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THE LONE WOLF IN LONDON   (1947)
The Eyes Of The Nile Caper     (6 of 10)

Reformed international jewel thief Michael Lanyard has made a deal with a publisher to write a book about rare jewels, but runs into a snag when the focus of his last chapter, a pair of identical diamonds called "The Eyes of the Nile", prove elusive. It seems they were only recently recovered from a Nazi hoard and were temporarily in the possession of Scotland Yard, so he stops by there to get the info he needs to finish his book... only to find, they were stolen from the Yard just the day before. NATURALLY, the cops assume HE did it, and has unbelievable nerve to come to them before they go pick him up despite having no evidence of his guilt!

What follows is one of the most confusing plots in the entire LONE WOLF series. Nearly the entire first third of the film seems to ramble on before it gets going, during which a formerly-rich man suddenly in need of cash asks Lanyard's help pawning his jewel collection for him (which of course the cops are very suspicious of), Lanyard is briefly romanced by a music-hall singer whose show was financed by someone who "suddenly" came into money, Jamison gets very friendly with the maid who works for both the rich man AND the singer (that's almost too much of a coincidence, isn't it?) and the rich man's future son-in-law gets increasingly suspicious and downright offensive in his attitude and behavior. I think the problem is that it seems as if nothing's going on, when in fact, a LOT is going on, but you don't see how it all connects up until the last act of the story! When it arrives, Lanyard convinces the real thief (who's also guilty of murder on the side) that his partner plans to blackmail him, and he uses Jamison to get the mastermind of the crime, said henchman AND the cops to all show up at the airport at the same time to prove to the cops who the real guilty party is. The finale is the most exposition-heavy ending I've seen outside of THE CASE OF THE BLACK CAT with Ricardo Cortez (1936). It's completely NUTS!

Gerald Mohr makes his 3rd (and final) appearance as "Michael Lanyard", and it's a toss-up for me which I liked better, this or ...IN MEXICO. He gets to shine in a few scenes, such as when he confronts the rich guy about being lured in and framed, and explains half the plot for pretty much the entire audience, since without his saying so most people watching would probably still have NO idea what was really going on.

Eric Blore makes his 11th and also final appearance as "Jamison", who seems more helpful and less annoying than in many previous films.

Frederick Warlock is "Inspector Broome", who comes across as more reasonable, polite and patient than Lanyard's longtime nemesis Crane ever was. I'm not sure if I believe him when he claims, at the end, that he somehow knew Lanyard was innocent from the beginning. I've also seen him in MURDER OVER NEW YORK, MAN HUNT, DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE (1941), RANDOM HARVEST, SHERLOCK HOLMES IN WASHINGTON, PASSPORT TO SUEZ (in which he played a far-more suspicious police inspector), SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, THE WOMAN IN GREEN, PURSUIT TO ALGIERS, TERROR BY NIGHT, and DRESSED TO KILL (he really was a regular in the Basil Rathbone HOLMES series).

Dennis Green is "Detective Inspector Garvey", who Broome gladly assigns to follow Lanyard, since the man is obsessed with trying to "pin" whatever he can on him, no matter what lengths he has to go to. Garvey is the kind of police officer who frankly, gives ALL cops a bad name.

Evelyn Ankers is "Iris Chatham", the singer who's just involved with too many people and knows too much for anybody's good. I've seen her in quite a few things as well, including THE WOLF MAN, THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR, CRAZY HOUSE, SON OF DRACULA, THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE, THE PEARL OF DEATH, and TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN.

Alan Napier is "Monte Beresford", who financed Iris' show, but proves to be involved in a lot more than that. Long a favorite of mine, I've seen him in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, RANDOM HARVEST, LASSIE COME HOME, THE UNINVITED, TARZAN'S MAGIC FOUNTAIN, TARZAN'S PERIL, JULIUS CAESAR (1953), JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), THE PREMATURE BURIAL, THE SWORD IN THE STONE, MARY POPPINS, MY FAIR LADY, THE LOVED ONE, and of course, 120 episodes of BATMAN plus the 1966 feature film!

Mohr's 1st LONE WOLF outing was really lame, but his next 2 were both quite good, despite the insane story structure of the 3rd one. I don't know why Columbia decided to stop here. The following year, Mutual did a LONE WOLF radio series, with Mohr continuing to play Lanyard in that. But the year after that, Columbia did one more LW film, but recast both Lanyard & Jamison in it-- and it wasn't very good, which no doubt explains they stopped THERE. 5 years went by before THE LONE WOLF tv series aired, with entirely-different people involved on both sides of the camera.

[profh0011]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE:  The Hula Doll Affair
The FAMILY Affair     (7 of 10)

Thrush steals a new UNCLE explosive with the force of an atom bomb, but they don't realize it detonates at 90 degrees farenheit. And-- it's a heat wave, with the temperature rising. Mr. Waverly is certain it must be held in Thrush's NYC headquarters, which they have to locate. But to complicate things, 2 brothers are vying for the position of permanent head of Thrush NY HQ, and are willing to do anything to accomplish it.

Coming so late in season 3, this one genuinely surprised me, as it feels more like season 2-- or almost season 1. We see Florio's Tailor Shop for the first time all season, and the emphasis of the plot is a satire of CORPORATE structures-- making it feel decades ahead of its time when it comes to social commentary. On that score, this is like a less-silly episode of GET SMART. Writer Stanford Sherman definitely did better work on UNCLE than he did on BATMAN (although he did somehow manage a couple of my favorites on that show).

WHAT a cast! Jan Murray & Pat Harrington Jr are Simon & Peter Sweet, the two brothers whose personal and professional competition winds up endangering their criminal organization. I mainly know Murray from TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER, and Harrington, oddly enough, for several different voices on Filmation's JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH cartoon series.

Tall & voluptuous Edy Williams is an UNCLE tech who flirts with Ilya; her I mostly remember from 3 episodes of BATMAN, particularly the 2 where she was one of Liberace's villainous assistants. Bobbi Jordan is "Marge", a woman whose apartment closet Ilya uses to spy on Mrs. Sweet, mother of the 2 fighting brothers. I've seen her in a number of things, but none of them stand out in my memory; a shame, as I found her more attractive than Williams. Grace Gaynor is "Wendy Thyme", a secretary hired by Simon to embarrass Peter, as an outsider brought into Thrush HQ. Later, Peter uses a threat against her to persuade Napoleon to follow his orders. I'll always remember her as "Chickadee", Burgess Meredith's moll in "The Penguin's Nest" story, whose personality struck me as very likely the inspiration for the much-later Joker moll, "Harley Quinn"!

Patsy Kelly is "Mama Sweet", who seems all innocent and annoyed her boys don't tell her what they do for a living, but later is revealed as one of Thrush's top people, who never told her SONS what SHE did for a living. When she shows up at the board meeting, she comes across so tough, ruthless & murderous, she would have been a good choice to play "Ma Barker".

Rex Holman is "Oregano", a deadly-serious, cold-blooded thrush security man. I knew that face from somewhere-- he played "Morgan Earp" in the STAR TREK episode "Spectre Of The Gun"! The unmistakable Angelo Rossitto turns up as a "blind" pencil seller who's really passing on a message to Napoleon to lead him into a trap. His credits are endless, usually playing EVIL dwarves, like in SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. And finally, James Milhollin is "Cardaman", who runs the "Thrale and Usher Haberdashers" store. YEAH. Is THAT where the name "Thrush" REALLY comes from? It gets me that Thrush already knew exactly where UNCLE's NYC HQ was in the pilot episode, but somehow, it took UNCLE 3 whole years to track down THIS place. Absurd!! Milhollin is almost always playing rather condescending, snide characters, like when he was Liberace's "criminal lawyer" on BATMAN, and he's doing another one here. The strange thing here (among so many) was that while Mr. Waverly obviously figured out where Thrush HQ was by the end of the story, he didn't seem to act like "Cardaman" was going to be arrested, although from his behavior and attitude, it's CLEAR the guy KNEW who he was working for.

Gerald Fried's chase music at the end got so ridiculous, it seemed to have stepped right out of a silent movie. Just before that, however, Nelson Riddle borrowed from his own BATMAN score during the scene where Ilya was pretending to be a cab driver. This story may not have been borrowing so much of the style of BATMAN as some episodes, but it certainly borrowed several of its personnel!

[profh0011]

BEHIND THAT CURTAIN   (1929)
"Walk Softly, Travel Far"     (6 of 10)

An heiress foolishly marries the wrong man, then deeply regrets it when he's abusive and cheating on her, but when she learns he murdered a P. I. her now-late father had hired to investigate the man, that's one line crossed too many! So she runs off with her old friend, a noted explorer who deeply loves her, but REFUSES to tell him what her husband did that was so bad, since she wants to "avoid a scandal". WHAT? Meanwhile, a die-hard, determined Scotland Yard inspector goes to insane lengths to somehow both find the truth-- and protect her honor.

