The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair

Reunion TV-movies based on old series rarely capture the spirit of the original, but Return of the Man from Uncle taps into the campiness of the series as if it never was off the air. The leads have fun acknowledging their age, and the whole thing neatly turns into a parody of spy films without becoming a parody of itself. I rated it a "9" not because it is great art but because compared to all other TV reunion movies it is head and shoulders above the rest!

Back when the old Man From UNCLE series was going I thought it was a radical concept. Here we had as the top agents an American and a Russian in an agency run by a British man to the manor born all cooperating against a conspiracy to rule the world headed by some evil folks. Detente a generation ahead of its time.

Leo G. Carroll has passed on, but the United Network Command for Law Enforcement has another titled Britisher in Patrick MacNee heading it. A master criminal Anthony Zerbe has escaped and who better than the two guys who borough Zerbe in back in the day to get him.

So Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are recruited from the lives they now lead, Vaughn as Las Vegas gambler and McCallum as fashion kingpin. Zerbe has also stolen a thermonuclear bomb and plans to blow it up unless he gets a hefty sum of cash. UNCLE's nemesis THRUSH is back in action.

It was nice to see Vaughn and McCallum back in their old roles. Hard to believe that the kindly old medical examiner from NCIS was something of a teenage heartthrob back in those days, but The Man From UNCLE gave McCallum some short lived bubblegum popularity.

I can see why this version failed though, it tried for satire and fell on its face. No wonder this was not picked up to revive the series

Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a superb reunion movie. When you watch a lot of reunion movies they're never as good and there seems to be no continuity with the original series. Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. provided plenty of continuity.

David McCallum and Robert Vaughan had no problem in reprising their roles and the continuity was there; they had no problems slipping back into their roles.

The late Leo G. Carroll was not back as UNCLE Chief Alexander Waverly (Mr Carroll had died in the 1970's). He was replaced by Patrick Macnee. However, this movie did acknowledge Mr Waverly and reference to his passing away was made. This was good because usually in TV reunions, major characters are omitted without any explanation.

This movie was just as fun as the original series. Despite having aged, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin did a great job saving the world again.

Most reunion movies are rubbish. This wasn't one of them.

One other thing of interest. Former James Bond actor George Lazenby had a cameo in this movie. He was clad in a bow tie, driving a car with the initials J.B. on. Now I wonder who he was meant to be? Hmmm! Must think about that one.

Not as bad as expected but both actors looked far too old to play their old characters especially Robert Vaughan. In common with the excellent original TV series this was a bit tongue in cheek but it didn't work as well in this film as it did in the TV series.

Many nods to James Bond, too many perhaps, in the sets and having James Bond in one sequence. The final fifteen minutes or so was 100% James Bond.

It's no wonder that this film failed to lead to a new TV series.

It's worth watching for oldies for nostalgia reasons as it is a bit of fun but a younger audience probably won't like it very much at all.

Good for a reunion show that deserves special allowances for auld lang syne that otherwise would not fly for a regular show, a time to reminisce on the impossibility of twenty years flying by! and even worse another twenty since that yet again to 2006! Will someone quit turning the calendar instead of the second hand! Though McNee was truly good as Sir John, the sorrowful part was the loss fourteen years before, in '72, of inestimable and quite irreplaceable stellar veteran Leo G. Carroll/Mr. Waverly they were kind enough to acknowledge. What wasn't mentioned in other descriptions of the film was how Sir John's entrance into the fray was due to the death of Mr. Waverly whom he was replacing (I believe he was supposedly killed in a THRUSH attack, which while stretching the bonds of credibility that they only just now managed to kill him after so many years is still a well-deserved tribute to dear old Leo G.). As sharp as Carroll was, he deserved a larger role had the oversexed dolts of that age not been such abysmal failures at appreciating the treasure in their midst, though perhaps Vaughn & McCallum may have.

A fascinating connection most don't realize, including me, until today, thanks to the IMDb, is that in the '50s show Topper in which Carroll starred as Cosmo Topper, Robert Sterling played George Kerby, the debonair husband of the ghost couple that could be so frustrating for Cosmo, wife Anne Jeffreys playing Mrs. (Marion) Kerby, but Sterling also later played Captain Lee Craine in the Irwin Allen's movie, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the part later taken by David Hedison in the TV version as Richard Baseheart took Walter Pigeon's place! Interesting connection: Man from UNCLE and Voyage to the Bottowm of the Sea by way of Topper! What Topper!