites on others ( including Season 2's 'The Virtue Affair' ). 'Solo' ( Robert Vaughn ) breaks into a THRUSH safe at night, only to be attacked by a strange woman ( Willy Koopman ) with staring eyes and who walks around with her arms outstretched. She has superhuman strength, and is impervious to bullets. Cornered, it looks as if the U.N.C.L.E. agent is going to take his own life as the teaser ends. But, when the titles are over, he is back at U.N.C.L.E. H.Q. The documents reveal that THRUSH are after a $1 billion Swiss bank loan for some new, unknown project. Solo takes the place of a Zurich banker and has a secret meeting with THRUSH agents 'Mr.Lash' ( Barry Atwater, a.k.a. 'Janos Scorzeny' of 'The Night Stalker' ) and 'Margo Hayward' ( Pamela Curran ). A brilliant scientist named 'Dr.Ansel Pertwee' ( Woodrow Parfrey ) has found a way to covert human beings - mostly beautiful young women - into living cyborgs called 'A-77''s. The process involving removing internal organs ( including two-thirds of the brain ) and replacing them with mechanical parts. When the lovely 'Andy Franklin' ( Jeannine Riley ) is filming a commercial for 'Spy Guy Men's Lotion' she spots an old friend called Muriel. But Muriel has undergone the conversion process, and does not respond to Andy's calls. Furthermore, the former human being attacks Solo in the street...

Directed by E.Darrell Hallenbeck, this is a good episode. The 'A-77' is terrifying, especially as Gerald Fried uses a jarring organ chord whenever she is on screen, and Willy Koopman bears a remarkable resemblance to the artist Tracy Emin. One wishes though it had been done either in the more sober Season 1 or Season 4 as it is marred by annoying touches of comedy, such as Solo and Kuryakin looking queasy as an U.N.C.L.E. boffin explains what the conversation process entails, Mr.Lash getting carried away whilst stating his objectives, and Solo urging Margo to call him 'Nappy'! Because the basic premise of this story is essentially grotesque, a straighter approach would have been infinitely better.

Solo uses his real name when meeting Mr.Lash and Margo. Amazingly, given the numerous THRUSH operations both he and Illya have wrecked in the past, they do not appear to have heard of him. The finale has our heroes trying to escape from the THRUSH lair only to be chased by an army of cyborgs. It is let down slightly by the unconvincing masks worn by the actresses.

Good stuff all the same, made just before Season 3 nosedived in terms of quality.

Litigatious author Harlan Ellison penned this episode of "UNCLE," which had a kind of all-star cast of '60s supporting actors.

Jeannine Riley (no to be confused with Jeannine C. Riley); Barry Atwater; Jonathan Hole; Fritz Feld (who refrains fom making that popping noise with his mouth); Woodrow Parfrey. All make welcome appearances.

This episode might show TV spoofery is not Ellison's strong point but a writer has to make a living.

The premise: THRUSH (the bad guys) are developing a line of assassins who are part-human and part machine. They can't be stopped by bullets or chemicals. And they toss UNCLE agents around like dolls. Well, why not?

Chief scientist Parfrey thinks he's saving mankind from the drudgery of assembly lines for a life of leisure (though he never explains how they will support themselves in leisure--people like Ellison, a truly notable fiction writer, never think these thins through, or maybe the scientist is an idiot). Atwater, on the other hand, wants an indestructable army to take over the world (again). Well, (again) why not?

Some good scenes. Another scientist (Hole, always good and usually funny) is dragged away after making a mistake (you can almost hear a Mel Blanc cartoon character yelling "For the love of humanity, no!") And when idiot scientist Parfey asks if Hole's character will be fired a smug Atwater, with much suggestive eye rolling, makes a sly remark about a "pension scheme" (cue Copin's death march). And Feld, while not his usual self (he's even shorn of his trademark moustache) gets in a few good, comically-bitter lines as a Swiss banker insisting that he's neutral between THRUSH and UNCLE.

The woman chosen as the assassin is quite attractive, and Riley was always one of the loveliest women on television, back to her stint on "Petticoat Juxtion."

And then, there's that bed! Funny stuff!

And Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are, as always, up to the demands of their roles, able to keep their characters light, but serious and never ridiculous.

All told, a delightful episode, if a trifle hackneyed. Ellison goes a little overboard.