Let's get this out of the way: this is NOT any normal kind of "Charlie Chan" film. In fact, since we pretty much KNOW who the murderer is early-on, this is more of a "Columbo", where the focus is on a detective trying to prove what he ALREADY knows to be the truth. But Peter Falk never took this much time doing so!

The main criticism of this film-- and it is an extremely-valid one-- is that nearly every actor in the film is talking in slow motion, as if they're all on downers. This is especially true of Gilbert Emery, who plays the hero of the film, Scotland Yard Inspector "Sir Frederick Bruce". I've seen him in a few films where I found the characters he played intensely annoying in the extreme (THE SAINT STRIKES BACK, DRACULA'S DAUGHTER), but here, despite his slow-motion delivery of every single line, I genuinely ENJOYED his character! I could tell early-on he always seemed to know more than he said, he was the one heaping praise on his long-distance colleague in San Francisco who found the all-important clue (though we never learn how he managed that), and on chasing down the blackguard husband and the two errant lovers in the desert, he showed such great restraint and concern, it just put a smile on my face whenever he was onscreen. These days, I cannot believe there is even a single real police officer anywhere on Earth with this much sense of humanity about them.

Warner Baxter is "Colonel John Beetham", the explorer who foolishly "left the field open" for the girl he loved to go off and marry someone else... then, agreed to help her when she was in distress, despite her abject refusal to explain the circumstances. Somehow, I never warmed up to the CRIME DOCTOR films (compared to so many other mystery series from that era), but I found myself really relating to his character here. In my life, I've know TWO different women who married the wrong guys, and I was unable to do anything to help. At least Beetham got a chance, and had a happy ending, eventually.

Lois Moran is "Eve Mannering Duran", the heiress whose life becomes an unending hell-- though, frankly, to a large degree due to her own stubbornness. WHY refuse to help the police once she knows the truth? WHY drag things out for more than a year? It's like she's asking to be dumped on. On his blog, Dennis Schwartz describes her as having "the dubious honor of being one of the most obnoxious and dumbest heroines ever in films." I'm afraid I must agree! Despite this, I was somewhat mesmerized by her beauty. She reminded me a lot of Denise Crosby-- who, in later years, reminded me of my Aunt Cecilia (my Mom's sister), an amazing women I always wished I'd gotten to know better than I had. If nothing else, watching this film had me remembering her.

A real highlight of the film, halfway in, was when I suddenly recognized Beetham's servant was none other than BORIS KARLOFF. What a FACE! What a VOICE! He has pitifully little to do in this (his 1st speaking role!), and yet, like his appearance in SCARFACE, he seems to be the most "natural" actor in the entire movie. NO WONDER he became so popular and had such a long career. He just about steals the film in one scene without saying a single word!

It's not until the last act that we finally set eyes on "Inspector Charlie Chan", played by E. L. Park in what seems to have been his ONLY appearance on film. One reviewer poses the question, was Park even a professional actor? Hard to say. For myself, I was reminded that one of my pharmacists is a Chinese girl also named Park. Of course, she's a lot cuter...

According to the "Faded Page" blog, the 1928 novel this was based on was a much-more traditional "murder mystery", which focused on Charlie Chan trying to solve a murder that happened 15 years earlier. WHATEVER possessed the people at Fox to completely jetison that in favor of showing the story from the point-of-view of the 3 people involved in the "love triange"? I admit, I enjoyed this film for what it was... but now, I REALLY wanna track down the NOVEL and read that!

The 20th Century-Fox "Cinema Classics Collection" had 3 boxes to cover the Warner Oland era, with the films, for whatever reason, spread out almost RANDOMLY across the 3 boxes, with this one on Box 3. They're out of print and getting pricey, and I was considering for more than a year going after them... when suddenly, I didn't have to anymore. OnesMedia has just put out a box set with EVERY available Warner Oland film in chronological order-- PLUS, 2 audio reconstructions of missing Oland films-- and, "ERAN TRECE", the Spanish version of the missing "CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON"-- and, "BEHIND THAT CURTAIN". I put off buying this film separately, or watching it on Youtube, and having now seen it in the OnesMedia box, I was stunned at how CRYSTAL-CLEAR so much of the film was, with only 2 reels near the end (around the 70-minute mark) being from a lesser source. I'm now so much looking forward to re-watching the entire series, for the first time on DVD. And, they've announced they're doing Box 2 with all 22 Sidney Toler films-- and Box 3, with all 6 Roland Winters films, PLUS, the 2 horrible, ghastly ones from the 70s, PLUS, all 6 "MR. WONG" films as extras. Wow! I don't know if what this company puts out are "bootlegs" or not, but their packaging continues to blow me away. If I were putting films series out on DVD, I'd be doing the way they are.

Oh yeah, and just to be clear... whatever its faults, BEHIND THAT CURTAIN is at least 10 times better than THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN... and 100 times better than CURSE OF THE DRAGON QUEEN. Take that for what it is.

[crashryan]

Prof's review of Behind that Curtain made me curious to watch the movie. It's slow going. I finally lost patience and just skipped through most of the film. There's a nice, clear copy of the feature on YouTube if you want to try it yourself.

nearly every actor in the film is talking in slow motion, as if they're all on downers

You know what it sounded like to me? It sounded like the patronizing manner in which some people speak to foreigners with limited English skills. They. E-nun-ci-ate. Each. Word. Very. Slowly. And. Carefully. with the unspoken implication that the foreigner is not only not a fluent English speaker but also a moron. The actors were probably instructed to speak slowly and clearly to ensure their voices would record, and they overdid it.

The sets and photography weren't bad. It didn't look like a poverty row production. The cast didn't seem so much to be poor actors as to be hesitant and uncomfortable, as if they were didn't know what to make of this newfangled talking picture business. The exception was E.L. Park. This fellow was not a professional actor. I imagine an incompetent producer suddenly informed that they didn't have anybody to play Charlie Chan. "Find me a Chinese guy, fast!" "How about that fellow Park who works in the cafeteria?" "Yeah, that's it! Bring him here and put him into a suit! We got a schedule to meet!" They got a Korean instead of a Chinese, but what the heck? The other two Asian Chans were Japanese.

What Prof said about Karloff's "natural" manner is something I've noted in both early talkies and in silents. Almost all the actors use a version of the prevailing acting style. Suddenly up pops someone who seems to preview the next acting generation. I saw one of Sessue Hayakawa's silents (he was a big star in late teens-early twenties American cinema) and was struck by how natural his performance appeared in contrast to everyone else's stylized silent technique.

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Terrific comments! Hope you made it to the end.

I like reading IMDB reviews before I write my own, so I can find something different to say. Of late, I also like describing the plot in as few lines as possible, then focus more on the actors & characters and other stuff. In this case, I was actually inspired to refer to 2 different reviews from other sites. I seem to have an easier go getting thru these "stodgy antiques" than most people, but in this case, the slow-motion talking was worse than usual, so what amazed me was how I just focused on the story, and found it had my mind running through all sorts of related memories.  Like, at least I found SOMETHING that made it worth sitting though.

I do think the question about WHY did Fox so completely change the manner the story unfolded was a valid one. It makes me want to read the book, and I've never read a Charlie Chan book! 

I have, funny enough, read no less than 4 MR. MOTO novels.  Boy, are THEY different from the film series that spun off of them! He is something only vaguely hinted at in a couple of the films-- a Japanese SECRET AGENT. It's no wonder the film series ended so abruptly, when WW2 broke out. The closest I've seen in a movie in style and tone to John P. Marquand's novels is probably HIGH ROAD TO CHINA with Tom Selleck.

Anyway, I suspect there's a really good movie just waiting all these decades to be made based on the novel "Behind That Curtain".

Next week:  ERAN TRECE!  (The Spanish version of CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON.)  Watching series like these ONE per week really allows me to focus on each installment and get more out of them as I go.

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Speaking of "natural" acting:  check out SHERLOCK HOLMES (1916) with William Gillette! He and nearly the entire cast were adapting their stage play to silent film (what a wild transition!), which had been going for 17 years by then (since 1899).

Someone described the acting in it as shockingly natural and modern, given just when the film was made.

The film had been reissued in France in 1920 (and cut into 4 separate chapter serialized weekly), and those were the prints they managed to find and restore.  Thank God! What a revelation.

I think things got confusing for a lot of people... as in 1922, John Barrymore starred in a remake of it, also called SHERLOCK HOLMES, which added an entire new first half-hour as a prologue to the stage play story (and which I believe served as inspiration for the Spielberg film YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES).  The 1922 film, despite decades of work done on it, still looks like it needs a restoration, and is still missing quite a bit of its original run-time.  It also ends abruptly, missing the ending of the stage play.  Crazy.

Early in the sound era, Clive Brook starred in THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1929), loosely based on "The Dying Detective" and "His Last Bow".

