MGM Television
The 1960s, a time when the world was on edge as the United States and Russia had a chilly relationship and at any minute someone could push a button to launch nuclear missles. This tension and fear was felt not only by people in their every day lives, but was reflected in the popular entertainment of the time as well. The Bond films, Dr. Strangelove, On the Beach and Fail-Safe all tapped into the fear of being annihilated in a nuclear blast.
And just as the Bond films were gaining in popularity, someone had the great idea to bring that type of espionage drama to the small screen. MGM Television executive Norman Felton actually collaborated with Bond’s creator Ian Fleming, who wanted to capitalize on Bond’s popularity, to come up with the basic premise for a new TV show featuring a character named Napoleon Solo. The producers of the Bond films were not happy about this collaboration, so Fleming eventually backed away, and the show was almost scuttled when the producers sued to have Felton refrain from using the “Solo” name as they had a character in the upcoming Goldfinger with the same name. Fleming did step in to support Felton by stating the Solo name did not infringe upon any character he created for the Bond series.
The show was originally to be called “Solo,” but with the focus becoming an secret worldwide agency that employed spies from many different nations to keep the world at peace, the show was eventually named The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Robert Vaughn was cast as Napoleon Solo. After a pilot was shot, Leo G. Carroll was brought in as the head of the New York bureau, Alexander Waverly, and after a bit part excited viewers, the role of Illya Kuryakin was expanded upon and David McCallum was made a series regular to be partnered with Vaughn’s Solo.
The first season, which brought the feel of the Bond films to the small screen on a weekly basis, was not a hit upon its debut, nearly being cancelled before NBC moved it away from the popular The Red Skelton Show on CBS. By mid-season however, and with the MGM publicity machine in full gear, the show was a smash and NBC picked it up for a second season.
That season is now available from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as a 10-disc DVD set featuring all 30 episodes from the season (the first to be filmed and broadcast in color). The season carried over the tone of season one as a more serious spy show with touches of humor, but Batmania was sweeping the nation at the same time when Batman premiered on ABC and became an instant smash, forcing the producers to add more comedy and comic book outlandishness to the series. Something the hardcore fans did not like.
MGM Television
The men from U.N.C.L.E. (the acronym was supposed to evoke Uncle Sam and was never supposed to be identified, but eventually became the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement – which received an end credits thanks! – to prevent any confusion with the United Nations) needed a villain to fight, and the series’ Big Bad was an organization known as THRUSH (whether an acronym or just a name was never revealed during the series’ run, but was given a name in one of the many novelilzations of the series: The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity), an organization bent on taking over the world.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was popular enough to draw many big name guest stars to the series in its second season including Dorothy Provine, Rip Torn, James Hong, Judy Carne, Charlie Ruggles, Roger C. Carmel, Julie Sommars, Vincent Price, Eric Braeden, Vic Tayback, Phyllis Newman, Michael Ansara, Jill Ireland, Lee Bergere, Angela Lansbury, France Nuyen, Jeanne Cooper, Jessie Royce Landis, Juliet Mills, George Sanders, Claude Akins, Victor Buono, Daniel J. Travanti, John McGiver, Larry Blyden, Maurice Evans, Vera Miles, Bernard Fox (who appeared in the same episode with Bewitched vet Maurice Evans), Mary Ann Mobley, Norman Fell, Kevin McCarthy, Diana Hyland, J. Pat O’Malley, Ricardo Montalban, Jack Weston, Barbara Bouchet, Martin Landau, Whit Bissell, Eve Arden, and Nicholas Colasanto. Each episode was also title “The [something] Affair” except for the two-part season opener which dropped the “The”, and were broken in to four “acts” with their own subtitles.
MGM Television
Unfortunately, for this review we were not able to go through all 30 episodes in a timely manner, so we picked two with the bigger name guest stars. “The Foxes and Hounds Affair” (an odd title which seemed to have no relation to the episode itself), the fourth episode of the season, featured Vincent Price as a European THRUSH agent who came to the States hoping to intercept a mind-reading machine he had witnessed in use during a magic act, knowing Kuryakin and another U.N.C.L.E. agent were there to purchase the machine.
MGM Television
In America, Price’s Marton (supposedly French but Price’s accent hardly stuck for more than a sentence or two throughout the episode) butted heads with a local THRUSH agent, Lucia Belmont (Patricia Medina), who was angling for a promotion and insulted that Marton would come to the U.S. to try to overstep her authority. For the time, it was a pretty interesting storyline that had a very strong female in a role of superiority fighting against a man for her position within the organization. There were a few impassioned speeches that she gave that must have shocked male viewers at the time and embolden feminists.
MGM Television
At the same time however, there was also a “damsel in distress” character – the series always employed an “innocent” who was somehow caught up in the action while just minding their own business – Mimi, played by Julie Sommars, whom was believed to be working with Solo and Kuryakin to transport the device to America. At one point, the agents had to rely on Mimi to use her feminine charms to trick a guard into letting them out of their cell. Well, two steps forward for feminism and one step back. Overall, it was a very fun episode with Price delivering some droll dialog as only Price can do.
MGM Television
The ninth episode, “The Deadly Toys Affair,” featured guest star Angela Lansbury as a German (!) actress known as much for galavanting around the world as she was for her movies. In this episode, Lansbury’s Elfie van Donck has arrived to help her nephew move from a very exclusive school after the death of his father at the hands of THRUSH. Of course, the school is run by THRUSH and they plan to take young Bartlett away to hone his scientific skills. When Aunt Elfie arrives, she and Solo work together to try to break Bartlett out of the school. Kuryakin is also on hand, posing a a hair dresser to Elfie’s friend Joanna Lydecker, who becomes jealous when she believes Illya is two-timing her with Elfie!
MGM Television
The biggest problem Solo faces is Bartlett (Dennis the Menace star Jay North, who isn’t even credited in the show’s opening) wants to go with THRUSH to carry out his own brand of revenge, no matter how long it takes. The episode is entertaining when Lansbury is on screen, making one wonder if she based her Death on the Nile character 13 years later on Elfie. Other than that, the episode veers a bit into some pretty outlandish scenarios, signaling the direction the series would eventually take.
The Warner Brothers DVDs feature all 30 uncut episodes spread across ten disks. The studio wisely used dual-layer disks in order to give the episodes room to breathe without a lot of unnecessary compression. The film elements used for the transfers look better than what has been seen on television over the past 40 years, but there doesn’t seem to have been a huge amount of restoration done, with colors varying from episode to episode (or scene to scene), and the normal minor scratch or dust particle visible here and there. The mono sound, however, is crisp and clear with no discernible hiss.
A few years ago Warner Bros. Home Entertainment licensed The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to Time Life which produced a deluxe complete series box set featuring a plethora of extras. Unfortunately, this collection features none of the extras contained in that set. For those who felt the price for the complete series was a little too rich for their blood, WB started releasing the series in season sets at affordable prices. If you’re a casual fan of the series and don’t need all of the extras, then The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Season Two is certainly worth adding to your video collection.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided HOTCHKA with the DVDs for review.
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