1975: When Marvel Comics ripped 007

One of the more unusual titles published by Marvel Comics came out in the mid-1970s. That’s when the company’s Dealy Hands of Kung Fu magazine ran a detailed critique of The Man With The Golden Gun. The article by Don McGregor, then a writer for Marvel, ripped almost everybody associated with the movie. Some background: [...]

The ultimate weird (and sad) Man From U.N.C.L.E. cameo

Here’s a postscript to a previous post about cameos involving The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Our previous examples were when the show’s popularity was strong and were part of other MGM productions. This one aired one week after the show was canceled in January 1968 and was part of its replacement: That’s of course Leo G. [...]

Ted Kennedy: 007 fan to the end

The Kennedy family has a history with James Bond. When President John F. Kennedy told Life magazine that From Russia, With Love was one of his ten favorite books, U.S. sales of Ian Fleming’s novels soared. It turns out his younger brother, Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, was also a fan. Mark Leibovich of The [...]

Weird Man From U.N.C.L.E. cameos

In the 1960s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had one spy franchise with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. So the studio decided to use every opportunity possible for exposure, even if it meant putting it into situation comedies or comedic movies. Take, for example, MGM’s sitcom Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. Here the young boys of the show’s featured family [...]

Geoffrey Jenkins stories back in print

From the Bawiseconsulting blog: GEOFFREY JENKINS, one of the world’s greatest “adventure-thriller” writers, is coming to iUniverse this fall. The classics, “A Twist of Sand,” and “Hunter Killer,” featuring the famous Jenkins character, Commander Geoffrey Peace, will soon be returning, along with all the other sixteen classic Jenkins adventures, including “A Grue of Ice,” “The [...]

1966: U.N.C.L.E. tries to “extend the brand” with The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.

In the jaded 21st Century there’s a marketing phrase, “extend the brand,” where a company tries to take an existing brand name of a product and produce a similar, yet slightly different version. For example, Coke began Diet Coke, New Coke (oops), Cherry Coke, etc. So it was with The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. The pilot [...]

James Bond Vs. Matt Helm: a study

We found an academic paper online that compares the literary James Bond and the literary Matt Helm (each with significant differences than their movie counterparts). Among the comparisons made by the author, Joseph Allegretti of Siena College, about the novels Casino Royale and Death Of a Citizen: Both Bond and Helm are professionals who find [...]

Salute to Lalo Schifrin

You don’t hear a lot about Lalo Schifrin these days, and that’s too bad because he’s a tremendously talented composer. So, we thought we’d remedy that and remind readers about his contributions to spy entertainment. One of his early contributions came during the second season (1965-66) of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He scored only one [...]

HMSS nominations for top composers for 1960s spy entertainment

In a previous post, we touched upon this subject. The more we thought about it, the more we thought we had an excuse to make another post. So, without further ado: 1) John Barry: arranger, The James Bond Theme, in Dr. No; composer, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her [...]

Salute to Jerry Goldsmith

It doesn’t seem possible, but it has been five years since the death of film and television composer Jerry Goldsmith, who would have celebrated his 80th birthday in February if he were still with us. Arguably, Goldsmith is second only to John Barry in musical influence of 1960s spy entertainment. (Lalo Schifrin would also be [...]