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Couldn't agree more. I'm not familiar in any way with the TV show, so I didn't have the baggage going into it, and I couldn't make it much further than you did. Definitely the weakest of the spy films to be released last year.
Perhaps it works better if you let the series go from your mind. This film pays tribute, but in a completely different way then many expected I suppose. It's far more aimed at a modern public. It's the sixties in the way we (talking as an eighties' kid) love to imagine them. Perhaps in that way you might enjoy it. But, clearly, from the reactions of @Birdleson and others, it doesn't work well if you really expect the feel of the old series.
Personally I completely agree with @ClarkDevlin. I found the lightness and humour far better then in Spy or Kingsman. The film hangs somewhere inbetween a parody and a true spyfilm. Perhaps it's the closest to the Moore Bond-films (LALD in mind here).
I think that a bit unfair about the theme because even one of the original UNCLE movies from the 60's, "How to Steal the World", did not include a single note from the original Goldsmith theme. The new film at least has a nod the the original theme.
--The final two-parter of the series was The Seven Wonders of the World Affair. It was re-edited into How to Steal the World.
Most of the UNCLE movies of the 1960s did a new recording of the Jerry Goldsmith theme. How to Steal the World was intended to squeeze out one last (non-U.S.) movie run.
Either because of a lack of time, or trying to keep costs to a bare minimum, How to Steal the World didn't have a new recording of the theme. Instead, compositions from Richard Shores' television scores from Seven Wonders were re-tracked for the main and end titles. The only music credit is, "Music by Richard Shores."
As a result, How to Steal the World is the only official UNCLE production of the 1960s to not have a Jerry Goldsmith credit.
Followed by One Spy Too Many with the great Rip Torn, lots of fun this film has swagger. Batgirl gets naked, whatever would Commissioner Gordon think. Thou shalt watch this again this week.
With To Trap a Spy and The Spy With My Face, you had one-hour episodes with a lot of added footage. The production team was efficient, though. It took the extra footage from both, wrote a new script to incorporate it for a television episode called The Four-Steps Affair.
Starting with the second season, UNCLE started doing two-part episodes. There was still some additional footage, but it was easier to turn them into movies. One Spy Too Many was the first of those. The main titles and the Yvonne Craig scenes are examples of extra footage for the movie version.
On the other hand, they *took out* some scenes of the television show where we meet Alexander's parents. If you look carefully, you can catch a glimpse of them in the rock quarry sequence.
Final trivia: the television version (Alexander the Greater Affair) was in storage and not part of the syndication package. It was found in the summer of 1999 and finally was televised again starting in 2000.
Yes, in August, right around the time the movie came out.
Among the many ties between UNCLE and Bond:
https://uncleepisodeguide.wordpress.com/u-n-c-l-e-s-ties-with-james-bond/
http://bit.ly/1YDLJWo
Catching up with this thread.
The postings have inspired an Uncle-athon, especially the postings on the 8 theatrical releases.
Thus I have commenced a complete 10 film odyssey.
I will be burning thru the 8 theatrical releases in order, which I have in one dvd collection. You can get this collection on Amazon Canada btw for a tad over $50.00 Cdn. Good deal, I think. That's only about $6.50 a movie and you get the trailers too!
So the lineup is thus:
1. To Trap a Spy
2. One of Our Spies is Missing
3. One Spy Too Many
4. The Spy With My Face
5. The Spy in the Green Hat
6. The Karate Killers
7. The Helicopter Spies
8. How To Steal the World
9. Return of the Man From Uncle: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (released 1983 with Lazenby as Bond cameo)
10. The new Guy Ritchie film on blu-ray.
All these films are double plus excellent. I really like the new film. It wasn't quite what I expected, but still its a real smart film. I kind of like it more than Spectre, in that I don't have any quibbles with it. Spectre I can quibble with.
Both films lend to multiple viewings, so I'm happy.
In fact I think I will conclude this Uncle-athon, with a double blu-ray showing of 2015 Uncle and Spectre.
