The Spy with My Face

The very first big screen mission for sickeningly suave TV spy icons, Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin in 'Spy With My Face' (1965) is given some considerable pep by the luminous addition of zesty, Euro-cult screen goddess, the sensationally sultry, sweetly sinister, serially spy duping, Senta Berger! Right on!!!!!! And if I'm being honest, I was genuinely surprised at how well this glossy, high-voltage hokum stands up today; hella' stoopid, super-slinky, face-swapping, super-spy-hi-jinks, slap n' tickle, super-weapon stealing, fluff n' stuff that ALMOST moves fast enough to forget the cheap-jack dumb stuff! (and, for me at least, remote controlled, poison-gas delivering robots will ALWAYS be righteously rad prospect!) 😍

UNCLE (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement agents Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (McCallum) are sent in a group of ten to deliver secret codes to a computer vault controlling project "earth save". Earth Save is an immensely powerful weapon designed to deal with potential attack from outer space. THRUSH meanwhile create a double of Solo to infiltrate the team to gain access to the weapon.

Another in the series of UNCLE films following the TV series. This film plays just like the shows so if you like them then you'll like this. Plenty of girls & romantic interludes, plenty of gentle action and gentle laughs all done in a 1960's sense of innocence and spoof-fun. There are of course plenty of weakness in this, it is after all a cheap bond spoof and always was, but it is a gently enjoyable film. For me, as a fan of UNCLE, the biggest disappointment of the film was the lack of the UNCLE theme music.

All the regular actors (Vaughn, McCallum & Leo G. Carroll) are as good as ever, being comfortable in their roles, the women are all pretty as required. The only thankless task is Donald Harron in the role of Kitteridge who has to do a very dodgy Australian accent whilst wearing a really bad fake beard.

It's not brilliant but it's all a bit of 60's fun. How serious can you take it when McCallum is ambushed outside a drycleaners by two small toy robots firing rockets!?

U. N. C. L. E. Agents Solo and Kuryakin fly to Switzerland guarding the combination to a vault containing the world's most deadly nuclear weapon. In a desperate plot to use the weapon for their own evil purposes, T. H. R. U. S. H. has turned a man into Solo's exact double by means of plastic surgery. The counterfeit Solo is so convincing that even Illya is taken in ...

You get two Napoleon Solos for the price of one - one of them is an imposter, and does a good job fooling the UNCLE agents. And you wonder when he's going to get caught out. This forms part of the interesting plot, and it's not just enjoyable, but has some good suspense. There's a good motorbike chase sequence which leads up to the confrontation between Solo and his doppelgänger. Santa Berger and Sharon Farrell sizzle. Used to watch this a lot as a kid on BBC2 in the 80's, and I just wanted to be Napoleon Solo!!

The second big screen outing for "The Man from UNCLE" is a notch down from the first. It is made up primarily of the first season episode "The Double Affair" and contains additional footage from "The Four Steps Affair". The doppelganger plot is never fully exploited and there is an excessive amount of padding centred around Vaughn's romantic dalliances. Sharon Farrell delivers a feisty turn as Vaughn's put-upon air hostess girlfriend and McCallum has a bigger role than in the first film (TO TRAP A SPY), but overall this is a routine mission.

There is a scene when the real Napoleon Solo gets a very sexy massage from a character named Nina, played by Donna Michelle, that's the coolest scene in the whole movie. I would have preferred an identical double look-alike of Nina to be made by those from T. H. R. U. S. H. and somehow sent to me. OK, the movie isn't bad, you can watch it, you got my approval, if you put a yellow triangle-shaped card on your chest to give the impression that you are working yourself for U. N. C. L. E.