Then in 1932, Brook starred in SHERLOCK HOLMES (you'd think the titles of these 2 movies would have been revesed, HMM?).  This film is NOT an adaptation of the stage play-- it's a genuine SEQUEL, picking up exactly where the play leaves off, with Holmes & Alice Faulkner planning to get married.  But Moriarty ESCAPES from prison, and plans to both destroy Holmes' reputation AND carry out the crime of the century.  Sound familiar?

For decades, people have described 1939's THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES with Basil Rathbone as "based on the stage play".  IT'S NOT! It is, IN FACT, a loose remake of the 1932 Clive Brook film, only without Alice Faulkner, and set back in the proper time period.  Rather than break jail, Moriarty is released when a witness fails to show up at his trial.  At which point he tells Holmes face-to-face he's going to destroy him reputation, by pulling off the crime of the century right under his nose.

The Rathbone-Bruce films carry over quite a lot from earlier Holmes films, and in that case, the climax was actually swiped from the 1935 Arthur Wontner film, THE TRIUMPH OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.

It's been so much fun seeing all these older films, and learning so much about the movies that came before Rathbone.

[profh0011]

ERAN TRECE   (1931)
Charlie Chan Carries On—in SPANISH!     (7 of 10)

An around-the-world-cruise becomes the scene of tragedy when one of the tourists is murdered while in London. Scotland Yard Inspector Duff is unable to hold the suspects, but continues to follow up, especially when he's contacted by a woman who claims one of those involved is using an assumed name. But before she can identify the killer, she's shot dead while riding in an elevator with Duff! He eventually goes to Honolulu to seek help from his proverb-speaking friend, Inspector Charlie Chan-- only to be shot in the back in Chan's office. Taking this as an affront to his profession, Chan sets out to finish the case himself.

The earliest CHARLIE CHAN films were all based on the novels by Earl Derr Biggers. Tragically, quite a number of them are considered "LOST", several all being destroyed in a single fire in Hollywood decades ago. But over time, prints of a number of them have been found, among them ...IN PARIS (1935), the very strange adaptation of BEHIND THAT CURTAIN (1929), THE BLACK CAMEL (1931), and... ERAN TRECE ("There Were Thirteen"), the Spanish version of CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON (1931). So it is that, while Warner Oland's 1st turn as Chan is among the missing, we can see this excellent Spanish version (with English subtitles, thankfully!)

I've long noted how many detective series in the 1970s seemed inspired by earlier series or films from the 1930s & 40s, and one comparison I like to make is between Charlie Chan and Columbo. Both feature polite, self-effacing detectives investigating murders, who hide brilliant, sharp minds behind their polite exteriors. As others have noted, Manuel Arbo's Chan is more physically active than his contemporary Warner Oland, and which one prefers is a matter of personal taste.

I found the first half of this rather difficult, as there were so many suspects to deal with, and having to read English subtitles made it more challenging. Despite this, it HELD my interest, was a HUGE step up from the previous BEHIND THAT CURTAIN, and, when Chan finally appears 41 minutes in, the whole thing really picked up tremendously.

Among my favorite characters were the retired Chicago gangster & his wife. He talked tough and had an attitude, but when Chan appeared, it was interesting how he showed genuine respect. I also found his wife the most attractive woman character in the story. It was nice to see that while he had a rough exterior, they clearly got along very well and treated each other right.

Several of the early CHAN books were filmed more than once. In the case of "The House Without A Key" and "The Chinese Parrot", BOTH versions of each are lost! Luckily, with "...Carries On", we have both the 1931 Spanish version and the 1940 ...MURDER CRUISE (which is even better than this one!).

While the existing Oland films were spaced out almost randomly on the 20th Century-Fox box sets (now out of print and getting very pricey), OnesMedia just put out a brand-new CHARLIE CHAN VOL.1 containing all the available films from 1929-1937 in chronological order in a single compact box. The print of ERAN TRECE is excellent, crystal-clear picture & sound, though so far I find the subtitles confusing to turn on or off! I'm looking forward to upgrading the entire series from them, once the 2nd & 3rd boxes come out.

[profh0011]

CHARLIE CHAN’S CHANCE   (1932)
The Murdered Scotland Yard Inspector Case     (4 of 10)

Charlie Chan is in New York City with Scotland Yard Inspector Fife to "learn big city police methods" from NYC Inspector Flannery (sounds a bit like the set-up for McCLOUD, doesn't it?). While there, a fellow Scotland Yard inspector is murdered-- and the 3 detectives join forces to find out what case he was working on, and bring his murderer to justice. As is usual with any case Chan gets involved in, there's a list of suspects to be investigated, an endless stream of poetic proverbs, numerous references to his ever-growing family (his wife just gave birth to their 11th child, and he misses the boy he hasn't set eyes on yet). And of course, there's enough plot twists to hold your interest.

Apparently this was the 2nd adaptation of Earl Derr Biggers' 1928 novel, "Behind That Curtain", but may have been much closer to the book than the first version was, as Chan is in this all the way from the beginning, trying to solve a murder that took place several years earlier. While the 1st film version made in 1929 hardly had Chan in it at all, this version, tragically, was one of countless Fox films destroyed in the infamous 1937 vault fire in New Jersey that wiped out pretty much all of Fox's silents and many of their earliest sound films as well. Apparently, the first 7 CHARLIE CHAN films from Fox were all destroyed in that fire-- but, over the decades, prints of BEHIND THAT CURTAIN (1929), ERAN TRECE (1931, the Spanish version of CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON) and THE BLACK CAMEL (1931) were all found elsewhere, as well as CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS (1935) which was found sometime in the late 70s or early 80s.

In the case of CHARLIE CHAN'S CHANCE (1932) and CHARLIE CHAN'S COURAGE (1934), audio "reconstructions" with still photos were created, to at least allow fans to experience some versions of the stories. The first time I saw such a thing was LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT (1927, destroyed in 1965). I must say, I enjoyed this quite a bit more than that one, no doubt because so much of any typical CHAN film is dialogue, and this is pretty much like listening to a RADIO show, only with still photos accompanying it. I've listened to so many radio shows, especially in recent years, that I'm afraid I wasn't really impressed by ANY of the voice-actors employed on this (I'm pretty sure I could have done a better Warner Oland impression than the guy they used here)... but somehow, that didn't get in the way of me really enjoying the STORY. There were quite a few times where I found myself LAUGHING out loud at some of Chan's sayings, and some of the plot twists, such as when he explains that a now-dead suspect saved him the trouble by killing himself.

I knew I recognized Ralph Morgan in the photos. I somehow wasn't sure which character he was playing, but, based on the cast list at the IMDB, it appears he was the main bad guy-- something he was regularly typecast as, particularly in several different CHAN films over the years. I guess we can only continue to hope that maybe, someday, copies of more of the missing films may turn up somewhere. It sure would be nice.

[profh0011]

THE GIRL FROM UNCLE:  The Double-O-Nothing Affair
Sydney and THE SARGE     (7 of 10)

In New York City, a local Thrush office has developed a series of "mobile" agent units to disrupt UNCLE activity. Mark Slate infiltrates one of them and gets a tape with info that made lead to the location of their hideout, but loses it and is wounded in a shoot-out. Taking over, April finds that a downtrodden accountant has found the tape and hopes to sell it to the highest bidder. Instead, she and the man, Sydney Moorhouse, are captured and taken to the HQ, which is set up below a used car lot run by an ex-army Sergeant with a bad temper (shades of "The Sarge" from the SAD SACK comic-books!). Meanwhile, completely against orders, Mark figures out where the HQ is on his own, and infiltrates again-- this time posing as a German Thrush Central inspector.

There are 2 things that really make this episode stand out from most this season. One is Edward Asner, as ex-arms Sarge George Kramer. Asner raised the level of just about every show or film he ever appeared in, and this is definitely on the list. But many terrific actors have crashed and burned on this series, due to questionable writing. NOT this time! This has to rank as one of the most level-headed, sensible scripts in the entire run of GIRL FROM UNCLE, and when the end credits came up, I wasn't surprised to see a familiar name listed-- Dean Hargrove! As one of the most-successful writers & producers ever on television, he's worked in one capacity or another on MY THREE SONS, THE MAN FROM UNCLE, THE NAME OF THE GAME, COLUMBO, McCLOUD, MADIGAN, McCOY, the 80s PERRY MASON revival, FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES, MATLOCK, JAKE AND THE FATMAN, and countless others.

Meanwhile, Sydney was played by Sorrell Booke. I didn't recognize him here, but, but he's probably most known for playing "Boss Hogg" in 146 episodes of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD.

If more episodes of this show had been this good, it might have lasted more than one season!

[profh0011]

I keep forgetting to post new reviews on this board!  Oh well...


