The Spy in the Green Hat is a 1967 feature-length film version of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s third season two-part episode "The Concrete Overcoat Affair". The episodes were originally broadcast in the United States on November 25, 1966 and December 2, 1966 on NBC. The film was directed by Joseph Sargent and written by Peter Allan Fields with the story by David Victor.[1]Robert Vaughn and David McCallum star in the film as they did in the television series, supported by co-stars Jack Palance and Janet Leigh. It is the fifth such feature film composed of a reedited version of one or more episodes from the series.
In the mid-1960s height of the Cold War, U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are assigned to meet and bring the "most wanted" former Nazi, missile expert Dr. von Kronen, in to the agency. He is kidnapped by operatives of THRUSH pinwheel Louis Strago, a Sicillian vinter and importer to the U.S.. Solo and Kuryakin are assigned to bring him back, which leads them to infiltrate Strago's secret heavy water base disguised in a winery. The THRUSH plan is for Strago to detonate atomic bombs in the Caribbean to divert the Gulf Stream, warm Greenland to serve as a Fatherland for THRUSH, and wreak havoc in Europe and the United States.
The agents are split up after an encounter with Strago's security force, with Solo having to hide that night in the bedroom of curvaceous young Pia Monteri. When Pia's grandmother learns of the disgrace she initiates a literal shotgun wedding despite Solo's insistence that nothing inappropriate happened. He narrowly escapes with Kuryarkin's help and returns to the U.S., but Grandma Monteri enlists the aid of Pia's uncles, the Stilleto brothers, former dons in the Prohibition era Chicago Mafia, to find him.
Kuryakin is soon captured at Strago's import operation in Chicago, and tortured by Strago's top personal assistant, Miss Diketon, a deadly assassin who truly loves her work.
The Stilletos are quick to find Solo, who narrowly escapes a second wedding when he and Pia are kidnapped by Strago and his men.
Solo manages to escape, and learns from Mr. Waverly that Pia has been taken to Strago's island base, which U.N.C.L.E. plans to bomb into cinders. In a confrontation with his superior, Solo insists on going there to rescue her, arguing that Kuryakin, like he, volunteered for his work whereas she is an innocent pawn facing certain death. Denied permission, he resigns. Calling himself a "sentimental old grandmother" Waverly relents.
Diketon is ordered to bring Kuryakin to the missile base. Narrowly surviving a boat explosion caused by Strago's defensive wave device, Solo is captured by the Stiletto entourage, who arrive on scene in a fishing boat. The group guns down the crew of a patrol boat and takes its captain hostage, who flips and provides key information on both security and the workings of the plant and planned imminent missile launch.
Strago's immediate superior in THRUSH, Mr. Thaler, arrives. Strago, a prig who is sexually disgusted by the slinky, kinky Diketon, lusts for the innocent Pia. Turned on by her desperate resistance, he is caught trying to seduce her by the vindictive Diketon. He leaves Diketon to guard Pia while he responds to a security alert. In a knife-wielding catfight Pia overpowers Diketon, but is blocked from leaving by Strago, who slaps Diketon unconscious for her failure.
Rejection roils into revenge, and when she recovers with Pia's ministrations Diketon allies with her and frees Kuryakin. Observed by von Kronen, Kuryakin and Diketon get caught in a gun battle and von Kronen is killed.
Racing against both the missile launch and the U.N.C.L.E. air strike intended to preempt it, Solo and the Stilettos sweep the island of Strago's security en route to the missile compound. Kuryakin and Diketon encounter them and combine forces.
Kuryakin infiltrates the inner workings of the compound in a security force uniform. Seeking to scuttle the missile assault he is conveniently solicited by Thayer to explain the launch process. Posing as having the authority, he begins to scramble controls, and intentionally floods the launch level - drowning Thayer in the process.
Solo and Diketon encounter Strago, who exchanges deadly fire with Diketon. She expires satisfied that she got to see Strago fail, and die. The launch is averted, and air strike called off.
Back on the mainland, everyone is gratified, and all conflicts forgiven. Solo, Kuryakin, and Waverly are guests of the Stilettos at an Italian banquet, with a pacified Grandma Monteri serving the pasta. The survival of the Free World is assured, and the shotgun wedding and its vendetta are called off.
Unlike the four earlier feature Man from U.N.C.L.E. movies, The Spy in the Green Hat made only minimal changes to the episodes. The musical cues were essentially the same, and no major scenes were added or removed. Some short scenes that were more violent, sexy, and disturbing than generally shown on American network television at the time were inserted. Pia Monteri's nude back (from the waist up) is briefly shown in the film, but edited out in the TV broadcast. Miss Diketon has lines in the film, enthusiastically delivered by Janet Leigh to make clear she receives sensual pleasure from inflicting pain, also did not appear on television.
The series theme played under the main titles was a faster tempo reworking by Nelson Riddle of Gerald Fried's third season arrangement featuring trumpets, organ and saxophone solo.
The titular "Spy in the Green Hat" is Mr. Thaler of THRUSH, played by Will Kuluva. Kuluva had previously played the head of U.N.C.L.E. as Mr. Allison in the unaired pilot for the series. His character was replaced by Leo G. Carroll as Alexander Waverly.
In one scene, 'Fingers' Stiletto smashes a grapefruit half into the face of his wife, played by Joan Blondell. Blondell then breaks the 'fourth wall' by turning and staring straight into the camera with a look of exasperation at having to endure the homage to an iconic scene between James Cagney and Mae Clark from 1931's 'The Public Enemy', in which Blondell also had a starring role. Later in the film, Miss Diketon comes to the rescue of Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) by stabbing one of the THRUSH thugs in the back with a large dagger, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek nod to her notorious role as a stabbing victim in 'Psycho' just a few years earlier.[4]
Release
The Spy in the Green Hat is the 1966 feature-length film version of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s third season two-part episode "The Concrete Overcoat Affair". The episodes were originally broadcast in the United States on November 25, 1966, and December 2, 1966, on NBC. The film was released on DVD in a collection package by Warner Archive Collection on November 2, 2011.[5]
Newspaper advertisements for the two part television version featured a studio still of Pia and Diketon engaged in a table-top catfight with tag lines such as, "CAT FIGHT - Guest stars Janet Leigh and Letitia Roman mix it up in a cat-like knife fight on NBC-TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E.."[6]
Reception
While the TV series frequently leveraged sarcastic humor and whimsical comments, The Spy in the Green Hat featured a more madcap level of comedy than previous endeavors. The use of 1930s, Chicago-era, fedota-wearing Italian mobsters all but falling over themselves trying to rescue Pia is an example of one such stretch.pects of the film. Robert Vaughn’s narrowly averted Sicilian shotgun wedding is another.[7]
In the decades since the film’s release, actors Jack Palance and Janet Leigh playing against type caught the attention of critics. While Palance often starred as heavies, his nervous, sweaty take on the priggish, hypochondriacal Strago was clearly at odds with his swaggering, vicious villains. Janet Leigh, often cast as glamorous and demure, instead assays a campy sado-masochistic assassin with a stiletto holstered beneath her dress. [8]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
