Man from U.N.C.L.E. From 1965 to 2015!

The new Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie opens this Friday...

...and our "brother" RetroBlog, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video, will be doing a feature on the previous U.N.C.L.E. films.

But before that, we invite you to have a look at the premiere issue of the 1960s comic based on the TV series!

"Why?", you may ask?

Two reasons.

1) It's the closest the comic came to doing an epic tale that would've made a helluva big budget movie.

2) Oddly, enough, the renderings of Solo and Kuryakin look a lot like Henry Cavil and Armie Hammer!

Judge for yourself!

Enjoy the Spies Who Love ME Every Weekend at Captain VIdeo's Secret Sanctum!

Beginning today, Secret Sanctum of Captain Video will do several posts each weekend tying in to MeTV's new Sunday night 60s spy show block.

Besides trivia and behind-the-scenes info, there will be a classic comic adaptation of one of the series!

Dont Miss It!

Arlene Martel (Sax) 1936-2014

It took an article in the NY Times for me to learn Arlene Martel had passed away.

She wasn't a household name, like Robin Williams or Lauren Bacall, but to several generations of sci-fi fans she was...

...the smiling woman who ominously-intoned "Room for one more, honey." in the nightmares of a hysterical woman in the classic Twilight Zone ep "Twenty-Two".

...an innocent woman caught in a battle inside a deserted building between a time-traveler from the future and aliens determined to kill him and destroy the secret that would save humanity in the equally-classic Outer Limits episode "Demon with a Glass Hand"...

...and, most memorably, T'Pring, the Bride of Spock in the (I hate to use the word, but it does apply) classic Star Trek ep "Amok Time"!

Besides appearances on other genre shows like Man from U.N.C.L.E., Wild Wild West, and Battlestar Galactica, she also appeared in comedies, Westerns, and crime shows, and was still working on-and-off in movies and tv until her passing.

Sale from U.N.C.L.E.!

Sealed Complete Man from U.N.C.L.E. 41-dvd box sets, originally $249 from Time-Life Video, released to stores at $199, and on sale for only...$89.99 (plus tax)!
Available at Costco now (but only the warehouses, not on-line)!
If your father (or grandfather) is over 40, they'll make the perfect Father's Day gift!
If your junior-high or high-school graduate is a spy movie fan, it'll make a kool graduation gift!
They're going fast, so head over ASAP, before they're gone!

Comparison Pix--Man from U.N.C.L.E.

In a Reading Room post several weeks ago, I commented that the Silver Age Green Hornet had the unique situation that only one illustrator handled all his stories, as opposed to the artistic round-robin that tended to be the norm for Gold Key tv/movie titles.
Looking back over one Gold Key tv title, Man from U.N.C.L.E., we see a number of artists during it's almost two-dozen issue run, each with their own unique way of rendering Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum)...

Don Heck

George Tuska

George Tuska and???

Unknown

Werner Roth and ???

Unknown

Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia

Sekowsky also did "Solo" and "Kuryakin" in the first issue of The Inferior Five...

Sekowsky and Mike Esposito

Anne Francis (9/16/1930 – 1/2/2011)

The American Mrs Peel!

Ironically, I had just watched Forbidden Planet on TCM last night (for the umpteeth time), and was discussing who, of the main cast, was still alive! (Leslie Nielsen [Commander J.J. Adams] had passed away in November.)
Plus, one of my projects for this year was expanding the Fantastic Femmes entries to include more past performers including Anne, Raquel Welch, Diana Rigg, etc.
Then this morning, I read about Anne's passing due to complications from cancer...

Her roles as Altaira "Alta" Morbius and Honey West alone would assure her a place as a Fantastic Femme.

The obligatory Forbidden Planet pic

She was also one of the few non-regulars to play the same character in several episodes of Man from U.N.C.L.E.!

Plus, she guest-starred on numerous genre shows from Burke's Law (where Honey West debuted) to Wonder Woman!

Besides being ravishingly-beautiful she had a great acting range, doing everything from comedies to westerns to film noir! We've included several of the harder-to-find ones below...

Her favorite performance was in the psychological thriller Girl of the Night, one of the few films she got top billing. (It's unavailable on Amazon, but you can get it directly from Warner Archives!)

Leslie Nielsen (2/11/26 – 11/28/10)

In Forbidden Planet, he was the prototype of starship captains for generations to come...

In Creepshow, he was a jealous husband with a video obsession who received his comeuppance in true EC Comics fashion...

In the final episode* of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., he was the last man to try (and fail) to kill Napoleon Solo...

And, as the Swamp Fox, he was Disney's attempt at another franchise based on a real-life American hero like Davy Crockett!
(DYK: Nielsen sang the show's theme song!)

You remember him from Airplane! and The Naked Gun series.

But this is how I remember Leslie Nielsen.

*The final 2-part episode of U.N.C.L.E., "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair". was released theatrically as How to Steal the World.