Reviews

A spy parody based on a comic strip character, the incredible superspy Modesty Blaise (Monica Vitti) a former villainess who now works for the British government (at a price), who along with her side-kick Willie Garvin (Terence Stamp) are hired to protect a shipment of diamonds and keep them out of the hands of Gabriel, self-confessed villain of the piece.

The film reminded me of some of the Girl from U. N. C. L. E TV shows of the same time period, with glossy surroundings and some outrageous 1960's outfits. The film seems to lose its way between drama and humour.

Apart from Johnny Dankworths excellent score, the best parts of the film are left to the villains, Gabriel (Dirk Bogarde) in an outrageous wig and his main side-kick Miss Fothergill (Rossella Falk).

While Gabriel is probably the campest villain going, he probably has some of the best lines, such as when staked out in the sun he begs for champagne. Miss Fothergill seems to be a woman who kills for no apparent reason and has a dislike for Modesty Blaise.

There is a scene where Gabriel is trying to get Modesty to join him and just after saying Modesty must trust him, Miss Fothergill enters and knocks Modesty Blaise unconscious with a knock-out karate chop to the neck. After Modesty faints Gabriel looks down at her and chides Miss Fothergill by saying not too hard, Miss Fothergill, not too hard. The look Fothergill gives him says I'll hit her just as hard as I please. The interaction between the villains is excellent.

All in all, a rather confusing film but still quite entertaining if not taken seriously.

Shirley Holmes has never been convinced by Bart's theory about the future invasion of Redington by Aliens... but there seems to be an awful lot of mysterious coincidences one after another, as well as three people claiming to have been abducted.

As the puzzle deepens, Shirley struggles to work out the connection between the red welts on each abductee's neck, the three toed footprints she finds in the woods, and the stories of dazzling white lights and little grey figures. The truth is out there, all right and Shirley discovers a woman called Stavko is using the abductions as a cover to disrupt a peace conference her father is attending. Knowing she must inform her father, while Bo creates a diversion, Shirley breaks into the building where the peace conference in being held. Before she can warn her father, Shirley is grabbed from behind. She feels a sharp pain in her neck, then Shirley Holmes faints!

When she revives, Shirley is confronted by Stavko who is determined to disrupt the conference and intends to use Shirley to help her. As Shirley becomes increasingly dizzy and lightheaded, Stavko puts her into a hypnotic trance. It seems the weakened Miss Holmes is at Stavko's mercy - but is Shirley really as helpless as Stavko thinks?

When Shirley receives an unsigned gift of a orchid from a secret admirer. She is stung by a bee. Having an allergy to bee stings, Shirley Holmes faints instantly and falls unconscious to the floor! The effects of the sting send Miss Holmes into an anaphylactic-shock-induced dream where she tries to figure out who was the sender. Although Shirley is unconscious her mind is still active as she slips into a dream sequence. Was the orchid sent by her best friend Bo and the bee accidently got into the flower or could it have been Molly Hardy, Shirley's sworn enemy, who planted the bee knowing of Miss Holmes allergy and knew Shirley would faint after being stung. If the orchid had come from Molly did she want Shirley unconscious for a reason. This is what Shirley has to figure out in her shock induced dream!

An excellent episode from a brilliant series.

Can't believe it must be 60 years since I saw this on the old black and white T. V. when I was 7 or 8 years old and I remember it being called The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten (who were not terrible at all in todays meaning of the word). They also seemed so grown up, although they can't have been much older than I was at the time.

Although my memories are very vague, I seem to remember the Terrible Ten all riding horses in the introduction and I also remember not missing an episode, so it was obviously compulsive viewing.

The only episodes I have any memories of is one where the gang saw a submarine surfacing in a secluded bay and they foiled a kidnap attempt and the second where Lynda Keane fainted after spending too long in the sun and the whole episode was in a dream like state. When Lynda revived from her fainting spell she was in Ten Town hospital, of course, and quickly recovered.

The only other things I can remember was all 10 never seemed to be in an episode together and there was a bully (McGurk, I think) who was determined to destroy Ten Town but never succeeded.

