The "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." TV-adaptations-into-movies are never off British TV rotation for long, although nostalgists like myself would be far happier if the rights to the complete original TV series could be picked up and shown the same way that classic British-made ABC shows like "The Champions", "The Avengers" and "Department S" more frequently are. I for that matter would love the chance to see other classic US fantasy / spy series like "The Wild Wild West", "I Spy", "The Green Hornet" and even "Get Smart" which somehow seem to have been permanently mothballed since their 60's heyday, certainly as far as British TV is concerned.
This U.N.C.L.E. composite shows its soldering too easily despite professional enough titles front and back-ending it. It doesn't strike me as one of the more memorable adventures Agents Solo and Kuryakin enjoyed, although it has its, albeit minor, moments. David McCallum gets most of the action here, neck deep in a marshy swamp, stripped to his shorts (no doubt his myriad teenybop fans of the time would have appreciated this) and suspended from a ceiling to be made into a modern-day mummy (it sounds strange just typing that never mind witnessing it), while Robert Vaughn does his usual debonair bit, courting the ladies, although here Yvonne Craig (later to become the leather-clad Batgirl in the "Batman" TV series) as his minor Miss Moneypenny interest, seems absurdly, as she was 30 at the time, almost too young for our hero. Another oddity is the crude insertion, at the end of master-villain Alexander's plane exploding mid-air in vintage black and white - talk about regurgitating your old stock footage!
The story is run of the mill spy-caper fare with Rip Torn (looking at times a ringer for Ralph Fiennes!) getting off on an Alexander the Great(er) global domination kick and coming unstuck at the hands of Solo and Kuryakin with the usual token meddlesome tag-along female in tow, played here with relish by Dorothy Provine.
To be truthful there are few real thrilling and suspenseful moments and even the stars' quips seldom raise a smile but Vaughn and McCallum look the part in their suits and haircuts and that great Jerry Goldsmith theme music is never far away.
Probably for 60's kids like me only, although, not unnaturally the child in me remembers TV series like this and the above-mentioned with rose-tinted glasses probably lacking today. Not that that will stop me watching the others in the series!