THE FALCON IN MEXICO (1944)
Mexican Murder-Travelogue   (5 of 10)

Moments after promising his latest girlfriend he's giving up crime and other girls, Tom Lawrence becomes involved in the break-in at an art gallery, the murder of its owner, the theft of an expensive painting by a man believed long dead, the millionaire who owns most of the late artist's work, and a trip to Mexico, with the artist's daughter, who believes her father may still be alive, that seems to double as an extended commercial travelogue for vacation-goers. What fun!

The 10 FALCON movies starring Tom Conway break down almost neatly into 2 periods. The first had him involved with Inspector Timothy Donovan (Cliff Clark) and his sidekick Detective Bates (Edward Gargan). Most of these took place in the New York City area, except for the 5th, ...OUT WEST, where the two cops followed Lawrence's long-distance investigation. Unlike THE LONE WOLF series, which carried such nonsense to insane limits, starting with his 6th film, you had 5 in a row, each featuring a different pair of cops in a different part of the country.

Emory Parnell is "Winthrop Lucky Diamond Hughes", who owns most of the dead man's work, and insists he knows his style better than anyone. He's also arrogant, obnoxious, and never stops complaining. Among his long resume are ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, THE HOUSE OF FEAR (1939), THE SECRET OF DR. KILDARE, FOREIGN CORRESEPONDENT, THE MALTESE FALCON, ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, and 3 FALCON movies (he comes back in the next one as the cop-of-the-film).

Pedro De Cordoba is "Don Carlos Ybarra", the local rich guy whose daughter posed for the stolen painting. I've also seen him in CITY IN DARKNESS, THE GHOST BREAKERS, THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940), TARZAN TRIUMPHS, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945), and SAMSON AND DELILAH (1949).

Mona Maris is "Raquel", half of a professional dance team, and the 2nd wife of the late artist, who worries that should her first husband turn out to still be alive, she will be married to two men at once. Often playing femme fatales, I've seen her in THE DEATH KISS, WHITE HEAT, and A DATE WITH THE FALCON (opposite George Sanders).

Martha Vickers is "Barbara Wade", the dead man's daughter, who's long suspected that her father may still be alive, and almost seems to have a psychic connection with the hotel he lived in. She had bit parts in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN and THE MUMMY'S GHOST, but will forever be remembered as "Carmen Sternwood" in the 1946 version of THE BIG SLEEP.

Nestor Paiva is "Manuel Romero", a cab driver of many, many talents who, along with his young son "Pancho", attaches himself to Lawrence the moment he arrives in Mexico and won't let go. He absolutely STEALS the movie, and to me is the main reason to watch-- and re-watch, when you find out what he's really hiding from his temporary employer. I've seen him in THE SPIDER'S WEB (1938), THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939), PHANTOM RAIDERS, THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN!, MEET BOSTON BLACKIE, DRESSED TO KILL (1941), TARZAN'S DESERT MYSTERY, THE LONE WOLF IN MEXICO (where he plays one of the more intelligent cops in that series), THE PALEFACE, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, MY FAVORITE SPY (1951), I THE JURY (1953, as a bartender friend of Biff Elliot's "Mike Hammer"), CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA, 2 episodes of RICHARD DIAMOND, PRIVATE DETECTIVE, 14 episodes of ZORRO with Guy Williams, ATLANTIS: THE LOST CONTINENT, and, he did voices in 3 episodes of JONNY QUEST (1964). What a guy!

This particular film has always struck me as possibly being a direct influence on not one but two much-later episodes of McCLOUD with Dennis Weaver. While the now-departed Cliff Clark's brusk personality often reminded me of that show's "Chief Clifford" (J. D. Cannon), the search in Mexico for an artist believed dead turned up in "Somebody's Out To Get Jennie" (from season 2), while the prolonged scenes of driving in Mexico turned up in "Lady On The Run" (season 5). I've been seeing so much in the various "NBC Mystery Movies" series from the 1970s that were inspired in one form or another by film series of the 1930s and 40s, can this really be a coincidence, or later writers simply borrowing and updating obvious tropes to use in shows watched by audiences too young to even be aware of what they're borrowing from?

Just as this was the first FALCON film without some kind of regular supporting cast, it's also the first to end without a bogus lead-in to the next film. ("Oh, Mr. Lawrence! You HAVE to help me!")

[profh0011]

MURDER MY SWEET  (1944)

D'ja ever notice that the psychiatrist blackmail angle in "I, THE JURY" was almost identical to the one in "FAREWELL MY LOVELY"?

Every time I watch the damned Dick Powell movie, I get TOTALLY lost when Claire Trevor starts talking to Marlowe in that beach house.  I mean, seriously, it makes the Bogart "BIG SLEEP" seem crystal-clear by comparison.

I dunno about anybody else, but style and mood and character is nice, but if you're writing a murder mystery, the murder mystery part of the plot should MAKE SENSE-- especially after watching the same movie more than a dozen times!  ?

Seems to me, except for Michael Winner, every time someone tries to adapt Chandler into a movie, they take his biggest failing and make it WORSE. And they always think they're being "clever" when they do it!

[profh0011]

Q PLANES  (1938)
The Disappearing Airplanes Caper   (6 of 10)

In 1938, test planes with advanced, experimental features have been vanishing without a trace, yet the factory owner continues to insist they must all be the results of accidents, equipment failure, or sabotage. But eccentric espionage man Major Charles Hammond is certain enemy agents are involved, even though his own boss doubts it and is in a hurry to send him off to another assignment in the Middle East. While investigating undercover, he runs across Tony McVane, an outspoken test pilot who believes as he does, but also finds his own sister Kay has been spying on the plant in order to dig up a story for her newspaper. Before it ends, a plane flown by Tony is brought down by a secret weapon, several plane crews rebel against their foreign captors, and a British Destroyer ambushes the "salvage" ship involved. All the while, the film wildly bounces between serious thriller and outright comedy. What fun!

Ralph Richardson steals the film as "Hammond", whose interests include horse racing, crosswords and cooking; according to Patrick Macnee, "Hammond" was his model for "John Steed"! (I find it amusing that both Richardson and Macnee at different times played Dr. Watson.)

Laurence Olivier is "McVane", angry at his boss, angry at the idea of lady newspaper reporters, yet by the end even angrier at the foreign spies and takes a gattling gun to many of them, while also falling in love with Hammond's sister.

I recognized several other actor in this, including Gordon MacLeod as the chief Nazi (even if he's never identified as such); I'll always think of him as the best-ever "Inpector Teal" in 3 different SAINT movies around this time. There's also Ronald Adam & John Laurie, who both turned up in Cathy Gale AVENGERS episodes, a series this film shares so much in common with, more than 20 years before-the-fact.

Amazingly, one of the writers is Jack Whittingham, who collaborated with Ian Fleming on the unproduced screenplay, "Longitude 78 West", that Fleming turned into his next novel, "Thunderball". BOTH this story and that one involve enemy agents bringing down a plane over the ocean with somthing valueable onboard-- in this case, a prototype engine, in the latter, 2 atomic bombs.

Further, while the bulk of the film is very much like a prototype of an AVENGERS episode, the climax, where several captive crews are in a cell comparing notes, later turned up in the film YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967), while those same crews escaping and starting a running gun-battle with the villains turned up in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)! The design of the "Marconi" ray looks like something out of THINGS TO COME (1936) or THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (1958).

I never even heard of this film until a few weeks ago, but now I'm so glad I got my hands on a copy. I've always enjoyed Richardson as an actor, but this role of his is unlike anything I've ever seen him do.

I only now dearly wish someone would do a full restoration on it-- and much more importantly-- issue it on a BLU-RAY. As far as I know, the film is in Public Domain, as multiple small outfits have copies of it available. I got mine from "Reel Vault". The picture is crystal-clear, the sound mostly the same, and like their copy of the 1931 THE SPECKLED BAND (with Raymond Massey), the box art is very nice! There's only one major problem... it MUST be copied from a PAL disc, as it's running at THE WRONG SPEED. (The Region 2 DVD box sets I have of THE AVENGERS seasons 2 & 3 have the exact same problem.)

For me, Blu-Rays are not so much about enhanced picture and sound quality-- but the fact that they're encoded to AVOID the old PAL-NTSC problem. Anyone who ever claims Blu-Ray technology "never caught on" is spouting utter nonsense! There are GREAT films and TV series from all over the world that deserve to be viewed in all countries, PROPERLY. This is one of them!

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  THE COMPLETE SERIES

OH BOY!!!  I got the box set in the mail today.  I'm in a state of SHOCK.  I'd videotaped stuff off the air for so long, and it continues to be such a thrill NOT to have to.  ALL 69 episodes for far less than i was expecting to pay.  Wow.

Crazy surprise... my new "LG" Region-Free Blu-Ray Player, so far, everything plays with the TV set to "stretch".  Which is weird.  EXCEPT this COLUMBO box.  I tested one episode out, and it actually plays at "NORMAL"-- which is what older "square" "fullscreen" films should be.