The episode begins with Laurie having been selected "Miss Dill Pickle" and Laurie now also needs to donate something for an auction which is a fundraiser for the school newspaper and in charge of handling the material is Marvin, the editor of the paper who just happens to hate Laurie. A moment later, Marvin (played by Bruce Kimmel) arrives for the pick-up and greets "Pickles Partridge" with a comment that he'll put the news of her pageant win on page one, much to Laurie's chagrin. Unfortunately, Laurie's younger brother Danny gives Marvin a shoebox with Laurie's private diary in it! Laurie decides to asks Keith and Danny retrieve her diary and leave another box in its place, which makes Keith suspicious about what is included in the diary as well, since she wants it so badly. When Shirley hears of the plot she chastises her eldest daughter for her thinking but Keith and Danny come home with no diary anyway. It's too late. Marvin already knows he has it. Shirley says Laurie needs to go and ask for it back herself. When Laurie returns from Marvin's office empty-handed, she says that Marvin is going to print Laurie's diary in the paper and he insulted her by saying "You're so skinny, when you stick your tongue out, you look like a zipper" but Laurie is hatching a plot to get the diary back. Laurie admits that she will have a tough time doing this on her own, because she's not as shrewd or cunning as a man or as strong as a man. Keith notes she didn't make such statements at the Women's Lib rally the week before, so they're clearly seeing through her pretence. It wouldn't be a break in, Laurie says, just a temporary trespass. After some teasing, Keith agrees he and Danny will help. The three of them arrive at a back alley, filled with the requisite crates and boxes to provide clutter. They spot an open window and Laurie climbs the crates to the fire escape ladder when a cop (played by Gordon Jump, eventually of "WKRP in Cincinnati") happens to wander by to question Keith and Danny. They explain that they're there to meet Marvin to give him the ballet slippers. Then Laurie slips and the ladder she's standing on lowers back to ground level, where she winds up directly behind the officer but he doesn't notice! Laurie climbs through the window where she is greeted immediately by Keith and Danny. The front door was unlocked and the guys just walked in. Of course, Marvin's office is locked so they still need to figure out how to get in. Laurie spots an air vent and suggests that Danny crawl through to Marvin's office. Danny said he was short but Laurie was skinny so she should do it. Keith? He just washed his hair. Meanwhile, Marvin showed back up at the Partridge home, where Shirley greeted him. Finally, we hear why Marvin dislike Laurie: she's talented, pretty and has green eyes and he has a massive crush on her. He chose not to tell her because he was boring, but while he's holding her diary, she'll notice him. Shirley suggests that if he gives the diary back, Laurie will notice him in a much nicer way. Back at the newspaper office, Laurie has crawled through the vent and found an opening. When she kicks out the grating, it turned out she only came right back to the hallway Keith and Danny were standing in. Danny waved a key ring in Laurie's face. There was a peg with the key right on it in full view. In the office, as they rummaged through the materials, suddenly the sound of people outside sent Laurie, Keith and Danny scrambling under the desk but Danny left his foot sticking out. Shirley and Marvin have entered the office and Marvin says he was all set to give the diary back anyhow and he asks Laurie for a date. Next morning Laurie gets her revenge on Keith when he gets a letter starting "Dear Bootsy". Keith proposes a trade but Laurie says, anything that starts "Dear Bootsy" is better than her diary and the episode ends with Laurie racing up the stairs with Keith's letter, and Keith chasing right behind. A really funny episode and Susan Dey is just gorgeous!

