This week’s 1960’s spy story, “The Man from UNCLE” is based on a television series from the 1964-68 of the same name. It was inspired by the James Bond films, and Bond creator Ian Fleming even contributed to the original concept, including coming up with the names Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (who would appear in the spin-off, “The Girl from UNCLE”). After a decade of westerns, spies were everywhere on television in the mid-60’s, from the very serious (“Secret Agent”) to the very silly (“Get Smart”). “The Man from UNCLE” was glamorous, witty, and sexy, like the Robert Culp/Bill Cosby series “I Spy.”
In the series, Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn of “The Magnificent Seven,” which is also being remade) teamed up with a Soviet spy named Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum, now better known as Duckie on “NCIS”). UNCLE stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement and is a super-secret CIA-ish sort of enterprise with an international reach. The headquarters was reached by going through a tailor shop (this year’s “Kingsman: The Secret Service” paid tribute to that). The boss spy is a Brit played by Leo G. Carroll. The idea that an American and a Soviet would join forces was very daring in the midst of the Cold War, but they had a mutual enemy known as THRUSH, a super-powerful force bent on total world domination.
Here’s the original opening credits.
It was so popular that it inspired some feature films with the same cast.
Trailer: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
Posted on August 12, 2015 at 8:49 pm
The smart alecks behind the Harvard Lampoon magazine parodies of Cosmopolitan and Time created their own magazine, the National Lampoon, in 1970, and it was like taking everything the Baby Boomers loved about the subversive humor of MAD Magazine and making it dirty, nasty, and offensive. Its most notorious cover featured a gun pointing at a dog’s head and the headline “Buy This Magazine Or We’ll Kill This Dog.” This documentary about the magazine will be in theaters, on iTunes, and on demand on September 25, 2015.
When I started writing there were still a few mavericks out there; a few gunslingers who ran studios.
These were people who went with their guts and would make a movie just because they believed in it.
But that’s not the process anymore.
Today, before a studio chair can green-light a movie, that movie must also be blessed by the head of marketing, the head of foreign sales, and the head of home video.
It must be subjected to a process called “running the numbers,” which means that the movie’s cost — or, downside — is compared against its potential value because of its cast and what it might do in foreign markets.
This process takes into account every variable except the variable which actually matters — the one that can’t possibly be gauged by any sort of calculus — which is whether or not the movie’s going to be any good.
The good news is that technology has made it possible for singular creative visions to be realized for budgets low enough that they are within reach for passionate filmmakers. But it is called “show business,” and business comes first when corporate conglomerates are allocating tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Star of the Day tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies is Ann-Margret. Her most iconic roles showcased her fiery hair, creamy skin, flashing turquoise eyes, gorgeous figure, seductive purr, and the unmatched energy and flair of her dancing. She was still a student at Northwestern when George Burns discovered her and introduced her to his friend Jack Benny. One of her first television appearances was on Benny’s show. She was not yet glamorous, but she could already command the audience.
In this screen test, she took an old standard and made it sizzle.
The greatest shade of pink in the history of film is the outfit she wears in her signature musical number in “Bye Bye Birdie.” The conventional wisdom that redheads shouldn’t wear pink was irrevocably shattered.
The Broadway musical “Bye Bye Birdie” centered on the relationship of the songwriter (Dick Van Dyke, repeating his Tony-award winning role) and his long-suffering girlfriend. But Ann-Margret was so sensational that the movie was reoriented to focus on her role as the starstruck teenager.
Some of the other cast members who had appeared in the stage show were not happy. In the musical number “How Lovely to be a Woman,” the humor is supposed to come from the contrast between the lyrics about being old enough to be “the one they’re whistling at” as she changes from her school clothes into a ratty oversized sweater, jeans, and knee socks. But the real contrast is between her pretending to be a teenage slob when she is already a ravishing woman with endless female allure. Paul Lynde, who played her father, said, “They should have retitled it ‘Hello, Ann-Margret!’ They cut several of my and the other actors’ best scenes and shot new ones for her so she could do her teenage-sex-bombshell act.” Indeed, the movie opens with Ann-Margret against a black screen, almost exploding out of the film. She became an immediate superstar.
Her other signature role was opposite the only male musical performer who could match her electricity: Elvis Presley, in “Viva Las Vegas.”
On a television variety special, she appeared with the only female musical performer who could keep up with her: Tina Turner.
By this time, she was a superstar who could spoof her own image by appearing in “The Flintstones” as “Ann Margrock,” singing a lullabye.
She was a gifted dramatic actress, best shown in “Carnal Knowledge.” She was also wonderful in the middle age love story “Twice in a Lifetime,” a warm and heartfelt performance opposite Gene Hackman, and she rose above the soapy story as chorus girl who married into a wealthy family in “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.” She earned a Golden Globe for a heartbreaking role as a dying mother who had to find homes for her children in “Who Will Love My Children?” Twelve of her films will be shown on TCM tomorrow, including “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Carnal Knowledge,” and “Tommy.” The next time they salute her there will be another film to add to the list — she has just announced she will be joining the cast of the remake of “Going in Style,” co-starring with Alan Arkin and Morgan Freeman.
