El espía del sombrero verde

'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' had started out as James Bond in your living room with weekly adventures showing how Napoleon and Illya saved the world each week and thwarted THRUSH with the aid of some innocent party. It worked well for the first season then it started getting humorous which worked initially, but it took the edge of the show, and then it completely lost it attempting to be a spoof. (If producers had looked at the James Bond series they would have noticed that they were about to release 'You Only Live Twice' and at no point had the Bond films sank into the camp humour we got from MGM / Arena.) 'The Spy In The Green Hat' was the fifth feature made from the TV show and although it wasn't the worst of the series, it was far from the best. Alongside Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were Jack Palance, Janet Leigh and old timers Joan Blondell and Allen Jenkins. The story is nonsense about THRUSH controlling the weather and there are scenes of Italian stereotypes waving their arms a lot, making pasta and swearing revenge. It doesn't work on any level.

Here's what I wrote about it in my book "What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)".

Interviewed in the 1980s, David McCallum felt that part of the decline of 'The Man From UNCLE' was to start spending the budget on guest stars rather than on good story lines and location filming, and "The Spy In The Green Hat", which was made up of the two-part episode 'The Concrete Overcoat Affair", had Jack Palance and Janet Leigh, and had a story about a scientist diverting the Gulf Stream, but it also had a story thread where Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) is pursued by a bunch of elderly Italian gangsters who feel he has dishonoured one of their girls. It was daft, unfunny and tedious and had fans wondering if it could get worse. The one interesting piece of casting was Will Kuluva as a THRUSH man. He had played the original head of UNCLE in "To Trap A Spy" but was replaced by Leo G Carroll after a misunderstanding at MGM. (Sponsors had said fire 'Kuryakin' and the producer thought they meant Kuluva.) "When The Boys Meet The Girls" with it was MGM's fourth and last attempt to make Connie Francis a movie star in a tepid remake of the 1943 film "Girl Crazy". She was joined by Harve Presnell, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, and Hermans Hermits, who sang 'Listen People'.

Adapted with permission from the author from 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)'.

Jim Doyle is the author of 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)', 'What We Watched In The 1970s (In The Cinema)" and 'What We Watched In The 1980s (In The Cinema And On Video)'

As a kid I absolutely loved "The Man From Uncle." Well, the first couple of seasons anyway. Like any of these type of shows, the plots tend to get more and more preposterous. But I recently caught this TMFU movie on TCM and enjoyed it. Vaughn and McCallum were great as the partners who worked for "UNCLE" never playing it too seriously. I'm not sure if this was a seperate movie or two episodes combined with a bit of original footage. Good cast-Jack Palance seems to have a blast overacting as the THRUSH villian, Drago as does the incredibly hot Janet Leigh as his villianous assistant, Miss Diketon. Great name, eh! Another very hot actress, Leticia Roman plays a prominent role as a Sicilian maiden who Vaughn, AKA Napolean Solo, is going to have to marry in a literal shotgun wedding. Had all the elements I remember enjoying in a TMFU episode, action, explosions, comedy and sexy women. Plot was really unimportant, although they could have cut out at least .10-.15. BTW, I have no idea who The Spy in the Green Hat was. I guess they needed something for a title.

Anything to get the word "spy" into the title! Actually I think this was the only "U.N.C.L.E." "movie" I'd not seen so it was a welcome watch for me.

A fine colourful romp it was too, taking in the two main locations for 20th Century criminal activity in the western world, Sicily and Chicago and a fun plot involving an ex-Nazi inventor, a group of veteran Mafiosi and best of all, Hollywood stars Jack Palance and Janet Leigh who really enter into the spirit of things as top T.H.R.U.S.H. operatives.

Solo and Kuryakin are as debonair and efficient (respectively) as ever, while Mr Waverley as ever is a soft-centred grouch. Starting off in sunny Sicily, the dynamic duo get separated when attempting to intercept the Nazi professor, Solo, typically ending up in a pretty Sicilian girl's bedroom and Kuryakin chained up and on the end of shock treatment administered by Leigh in a Rosa Klebb type role. The action shifts to the States taking in a shoot-out at a Chicago night-club, before the usual beat-the-clock climax at bad guy Palance's weapons depot.

As ever, it's lightweight, knockabout stuff, although there are hints of some more risqué direction than usual not only in some unusual camera-shots from above and below, but in the campy, kinky depiction of Leigh's knife-toting Miss Diketon (what's in a name?) and Palance's campy, excitable boss Strago, while some scenes, like Solo's peeping-Tom initial meet-up with Letitia Roman in her bedroom, Leigh seemingly getting aroused when either massaging Palance or administering death by flying daggers and most outré of all, a table-top fight between the two women seem more out there than previously, perhaps riffing of recent, racy spoofs like "Our Man Flint" and Dean Martin's Matt Helm misadventures.

With some good jokes thrown in too if at other times a bit too much Italian stereotyping, this was a highly entertaining caper and probably the best of the five movies adapted from the original TV series.

Watched this on TCM movies 50 years after enjoying the man from U. N. C. L. E as a child in the 1960s. It's packed with really good actors keeping their faces straight in what I appreciate now is a comedy or spoof. In the 60s we had some brilliant TV like this, Batman and Robin, Get Smart, My favourite Martian etc etc And like the James Bond films of the time their was no PC when it came to ladies being drawn to attractive men like Napoleon Solo. We have lost something now that PC or woke dominates what we watch these days. Thank goodness there are films like this that accurately reflect the era in which they were made. Love the fashion especially Janet Leigh's wardrobe.

The Spy In The Green Hat was the first UNCLE film that was only released in the overseas market. The previous four outings had been released theatrically in America, but US audiences weren't prepared to pay to see in the cinema what they had already seen on television. The Spy In The Green Hat was made up from the season three two-parter "The Concrete Overcoat Affair", (episode 1: 25/11/1966), (episode 2: 2/12/1966). These were not transmitted in the countries where the film version was released so there it would be a completely new story. This was the case for most of the other UNCLE films.

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin fail to capture Dr Von Kronen the world's most wanted Nazi criminal who joins forces with THRUSH agent Louis Strago (Jack Palance) in order to develop of series of missiles to divert the gulf stream thus altering the world's weather patterns and giving THRUSH what it always wanted - control of the world!

Out of the eight films released to cash in on the success of the TV series, The Spy In The Green Hat is probably one of the best. The supporting cast is good with Jack Palance on fanatical form as meglomaniac Louis Strago, Janet Leigh as his psychotic secretary and Eduardo Cianelli, Allen Jenkins and Jack La Rue are fun as the aging 1930's Italian gangsters who are pursuing Solo in order to force him to marry their young niece after he spent the night in her room hiding from Strago's henchmen. Robert Vaughn and David McCallam are their usual irreplacable selves and not forgetting the always reliable Leo G Carroll as UNCLE chief Mr Waverley.

The American TV version has been released on VHS in the UK but has long since been deleted. We can only hope for a DVD release in the future.