When THRUSH decide they want to take over the throne of Drublegratz, they decide to get rid of the last of the countries rulers by using musical resonance to cause an avalanche to kill Prince Efram. April Dancer goes undercover as a go-go dancer (a bonus for male viewers as she wears a micro mini-skirt for long parts of the episode), while Mark wonders round with a French horn and chatting up a girl called Sherilee. The main THRUSH agent's in this are Princess Rapunzel (Patricia Barry) and Igor Gork (Vito Scotti in an amazing wig), who seem to be trying to win an overacting competition! April's cover is blown almost instantly when Rapunzel makes a simple phone call and finding out she is one of U.N.C.L.E's top agents, she vows to have April removed. So, when she spies April spying on them from a mountain side, Rapunzel orders two thugs to deal with the demure Miss Dancer. I know this is parody, but the ease with which they creep up on April (supposedly a highly trained agent), overpower her and then throw the Girl from U.N.C.L.E off the mountain without even a struggle takes some believing. April screams and there are some close ups of her looking suitably terrified as she plunges to her impending death. Luckily, April lands in water and so survives! Meanwhile, Gork has worked out a way to make the mountain next to the palace collapse using sound resonance, which will be triggered when the Daily Flash play 'My Bulgarian Baby'. Mark leaps into action and breaks into the palace but is captured along with Sherilee and put in a wardrobe. April, meanwhile, gets in touch with Waverly and proves she has a good voice by singing 'My Bulgarian Baby' to him as she believes it has something to do with an attempt on Efram's life. She then goes back to her dancing but the lights go out and April is kidnapped by a pair of THRUSH agents, who then use knock-out gas on her, causing April Dancer to faint. When she regains consciousness, April finds herself tied and gagged and in the same wardrobe as Mark and Sherilee. The manage to free themselves using one of Aprils gadgets and then get involved in a brawl with THRUSH agents in the control room, where April manages to turn the resonance control into reverse and the mountain collapses on Rapunzel and Gork. The show ends with The Daily Flash singing 'My Bulgarian Baby' once more for April, Mark, Sherilee, Efram and Waverly, who calls them the Flashing Dailies! If the episode is taken as it is presumably meant to be (almost a spin-off from 'Get Smart' not 'Man from U.N.C.L.E'), then it is quite entertaining, while April Dancer shows she is a more than capable singer and dancer, as well as having great legs! The band playing the song 'My Bulgarian Baby' to which the mini-skirted April make some very 'groovy' dance moves (Stefanie Powers was a trained dancer) are the Daily Flash, a folk/psychedelic group from Seattle who were regarded highly enough to have supported Jefferson Airplane at around the same time, while one of their number, guitarist Doug Hastings, played for Buffalo Springfield for a while after Neil Young's departure. They obviously didn't use their full potential on this episode of the Girl from Uncle!

I think this episode got off to a good start, April Dancer and Mark Slate are sent to somewhere in the Caribbean to help Professor Antrum, who claims to have discovered a cavern leading to the remains of Atlantis, escape from THRUSH. He is being held captive on a boat which means the bonus for male viewers of seeing April in a one piece swimming costume. For once, April and Mark don't botch anything and complete the job, after a river chase and on foot through the jungle, with the help of local transport driver Vic (in it for eye-candy for the ladies and a slight romantic touch for Miss Dancer). However, the episode seemed to start going wrong when April suggested they should look for Atlantis, rather than go home and Waverly agrees to her request. After this, the episode seems to degenerate into a series of chases and explosions, with the Mark/April combo being split as April and Vic stick together and Mark with Antrum. The entrance to Atlantis is on the land of an eccentric Le Gallows, who seems to think the 17th Century was better than the 20th and THRUSH are interested because of some crystals that when exposed to sunlight, generate enormous heat and destructive power. There are almost too many cooks spoiling the plot. April and her new pal seem to walk from one kidnapping to another, while Slate is kidnapped by Le Gallows, however, it all ends happily as Slate escapes frees April and Vic, who have been kidnapped yet again and then the whole rather over confused story is redeemed somewhat as April, who finally gets rid of the safari hat that has been hiding her fantastic hair for almost all the episode, defeats supposed sword fighting expert Le Gallows in a duel at the end and for good measure, leaves him weeping as April removes his wig. Finally, THRUSH bad guy Colonel Faber (who was about as frightening as a Scooby Doo monster) is blown up when trying to escape (a box of crystals in the boat he was using fell, letting the crystals into the sunlight). The whole episode seem to lose its way between drama and an attempt at comedy. All the more disappointing as getting a respected writer like Richard Matheson to write for the show should have been a major plus. From my perspective, I don't know who chose April's wardrobe, why hide her hair under an unflattering hat almost the entire episode and why wear a knee length skirt when you are running through undergrowth, jumping into rivers and climbing up cliffs during the episode, surely shorts or a pair of jeans would have made more sense. April also knocked some THRUSH agents out, but uses gas when, as a mixed martial arts expert, she should be using karate and judo to dispatch them. If only they had let April Dancer off the leash, I am sure the show would have made a second season. I think part of my problem is that I thought the series got off to a tremendous start with The Dog-Gone Affair, but apart from the amusing element of seeing Boris Karloff in drag in the Mother Muffin Affair, really took until episode 11 (The Lethal Eagle Affair) and 12 (The Romany Lie Affair) to regain its credibility.

