U.N.C.L.E. a day is my obsessive-compulsive approach at working through The Complete Man for U.N.C.L.E., now available on DVD. One episode, one review a day (usually – occasional hiatuses may occur due to travel).
The U.N.C.L.E.-love continues, with the third episode of the classic spy series up today, “The Quadripartite Affair.” The story is the team of Kuryakin and Solo, along with the “innocent” character whose father is killed as part of a THRUSH fear gas experiment, visit a remote country to infiltrate THRUSH and foil the plot (this plot will be reused a lot). This episode is notable for several reasons.
First you have Jill Ireland as the “innocent” that the men from U.N.C.L.E have to protect. As many of you reading this already know, Ireland became David (Illya) McCallum’ real life lover after they met in 1957 and they were married when this episode was filmed (she later divorced McCallum and married Charles Bronson). They get LOTS of great scenes together, and I get the sense that the reason why Illya’s character was missing from the previous episode was that McCallum was businy shooting the scenes with his wife for this episode. Ireland will reappear in two more episodes, one I will be rewatching next week (which is a pseudo-sequel to this one).
Second, this episode features a fantastic guest cast – in addition to Ireland, Richard Anderson, who will later gain fame as Oscar Goldman in the Six Million Dollar Man, plays the lead henchman to THRUSH agent Celeste, played with icy goodness by Anne Francis. And you have Roger C. Carmel as a local gypsy/comedy relief who helps the U.N.C.L.E. team (another Trek connection, of course, as one of his most famous roles was as Harry Mudd in three Trek episodes).
Finally, this is the first “real” U.N.C.L.E. episode, as it is the first time we see Illya and Napoleon working together in the field, and you really have a good sense that the chemistry between the two actors, though not fully actualized, is there to be tapped (and of course will be, as we shall see).
Again, a great directing job by future Superman: the Movie director Richard Donner. Also note the cost-saving device of a LOT of stock footage being used in this episode – you may see some of these same shots again…