The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair

Reunion TV-movies based on old series rarely capture the spirit of the original, but Return of the Man from Uncle taps into the campiness of the series as if it never was off the air. The leads have fun acknowledging their age, and the whole thing neatly turns into a parody of spy films without becoming a parody of itself. I rated it a "9" not because it is great art but because compared to all other TV reunion movies it is head and shoulders above the rest!

Back when the old Man From UNCLE series was going I thought it was a radical concept. Here we had as the top agents an American and a Russian in an agency run by a British man to the manor born all cooperating against a conspiracy to rule the world headed by some evil folks. Detente a generation ahead of its time.

Leo G. Carroll has passed on, but the United Network Command for Law Enforcement has another titled Britisher in Patrick MacNee heading it. A master criminal Anthony Zerbe has escaped and who better than the two guys who borough Zerbe in back in the day to get him.

So Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are recruited from the lives they now lead, Vaughn as Las Vegas gambler and McCallum as fashion kingpin. Zerbe has also stolen a thermonuclear bomb and plans to blow it up unless he gets a hefty sum of cash. UNCLE's nemesis THRUSH is back in action.

It was nice to see Vaughn and McCallum back in their old roles. Hard to believe that the kindly old medical examiner from NCIS was something of a teenage heartthrob back in those days, but The Man From UNCLE gave McCallum some short lived bubblegum popularity.

I can see why this version failed though, it tried for satire and fell on its face. No wonder this was not picked up to revive the series

This is one re-union movie that had to be made. Fortunately it was made by a rabid fan of the original--a man named Michael Sloan who went on to produce "The Equalizer". Sloan and director Ray Austin (who directed many later episodes of "The Avengers") made sure they kept much of the tongue in cheek humour of the series, and made the movie a high quality venture, but up-dated it to then modern times (1983). A touching item was the stars made a point to notice they were getting to old for this kind of physical action, and that Illya points out "progress" is not necessarily a better thing. The supporting cast was first rate with Anthony Zerbe (what happened to him?), Geoffrey Lewis, Keenan Wynn, and especially Pat MacNee (former Avenger John Steed) as the new head of UNCLE...Its a shame a planned new series was not picked up by CBS.

Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a superb reunion movie. When you watch a lot of reunion movies they're never as good and there seems to be no continuity with the original series. Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. provided plenty of continuity.

David McCallum and Robert Vaughan had no problem in reprising their roles and the continuity was there; they had no problems slipping back into their roles.

The late Leo G. Carroll was not back as UNCLE Chief Alexander Waverly (Mr Carroll had died in the 1970's). He was replaced by Patrick Macnee. However, this movie did acknowledge Mr Waverly and reference to his passing away was made. This was good because usually in TV reunions, major characters are omitted without any explanation.

This movie was just as fun as the original series. Despite having aged, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin did a great job saving the world again.

Most reunion movies are rubbish. This wasn't one of them.

One other thing of interest. Former James Bond actor George Lazenby had a cameo in this movie. He was clad in a bow tie, driving a car with the initials J.B. on. Now I wonder who he was meant to be? Hmmm! Must think about that one.

Agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin are called back to UNCLE after fifteen years to do battle with THRUSH once more who are holding the United States to ransom with a stolen nuclear bomb.

Enjoyable revival movie with Robert Vaughn and David McCallam looking a bit older and a bit thicker around the middle, but still wonderful as Solo and Kuriyakin. The chemistry between them hasn't faded after so many years. Good supporting cast includes Anthony Zerbe as an evil THRUSH chief, Carolyn Seymour as a Russian ballerina who is blackmailed by THRUSH to do their bidding and Patrick Macnee (ex-Avengers) makes a satisfactory replacement for Leo G Carroll as the new UNCLE chief, the latter sadly died in 1972. The film is directed by Ray Austin who worked on The Avengers as initially stunt arranger and later as a director. Austin made his directorial debut on an episode from the latter entitled "All Done With Mirrors."

This was intended as the pilot for a new series, but sadly it never materialised. Interestingly, there has been rumours of a big budget movie of the series being made, probably like Mission Impossible, but as The Return Of The Man From UNCLE shows without Vaughn and McCallam it will be a disaster.