What a great year 2015 was. It will be remembered fondly by historians as the first year ever to have both Bond and Uncle, NA theatre releases, unless I am missing something from the '60s releases, which I think were all foreign market showings (ie not NA)
So I've got To Trap A Spy viewed. This is the best version of the Uncle pilot I think.
Thrush is Wasp in this first film.
Will Kuluva plays Uncle Chief Mr. Allison, forerunner to Mr. Waverly.
Kuryakin is present early on, but not yet established as co-lead.
He blossoms fully in the next film which also brings in Waverly
The famous Solo-being-shot-at-behind-bullet-proof glass scene is iconic- the scene which I am sure inspired a similar scene in Spectre, where Bond shoots at Ernst.
Paluzzi as Angela is virtually the same character she played in TB. She's a femme fatale working for Wasp, who seduces and lures Uncle agents to their deaths.
In fact she gets killed in virtually the same way Fiona does in TB. A flurry of bullets meant for Solo, hit her instead, due to Solo's highly tuned survival radar.
It's as if TB copied the whole Fiona drama from Uncle.
This movie is must-watch I think for Paluzzi-Volpe fans, which is virtually every dedicated Bond fan.
Also we get a quick hit of Richard Kiel as uncredited killer. He takes a run at Solo during the climatic finale. Appears out of nowhere and swings a club ( think it was) at Solo, as Solo eludes Wasp pursuers in the final factory battle scene.
That was quite the little stretch (64-65) for Paluzzi. She got to play femme fatale, love interest, opposite not only Connery's Bond but also Vaughn's Napoleon Solo.
I love the Uncle girls, who man the channel D back at HQ. The HQ Uncle girls are hilites of any episode or film. Bonus gratuitous eye-candy but with '60s style.
Vaughn as Solo flirts with the best of them. Sean and Rog have nothing on him.
If you look carefully, the actors are actually saying "Thrush" with "Wasp" dubbed in.
In some instances, you hear Robert Vaughn say "Wasp" even though it's supposed to be another actor talking.
Meanwhile, there is one version of the pilot that includes a 5-minute Robert Vaughn presentation. He discusses the format of the show. He says, referring to David McCallum as Illya, "You'll see him often." At this point Will Kuluva is still playing Mr. Allison.
Thrush/WASP assassin is just the first of many things that UNCLE did before Bond.
Also the witticism "bon appetit."
https://uncleepisodeguide.wordpress.com/u-n-c-l-e-s-ties-with-james-bond/
If Thrush has already been established, why not just leave it. I am not 100% sure on the chronology.
Correct me if wrong. The colour pilot was made first. Later it was dumbed down to black and white, Season One first episode.
And then I imagine later it was fleshed out to be the first cinema release.
@delfloria My thoughts re Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe are this. Clearly her femme fatale seducer-killer persona in Uncle predates TB by a year.
So it seems Eon was suitably inspired, and created an almost identical Fiona Volpe character for her in TB.
For sure, Bond has borrowed from its imitators. Bond, being the original, spawned Uncle and other imitators such as the Helm and Flint films.
Connery's swan dive off the Spectre oil rig in DAF, is a direct lift from one of the Helm films, where Helm does a similar escape dive off a cliff.
I think the Bond films were probably happy to give a nod here and there, to the imitators,as there was never any doubt as to what came first.
Although possibly with Paluzzi, Cubby was impressed enough with the Uncle performance that he thought, maybe we ca do that too, but bigger and better, in a full blown Spectre Bond spectacular, which is kind of what they did.
They took Paluzzi's deadly Wasp agent Angela, and doubled down with Paluzzi as deadly Spectre agent Fiona.
As for the Bond imitators, while Flint and Helm occupy the realm of pure spoof, albeit smart and entertaining spoof, Uncle occupies a middle ground between the spoof 007 imitators, and Bond itself.
Uncle is high camp, but with a danger edge, especially Seasons 1-2 and 4.
The 8 '60s Uncle films are probably the best compliment set to the 6 classic '60s Bond films. The two sets go hand-in-hand I think, as '60s style, high spy adventure.
