THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Season 3

Reta Shaw as a sinister THRUSH agent

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Season Three.  1966.

Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kurakin (David McCallum), as well as Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll), are back for a third season of Uncle. Fans of the show generally consider this the worst of the four seasons, as there were times the program began to resemble an out and out comedy a la Get Smart. In spite of this, some of the more absurd episodes were fun. The first two episodes concerned homicidal females: "Her Master's Voice" had the mesmerized staff at a girls' school taking after the agents; and the memorably batty "The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful Affair" featured killer robots modeled on beautiful women. The entertaining two-part "Concrete Overcoat Affair" was turned into the theatrical feature The Spy with the Green Hat. A silly but zesty episode had the wonderful Reta Shaw [Sanctuary] as a THRUSH operative trying to find a scientist (Victor Borge) with a dangerous formula in his head in "The Suburbia Affair." A ray that could put people into instant suspended animation figured in "Deadly Smorgasbord." "Off-Broadway Affair" starred Shari Lewis in a tale of THRUSH using a theater to gain access to computer info. At least two of the season's episodes were not campy. "Galatea Affair" starred Joan Collins [Tales that Witness Madness] as a woman trained to take the place of a lookalike, a baroness working for you-know-who. "The Candidate's Wife" also featured a double substituted for the wife (Diana Hyland of Jigsaw) of a presidential nominee. Understandably, these were two of the season's best episodes.

Fans generally consider the worst episode to be "The Super Colossal Affair" in which the mob drops a bomb on Los Angeles which turns out to be -- unfortunately for poor Illya -- a ten ton stink bomb! Okay, this is a far cry from what the fans were hoping for, but I have to say this episode is absolutely hilarious, which was generally not true for many of its campy, would-be comical episodes -- yes, "Super Colossal" was not the worst episode of season three. J. Carrol Naish is very funny in this story as well.

Verdict: A comedown from seasons one and two, but still entertaining. **1/2.

JIGSAW

JIGSAW (1968). Director: James Goldstone.

Only three years after the film Mirage came out, a remake was made for television. Like Mirage, Jigsaw was based on Howard Fast's novel "Fallen Angel" as well as Peter Stone's screenplay for Mirage. However, screenwriter Ranald MacDougall [Queen Bee] fashioned a story that contained some elements from the earlier book and movie but was basically an entirely different story. NBC found the telefilm too violent -- or mediocre -- and decided not to run it, so Universal studios released it in theaters. Although the stars were Bradford Dillman and Harry Guardino, they were basically ignored [and they both gave excellent performances, too] in the advertising in favor of freakish Michael J, Pollard, who had only a bit part really [and two short scenes] but had been nominated for an Academy Award for his turn in Bonnie and Clyde. Such is show business! The poster also made it seem as if the movie were some sort of expose of the sixties Timothy Leary-type drug scene a la The Trip, which it definitely was not.

In Jigsaw Jonathan Fields (Dillman) temporarily loses his memory after ingesting sugar cubes laced with acid [LSD]. He remembers seeing the dead body of a woman in the bathtub of somebody's apartment, and this body later turns up in his own place. He goes to private investigator Arthur Belding (Guardino), who has his girlfriend Sarah (Diana Hyland) aid them in their investigation. Fields also has a girlfriend of sorts played by Hope Lange. The private detective is really the lead character in this and there's no death plunge until the very end. Unlike Mirage, Jigsaw gives away its secrets much too early and has a much more conventional murder/cover-up plot despite the psychedelic facade. The acting is fine, however, both by the aforementioned actors as well as by Pat Hingle as an associate of Fields' and Victor Jory [The Shadow serial] as his boss. 

Verdict: Not bad, holds the attention, but nothing special either despite solid performances. **1/2.