LES GIRLS

Elg, Kendall and Gaynor

LES GIRLS (1957). Director: George Cukor.

Retired dancer Lady Sybil (Kay Kendall of Wings of Danger) has written a book about her life in which she claims that a former colleague, Angele (Taina Elg), attempted suicide out of her unrequited love for their boss, Barry Nichols (Gene Kelly). Angele is outraged -- and so is her husband, Pierre (Jacques Bergerac of The Hypnotic Eye) -- so a libel suit results. Most of Les Girls consists of flashbacks

"Wild One" Kelly and his Leather Boys

as Sybil tells her story, then Angele tells hers, and finally Barry comes into court to tell his side of things. Les Girls has an interesting hook with the libel suit, but the script becomes increasingly stupid with each section, and even Cole Porter's songs are second or third-rate for this composer. The film's highlight is a sequence when Kelly walks in with a gang of motorcycle toughs and does a splendid dance number with Mitzi Gaynor [The Joker is Wild], but most of the production numbers are disappointing. Kelly and the ladies are all excellent, however. Henry Daniell plays the judge presiding over the case and Patrick Macnee [The Avengers] is one of the lawyers; Leslie Phillips is Kendall's husband. In CinemaScope and Metrocolor. This was Porter's last film score, and Kelly's last MGM musical. 

Verdict: Cute but unremarkable. **1/2. 

THE RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

David McCallum and Robert Vaughn

THE RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (1983 telefilm). Director: Ray Austin.

"THRUSH is now a nuclear power."

"Bed bugs. Bed bugs in every hotel in New York." -- Illya

Fifteen years have gone by and both Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) have left UNCLE. Solo now works in computers and Illya runs a fashion house called Vanya's. Alexander Waverly has passed on and been replaced by Sir John Raleigh (Patrick Macnee of The Avengers.) THRUSH is also back in business, and has acquired a nuclear device with which it can wipe out a large part of the country. Justine Seraphin (Anthony Zerbe), who is working for THRUSH, wants $350 million dollars to be delivered by Napoleon Solo -- or else. Can Solo importune Illya, who quit UNCLE after an assignment went bad and a young lady died, into coming out of retirement one last time? Both Vaughn and McCallum were in their early fifties but time was much kinder to McCallum, who still seems lithe and attractive. Vaughn, however, plays with his customary authority and panache, and both men give excellent performances. Gayle Hunnicutt is on the mark as a Russian woman who needs Solo's help, as are Simon Williams as the son of the man who built the bomb, John Harkins as the nasty Alexi Kemp, and Jan Triska as the gambling, icy Vaselievich. Zerbe and Geoffrey Lewis make acceptable villains, and Susan Woollen has a nice turn as Raleigh's gal Friday, who happens to be named Janice Friday. George Lazenby of On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a cameo playing "J.B." and even George Sanders [A Scandal in Paris], who appeared in more than one UNCLE episode, shows up briefly at the end as Hunnicutt's father. Tom Mason is effective enough as a comparatively crude UNCLE agent. [Amazing that no other operatives are in the league of Solo and Kuryakin!] The souped-up version of the theme music really sucks. This is basically a fair-to-middling longer episode of the UNCLE show with a suspenseful climax, and some well-done sequences. Stupid moments have Raleigh asking Solo to report to duty but not bothering to tell him that UNCLE HQ has moved!

Verdict: Seeing Napoleon Solo and John Steed playing together is not as much fun as you might imagine. **1/2.

THE AVENGERS Season 4

Emma Peel as queen of the Hellfire Club

THE AVENGERS (season four/1966).

The Avengers began life in 1961 as a man named John Steed (Patrick Macnee, who lasted through all seven seasons) helps "avenge" the murder of Dr. David Keel's (Ian Hendry) wife; the two men then went on to have several more adventures. Keel was replaced by Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman) for seasons 2 and 3, the episodes for which appeared to be on tape and rather low-tech in nature. With the 4th season, The Avengers was on film, became a very slick show, and best of all starred Diana Rigg [No Turn Unstoned] as the jumpsuit and leather-clad Mrs. Peel, who retained her femininity while apparently excelling in every form of combat known to man -- or, rather, woman. This was the first season in which the British series was shown in the U.S. on the high-rated ABC network. The show tried to maintain a balance between quirky, tongue-in-cheek humor and stories that had genuine suspense and excitement. Often the show would go over the line and descend into camp ["The Girl from Auntie" being a prime example, and as bad as the lowest camp episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). On the other hand, many of the episodes were quite smart and entertaining: "Death at Bargain Prices" features a bomb inside a department store; athletes are hypnotized into committing crimes in "The Master Minds;" a murder-for-hire outfit masquerades as a dating service in "The Murder Market" (with Patrick Cargill of Inspector Clouseau and Suzanne Lloyd);"A Touch of Brimstone" features Emma caparisoned as a black queen in the Hellfire Club; and a bunch of pseudo-feminist slayers take orders from a marionette in "How to Succeed ... at Murder." We mustn't forget the "Man-eater of Surrey Green" with its monster plant. Other memorable episodes include "The Gravediggers"  with Paul Massie; "The Cybernauts" with Michael Gough; "The Hour that Never Was;" "Two's a Crowd;" "The House that Jack Built" with its weird, twisting domicile; "The Danger Makers;" and "A Sense of History." The show was generally very well directed and edited with many exciting fight scenes, and Mrs. Peel took on female opponents more than once, especially in "Murder Market" (two gals go after Emma at the same time) and "How to Succeed at ... Murder."