Just for the hell of it, I checked out the first few minutes of "Ashes To Ashes" -- Patrick McGoohan's 4th appearance.  He was not only the murderer, he was also co-executive producer, AND, director!! He said in an interview he wanted to do another one right after he did the 3rd one... but it took years longer than expected.  I actually had a DREAM about being on the set of them making a new episode with him as the guest.  That day, after I woke up, I went out and got the new TV GUIDE... and found out that episode was coming up 9 days later!  A real "Twilight Zone" moment.  9 days later, I had my VCR set up a half-hour early.  5 minutes into the show... I suddenly realized the VCR REMOTE, the batteries had died.  I hit "RECORD" manually, then replaced the batteries.  So my copy has been missing the first 5 minutes for all these years.

ANOTHER "Twilight Zone" moment today:  Rue McClanahan showed up for a funeral in a BRIGHT RED DRESS, and some character sarcastically referred to her as "Miss Red Death".  I was watching Corman's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH only the night before.  I almost fell over laughing.  Stuff like this makes me feel I'm somehow "in tune" with the universe.


I start in on the box MONDAY NIGHT. 

[profh0011]

MADIGAN  (1968)
GREAT Crime Drama; SCHIZO Movie   (6 of 10)

2 detectives are surprised when a suspect they want to bring in for questioning gets the drop on them, steals their guns, gets away, then turns out to be wanted for MURDER. Oops. They have 72 hours to bring him in-- "OR ELSE". But a full HALF of the film is dedicated to a completely-unrelated parallel story about a hard-nosed Police Commissioner with impossibly-high moral standards who happens to be involved with a married woman. So the film is one part hard-boiled crime drama, one part soap-opera, and you wind up feeling like you're watching 2 films that have been inadvertently inter-spliced together (something Universal Television became INFAMOUS for when they butchered some of their own shows for syndication in the 70s).

I came to this having been a huge fan of the short-lived NBC Mystery Movie series MADIGAN, which made me an instant fan of Richard Widmark. In the late 60s & early 70s, it became a strange habit to run pilots separately, often months before subsequent series would debut, and a side-result of that would often be that I'd never see the pilot until after the series itself ended and went into syndication. In the case of MADIGAN, the "pilot", so to speak, was actually a theatrical feature film. Imagine my SHOCK when the title character GETS KILLED at the end! I guess, one could joke, when the later series began... "He got better."

Based on the 1962 novel "The Commissioner", somehow the screenplay wound up focusing more on the detective character than on the P. D. who was fighting with his conscience and outlook on life. The first time I saw the film, I didn't know what to make of it. I loved the scenes with Dan Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocky Bonaro (Harry Guardino). The HALF of the film that focused on Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) was a slow, painful slog. I must say, it has grown on me over the years, but I do agree with whoever feels the film might have been much more of a classic if the entire narrative had focused on the 2 detectives and skipped all the various moral and romantic sub-plots.

WHAT an incredible cast! So many actors I know from so many things, among them, Inger Stevens (HANG 'EM HIGH), Susan Clark (COOGAN'S BLUFF), Michael Dunn (THE WILD WILD WEST), Steve Ihnat (STAR TREK), Don Stroud (MIKE HAMMER), Warren Stevens (FORBIDDEN PLANET), Lloyd Gough (THE GREEN HORNET), Woodrow Parfrey (DIRTY HARRY), Lloyd Haynes (ROOM 222), Bert Freed (I'd just watched the COLUMBO pilot a week ago, and couldn't help but wish someone would put HIS 1960 version of that story out on disc). It goes on!

My favorite scenes probably involve the utterly-INSANE "Barney Benesch" (Ihnat), when the 2 detectives argue over which one of them screwed up ("You bum, you were lookin' at the BROAD!"), or later, just before the intense and fatal shoot-out ("Send the girl out, she can't help you." "I don't know-- I MIGHT GET BORED!").

Re-watching this not long after re-watching COOGAN'S BLUFF made me notice something interesting-- or is that hilarious? The 23rd Precinct seen early in the film, appears to be the IDENTICAL LOCATION used in both COOGAN'S BLUFF and MADIGAN, with Lee J. Cobb getting swapped out for Frank Marth. The exterior of the building, meanwhile, is the same one used in the 2nd season of McCLOUD.

I suppose the biggest sign that this film had an effect on me was when, in late 1975, my brother suggested I do a variation on its plot for one of my own home-made mini-comics. My version focused entirely on the hero chasing down a murderer-- and, I did mine as a COMEDY. (I'd love to get that thing published one of these days.) My brother told me he HATED Henry Fonda's character in the movie!

I recently got my hands on all 6 NBC episodes of the MADIGAN series, including my favorite, "The London Beat", which I haven't seen since NBC reran it in 1973. (The CBS Late Movie, in the early 80s, only ran 5 of the 6 movies-- skipping that one. Grrr.) I can't wait to watch them again!

[profh0011]

A HAUNTING IN VENICE  (2023)

I'm in a state of shock.  I haven't seen an Agatha Christie film ON A BIG SCREEN since APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH in 1988... and this is MUCH better than that!!

For ethical reasons, I can't talk about it... except to say, the last 15 minutes, when Poirot sums up the crimes left me absolutely STUNNED.  And there was one more shocking revelation that came out during the epilogue!  Wow.

I'm going after and watching so many things these days, it's gonna be some time yet before I start upgrading my AC collection... but I'm definitely looking forward to see this again.  And, the 2 previous Kenneth Branagh films which I totally missed.


This was infinitely better than the LAST 4 007 films put together.

[profh0011]

THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR  (1968)
The Rich Bank Robber and The Greedy Investigator   (6 of 10)

Wealthy, brilliant and cynical Boston financier Thomas Crown masterminds a bank heist. Out of boredom? For "kicks"? Or, as he claims (and director Norman Jewison confirms), as his only way of "striking back at the system"? The police are utterly baffled. The insurance company pays the bank... but then brings in a specialist... Vicki Anderson, to find out who was behind it, and get the money back... for 10% of what's returned. The investigation turns into an intense cat-and-mouse game... and then a bizarre love affair between two sociopaths who were made for each other. But will his cynicism-- and her absolute need to "win"-- destroy the only chance either might have for true happiness?

As we first see the crime, and then the investigator doesn't turn up until exactly 35 MINUTES into the movie, the film winds up having almost the exact same structure as PRESCRIPTION: MURDER (1968), which aired on TV exactly 4 months before this hit theatres. But Lt. Columbo NEVER wound up sleeping with the murderer he was trying to nail.

"Style over substance". No kidding. An astoundingly-visual film with virtually no likable characters plays out over gorgeous locations and the stirring musical score of Michel Legrand, highlighted by Noel Harrison singing "The Windmills Of Your Mind". I'd only seen this ONCE before, on TV 50 years ago, before buying the 2018 Kino Lorber Blu-Ray. I'd forgotten most of it. I doubt I'll ever forget it now. This will NEVER be a favorite film of mine, but it is unquestionably fabulous and fascinating.

Rumors to the contrary, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway were the only leads ever considered. He always plays close to his chest, she always seems to be playing psychologically screwed-up women. A number of other familiar faces dot the cast, including Paul Burke as Police Detective "Eddy Malone", who gets increasingly incensed at Vicki's immoral and ILLEGAL methods of trapping her quarry. He starred in 10 episodes of FIVE FINGERS, 48 episodes of 12 O'CLOCK HIGH, and 99 episodes of NAKED CITY!

Jack Weston is "Erwin", the nervous getaway driver (I mainly recall him from one of countless sad episodes of THE FUGITIVE). Addison Powell is "Abe", one of the robbers (I'll always remember him as "Dr. Lang" from DARK SHADOWS). Yaphet Khotto is "Carl", another robber (years before he did LIVE AND LET DIE or ALIEN). Patrick Horgan is "Danny", another detective (see the STAR TREK episode "Patterns Of Force"!). Richard Bull is the unnamed "Booth Guard" (he played the never-named Ship's Doctor on VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA). And standing out in a crowd is the gorgeous Judy Pace as "Pretty Girl" (a BATMAN, a TARZAN, COTTON COMES TO HARLEM and FROGS, among others).

As it happens, I've been buying a number of "heist" films lately, but the reason I got this one is because it is, according to legend, the inspiration for the later NBC Mystery Movie series BANACEK, with George Peppard, as a Boston-based freelance insurance investigator who gets 10% of whatever stolen items he recovers. (Sound familiar?) They basically combined the look and personality of McQueen with the profession of Dunaway, although, as with most movie-to-TV transitions, Thomas Banacek is WAYYYY more likable than Thomas Crown could ever be. And, hilariously enough, BOTH characters live in the EXACT SAME Boston mansion! (How about that?)

Next week I'm looking forward to THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS (also 1968), about the theft of an armored car... which, crazy enough, was the PLOT of the BANACEK pilot.

