The Spy in the Green Hat

All told five full-length feature films were made by the MGM studio from spliced together episodes of The Man From Uncle. "The Spy In The Green Hat" is, in my opinion, the best of them. This is no small part due to Jack Palance who plays a terrific villain Louis Strago & Janet Leigh who plays Strago's secretary Miss Diketon. Janet Leigh was 39 years old when she played this role & looks really hot. Miss Diketon takes pleasure in killing people at her boss Strago's behest & Janet Leigh found herself a really juicy "bad girl" role here that she makes the most of. Despite her surname having lesbian overtones she is secretly in love with her boss Strago but his feelings for her are not reciprocated. In their very first scene together she is shown breathing heavily whilst massaging his back for which Strago rebukes her. Later he tries to get her transferred out of his department & she turns against him. The other female interest sees Leticia Roman playing Pia Monteri the daughter of an Italian Mafia mobster whom Napoleon Solo is almost forced into marrying. Later in the movie there is a very entertaining fight between her & Miss Diketon. All in all, this is not a movie to be taken too seriously, & it was never intended to be, but is very entertaining.

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 dauntless U. N. C. L. E. Duo, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin (Robert Vaughn and David McCallum) are caught in the crossfire between enemy THRUSH agents and retired gangland mobsters when they are despatched to Sicily.

Their efforts to thwart a fiendish plot to divert the Gulf Stream, turning Greenland from a barren wasteland into a lush island for their new Headquarters when Solo is pursued by a lady with marriage in mind ...

There's more tongue-in-cheek spy shenanigans in store in this entertaining The Man from U. N. C. L. E. Film, and what makes it so entertaining is the humour, thanks to the actors playing the Stilletto brothers who might be OAP but they haven't changed their "gangster" ways (1930's style) and Penny Santon as Grandma Monteri - they kidnap Solo so he could marry their niece ( Letitia Roman) or else he will die; this is because Grandma Monteri caught Solo under her granddaughter's bed. Quite hilarious- had me chuckling right throughout. There's a very good performance by Janet Leigh and an atypical one as I never saw her play a sadistic bad girl who likes to use her dagger to a great effect. And there's Jack Palance as the villainous Strago, the king of overacting! The title "The Spy in a green Hat" refers to Strago's boss who is known as the Man in the green Hat!

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.

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.