The Spy with My Face *** (1965, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Senta Berger, Leo G Carro ll, Sharon Farrell) – Classic Movie Review 4,742

A suitably incredible plot has spy chief Mr Waverly (Leo G Carroll) sending Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuyakin (David McCallum) to Switzerland to battle THRUSH enemy agents, in the second Man from U.N.C.L.E. film, The Spy with My Face (1965).

The November 1964 60-minute-slot The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV episode called The Double Affair had half an hour of scenes added to bring it up to nearer the desired 90 minutes for director John Newland’s 1965 cinema feature film spinoff, The Spy with My Face, which was the second U.N.C.L.E. film. As with To Trap a Spy, there are added doses of sex and violence, new sub-plots and guest stars that were not in the original TV episodes.

A suitably incredible plot has American spy chief Mr Waverly (Leo G Carroll) sending his agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuyakin (Robert Vaughn and David McCallum) to Switzerland to do battle with THRUSH enemy agents headed by Darius Two (Michael Evans), Serena (Senta Berger), and Vaughn’s double, as T.H.R.U.S.H. tries to steal a super weapon by substituting an evil double for Solo.

Senta Berger and Robert Vaughn.

The Spy with My Face is daft and campy but pacy, amusing and entertaining, if stronger on Sixties spoofy satirical style and parody fun than on thrills, with appealing appearances by the much loved series regulars, Robert Vaughn, David McCallum and Leo G Carroll. Sharon Farrell also stars as Solo’s latest girlfriend, stewardess Sandy Wister.

It was released in US cinemas in 1966 as a double feature with To Trap a Spy.

U.N.C.L.E. of course stands for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

The supposed Swiss Alps scenes were shot at the Griffith Park Observatory in California.

The sequences added to the The Double Affair for this feature were reused in The Four-Steps Affair and The Dippy Blonde Affair episodes of the TV series.

Also in the cast are Donald Harron, Jennifer Billingsley, Paula Raymond, Harold Gould, Fabrizio Mioni, Bill Gunn and Donna Michelle.

Leo G Carroll also played Mr Waverly in the TV spin-off series, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., becoming only the second actor on American TV to star as the same character in two separate series. Carroll appeared in six Alfred Hitchcock films: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951) and North by Northwest (1959).

RIP the cool and sophisticated Robert Vaughn, who died of leukaemia on 11 November 2016, aged 83.

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 4,742

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

Leo G Carroll as Alexander Waverly on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.