[profh0011]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE:  The Summit Five Affair
The New Producer Affair   (8 of 10)

A once-yearly meeting of 5 UNCLE heads is endangered by a double-agent somewhere in their Berlin office... and because he was there when a murder occurred, Napoleon is one of the suspects. He eagerly agrees to submit to intense interrogation, certain he'll be cleared, and the only remaining suspect will then be the target of suspicion. But all through this, I kept wondering, how do we know this OTHER guy, who was portrayed as "everything a subtle agent shouldn't be" wasn't the real culprit? Boy, was I right...

After an absolutely-incredible 1st season, UNCLE fell victim to the mood of the times, and the result was no less than 3 entire seasons' worth of inconsistent, increasingly-silly plots (that's seasons 2 & 3, PLUS the entire season of THE GIRL FROM UNCLE!). Ratings were apparently endangered, but somehow the show made it to a 4th season, and this episode shows what can really be accomplished when a show that's gone off-track has a new producer take over. I knew I recognized the name Anthony Spinner! Apart from THE INVADERS, THE F. B. I., and CANNON, the show he was associated with that I most remember was RETURN OF THE SAINT with Ian Ogilvy, who eventually became my favorite actor! (He's better than Roger Moore-- what can I say?)

The mood was toned down, the lights in Waverly's office were toned down (heh), Waverly got a regular secretary for the first time in the series (whatever took them so long?), the THEME song got a more intense arrangement, and the story at times made me think someone had decided to follow the model of "Harry Palmer" rather than "Derek Flint". I haven't seen a show turn around this much between episodes since the 3rd season opener of LOST IN SPACE, "Condemned Of Space" (which, funny enough, aired only 5 DAYS before this one!).

I've been re-watching the early seasons of THE AVENGERS lately, and it's occurred to me that a number of things established in that show later turned up almost verbatim on UNCLE. One was Steed's boss "One-Ten", an older man who still had an eye for the ladies, who reminds me an awful lot of "Alexander Waverly", 2 years before-the-fact. Another was in the episode "The Outside-In Man", where another boss of Steed's has his office hidden behind a butcher shop (2 years before UNCLE's tailor shop). Having the main character put through a really-intense interrogation, trying to break his will and make him confess to crimes the audience cannot believe he's possibly guilty of, seems to have been borrowed straight out of "The Nutshell", an episode aired in England more than 3-1/2 YEARS before this one. The big difference being, in that, the interrogator turned out to be the main villain. Here... NOT quite! (heh) It's cool when somebody borrows a plot idea and then puts their own unexpected twist on it.

Albert Dekker is "Harry Beldon", a most-unseemly spy who's oddly successful despite his extrovert eccentricities. I've never cared for him as an actor, and I suppose I was inclined to be suspicious of his character from the start.

Lloyd Bochner is "Gerald Strother", who was also present when the murder Solo is suspected of took place. IS he the killer, or just ridiculously-overzealous at his job? I've seen Bochner in so many things, often playing baddies or simply sleazebags, but he always has an aura about him that makes him very entertaining to watch, no matter his role. I mainly remember him for THE NIGHT WALKER (1964), a McCLOUD ("Night of the Shark") and of course, 2 episodes of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA ("Greetings From Earth" and "Baltar's Escape", where he was virtually playing a space NAZI).

James Millhollin is "Wraithlike", a Thrush agent with no pretenses whatsoever. As soon as I saw him onscreen, my eyes lit up, I've seen in so many things, including a "criminal lawyer" on BATMAN ("The Dead Ringers") and a very gentle soul on LOST IN SPACE ("The Great Vegetable Rebellion"-- hey, it's NOWHERE near as bad as so many insist that it is-- heh).

I got a kick out of seeing that row of NASA-surplus computers, no doubt re-purposed when Irwin Allen's THE TIME TUNNEL was abruptly cancelled. But the one genuinely funny bit in the story is when the heroes are in a glass elevator, going down, which is filling with poison gas. "How far does this go?" "I don't know, this is one of the newer models." (I LOVE humor in my adventure shows-- as long as it doesn't get out of hand.) It was also nice to see Solo & Kuryakin actually GETTING ALONG, as for far too many of the stories, it seemed they were barely concealing contempt for one another.

I can't be sure if the previous year permanently killed any chances for UNCLE's ratings' recovery, or if the anti-violence crusade of 1968 really did it in. Jon Heitland's 1987 book on the series mentioned that early-on, pressures to reduce violence resulted in them coming up with tranquilizer guns... but watching the entire series on DVD, I have only seen their use in-- at most-- 2 episodes! The rest of the time, they're SHOOTING real bullets and KILLING an awful lot of people-- and these are the good guys I'm talking about. When the climax of this episode arrived, I'd have almost thought I was watching THE UNTOUCHABLES, when both Solo & Kuryakin were machine-gunning a whole squad of Thrush killers to death. Several "action" shows were actually yanked off the air due to pressure from anti-violence groups in 1968. This included THE WILD WILD WEST, cancelled while it was still in the top ten! I can't help but wonder if this didn't also affect UNCLE. After a massive turn-around like the one seen here, this show deserved to go on a lot longer than it did.
   (7-13-2023)

[profh0011]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE:  The Prince Of Darkness Affair – Part 1
The Laser Crystal Affair   (9 of 10)

A middle-eastern megalomaniac has developed a "thermal prism" weapon, which, if launched into space, could hold the entire world for ransom. UNCLE recruits a career criminal wanted in 22 countries to break into the villain's safe and steal the weapon. Complications arise when a woman whose brother is in prison, framed by the safe-cracker, wants to get her hands on him to free her brother. As Solo-- with the help of the main villain's unfaithful wife-- infiltrates posing as a shady businessman, Ilya & the safe-cracker sneak their way through various death-traps and security systems to get into the safe. As things moved into the 4th act, I wondered, where will this go in the 2nd half? I must confess, the PLOT TWIST at the end was surprisingly unexpected, and left my jaw dropping. DAMN, what an intense episode!

Anthony Spinner's taking over as producer turned this show around like nothing I've ever seen before. And the return of writer Dean Hargrove (one of the most successful writers & directors in TV history) saw one of the most INTENSE, gripping stories in its entire run. I LOVE seeing both Napolean & Ilya being DEAD-SERIOUS as they are here. Not only are they ruthless when it comes to dealing with anyone who gets in their way, they're also getting along with each other, which was a huge change in attitude from the previous 3 whole seasons. And while the tone of seasons 2-3 were no doubt influenced by the Adam West BATMAN (something that never should have been allowed to happen), this episode in particular seems aiming more for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, even borrowing a gimmick featured in both that show's pilot and the earlier feature film TOPKAPI.

As usual, the guest cast is stellar, some in rather-surprising ways.

Arthur Mallet (who's been in just about everything from MARY POPPINS to HALLOWEEN) has a cameo as an African hunter who's one of the victims of the death ray.

John Dehner (who's also been in just about everything, on both radio and TV) is "Dr. Parvis Kharmusi", a man obsessed with power, whose estate is a well-guarded fotress, and whose security force takes loyalty to insane lengths, even committing suicide on command (as one character in the film WRONG IS RIGHT once said). Absurdly, Dehner's accent seems all over the place, and it's the one "off" note in the entire episode!

Bradford Dillman (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE ENFORCER, SUDDEN IMPACT) is "Luther Sebastian", a career criminal with a whole list of college degrees, who's got his own attitude problems. He agrees to help in exchange for amnesty, but refuses to get involved in "violence" (letting Ilya take the full brunt of any fights), until, out of nowhere, he picks up a gun and kills someone. And therein lies the twist...

John Carridine (JESSE JAMES, HOUSE OF DRACULA, TARZAN THE MAGNIFICENT) is the "Old Man" head of "The Third Way" cult, who hasn't got a single line in the episode. I was stunned when I saw his name in the end credits! Carridine has always been one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood history, and yet, staring right at him, I didn't realize who he was! As an actor, I bet he'd have been flattered to hear that.

Carol Lynley (SHOCK TREATMENT, THE NIGHT STALKER) is "Annie Justin", who just plain gets in Solo's way in her quest to find Sebastian so she can get her brother out of prison. I've always found her attractive-- but NOT in this story! She played one of the most thick-headed, stupid, annoying women I've ever seen on this show, and I wound up agreeing with the character who said, "Something tells me she deserves whatever happens to her."

H. M. Wynant (one of Eli Wallach's henchmen on BATMAN, and countless other roles) is "Hassan Aksoy", a friend of Annie's, whose own brother is also in prison thanks to Sebastian. He knocks Solo out, then intimidates him with knife-throwing, before being SHOT dead by Kharmusi's wife. Again, I'm so familiar with his name and face, yet I DID NOT recognize him at all, and was unaware he was in this until I saw his name in the credits.