This is another good episode, which gives April Dancer the chance to show off her fighting abilities (even if she does lose)!

April Dancer, the Girl from UNCLE, receives a phone call from a frightened young woman requesting help but she is suddenly cut off. April contacts Mark Slate and they trace the call to a phone box where they find the woman dead, apparently from old age. She had been a client of a health and beauty clinic known as Rejuven Isle, located somewhere off the Scandinavian coast. April joins the clinic as a new customer, while Mark takes the place of a Cockney photographer called 'Terry Crump' ( Harvey Jason). Terry Crump himself, on hearing Rejuven Isle might be a violent place, refuses to go there. The clinic's owners - 'Baroness Ingrid Blangstead' ( Gena Rowlands ) and 'Peter Starker' (Donnelly Rhodes) - have developed two revolutionary new drugs - one capable of making people young, the other making them incredibly old - and are blackmailing the wives of important men by promising them everlasting youth or instant old age. April Dancer soon gets into trouble, whilst snooping round the clinic she is discovered by a blonde, muscular, female member of staff. April rushes at her but the amazing Girl from UNCLE is grabbed by the collar of her jacket and lifted completely off her feet and dumped in a mud bath. The blonde woman climbs in after April and after a brief fight, the muscular blonde, who is actually a THRUSH agent called Bibi, overpowers April Dancer and knocks her unconscious.

Mark, however, has problems of his own - his cover is blown and the Baroness pushes him into a pig-sty to be devoured by the ravenous animals there. 'Boarmerden', the farmer, is played by British actor John Orchard. Both April and Mark recover to bring the deadly Baroness to justice. This is a touching moment where 'Madame Dao' (Miiko Taka) tells her husband she only wanted to become young again to please him, and he replies: "Let's grow old together''

April Dancer is on her way to a Greek island to meet Mark Slate. April is with a dog whos fleas contain the antidote to a THRUSH developed drug which makes people move in slow motion. A man named Fromage sits next to April and rightly suspecting he is working for THRUSH, she contacts Mark and attaching a parachute to the dog and throws it from the plane for Mark to catch. However, THRUSH agents are waiting for Mark and he is captured briefly but the dog escapes. Later Mark and April meet and using a dog whistle April attracts the dog. However, it escapes again and when April gives chase, she is karate chopped on the neck by THRUSH agents, causing April Dancer to faint and she is kidnapped and driven away in a waiting car. When she regains consciousness, April is in the wine cellar of Zakinthios, who leads the mission for THRUSH. He questions April about the whereabouts of the dog but, refusing to talk and not knowing the dog's whereabouts, April is overpowered by Zakinthios's men and faints again. She wakes up tied to a swing over a pool of piranhas but April escapes in the nick of time and manages to retrieve the dog yet again. Finally Mark defeats Zakinthios in a fight. April and Mark eventually hand the dog over to the authorities to enable them to make the antidote.

I thought this was an excellent start to the series, with plenty of action and some amusing interludes, such as when April judo throws Mark across her room when he enters without knocking. However, the main problem with the episode, apart from the rather wild story line, was the fight at the end. As this was the Girl from UNCLE, surely it should have been April Dancer who defeated the villain at the end and not Mark Slate. However, having seen this episode again recently, April Dancer was certainly a beautiful secret agent!

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E is not the strongest spin-off ever and it suffers from some poor writing choices. For one, rather than make April Dancer competent and deadly as she should be, being UNCLE's first female enforcement agent, they made her mainly a damsel in distress with extra spy gadgets. April's partner Mark Slate spends more time rescuing her than being her than anything else. She does occasionally knocks a villain out using one of her gadgets but April Dancer gets knocked unconscious by T.H.R.U.S.H agents on a regular basis or kidnapped and left in some perilous position, such as hanging over a pool of piranhas in the Dog gone affair. Stefanie Powers dancing skills are put to good effect in The Mata Hari Affair and The Drublegratz Affair, the latter of which April is undercover as a go-go dancer and gets to wear a mini-skirt. There were some interesting guest stars too, including Boris Karloff in drag in the Mother Muffin affair. Overall, I think The Girl from Uncle is fun if you don't take it too seriously and I think it would have been worthy of a second season, with April being given more of a fighting role rather than leave it to the man. Whatever else, April Dancer made an enchanting secret agent.