tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8408562953996493129.post4407471452163950824..comments2023-12-02T04:40:51.702-06:00Comments on No Man Is Free: Benzadmiral's Man from <br> U.N.C.L.E. Reviews: "The Hong Kong Shilling Affair" (ep. 1/24)Benzadmiralhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16762681617545684805noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8408562953996493129.post-9026267147541034902016-08-30T14:44:01.976-05:002016-08-30T14:44:01.976-05:00Illya was a patriotic Russian who despised Communi...Illya was a patriotic Russian who despised Communism, just as Yul Brynner's Captain in the 1965 film Morituri was a patriotic German who loathed the Nazis.<br /><br />-- Channel DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8408562953996493129.post-87558166374927870692016-02-15T03:41:39.587-06:002016-02-15T03:41:39.587-06:00I just watched this, and it was Illya who figured ...I just watched this, and it was Illya who figured out who Apricot was and where the coin was hidden. <br /><br />And I had a thought which was the flip side of Carabele's thoughts about Illya. Why did Bernie agree to work for Napoleon so easily? Napoleon refused to tell Bernie who he worked for, and he was obviously working with a Russian partner! Surely that should have set alarm bells ringing for a patriotic American in the 1960s. (Maybe MFU takes place in an alternative 1960s where the Cold War isn't quite so frigid?)vintagehoarderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16712215159631487676noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8408562953996493129.post-69926884932056304872015-09-24T07:40:48.242-05:002015-09-24T07:40:48.242-05:00Interesting speculations about Ilya's psyche d...Interesting speculations about Ilya's psyche defending US/NATO secrets... <br />The series never dared to go as far as having its heroes defending strategic Soviet interests (it only came close in the Finny Foot Affair, but it was about ploughshares, not swords), So we will never know whether Napoleon would have behaved in the same selfless, de-nationalized way.<br /><br />This episode, which has a big debt towards The Maltese Falcon as to the plot and films like Macao as to the atmosphere and characters, is still very enjoyable.<br /><br />But it ranks high among those where baddies - and even goodies - act highly incompetently:<br /><br />- why does Max leave his precious one-million-dollar coin in the care of a poor Chinese boat-woman he has no reason to know, much less to trust (if he knew she is actually Apricot, this would have been even much sillier)? arguably he has an idea to conceal the coin just in case and to get it back later, but one can hardly think of a riskier place - she could lose it, give it away, not be found again by him...<br /><br />- how does Apricot not understand where the coin is, when it is not found on Max's body? and why, indeed, does she lose so much time being a boat-woman? not to watch Max's arrival and to determine where he put the coin, at least... as a whole, she is not striking as a particularly bright head for a gang stealing and selling top-level international secrets;<br /><br />- why does the allegedly very bright Cleveland employ such a numbskull as Merry for key missions? in the first one, Merry kills Max instead of extracting information from him (well done!), and does not even stay to hear him utter the crucial information he was seeking; does that tell Cleveland how stupid he is? no, next he asks him to conceal the now precious Solo from the police - and Merry merrily dumps him in a garbage bin, then does not even follow the truck which takes him and Bernie away; didn't Cleveland tell him to bring back a prisoner now supposedly worth also one million dollar, as he knows where the coin is? <br />In that day Merry has therefore cost twice a million dollars to his very indulgent employer.<br /><br />Not that the Hong-Kong police appears extremely brilliant either. Heavenly, among others, is shining more through her dress than with her wits - she appears rather clueless all through the episode. <br />Bernie on his side has a few bright - and not-so-bright - moves. But for a former Marine, his ethics seem a bit shaky : he takes his time to intervene in the brawl between Merry and Max - and when he does, oops, Max is already killed; later on he defects without a minute's hesitation from UNCLE's side to Heavenly's, though at that moment she is still known to him and to us as a bad Cleveland associate, who among others let Max be beaten and killed without batting one of her long eyelids. In both situations, Bernie is clearly guided much more by love-at-first-sight than by his moral compass.<br /><br />And last, our heroes. Ilya might be fun to watch as a rickshaw-puller, then as a Mongolian warlord - but his intervention under both disguises is less than decisive. One might have thought that he was waiting Max with his rickshaw to escort and watch him closely - not at all (what for, then?), he lets him go and be killed. Then, as the fearful warlord, he is quickly unmasked - and obviously happy to quit his disguise as fast as possible, though it has not achieved anything worth all the makeup effort. <br /><br />As to Napoleon, he mocks and dismisses Bernie for being amateurish - and then behaves even more amateurishly. First he encounters the alarm geese Ilya has duly warned him about - and does strictly nothing to prevent them from advertising his presence. Then he is easily overcome by the wits of Merry, that giant mind... Fortunately he redeems his reputation at the very end, by guessing both who Apricot is and where the coin is to be found. But still a fairly middling performance from him on the whole.nephew-from-francenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8408562953996493129.post-71494559195413605752010-07-11T01:08:00.187-05:002010-07-11T01:08:00.187-05:00It struck me while watching HONG KONG SHILLING aga...It struck me while watching HONG KONG SHILLING again tonight that particular mission could well have raised some... contrary thoughts for Illya.<br /><br />Though of course having military secrets sold to the highest bidder would be something he wouldn't want to see happen necessarily, the secrets in question were particularly American and NATO military secrets. As a Soviet, how did he feel about having to protect those? And really weren't those folks bidding on those secrets simply spies themselves? Thrush isn't ever mentioned as being part of this operation.<br /><br />I do think Illya had a definite loyalty to his native land. I do think he was a "good" communist but not a "blind" communist. However, protecting those military secrets detailed in HONG KONG SHILLING kind of crossed the line between protecting humanity and "saving the world" to protecting the military machine of the U.S. and its allies. I can imagine that being frustrating for him.<br /><br />It's an intriguing question to ponder. And I did notice that at the end he hands the shilling, which is supposedly made of the same material as the nosecones of U.S. missiles, to Napoleon with the comment: "A souvenir of Hong Kong. Take it home to your family." Perhaps it can be interpreted that he didn't want to be responsible in the end for restoring the coin to the hands of the U.S. military? And that by "your family" he really meant the United States government?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17222937362273926228noreply@blogger.com