Lola Albright (84 episodes of PETER GUNN!) is Kharmusi's wife, "Azalea", who apparently is helping Solo because she's not getting on with her husband. But there's more to her than meets the eye, which Solo might have suspected by her driving habits (I was reminded of Lucianna Paluzzi taking Sean Connery for a ride in THUNDERBALL).

Sid Haig (BATMAN, GET SMART, BUCK ROGERS, GALAXY OF TERROR) is "Alex", head of Kharmusi's security squad. Him I recognized instantly, despite my never having seen him play any role so low-key and DEAD-serious! Especially "dead", as when his boss is displeased and offers him a suicide pill, he takes it without hesitation. I suspect there's too many company CEOs these days who think their employees should act like that.

The "McGuffin" here was later reused-- BADLY-- in the 7th "007" film DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER-- but I think I can say with some authority, this TV 2-parter must be TEN TIMES better than that terribly-disappointing movie. And to think, this in only Part 1! My late best friend once noted that in the 60s, many TV 2-parters felt like 2 stand-alone stories just barely linked together with a cliffhanger in the middle. This is definitely one of those! I'm seriously thinking, when I re-watch UNCLE, of just doing Season 1, and then jumping straight to Season 4 afterwards. With such a recovery as seen here (4 AMAZING episodes in a row, so far), this show deserved to go on a lot longer than it did. I suppose it was matter of "too little too late". Ah well. Thank God for "complete series" DVD box sets!
   (8-3-2023)

[profh0011]

THE FALCON:  DEVIL’S CARGO   (1948)
The Magician-Detective and the Safe-Deposit Key   (5 of 10)

A man pays a detective $500 to hold a key for him, while admitting he just killed a rival for his wife's affections. After happily turning himself in to the cops, certain he won't be convicted, some goons come looking for the key-- and one of them gets blown to bits when he opens the locker it fits. And then, the confessed murderer winds up dead of poison while in jail. The detective is determined to find out what's going on, because he didn't like the way those thugs "annoyed" him. Uh huh.

Something very few movie fans seem aware of, is that in the late 1930s, there were two completely-different fictional characters in print, both nick-named "The Falcon"! The 1st was named "Michael Waring", created by Charles H. Huff (under the name "Drexel Drake"). Waring appeared in 3 novels between 1936-1938. The 2nd was "Gaylord Falcon", crreated by Michael Arlen, who appeared in a SINGLE novel in 1940. RKO decided to undercut "Saint" author Leslie Charteris by starting a "Falcon" series with George Sanders (as "Gaylord Lawrence"), and from various sources, I've read that Chartertis sued BOTH Arlen AND RKO separately, for plagiarism! This is why the 2nd of 2 "Saint" films made in England with Hugh Sinclair was delayed release in the US by 2 years-- apparently it took that long to find someone other than RKO to distribute it here.

Meanwhile, Sanders got bored, and starting with the 4th RKO film, his real-life brother Tom Conway took over playing Sanders' character's brother "Tom Lawrence", who kept making "Falcon" films until 1946.

But WHILE this was going on, The Blue Network was doing a FALCON radio show, featuring the "Michael Waring" character, which ran from 1943-1954! The radio show starred Barry Kroeger (1943), James Meighan (1945-47), Les Tremayne (1947-50), Les Damon (1950-53) and George Petrie (1953-54). Right in the middle of this, the "Falcon Pictures Corporation" (distributed by "Film Classics") did 3 movies featuring "Michael Waring" (mysterious dubbed as "Michael Watling"), all starring real-life stage magician John Calvert. Oh yeah, and in 1954, "Federal Telefilms" did a TV series, ADVENTURES OF THE FALCON, starring Charles McGraw as "Michael Waring", who switched professions from private eye to espionage agent!

So-- as insane and bizarre as it may seem-- "Michael Waring" is the original Falcon, "Gaylord & Tom Lawrence" are the RIP-OFF characters. What baffles me is how RKO got away with it for so long.

This is NOT a great film, but, having just re-watched it, it's not a bad little mystery, either. Calvert's attitude reminds me a bit of Louis Hayward's as "Simon Templar" (he's just too over-confident to believe), and the mystery angle is nicely done. I'd say, low-low budget aside, the main failing here is the directing and the acting-- and having seen too many movies not to realize this, I'd have to put the blame on the director. Too many people in this look like they're reading lines from cue cards during a first rehearsal.

A few familiar faces spice things up, including Rochelle Hudson (MEET BOSTON BLACKIE), Lyle Talbot (BATMAN AND ROBIN), and Michael Mark (FRANKENSTEIN). I also liked the relationship between the hero and "Lt. Hardy" (Roscoe Karns). It's genuinely refreshing to see a PI and a cop portrayed as friends. It's a shame that Hardy, the dog and the magic tricks didn't return in the 2 follow-ups.

BIG question:  WHY was this called "DEVIL'S CARGO"?  The working title, "THE UNWRITTEN LAW" was far more appropriate.

The print in OnesMediaFilms' FALCON box set isn't the greatest, but I've seen far worse. It's just nice to have the entire series-- or should that be two series combined-- all in one handy set.
   (9-23-2023)

[profh0011]

THE FALCON:  APPOINTMENT WITH MURDER   (1948)
The Counterfeit Art Racket   (5 of 10)

Michael Waring (inexplicably dubbed "Watling" on existing prints) is hired by an insurance company to recover a pair of stolen paintings. From LA to Italy, he runs into a local artist who makes a shady living creating absolutely-authentic fakes of old masters, fraud, theft, MURDER, and a gallery run by a woman he takes a liking to. She's a bit on the shady side, too, but not nearly as much as her business partner. The big question over the course of this story is, are the two paintings FAKES-- or, the ORIGINALS?

Once more for those who came in late: Michael Waring was the creation of Charles H. Huff. The character appeared in 3 novels from 1936-38, a long-running radio show from 1943-54, 3 low-budget movies from 1948-49, and a TV series from 1954-55. He had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the character created by Michael Arlen, who RKO based their series of 13 films on from 1941-46. Leslie Charteris (creator of "Simon Templar, The Saint") SUED both Arlen and RKO. My question is, why didn't Charles Huff?

So, just to be clear: the 3 John Calvert "Falcon" movies are NOT in any way a continuation of what RKO did-- if anything, they're a spin-off of the THEN-CURRENT radio show! At the time of these films, Les Tremayne was starring on that; I can't help but wonder why HE wasn't in these movies!

Anyway, yeah, "Falcon Pictures Corporation" and their distributor "Film Classics" made PRC look like Monogram by comparison (HEH), but this is a nice little film, provided you know what you're in for and go in without any high expecatations. And I enjoyed this just enough to wish someone could find decent prints and put them out. The print in OnesMediaFilms' 16-film FALCON box set has very fuzzy picture, tinkling sound, a few damage cuts, and for about a minute, a bit of text saying who "digitally remastered" it. Hmm. Oh well, at least it's on DVD, which is handy.

John Calvert, a famous and highly-successful stage magician, somehow made a detour into a brief Hollywood career. His performance was nicely toned-down here from the previous installment, though I got a laugh in that one scene where the baddie finds a BLANK canvas, and Calvert says, "It disappeared-- like MAGIC!" Cute. I think I'd have loved to see this guy on stage!

Catherine Craig plays the art gallery manager, who seems nicer than one might expect of a possible crook. I found it a nice twist that she genuinely seemed concerned about Waring, and-- just like something Simon Templar would have done-- he makes sure she's completely cleared of any wrong-doing at the end!

Jack Reitzen ("Chopstick Joe" from TERRY AND THE PIRATES) is "Norton Benedict", who really is too shady for his (or anyone else's good). He reminded me a bit of Lloyd Corrigan's "Arthur Manleader" from the BOSTON BLACKIE series, apart from turning out to be a real RAT.

Familiar faces included Lyle Talbot (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) as the insurance company boss; Peter Brocco (THE HAUNTED PALACE) as the Italian art forger; Ben Welden (THE BIG SLEEP) as an enthusiastically-brutal thug; and Michael Mark (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN) as a baggage claim clerk. Both Talbot & Mark had played other characters in the previous film!

I'm strongly considering looking up the Michael Waring FALCON radio show and TV series when I'm done with these. I do have to wonder: why DID they dub "Watling" over "Waring" on TV prints of these?  That's like calling Godzilla "GIGANTIS".
   (9-29-2023)

[profh0011]

ROPE (1948)

2 sociopaths murder someone they consider an "intellectual inferior" just to prove they can. Then they throw a party with the corpse hidden in a chest in the same room! GEEZ.

This was the 3rd time I saw this (it was a gift from a friend about 20 years ago). I'm SO glad I watched it today, rather than, say, 2 months ago. Tonight, the 2 murderers reminded me TOO much of my NOW-EX home care clients, a pair of control-freak NARCISSISTS. It added an extra level of disturbing that hadn't been there before.

