THE INNOCENT: Barbara Feldon is Mandy Stevenson, an UNCLE translator whose main duties concern Brazilian weather reports, disappointed she's not getting any of the kind of adventure she thought the organization would offer her. She plays a cat and mouse game with Solo at the office to prove she could do more, and he eventually hands her a fake mission to get her out of his hair. She proves untraditionally competent, as well as charming. The main villain certainly thinks so. After a spate of guest appearances on various shows starting in 1964, including this Man from UNCLE spot, Feldon was cast as Agent 99 on the spy spoof Get Smart, which would be her home for five years (plus some appearances in a 90s revival). So while Mandy doesn't then become an UNCLE agent, it seems she walked across the street and had a fruitful career at CONTROL!
REVIEW: Dutch angles AND Cesar Romero? Can Batman '66 be far ahead? (About a year, yes.) He plays Victor Gervais, a suave member of THRUSH's French branch who wants to get his hands on this week's MacGuffin, a list of French UNCLE double-agents that couriers are trying to get to the French office (the details don't seem to matter, only that everyone wants this, very pure MacGuffin. And while some of Gervais's successes are accidental (like getting Mandy, when he was only really flirting with her), he still shames THRUSH's American agents for their continual incompetence. But then, UNCLE's record isn't great either - what security checks are in place to make sure the right courier is handed the sought after microdot? Very silly mistake to make, though the episode sells it well, with charm and comedy. Gervais is a man who takes risks, at least. They just don't always pay off, but he takes the bad with the good, a smile on his lips.
Much more at the center of things than usual is the spotlight Innocent. I guessed early on that Mandy might become an accidental decoy when Solo sends her on a merry chase around New York with Waverly's humidor, but didn't expect her to accidentally get the actual microdot. She's on a real mission, after all, even if she's not taking the dot to the right location. So all agents scramble to find her before THRUSH does and a comedy of errors ensues. Very entertaining, and her hiding place for it is pretty interesting, too, especially since Gervais at one point had it and didn't realize it. He, more than anyone, gives her a good report, and you really wish these two would have squared off again in a future episode. I haven't seen any episodes of The Girl from UNCLE yet, but Mandy would have been a fun lead for such a show, very green, but very fun.
The boys still get a lot to do. lllya is the original courier and, initially trapped by flame bombs, makes a clever escape down a manhole. He will later seem to repeat that trick in the middle of traffic, but it's a neat in-camera illusion because he actually hoped on the side/back of a car. Always amazed at how many stunts McCallum is doing. The sequence in the theater, with the THRUSH sniper and his crazy X-ray gun behind the movie screen is a highlight. Lots of amusing gags as the war film seems to come to life with real violence. Solo managing an impossible shot with his hands tied behind his back and aiming at Gervais in a mirror is another. He delightfully surprises himself. The fight in the garage with the THRUSH mechanic is cool, too, and could easily have turned nasty after Solo doused his opponent with gasoline and threatened him with a blowtorch. We're really getting into Bond territory here, balancing humor with strong action beats. Probably the best yet, in that regard.
HEARD ON CHANNEL D: "If I could just get involved in something, just do something. Then at least I'd have a memory. I mean, it's bad enough
that I don't have a future. I can't even have a past." (Mandy)
"You do not expect me to believe that, so consequently, I will not." (Gervais)
BONDED: Barbara Feldon is, herself, a spy genre icon thanks to Get Smart, a show that, like UNCLE, was spawned by Bondmania.
REWATCHABILITY - High: Excellent guest stars enliven a story that's already having a lot of fun with its action set pieces. Top tier!
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