To Trap a Spy *** (1964, Robert Vaughn, Luciana Paluzzi, Patricia Crowley, William Marshall, Fritz Weaver, David McCallum, Will Kuluva) – Classic Movie Review 4741

The 1964 first The Man from U.N.C.L.E. feature film To Trap a Spy is a spinoff from the 70-minute TV pilot expanded for cinemas. Robert Vaughn stars as secret agent Napoleon Solo and David McCallum has a subordinate role as Illya Kuryakin.

Director Don Medford’s 1964 first The Man from U.N.C.L.E. feature film To Trap a Spy is a spinoff from the 70-minute television pilot called Solo, re-edited, expanded and released to cinemas as a feature. The pilot was cut down to be the TV show’s very first episode, The Vulcan Affair, aired on September 22, 1964.

Robert Vaughn stars as secret agent Napoleon Solo, who, aided by housewife spy Elaine May Donaldson (Patricia Crowley, excellent), tries to stop a worldwide crime syndicate organisation called WASP from taking control of an African republic (Western Natumba) by killing its president, Ashumen (William Marshall) while he is on a tour of killer Andrew Vulcan (Fritz Weaver)’s factory.

The Sixties cool and dapper Vaughn has already settled comfortably into his star role, but his series co-star David McCallum has a very subordinate part as Illya Kuryakin and there is no sign of third star Leo G Carroll (as instead Will Kuluva plays Mr Allison, the head of the US spy firm U.N.C.L.E.).

This spy thriller is all quite fresh and inventive, with a lot of good humour in Sam Rolfe’s script and acting and considerable verve in the handling, overcoming the small budget and the James Bond comparison. It is dynamic and entirely coherent, especially given its odd, choppy history.

Indeed the show’s co-creator Norman Felton approached Bond author Ian Fleming, who contributed to the concepts and the proposed two characters Napoleon Solo and April Dancer (The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.).

It is shot by Joseph F Biroc in colour, and screened like that in cinemas, but it was originally shown on TV in black and white, along with the rest of the first season episodes. It was shown in the US as a double feature with the U.N.C.L.E. film The Spy with My Face in early 1966 and released in the UK as a support feature to The Americanization of Emily in 1965.

After executives approved the pilot and ordered the TV series, the pilot was edited down to fit an hour time-slot and modified to substitute Carroll’s Mr Waverley for Mr Allison. But this 92-minute feature takes the original colour pilot and adds new footage also in colour with new subplots, including one featuring Luciana Paluzzi as Angela.

Also in the cast are Ivan Dixon, Victoria Shaw, Miguel Angel Landa, Eric Berry, Mario Siletti, Billy Corcoran, Richard Kiel and Rupert Crosse. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is a great help, too.

It is followed by The Spy with My Face (1965).

The eight films in the series: To Trap a Spy (1964), The Spy with My Face (1965), One Spy Too Many (1966), One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966), The Spy in the Green Hat (1966), The Karate Killers (1967), The Helicopter Spies (1968), and How to Steal the World (1968).

David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin.

RIP Robert Vaughn (born 22 November 1932), who died on 11 November 2016, aged 83.

RIP Fritz Weaver, who died on 26 November 2016, aged 90.

David McCallum: for ever Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 

David McCallum (born in Glasgow on 19 September 1933) died at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on 25 September 2023, a week after his 90th birthday. He made his film debut in Ill Met by Moonlight in 1957. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. made McCallum a sex symbol and a huge TV star. Film spinoffs included To Trap a Spy (1964) and The Spy with My Face (1965).

McCallum’s wife Jill Ireland divorced him and married Charles Bronson after McCallum introduced them while the men were filming The Great Escape (1963).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4.741

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Fritz Weaver died on 26 November 2016, aged 90.

Vaughn and young Kurt Russell in TV’s The Finny Foot Affair.