I am half way through the Uncleathon. These movies are great. It would have been a hoot to be a kid in say England or wherever, in the '60s going to cinema and watching these things on a Saturday afternoon.
There are some spectacular Uncle girl performances to cherish.
I like that Uncle also features some older Uncle girls. We have Vera Miles looking very fetching in One of Our Spies is Missing.
Dorothy Provine, almost steals the show in One Spy Too Many, and an almost-40 Janet Leigh chills and excites, as the very deadly Thrush assassin Miss Diketon in the The Spy in the Green Hat.
In fact GE's Xenia Onatopp is a riff on Miss Diketon who also gets a sexual rush out of killing.
Leigh's performance in Green Hat elevates the film, even if Jack Palance's villain is maybe a tad over the top.
In Green Hat we get the return of Will Kuluvatoo, now playing a Thrush Central member. He is the titular spy with the Green Hat
But never mind the older Uncle girls the young ones are spectacular, most notably, Sharon Farrell as feisty airline Stewardess Sandy, whose got it bad for Solo.
Senta Berger as Thrush agent Serena in the same film, whose also got it bad for Solo, and Anna Capri as fashion-model killer Do-Do in One of Our Spies is Missing.
The Spy in the Green Hat I think is a particularly ambitious cinematic effort. It's got lots of Bond inspired set pieces - maybe a little too giddy in parts - especially as regards to the sidebar story of the retired mafiosi trying to restore their niece's honor- but the farce doesn't detract from great spyfy Uncle vs Thrush battle, with the safety of the free world at stake.
One Spy Too Many featuring Rip Torn as a chilling Alexander the Greater is a big production effort too.
Another good Uncle fact primer is here. It actually answers the WASP-Thrush question among many others.
http://hubpages.com/entertainment/Fifty-Fascinating-Facts-about-The-Man-from-UNCLE
If Thrush has already been established, why not just leave it. I am not 100% sure on the chronology.
Correct me if wrong. The colour pilot was made first. Later it was dumbed down to black and white, Season One first episode.
And then I imagine later it was fleshed out to be the first cinema release.//
Timmer: There was a debate, involving MGM, Arena (Norman Felton's company) and NBC, after filming about what the villainous organization should be called.
During filming, they used Thrush. The actors said "Thrush."
Various alternate names were discussed. Wasp was one. So was MAGGOT. I have a copy of the first draft of The Double Affair (would would become the basis for the UNCLE movie, The Spy With My Face). That draft, dated in early May 1964, uses MAGGOT.
Wasp (or WASP) may have been rejected because the Gerry Anderson show Stringray was using WASP as the organization the heroes worked for.
Eventually, they went back to Thrush and there it remained for the run of the show.
As for chronology:
1. Pilot (more than an hour of running time) was filmed in late 1963.
2. A black-and-white-copy of the pilot was made to show NBC executives.
3. Additional footage (much of it involving Luciana Paluzzi) was shot in early 1964 to make a movie out of it for international audiences. To Trap a Spy combines that footage with the original.
4. In the original pilot, we're never told Solo's first name. There was also a debate whether to retain Napoleon (Ian Fleming's suggestion). Sam Rolfe, the scripter, didn't like it. He came up with the notion that Anthony is Solo's middle name and he goes by "Tony." The matter is tabled before filming so the character is either referred to as "Solo" or "Mr. Solo." In the end titles of the original pilot, it says, "Starring Robert Vaughn as Solo."
5. In the additional footage with Luciana Paluzzi, the matter is resolved and Solo tells Paluzzi's character, "My name is Napoleon Solo. I hope you like filters."
6. Somewhere along the line, Vaughn films a 5-minute presentation for NBC executives and/or potential advertiers. Vaughn looks into the camera and begins, "My name is Robert Vaughn, but when that camera rolls, well, Napoleon Solo is the name and espionage is the game."
So it seems Eon was suitably inspired, and created an almost identical Fiona Volpe character for her in TB.//
I'd take it one step further. For You Only Live Twice, Karin Dor's hair is colored so she resembles Fiona. Dor's Helga is Fiona Lite.
And sexier.