"The Prince of Darkness Affair, Part II" (ep. 4/5)

The comic (Kathleen Freeman's Mom at the diner), the annoying (Annie), the implausible (the endless line of exact twin Aksoy brothers), and the exciting (the rocket hijacking, among other things) all mix in Part II.

Illya's reaction to Miss Annie, silently dumping her onto the receptionist, is perfect . . . and shows a lot more restraint than most people would have.

Bradford Dillman's narcissistic Sebastian is quite a creation.   Clipped speech, a rigid worldview, "people" (read: manipulative) skills, fury when the slightest thing goes wrong, and no loyalty whatever to anyone but Sebastian.  A cleanliness fetish too; note his gloves, and how he wipes off his microphone in Act IV.

Julie London's Mrs. Sebastian is on screen so little, you wonder why she's there.  I think in the film version, she and Solo have a longer scene in Act IV?  Smart of him to fake her into calling Sebastian so that they can trace the phone line.  More good detective work earlier:  Solo spots the maker of the closed-circuit system, and Illya runs the lead down.  Both scenes remind us of the powerful organization behind our heroes.

Solo looks realistically dirty and banged up after he bails from his Valiant.

This is the first time in a while we've seen Illya in turtleneck, as he slides deftly into the theatre audience.  I question the organization of the Third Way, though.  With as many disciples as we saw in the theatre, you'd think somebody would have let something slip during the run-up to the big bang.   The way to do it would be to have most of the faithful in the dark while they sent in their money, and have only a small inner circle who know what the real plan is.   And when the Command was checking Sebastian out, shouldn't the activities (and obviously immense funding) of the Third Way have aroused their suspicions before they ever recruited him?

Peculiar indeed to see Solo with white hair.  No wonder the team leader, who saw him back on that Aegean isle, didn't recognize him --!

Rather silly of the Feds to put the rocket at the very end of the train!  Director Boris Sagal handles the entire rocket theft sequence well, however, giving it a sort of "How the West Was Won" feel, helped by exciting martial music (used again in Act IV) as Sebastian's cult members load the rocket into their truck.

What are Solo and the Third Way men playing?  Poker?  My notes from the CBN days say "pinochle," though I have no idea why.

Priceless, the double take that Illya does when he recognizes the white-haired Solo.  Ditto for the exasperated look Solo gives the fourth Aksoy brother at the end.  ("Not another one??!!??")

Why did the rocket blow up in flight?  Because Waverly had its controlling computers destroyed?   Personally I think he should have ordered them all carted to Command HQ in Los Angeles for study.

Turkey released Hugh and Ali on U.N.C.L.E.'s say-so?

Verdict: Despite some (well, okay -- a lot of) dangling issues and questions, it's just the sort of "big," world-spanning, fast-paced story that makes a colorful movie -- with a truly great tag exchange (below) that in just three lines encapsulates the entire spirit of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."

Memorable Lines:
Mom: "You're too late for breakfast.  And I ain't about to do any more cooking."
Solo (a murmur): "My misfortune."

Mom (grumbling): "'Turn on the set, Mom.'  'Keep a lookout in the back, Mom.'  'Keep `em covered, Mom.'"

Solo: "Anything new?"
Illya: "Not much.  A revolution in the Orient; a multi-million-dollar train robbery in England; five kidnapped scientists; and a plan to melt the polar icecap."
Solo: "Good.  I think I'll take the afternoon off."

"The Prince of Darkness Affair, Part I" (ep. 4/4)

This, Dean Hargrove’s first script since Season Two and his last for the series, is big and bold and energetic.  Bill Koenig tells us that this is the series' most expensive episode, and it shows.  As they used to say in the old Hollywood studio days, “It’s all up there on the screen.”

The teaser is a gem in the MfU “What the heck is going on here?” tradition, as Solo and Illya -- looking realistically rumpled, sweaty, and dirty, and carrying Special carbines -- swoop in by copter to a village “somewhere in East Africa.”  Yes, the pathways left by the thermal prism look oddly like red paint, but you can say that the “corrosive” chemical or physical reactions ignited by the prism leave a scarlet path instead of a charred black one.  Anyway, it’s striking and scary.

Next we bounce to Greece, where Solo has come to engage the services of safecracker Luther Sebastian.  The Third Way cult is important to the plot, as we will see. 

Nice to see Waverly spearheading the operation aboard the plane.  Clearly there isn’t time to drag Sebastian back to New York for briefing.

The subplot with Annie the Annoying is just that, though it does arise from U.N.C.L.E.’s involvement with Sebastian, and will provide Solo a complication later.  Unfortunately the scene with Azalea shooting Hassan isn’t played for the excitement it could have yielded.

Don’t you just love Sebastian standing prettily by, patting his face with his kerchief, while Illya does all the hard work of subduing the guards?  And don’t you just want to kick him, hard?  The night scenes, as they travel the desert and the high rocks toward the estate, are well done.  Good to hear the first-season music again during the minefield scene.

At Kharmusi’s, Solo changes from his banker grey pinstripe suit to a dark suit.  Where was his suitcase?  Perhaps after Azalea picked him up, they went back to the airport and got his things?

Sebastian’s safecracking scene reminds me strongly of an early episode of “It Takes a Thief,” in which Alexander Mundy lowers himself from a skylight to avoid floor alarms.

John Dehner’s Dr. Kharmusi is smart -- he tumbles to Solo and Illya’s coordinated plan -- but rather creepy.  I get the impression that his conjugal relationship with Azalea is no longer, shall we say, complete (which might be part of why she turned to Sebastian) . . . and so Kharmusi finds young girls, such as his former students and Annie, much more fascinating than he should.  Note the intent way he grips Annie’s hand and stares into her eyes (and later, that look of sly triumph as he dies).  Brrrr. 

The moment at 42:15, when Solo and Illya encounter each other around a corner and then cross-shoot the pursuing guards, is a classic of the show’s style.

If the destroyer Waverly’s on has time to fire a torpedo to stop the oncoming vessel, wouldn’t it have time to get out of the path of said vessel?

Verdict:  Fast-moving, colorful, with an Innocent who turns out not to be and all the ingredients of solid U.N.C.L.E., it’s yet topped by a cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers.

Memorable Lines:
Solo (to Sebastian):  “You’re wanted in seventeen countries on charges of felonies.  Everything from grand theft --”
Sebastian:  ‘Oh, no, no, no.  Your bookkeeping is a little off.  It’s twenty-two countries.” 

Waverly (coldly, to Sebastian):  “Besides your ill manners, which I now observe at first hand, our computers have shown you to be a most efficient criminally oriented mind, with advanced degrees in engineering, physics, and chemistry.  Apparently you avoided the humanities.”

Illya:  “If you’re in such a hurry, why don’t you go on ahead?”  (As Sebastian moves to do so) “I’ll meet you on the other side of the minefield.”
Sebastian (pauses, steps back)  “After you.”

Annie (eyeing Azalea):  “And you must be [Dr. Kharmusi’s] kind-hearted nurse.”

Kharmusi (about Azalea’s defection):  “I should have known never to trust a woman who is always on time.  It always indicates a much deeper problem.”

Sebastian (annoyed, to Annie):  “I don’t know who you are, but I have a feeling you probably deserve whatever happens to you.”