While this Alan Caillou script isn't one of my favorites like "Fiddlesticks" and "Mad, Mad Tea Party," a foreign location, exotic details like the geese as watchdogs, an unusual male Innocent, and a mysterious mastermind revealed at the climax all make it enjoyable.Glenn Corbett was fresh off "Route 66" at this point. His Bernie Oren (former Marine, two tours of Vietnam) makes me wonder: Wouldn't ol' Bern have made a good U.N.C.L.E. recruit? Once he learned to follow instructions, of course. All through this episode, Solo and Illya make clear the gulf between the amateur like Bernie and the professionals like themselves, and yet Bernie acquits himself well.
The exterior of Command HQ in Hong Kong could be a tailor shop, just as in Rome. Interesting that, unlike New York's offices, the steel-walled rooms are decorated -- here, in Far Eastern fashion. Possibly Mr. Samoy's office in Calcutta boasts brass sculptures of the god Ganesh and paintings of Krishna and Lord Shiva.
There's a 12-hour time difference between NYC and HK, and Mr. Waverly and Solo speak live. This is possible; if this is summertime, the scene in HK could be taking place at 7 pm, and Waverly could be in the NYC office at 7 am -- earlier that same day.
Why does Solo refuse to tell Bernie who he is, and about U.N.C.L.E.? They might have been able to get his cooperation without the thousand-buck bribe.
Illya touch-types! I wonder where he picked up that skill.
While I don't know about geese being used as watchdogs in the Orient, I do know the ancient Romans used them that way. Our word "admonish," "to warn," comes from the use of geese as a warning system outside the Roman mint (from Latin "moneta," whence also comes "money." See what you learn reading U.N.C.L.E. reviews? And your mother used to say, "You'll rot your brain with that U.N.C.L.E. stuff!")
Yes, that is Gavin MacLeod as well-dressed thug Mr. Cleveland. For those of us who grew up with him as Capt. Steubing on "The Love Boat" and witty news writer Murray on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," to see him as a criminal is startling. (I still recall his nasty turn as a convict nicknamed "Big Chicken" in an early episode of "Hawaii Five-O" -- as unlike Cleveland as Cleveland is unlike MacLeod's more cuddly roles.) Intriguing here that his sidearm should be the big Colt Peacemaker revolver!
Illya first poses as a rickshaw coolie (I suppose that broad straw hat might keep people from noticing he wasn't dark-haired, let alone Chinese) and then as the irascible, misogynistic Mongolian warlord -- kind of an Oriental Nero Wolfe. Now I knew before I saw this episode, thanks to a fan magazine, that the warlord was one of Illya's disguises. But the makeup is so good he's really hard to recognize. Were any of you fooled the first time you saw this story?
This is the other episode to feature the Command ID disc from the back of Solo's watch.
Bill Koenig mentions on his site that Glenn Corbett actually injured himself while filming the fall shown in Act IV, and that's why he doesn't appear on camera at the end -- that Solo, Illya, and Heavenly all play to him as though he's on the floor behind the bar. This works fairly well, thanks to the hand gestures from Heavenly and Bernie, plus Illya's line, "Well, he's safe now . . . in the arms of the law."
The identity of Apricot is held until the end for maximum suspense. It's hard to judge whether a mystery or surprise in a story really works when you know the answer. The zoom-in on the dragonfly emblazoned on the purse of the female sampan pilot, followed within minutes by Max's muttering of the word as he dies, seems a giveaway . . . but you could also say it's a fairly planted clue. As with Prince Fasik in "King of Knaves," though, I question that a criminal mastermind would spend her days doing something so mundane!
Verdict: Fun, with a strong international flavor.
Memorable lines:
Illya (in disguise as coolie): "My feet are getting cold."
Solo: "Well, your suffering distresses me. But not very much."
Illya (roped to Bernie as Apricot interrogates him): "I refuse to talk in this debased posture."
