With this story and "Love," next week, we have two of the major highlights of the season and the series. As Jon Heitland puts it in his "Man from U.N.C.L.E. Book," writer Dean Hargrove “had hit upon a blend of adventure and humor where the latter did not detract from the former.” Like "Mad, Mad Tea Party" and "Four-Steps," this one plays out in one day and delivers a sense of snug peril, like a classic Sherlock Holmes story, while clicking on every level.Why the title? Is it to suggest Mandy's dream of exciting espionage, a glamorous "Never-Never Land"? Or to suggest her vow to herself after this adventure, "Never, never again"?
Cesar Romero's Victor Gervais is a master of sarcasm. He certainly believes in ostentation, doesn't he? An elegant vest, gold rings, watch, and bracelet, and a massive dark Rolls-Royce. No wonder Thrush looks attractive to some people. Good thing Thrush never showed up at Career Day at my high school; I knew lots of folks who'd have been tempted.
Mandy Stevenson is introduced just as an Innocent should be, showing her normal dull workaday life before her involvement with U.N.C.L.E. intrigue begins. (The difference here, of course, is that her workaday life is already involved with U.N.C.L.E.!) Barbara Feldon is terrific, from her gawky but charming start (hey, I like the sexy librarian type. So sue me) to her realization that this is not a game and her level-headed handling of it. She isn't fearless, but courageous and realistic ("The moment I give [Gervais] the microdot, he's going to kill me anyway").
In another wonderful detail, the phone in Mandy’s control room doesn’t ring -- it whistles with the communicator tone!
Truly Iconic Illya Moment: when he hitches a ride without permission on the lady's Volkswagen bug, then reaches down through the sunroof to tell her, "This is my stop, thank you --!"
The fantastic fight in the garage really uses the set, doesn't it? All the way up to the classic climax, Solo looks uncharacteristically, and believably, weary and rumpled.
One quibble, though. Why doesn’t Waverly send someone to the tobacconist on E. 76th Street to intercept Mandy there? A line or two of dialogue would have addressed this. Solo: “We know she’s going to the tobacconist; I’ll go directly there --“ Illya: “No, the area is swarming with Thrush agents. We can’t be sure she hasn’t already been spotted. I’ll go and act as decoy . . .”, etc.
The “Mandy gets the microdot” concept is a little confusing, too, until you re-watch it. Solo tells her to pick up Waverly’s “dangerous” humidor and deliver it. Then she tells her friend Baker in the lab that she’s Waverly’s special courier, and he (offscreen) gives her the microdot. True, Solo tells her that the man at the tobacco shop will put something into the humidor. But we should have seen Baker show her the microdot, and then we should have seen Mandy jump to the conclusion that the microdot is what will get placed in the humidor. (In our world, I think Mr. Baker would find himself reassigned to northern Finland or Antarctica!)
Verdict: A-Plus in every way.
Memorable lines:
Solo (as he and Illya kneel in the movie theatre over the dead Thrush sniper): "Too bad. He'll never know how it came out."
Mandy: "And let me warn you, I don't crack under pressure."
Gervais: "Not at all?"
Mandy [swallowing]: "Not . . . noticeably, no."
Solo (re: Illya's loosening the distributor cap as a pretext to get into the Thrush garage): "You're a smart Russian."
Illya (leaning close): "How did you manage [the trick shot that stopped Gervais]?"Solo: "Smart American."
Gervais (re: Solo's threat to shoot him, aiming via the mirror): "Do you really think you can fire accurately that way?"
Solo (levelly): "Oh, I hate to count how many times I've done it."
Waverly (re: Mandy’s clever hiding place for the microdot): “Most inventive, I must say. Wouldn’t you think so, Mr. Solo?”
Solo: “Da, da, da . . .”
(Implying that Mandy is yet another “smart Russian”?)
