Alexander the Greater Affair: Part One

There's good and bad in this episode.

Good: this two-part, season two opener is in color, and the DVD print looks sharp and nice. Rip Torn does his usual fine acting job. Dorothy Provine is beautiful and really adorable! Her expert comic timing and flair are a major plus. There seems to have been a big budget for this two-parter; we get some good exterior scenes, and there is some good action.

Now for the bad: In this series especially, there is a fine line between just enough humor to be fun, and a tad too much, making the story go flat and causing the viewer to wince. This episode, for me, goes a bit over that too-much humor line. At times it feels like a "Batman" episode, which is not a good thing! The story drags at times. Bottom line: worth watching, but not among the best episodes.

Season 2 of "The Man From Uncle" kicked off in colour for the first time with "The Alexander The Greater Affair". Most of the Uncle stories are somewhat tongue-in-cheek & this one is certainly no exception. Rip Torn plays Alexander a crook who has conquered the financial world as opposed to his historical predecessor who conquered a large part of the known world. Our Uncle agents Napoleon Solo (the late Robert Vaughn) & Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) are engaged to bring him down a peg or two. From my point of view the best reason for watching this is to ogle the delectable Dorothy Provine who was a pretty good actress as well as being a knockout looker. She plays Tracey Alexander the ex-wife of our villainous money mogul who is also very interested in bringing him down. "The Man From Uncle" is very watchable as long as you don't take it too seriously.

This is the first episode of a 2-part story kicking off season 2 of "The Man From UNCLE." The 2 parts were later released as a movie and that's how I first saw it.

The guest actress was a genuine movie star, Dorothy Provine, who had been in epic comedies ("It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," "The Great Race") and more intimate little comedies ("That Darn Cat," "Who's Minding the Mint?"), always to good effect.

Also on hand is a young Rip Torn as Alexander, an economic powerhouse who has broken all Ten Commandments (for instance, he put his parents to work in the mines in dress clothes; and he's determined to commit adultery with a character portrayed by Playboy Playmate Donna Michelle: he could do worse) and now has presumably stolen a gas from a military installation that makes creatures docile. He wants to be a new Alexander the Great, only greater (hence the title of the affair). Provine plays his estranged wife, who just wants to serve papers on him and retrieve her million-dollar dowry.

Solo and Kuryakin are charged with getting the gas back, but find themselves having to stop Alexander altogether.

Provine's presence is a big help as practically a third agent. Part two drags a bit but part one is a goo's kickoff to a great season two.