Verdict: Peel and Steed make a lively and sophisticated duo. ***.

DEAD OF NIGHT (1977)

DEAD OF NIGHT (1977 telefilm). Director: Dan Curtis.

Curtis followed up his ratings-successful telefilm Trilogy of Terror with this second anthology of horror stories, which was also the pilot for a projected series. In "Second Chance," scripted by Richard Matheson from a Jack Finney story, a man (Ed Begley Jr. of Eating Raoul) restores a car in which a couple was killed years ago, and discovers that it can drive him all the way to the past to prevent their deaths. Ann Doran from It, The Terror from Beyond Space has a supporting role.  "No Such Thing as a Vampire," which Matheson scripted from his own short story, features a fake vampire murder plot, and boasts some very good performances from Patrick Macnee and Horst Buchholz. "Bobby," written by Matheson, also has fine performances from Joan Hackett and Lee H. Montgomery in a story about a grieving mother who thinks she's called her drowned son back from the grave. The story has a good ending, but it is neither frightening nor moving, which you can pretty much say about the movie in general. Curtis remade "Bobby" even less effectively in Trilogy of Terror II. Robert Cobert's score is mediocre and does nothing to help the telefilm.

Verdict: Reasonably entertaining if very minor horror anthology. **1/2.

GREAT OLD EPISODE: MAN-EATER OF SURREY GREEN / THE AVENGERS

The man-eating plant attacks Steed and companions

"MAN-EATER OF SURREY GREEN". THE AVENGERS. 1965.

The Avengers British TV series [not to be confused with the American super-heroes of the same name]  arrived on U.S. shores with the 1965 season, the first one in which Diana Rigg joined the cast [joining Patrick Macnee as Steed] as the delectable, leather-and-jumpsuit clad Mrs. Peel. In this amusing and creepy episode, a weird plant turns out to have a human-type brain, and is also able to emit mind-control rays that have scientists and others toiling for it. In addition, the creature is a flesh-eater, and one of the essential nutrients it needs is inside human beings. Its tendrils can whip around a person in seconds and pull them away for a tasty snack. Not only do our intrepid duo have to deal with this botanical nightmare -- which threatens to grow to gargantuan size, with its tendrils digging in and popping up everywhere throughout the earth [and it is also capable of sprouting seeds] -- but Steed has to contend with a plant-hypnotized Emma Peel giving him karate chops as he tries to stop her from spilling the only reserves they have of a herbicide that might kill the awful creature.This is utterly absurd, but highly entertaining.

Verdict: Suspenseful, funny, and action-packed, with a great monster. ***.

A VIEW TO A KILL

A VIEW TO A KILL (1985) Director: John Glen.

Roger Moore's final Bond film plays better on TV than it did in the movies; on the small screen its low-key (as opposed to epic or grandiose) quality can be better appreciated. Christopher Walken is an Americanized ex-KGB agent who wants to dominate the computer market by manipulating [via flooding] the faults near Silicon Valley. Walken is fine as the psychotic villain, although the scene with him gleefully machine-gunning the mine workers is a bit over the top. While the movie is more serious than other Moore-Bond adventures, there is a cartoonish early scene on the Eiffel Tower, and late in the movie some San Francisco men in blue chase Bond in a long and inappropriate scene like something out of the Keystone Kops. A deadly steeplechase race isn't bad, however, nor is the flooding of the mine and the subsequent draining of the lake above. The finale involving a dirigible and the Golden Gate Bridge is a knock-out. Patrick Macnee is very appealing as Bond's associate, as is pretty Tanya Roberts as a normal girl caught up in the nasty business. Grace Jones is also fine as Walken's exotic bodyguard and hit woman.

Verdict: While the picture is entertaining and holds the attention, it just isn't special enough to be a classic. **1/2.