This, my friends, this is the episode for trivia buffs. Not only William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (who have all of two scenes together), but Werner Klemperer as the villain! On top of that, we have the delightfulness of Solo and Illya running a con game on their target, much as real spies often do to each other (see "disinformation"). Our heroes even have to recover from two stumbling blocks, providing even more excitement, much as the early "Mission: Impossible" scripts would do two years hence. Solo and Illya's plan boils down to: "Set up the false 'fact' (Strigas), then foster the need/desire in the target which only the false 'fact' can satisfy."Bill Koenig has commented that those who grew up watching Klemperer as Col. Klink on "Hogan's Heroes" will have a hard time taking his performance here seriously, and that's quite possible. But I recall seeing Klemperer as Adolf Eichmann in the 1961 film; and he also had a turn as an unrepentant Nazi in "Judgment at Nuremberg" (Shatner was in that too). In each case his performance is frightening. Here, his Kurasov is believable as "a ruthless and dangerous warmonger" and a crafty bureaucrat, a survivor of many a political intrigue -- but clearly with two weak spots: his ambition and his vanity.
In Act I in Waverly's office, Illya holds a magazine labeled "News World." In those days, it seems, TV and movie producers were leery of using real brand names and business entities. I recall a "Dick van Dyke" in which a magazine called "News Time" is mentioned, and another in which Rob buys a car named "Tarantula" (a play on the "Spyders" from Ferrari and Porsche, no doubt). Nowadays, product placement is big business. When did this change?
I presume this story is set in the fall or early spring. In summer Illya's topcoat would have been out of place, and Kurasov, Linkwood, and Vladek all wear topcoats too. However, Solo, Donfield, and the other folks on Third Avenue march around without winter gear, suggesting that daytime temps are fairly comfortable.
Okay, let's get it out of the way and move on. Bill Shatner's performance as Donfield at the embassy party is a little embarrassing, a little over the top. But isn't that the point? He's supposed to embarrass himself and his wife! Besides, Donfield is a chemical engineer, not an actor or a professional secret agent. He'd be likely to ham it up a little. Certainly Bill's performance elsewhere is impeccable.
"Mr. Smith" is quite the cutie. And what a nice switch on the "two spies meeting in a bar" routine, as she and Solo have ice cream sodas at a sidewalk café! I've watched this ep probably twenty times since 1985, and I still edge forward in my chair during the moments when it looks like "Mr. Smith" will discover that the Donfield she met was not the real one. Well done.
If anyone cares, the hat Vladek (Nimoy) wears is called a homburg, not a fedora. Linkwood, however, wears a fedora in Act IV, as do the secret police who later escort Kurasov and his wife.
In Act IV, Ann Donfield describes the climax of the Solo/Illya plan as "diabolical," harking back to Waverly's comment that "I'm sure the two of you are capable of concocting some diabolical scheme."
The sting (Vladek's revelation that what Kurasov sent the General was nothing more than the formula for American floor wax) is hilarious and very apt, since Illya brought up the topic earlier -- like "diabolical," a bookending of concepts. And when you recall how many floor wax commercials TV ran back then . . .
The other fascinating thing about this story is that Solo and Illya never draw their guns. You'd never know they were armed at all, if not for the scenes where we see them with coats off and Specials in
holsters. Kurasov and Vladek are quite willing to brandish pistols; our heroes manage this complex plot by guile alone.
Verdict: Henry Misrock's only script for the show is one of the very best U.N.C.L.E. stories. Ever.
Donfield (to Illya's apparently lifeless body): "Oh, Illya, you didn't --!"
Illya (sitting up): "No, I didn't. But when Mr. Waverly finds out what happened, I'll wish I had."
Illya (about the collapse of the plan): " 'Almost.' A word to stick edgewise in the throat to strangle one."
Solo: "And then bring [Linkwood] home. Alive -- and unmarked!"
Illya: "Must you qualify your requests?"
Waverly (smiling, to Linkwood): "You're our animal now."
Linkwood (to Kurasov, scurrying out like a tiny mammal beneath the legs of a doomed dinosaur): "I ask nothing, Excellency. Let all the credit be yours!"
Illya (to Kurasov, as the latter is marched under guard to his plane and an almost certain death for treason): "I'd give you a pill, but it failed to work with me, you see."
