The Karate Killers

The Karate Killers is geared mostly for those baby boomers who watched the Man from UNCLE. Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were my heroes as a little girl when I watched the Man from UNCLE. Watching the movie now, I find it: nostalgic, a typical 60s spy movie, and a wee bit over dramatic. Of course, more than 40 years of movie watching has passed by. I am glad that the main characters and type of plot did not change and neither did the secret of the success of the Man from UNCLE still remains in the film. However, I miss the sophistication today's spy movies contain. The acting is decent and they interplay well. I am rating this movie against today's spy movies. It is still a decent movie. The movie is basically a matinée or a late night show. Bring popcorn for this one and enjoy a 60s spy movie.

This rarely seen TV movie is only shown on Turner Classic Movies when Joan Crawford is the star of the month, but she has a brief, but excellent appearance early on and then is murdered by "The Karate Killers." The plot revolves around the Men from U.N.C.L.E. on a continental adventure tracking down five daughters of a deceased scientist, who had a secret formula that turns seawater into gold, but they have to fight off bad guy Randolph and his "Karate Killers" who are after it. I guess you have to be from the generation of TV viewers who are familiar with the show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. to really appreciate it, since it is action-packed, but at times corny and far-fetched.

When a leading scientist develops a formula for extracting gold from sea water he breaks his hides his formula and sends clues out to 4 of his 5 daughters. When he is killed by THRUSH, UNCLE agents Solo and Kuryakin join with the 5th daughter to retrieve the clues and find the formula before THRUSH can use the formula for their own evil ends.

This is another in the series of UNCLE TV movies used for the European market but it is one of the first to be a serious miss in terms of the UNCLE series. While others played themselves with their tongues in their cheek this takes itself a little too seriously. The first sign of this is that it drops the UNCLE opening theme in favour of a very 1960's "groovy" number by Every Mother's Son and then it starts to load itself up with star cameos. In fact the whole thing lacks the gently mocking humour of the other outings and puts itself forward as a "proper" spy movie.

This is a major failing as the action and story are not good enough to carry the film. The story is quite clever but the execution is poor. The story is basically in 5 bits - 4 sections dealing with each of the 4 daughters and the last being the final confrontation. The problem with this is that there is no real continuity and it feels piecemeal. Each chapter has a star - Terry Thomas, Telly Savalas, Joan Crawford, Herbert Lom - but this makes each section more about the cameos than about getting the formula. In fact in each section the formula usually easily falls into the hands of the 5th daughter by accident.

Both Vaughn and McCallum are OK in their roles but it is obvious that they aren't having as much fun as before. All the cameos are poor because they don't really have any time to do anything interesting and instead just play stereotypes (English copper, Italian count etc). Lom is a terrible villain - all he does in each section is turn up and spark off a fight. When he does get more of a chance to show his character he is exactly like Dr Evil - if fact I thought that Lom was a few steps from being a totally spoof villain despite trying to be menacing and sinister.

This lacks the sense of fun that other outings have had. It takes itself too seriously and immediately loses the one quality that made it good. Check out "the spy in the green hat" if you don't know what I mean - now that's an example of a tongue in cheek UNCLE movie with some stars as villains who give good performances.

THE KARATE KILLERS was the sixth big-screen enlargement of the hugely popular Man From UNCLE series. It was compiled from a two-part episode called THE FIVE DAUGHTERS AFFAIR (part one: 31 March 1967) and (part two: 7 April 1967). However, in common with it's predecessors, the TV version wasn't aired in the countries where the theatrical version was released for example Great Britain where the films were steady earners at the box office.

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin are assigned to prevent evil THRUSH agent Randolph (HERBERT LOM) and his seemingly unstoppable karate chopping henchmen from stealing a secret formula for extracting gold from seawater. The formula has been divided up into four parts and hidden amongst the possessions of four of the five murdered inventor's daughters. Solo and Kuriyakin find themselves traveling around various parts of the globe in a race to stop THRUSH from gaining control of the world.

THE KARATE KILLERS is probably one of the weakest of the Man From UNCLE pictures because despite the caliber of the guest stars such as Terry Thomas, Curt Jurgens and Telly Savalas (who would be far more effective as Blofeld in the Bond movie ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE two years later) are not given enough to do in order to make the film live up to their talents. Having said that, Herbert Lom is good as the villain and there is an amusing send up of the MGM melodramas of the forties between him and Joan Crawford (who plays the inventor's wife) early on where Crawford throws a tantrum in front of him because she has just discovered that he has murdered her husband for his formula and Lom replies "There's no need to be melodramatic is there my dear." Another disappointing aspect of the film is that our heroes Solo and Kuriyakin get knocked out by the enemy far to many times in this one. All this doesn't mean that the movie is unwatchable, far from it, because it moves at a fast pace and there are some amusing moments here and there and don't forget - this is the sixties man so it's all good clean fun!

Followed by THE HELICOPTER SPIES (also 1967).

As the administrator of the Facebook UNCLE page, and having seen all of S1 and S2 of Man From UNCLE via DVD, I consider myself a fan of the series. But even as a fan, I cannot say this is a good film in any way. Too bad, a number of good actors such as Herbert Lom, Joan Crawford, Kim Darby, Telly Savalas and the smoking hot Jill Ireland appear in this film, a spliced-together 2 part MFU adventure.

Also a shame, seeing as there is a fun opening sequence with a squadron of Wallis WA-116 type autogyros that attack Our Heroes as they drive the Pirhanna UNCLE car...as an autogyro aficionado, this sequence was released two months before the 007 'Little Nellie' autogyro sequence in 'You Only Live Twice.' There should be more autogyros in cinema, but they still don't save this picture.

It's mostly a bunch of short, uninteresting vignettes, and very silly fight scenes featuring a bunch of goons in matching outfits, similar to the goons you'd see on the Batman show, working for Penguin or the Riddler.

The most silly fight takes place in a night club, where the mostly forgotten bubble-gum band 'Every Mother's Son' performs...apparently MGM owned this group and used this film for cross-promotional purposes. Which pretty much sums up this film...just cashing in before the gravy train dried up. Vaughn and McCallum, who usually had a good chemistry together and had high individual appeal, seem to be phoning in their appearances...it might have been my imagination, but I swear it looked as if they were each wondering if their respective agents had been getting calls lately, or whether he should invest in a restaurant.

If you are not familiar with the MFU series, you should know that Seasons 1 & 2 of that show were generally good (and a few excellent) but from Season 3 onward there were serious problems. This movie is from two Season 3 episodes, and Season 3 was the nadir of this series.

The good episodes of MFU have cleverness, fun and some kind of a point to them....but this doesn't, and worse, it's a double-length waste of time, as opposed to just one misfire of an episode.

I DVR'd this last time it was on the TCM cable network, it having been a while since I'd seen an MFU episode. Frankly, I would have been better off going the library or video rental store and watching another episode.

This film is only of interest for die-hard UNCLE fans, or for college students drinking cheap beer to watch on a Saturday afternoon so they can jeer at it. If you've never seen MFU, this is not a good introduction to the series. This is sad, seeing as MFU is almost never shown even on cable TV.