User Reviews

This was one of the first 'M.F.U.' episodes to be released on video, mostly due to the pairing of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, two years before the debut of 'Star Trek'. They do not get many scenes together though, and there's none of the interaction that characterised their relationship as 'Captain Kirk' and 'Mr.Spock'. Hardly surprising, given they are on opposing sides.

Laslo Kurasov ( Werner Klemperer ) is a warmongering East European diplomat whom U.N.C.L.E. wants 'removed'. Rather than invade his country and hang him, Solo and Kuryakin launch a scam ( why do real-life Governments never think of these things? ) that would not seem out of place in 'Mission: Impossible' - they con Kurasov into buying the formula of a nerve gas called 'Strigas' ( 'strike gas' ). He pays for it with Party funds, only to find the formula is for floor wax.

Shatner is 'Michael Donfeld', owner of a debt-ridden extermination company whom U.N.C.L.E enlists to sell 'Strigas'. Peggy Ann Garner plays his wife 'Anne'. Werner Klemperer went on to become 'Colonel Klink' in the sitcom 'Hogan's Heroes'. Nimoy is as his sidekick 'Vladeck'. Woodrow Parfey makes the first of several 'U.N.C.L.E.' appearances; here he is villain 'Linkwood'.

Like Martin Landau's 'Rollin Hand', Illya spends a fair amount of the story in disguise.

Somewhat oddly, Henry Misrock, this episode's writer, never wrote for the Bruce Gellar-created spy show.

Despite there being virtually no action, this is an entertaining instalment, with some nice flourishes of humour. For instance, spotting a pram in the middle of a city street, Solo pulls it to safety. Inside the wailing 'baby' is none other than a tape recorder. He turns it off and burps it! Good climax as the disgraced Kurasov is taken to an airport for deportation where he meets Illya and Donfeld, two of the men responsible for his downfall. His angered expression is wonderful!

The 'U.N.C.L.E' directorial debut of Joseph Sargent.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – The Project Strigas Affair – 1964

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

Uncle needs to set up an East Bloc diplomat, Werner Klemperer. Klemperer is causing tensions to mount between the west and east with his warmongering speeches. UNCLE is to eliminate the man without making him a hero. They need to discredit him with his government.

Agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) are given the assignment. The UNCLE agents come up with a bait and switch plan. They bring in a pair of civilians to help with the plot. The civilians, William Shatner and Peggy Ann Garner are a couple running a small pest control outfit. UNCLE offers to pay off all their debts for their help.

Shatner, a trained chemical engineer is to pretend to be a top man for a secret nerve gas project for the U.S. UNCLE baits the trap with some dropped info on the project and Klemperer bites. A big intelligence coup would move him up in the politburo back home. He has his own agents bait a trap to grab Shatner. They offer the man 100,000 in cash. Shatner plays it cool and asks for 2 million. This suggests to the East Bloc outfit that it must be important.

UNCLE then has McCallum, in disguise as a Secret Service man from Klemperer's own government, stir the pot a bit. Klemperer cannot resist the lure of a big score and dives in. The deal is made to give Shatner the cash for the secret of the "Strigas Project". It is a gas that will put an opposing army to sleep for 48 hours. Then the U.S. could move in and take control without massive casualties.

A monkey wrench though is thrown into the machinery just as the deal is closed. Klemperer's aide, Leonard Nimoy, decides to check out matters on his own. He discovers that McCallum is a fake. He arrives at the exchange site in time to queer the trade.

Needless to say UNCLE has a backup plan. Klemperer is soon convinced that McCallum is really a plant from a political rival back in the home country. Klemperer makes the trade, the cash for the formula and the site of the factory producing the gas. He fires off the documents to the home country. He tells his wife, Narda Onyx, that they will be going home as heroes.

The next day, Nimoy informs the smiling Klemperer that he has indeed been recalled. But it is to be shot! The formula he paid for is nothing but how to make floor wax. He is accused of stealing the million bucks he gave to Shatner for the papers.

A pretty entertaining episode with just the right amount of humour mixed with the action. It is interesting to see Shatner and Nimoy on the screen at the same time here. They of course both hit it big with STAR TREK, two years later. Klemperer is of course known for his role on the long running 60's series, HOGAN'S HEROES.

*Spoiler/plot- "The Project Strigas Affair", Man from U.N.C.L.E. A Balkan diplomatic official is pitting the East against the West to start a nuclear confrontation. UNCLE must stop the confrontation and publicly disgrace the diplomatic official to remove his influence on world matters.

*Special Stars- Regulars: Leo G. Carroll, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum. William Shatner, Werner Klempnerer, Peggy Ann Garner, Leonard Nimoy.

*Theme- Inuendo, huckster-ism, and some charlatanism can be helpful at times.

*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. The only MFU episode to feature both Leonard Nimoy and Bill Shatner together in a pre-Star Trek:TOS TV show. Early acting work for Hogan's Heroes, Werner 'Captain Klink' Klempnerer.

*Emotion- Taking a page from another famous TV show, 'Mission Impossible' this TV show does it one better with neutralizing and shaming a diplomatic troublemaker to avoid a world war. An exciting confrontation of two fictional international spy rings with many spy gadgets, cars, guns, and beautiful women to keep the viewer interested in the plot. Almost an 'exploitation' genre of the spy plot from a major weekly TV show of the early 60's times.