Crazy enough, the IMDB has the cast list taken from the end credits, not the opening credits. In the opening credits, JAMES STEWART got top billing. As he should have.

[profh0011]

THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS   (1968)
The Las Vegas Armored Car Heist   (8 of 10)

Tony Ferris' older brother Gino escapes from prison and plans to steal a casino's futuristic high-tech armored car. He and his gang are all killed... but then Tony plans a 2nd attempt, with far-more careful planning. This involves getting information from Ann Bennett-- the mistress of Steve Skorsky, whose security company built the "impregnable" armored car. They manage the seeming-impossible, and pull off an incredibly-complex heist in the middle of the Nevada desert-- before things go wrong, as they always do in old "heist" films.

But early on, the plot throws in a huge twist. It seems the "insurance investigator" is really a Federal agent from the Treasury Department (gee, like Elliot Ness!) who's out to NAIL Skorsky for something HE's doing that's illegal! So you have two different forces going after Skorsky at the same time, each unaware of the other's existence or intentions-- until the robbery happens.

What we have here is a European thriller (a Spanish-Italian-French-West German co-production) filmed partly in Spain and partly in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco-- with all that entails.  There's English dubbing after-the-fact, some INCREDIBLY-cool jazz music, lots of style over personality, but with a plot that gets SO twisted, SO complex (especially in the last half-hour) that I was MESMERIZED, trying to guess from one moment to another, WHERE is this all going? I wouldn't say this was the greatest heist film ever made, but I LOVED it!

Gary Lockwood (STAR TREK, 2001) is "Tony Ferris", who very determinedly plans and executes the incredible heist, with the sometime-reluctant help of his girlfriend. Even when things go wrong (among other things, one of his own gang goes rebel and really should have been killed about halfway through the film), Tony keeps his head.

Elke Sommer (A SHOT IN THE DARK) is "Ann Bennett", Skorsky's mistress and Tony's lover, who winds up being trailed both by the cops and by the Mafia in the last act.

Lee J. Cobb (12 ANGRY MEN, COOGAN'S BLUFF) is "Steve Skorsky", whose reputation for his security company masks his MAFIA connections.

Jack Palance (Dan Curtis' DRACULA) is "Douglas", who's posing as an insurance investigator while all the time is secretly trying to take down not only Skorsky but his Mafia bosses. WHO ever imagined Palance would be playing a GOOD guy in one of these things? Certainly not me. One of the best parts was his relationship with the local sheriff, who's as anxious to clear up the case as Douglas is, and helps him keep the top people in D. C. at bay when it looks like the whole operation may fall apart. When they finally get a lead, you can see both men are really thrilled about just doing their jobs.

Jean Servais is "Gino", whose robbery attempt goes tragically, fatally wrong. Back in 1955, he played "Tony le Stéphanois", who masterminded the jewelry heist in RIFIFI.

I never even heard of this movie until a few weeks before I got the 2010 Warner Archive DVD. I heard about it from IMDB reviewer "SearchAndDestroy-1", who pointed out that the actual robbery in this film apparently was swiped outright for the 1972 TV pilot of BANACEK, with George Peppard as the freelance insurance investigator who gets 10% of whatever he recovers. I'm planning to get my hands on that series on DVD sometime soon, but wanted to get this film first! One of the best things about this film is that they never tell you how Tony plans to steal the truck in advance-- you find out AS it's happening!

I was half surprised the Warner DVD didn't have a foreign language dub on it. Or any extras at all. Oh well! At least it was CHEAP. The ending left me wondering about the fate of Tony & Ann. SURE, they were guilty of so many things (including the murder of TWO Federal agents and one innocent bystander). But the way things panned out, I wouldn't be surprised if some Federal judge didn't give both of them a suspended sentence.

[The Australian Panther]

Gary Lockwood

2001: A Space Odyssey - Dr. Frank Poole - 1968
The guy who has the conversations with Hal the computer.
Oddly, IMDB lists this film on his entry, but whoever supplied the Bio misses it entirely.
The most famous role he ever played.
He was still working in 2020 when he made Unbelievable!!!!
Which is, actually. According to the preview, it's a spoof, of many SF films and shows but mostly Star Trek.
He plays a Gerry Anderson type puppet - In Star Trek first series uniform. [?] Film also has cameos from many Star Trek Alumni..
So, he finishes where he began?
Doesn't seem to be anybody left in Hollywood who can write comedy. 
Looks painfully bad to me, but what do I know.
I'll bet it goes down a riot at Trek cons.
Near the top of my list of places I never want to go.       

[profh0011]

THE MAN FROM UNCLE:  The Man from THRUSH Affair
The Earthquake Machine   (9 of 10)

On a tiny Greek island, Thrush has spent 3 BILLION dollars so that obsessed mad scientist "Dr. Killman" can build a device that-- it turns out late in the story-- can cause earthquakes and destroy major cities, which will allow the crime syndicate to blackmail and take over the world. But Killman's project is running behind schedule, so Thrush sends an efficiency expert, Mr. Filene, to speed things up. There's mutual contempt between the madman and his bosses, so much that he records Filene's voice and sends it to Thrush central for identification. Doing so violated their rules, causing the "Thrush Authority" to announce he's CANCELLING the entire project, and everyone on the island will be killed within 12 hours! But before this happens, "Filene" actually manages to speed up the project, via the simple act of having the slaves working in shifts so as to not tire themselves nearly to death. ("You should have thought of that yourself long before this.", Filene tells Killman.) So now Killman is thrilled with Filene-- until 3 other Thrush agents show up to announce that "Filene" is really UNCLE's #1 operative-- Napoleon Solo. "OOPS!"

There's so much more to this plot, but just what I've already described would be enough to fill a feature film. This is genuinely one of the VERY BEST episodes of the show I've ever seen. It's criminal that by the time it aired, UNCLE had no doubt already been cancelled and there were only 4 more weeks to go.

Top of the guest list is John Larch as "Killman". As I mostly remember him from the movie DIRTY HARRY (1971), it's hilarious that in the MAD magazine parody of that movie, the hero is named "Killerman". We've seen lots of mad scientists on this show, but how many of them refer to themselves in the third person?

Barbara Luna is "Marnya", Killman's reluctant girlfriend who betrayed her own people into slavery and now deeply regrets it. It takes most of the story before she comes to realize that "Filene" (Solo) is actually on her side. I'll always remember her for THE OUTER LIMITS ("It Came Out Of The Woodwork") and STAR TREK ("Mirror Mirror").

Jan Arvan is "Thrush Authority", who is in too much of a HURRY to take over the world, and his own violent mood-swings wind up sabotaging his organization's biggest effort to date. Are we to believe this guy might actually have been Thrush #1? He seems kind of non-descript to me, but then Thrush was often portrayed as operating like a modern-day international corporation more than a run-of-the-mill crime syndicate. Arvan had, oddly enough, played 2 earlier roles on UNCLE, and his portrayal in this role makes it seem like they could have cast anybody in it. But maybe that was the idea?

A surprise for me was in the pre-credits scene where 2 UNCLE agents we've never seen before (or after) get ahold of some info, but are tracked down to a photo lab while in the process of reporting to Waverly. One of them was played by Jack Bannon, who I recognized from 114 episodes of LOU GRANT, where he played reporter "Art Donovan".

I'm guessing David McCallum had the week off. It happened... even on THE AVENGERS.

My favorite moment in the story is when Killman is SO obsessed with getting his project completed AT ALL COSTS, he has his men KILL the 3 Thrush agents, even though they just told him that the man he's taken into his confidence was Solo. That's when I thought to myself, "This is BRILLIANT!"

As I've found myself saying in a few other instances... "THIS is NO TIME for the show to be cancelled!"

[profh0011]

21 BEACON STREET (1959)

I've become very obsessed with inspirations lately, like when one movie is based on another one, or a movie inspires a TV series. I put this show on my "wanted" list some time, ago, based on what I read on the "Thrilling Detective" site, never really expecting to be able to knock it off.

I JUST DID.

Imagine my shock when, 2 weeks ago, I found out this was put out on DVD just 3 months ago!!! It immediately jumped to the top of my "wanted" list. I JUST got it in the mail today. WOW!!! I just watched the first episode. Man, I REALLY enjoyed this thing.

It's pretty clear that Classicflix did not bother remastering the sound on this (lots of hiss), but the picture is pretty clear. You know what? This DOES remind me of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. Only in a half-hour fomat. I used to love half-hour adventure shows. I think it's a shame nobody does them anymore.

In the last couple weeks, I've seen RIFIFI (1955), THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (1960) and now this. When I'm done with this, I'll be going after TOPKAPI (1964), and then-- the 1st season of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. I got hooked on the 2nd season back in 1967, and for decades, never realized that Peter Graves' "Jim Phelps" was a replacement. I've never seen season 1! I can't wait. Truthfully... I haven't looked yet. If there's a "complete series" box-- I'll be going after THAT. Much easier.