Episode # 25: "The Never-Never Affair"

- November 15, 2018

The Man From UNCLE

Episode 25

The Never-Never Affair

Writer: Dean Hargrove

Director: Joseph Sargent

Guests: Barbara Feldon (Mandy Stevenson), Cesar Romero (Victor Gervais)

Filmed: 02-09 February 1965

Premiere: 22 March 1965

Place: New York (EUA)

Acts:

1 - "Evasion Pattern Eight"

2 - "Movies Are Deadlier Than Ever"

3 - "Hide and Seek"

4 - "The Over The Shoulder Shot"

The affair:

On the streets of New York, Illya Kuryakin is pursued by THRUSH commandoes led by Frenchman Victor Gervais. At UNCLE HQ, employee Mandy Stevenson, translator of Portuguese, reports the weather forecast for Brazil. She goes to Napoleon Solo's office and threatens him with a fake gun to prove that she's able to go with him on a field mission to Rio de Janeiro. Alexander Waverly is concerned about both the new THRUSH offensive and the lack of tobacco for his pipe. Kuryakin says he narrowly escaped the THRUSH attack to prevent him from getting THRUSH’s top 12 leader list. At THRUSH HQ, Gervais plans war against UNCLE. Mandy tells Solo in the elevator that she wants a more exciting job than mere translation. Pretending that purchasing tobacco for Waverly is a secret mission, Napoleon sends her on a very complicated route through the streets of New York. She leaves. Waverly warns Solo that Mandy took the list of THRUSH agents by mistake and has to be located. Napoleon can’t remember the way he sent Mandy. Illya plays bait to divert attention. Mandy follows the path charted by Solo and enters a movie theater where a war film is playing. Illya and Napoleon get in a gunfight with THRUSH inside the theater, but no one realizes it. Mandy goes to the snack bar - where she meets Gervais. Gervais flirts with Mandy unaware that she is from UNCLE. When he learns it, Gervais takes her to THRUSH HQ and suspects that the tobacco humidifier (ordered Waverly) is actually a secret weapon. Kuryakin and Waverly arrive with men from UNCLE. Solo hits Gervais, who praises Mandy's skills as a spy. Waverly asks Solo to go buy tobacco for his pipe.

FYI: One of the series' most successful mixes of adventure and comedy. The farce tone is very well exploited in the fake mission given to Mandy Stevenson, which turns out to come through. The episode features one of the most classic scenes of the whole series: Napoleon and Illya in the gunfight with THRUSH agents inside a crowded cinema showing a war film. The special guests went on to become two of the biggest TV series stars of the decade. Barbara Feldon, as Agent 99, co-star in Get Smart. And Cesar Romero, was about to shine as the Joker in the Batman series, long before Jack Nicholson, Heather Ledger and Jared Leto.

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