*Based On- The TV show spy craze of the early 60's.

A Russian diplomat is stirring up tensions between East & West, and Mr. Waverly wants him taken out-- in a way that will not make him a hero. When Solo asks his boss if he has any ideas how to do this, Waverly replies, "Oh, I'm sure you can come up with something." (If this were a McCLOUD, the hero would have replied, "'preciate yer confidence, Chief!") They decide to recruit the owner of a struggling exterminator company to pose as a government scientist who's invented a new form of gas that will all but eliminate regular warfare-- and the diplomat, though suspicious as he could be, can't help but eventually want to get his hands on it.

This episode is arguably one of the BEST in the entire series. It's so good, SO well-written, well-directed, well-acted, it hurt to watch it, knowing how the show began to drop off in quality in its 2nd season. And, it didn't depend on car chases or fight scenes! Writer Henry Misrock had a shockingly-short career, and this was his only UNCLE-- a CRIME! This was director Joseph Sargent's 1st of 11 UNCLE episodes, which ranged from deadly-serious to hilarious farce. There is so much style in this one, and it's played so straight, it's the incessant twists of plot & character that make parts of it funny as hell. This is how I wish more of the series had been-- and all of the '66 BATMAN as well. I was also blown away by the moody piano score of Walter Scharf, his 1st of 10 for UNCLEs, all in the 1st season. Scharf's long resume also includes THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939), several Jerry Lewis films, 5 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLEs, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and JACQUES COUSTEAU specials.

William Shatner (STAR TREK) is "Michael Donfield", the reluctant recruit who soon dives in full-throttle with so much enthusiasm you'd think he did this before. It's one of the best acting jobs I've ever seen from him, which happened with quite a few guest-actors during UNCLE's 1st season. Werner Klemperer (HOGAN'S HEROES) is "Laslo Kurosov", the trouble-making diplomat who is the target of Solo's con game. Woodrow Parfrey (who I've seen in countless movies & tv shows) is a Russian agent who's conned by Waverly into switching sides. Leonard Nimoy (also STAR TREK, heh) is "Vladeck", Kurosov's henchman who Kurosov never passes up an opportunity to insult, leading Vladeck to try that much harder-- with surprising results.

One of the best scenes is when Vladeck supplies evidence that the Russian spy Ilya is posing as in disguise, is not who he claims to be, and right then, Ilya takes cyanide and KILLS himself. Instead of grabbing Donfield, they tell him to get rid of the body or they'll pass on evidence to the cops that Donfield murdered him. At that point, Donfield is terrified, until Ilya reveals that, NO, he didn't REALLY kill himself. But they fear their plan has gone astray... until those devious wheels in Solo's head start spinning. "Unless..." This episode really should be a course in how to play a story DEADLY serious, while still being hilarious.

The finale, when Solo, Ilya and Donfield are all standing there at the airport as Kurosov is being escorted back to Russia to face charges of embezzling one million dollars (!) is the sort of "twisting the knife" that Jim Phelps on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE always avoided doing... until the late 80s, when he got much older and meaner (heh). When Donfield's wife says to Solo, "That's DIABOLICAL!", he smiles and replies, "We try."

Really nice seeing William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, even on opposing sides, together in this episode.

Other than the fabulously dramatic "Judgment at Nuremberg," in 1961, did Werner Klemperer make a career as always being duped. In this UNCLE episode he plays an extremely dangerous official who is looking to move up quickly among the Soviet hierarchy with the prize of the first Secretariat in his evil mind. He is constantly putting down Nimoy, his subordinate, but of course, Nimoy has the last laugh at the episode's end.

The UNCLE team knows that the Klemperer character must be eliminated so they commandeer Shatner and Peggy Ann Garner to portray a couple involved in a fake gas that will put entire cities to sleep and when the people awake, they shall be totally subjugated.

Fun to watch and surprising to see Napoleon light up a Turkish cigarette.

The elephant in the room with this episode is that it guest stars both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Oh, and Werner Klemperer for good measure. When an actor becomes as strongly associated with an iconic role, as is the case with Shatner and Nimoy, it can be hard to suspend disbelief and "see" them as other characters. That's doubly difficult when two such actors, whose iconic roles are from the same series, appear together in the same movie or episode.

Shatner and Nimoy are both excellent here. Compare their performances to the average work-a-day guest actors of the time and you can see why they went on to greater success. But I challenge anyone with even a G. E. D. In 20th century pop culture to not be distracted by both actors appearing together here (even though they really never interact with one another).

As for the episode, this is my introduction to "The Man from U. N. C. L. E.". I knew of it obviously, and I'd even watched the rather mediocre film from a few(?) years ago. But I'd never watched an episode from the original series. I recently got an itch to watch some 60's "spy craze" shows, this one is well loved and it had Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in it, so I bit. And... eh.

Vaughn is charming, but he plays second fiddle to Shatner here. That's a problem, not because Shatner isn't good, but because the premise of an average guy suddenly signing on to take down an international baddie and operating as if he'd done this sort of thing his whole life asks us to suspend our disbelief more than listening to Nimoy's in and out vaguely Russian/Eastern Bloc accent. I enjoyed McCallum in his "Mission: Impossible"-style role, but I was hoping to see he and Vaughn take on the baddies instead of passively watching supposed every man Shatner do it for them.