Combine the spy-against-spy Cold War era with '60s cool and the result is the trend-setting series that became a cultural touchstone - and generated 8 Theatrical Movies derived from and expanding upon key episodes. Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) are intrepid U.N.C.L.E. agents who maintain tongue-in-cheek style as they confront the deadly schemes of THRUSH in the U.S. or anywhere else spy chief Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll) sends his two top operatives. Guest stars caught up in the globetrotting intrigue include Joan Crawford, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Palance, Eleanor Parker, Telly Savalas, Rip Torn and more.
This past Friday we
alerted you that the
Man from U.N.C.L.E. spin-off series starring
Hart to Hart's Stefanie Powers,
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., was set to be available on DVD
from the Warner Archive tomorrow,
August 23rd. It will be available in two half-season sets for $39.95 SRP each, titled
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series, Part 1 and
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series, Part 2. Or you can buy a bundle of both halves together at $59.95 SRP, saving twenty dollars in the process.
When these manufacture-on-demand titles went up for pre-order at the studio's WBshop.com online store this past Saturday (see the link above), the studio also added a related MOD title which they hadn't previously told us about! That is "
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - 8 Movies Collection,"
a 4-disc set running 734 minutes, and priced at $39.95 SRP.
Did we say "movies"? Yes, these are theatrical films. So why are we covering these? Because they are actually expanded versions of various
U.N.C.L.E. television episodes, which the studio took and expanded, and bridged them together with some additional footage (including a bit of "inappropriate-for-TV-of-the-era" stuff better suited for theaters), and showed them in color (in a black-and-white TV era), in the cinemas. Mostly overseas. In the USA, these were sometimes seen in theaters, but at some point were available for television syndication, too. The 8 movies are:
- To Trap a Spy
- One of Our Spies is Missing
- One Spy Too Many
- The Spy with My Face
- The Spy in the Green Hat
- The Karate Killers
- The Helicopter Spies
- How to Steal the World
Since
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series is already out on DVD from Warner Home Video (after first being available exclusively form Time Life), and the 1983 production of
The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The 15 Years Later Affair reunion telefilm is also on DVD from CBS/Paramount, then this release of
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - 8 Movies Collection along with the complete run of
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. tomorrow should wrap things up for fans of the show long before the Steven Soderbergh-directed
U.N.C.L.E film, planned for 2012, hits theaters. Here's a high-res look at the box cover for
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - 8 Movies Collection:
