Historian notes U.N.C.L.E., NxNW anniversaries

Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo

Historian Michael Beschloss used his Twitter feed to note two spy-entertainment landmarks: The first telecast of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the end of production on North by Northwest.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted on Sept. 22, 1964 on NBC. The show had been in development for almost two years.

Producer Norman Felton, invited to discuss doing a TV series based on Ian Fleming’s Thrilling Cities book, instead pitched an adventure show.

The network said it’d commit to a series without a pilot episode if Felton could get Ian Fleming on board. The two had discussions in October 1962 in New York. In June 1963, Fleming dropped out because of pressure by 007 film producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

Despite Fleming’s departure, the project continued, although a pilot would have to be made before NBC committed to a series. Writer Sam Rolfe did the heavy lifting on scripting the pilot and would be the day-to-day producer on the show’s first season. The series paired Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo (the character name being one of Fleming’s surviving contributions) and David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin.

North by Northwest, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Ernest Lehman, would set the style for a lot of 1960s spy entertainment. It balanced drama and humor as Cary Grant’s Roger O. Thornhill would dodge spies, with a climax on Mount Rushmore. The film ended production in September 1958 and would be released in 1959.

Here are Beschloss’s tweets:

“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” premiered on NBC today 1964: pic.twitter.com/RZiryEzZ6z

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 22, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

“North by Northwest” filming completed 60 years ago this month—James Mason, Eva Marie Saint, Cary Grant at Mount Rushmore: pic.twitter.com/w93CC3eYNG

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 22, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

UPDATE (9:30 p.m. New York time): Beschloss was busy with other 1960s TV shows, including Get Smart.

Video: Opening and closing of “Get Smart,” which premiered this week 1965 on NBC (2 mins.):https://t.co/4tGpPzCk8S

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 22, 2018

 

What if Fleming hadn’t exited U.N.C.L.E.?

The cast of Checkmate

We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming crying U.N.C.L.E. and opting to end his participation in the television series that would become The Man From U.N.C.L.E. But would have happened if he had stuck around?

It might have been similar to Checkmate, a 1960-62 crime drama on CBS.

Checkmate featured two dashing private detectives (Anthony George and Doug McClure), aided by an academic (Sebastian Cabot). Two things stood out about the show: it was produced by a production company owned by Jack Benny and it was billed as having been created by novelist Eric Ambler (1909-1998), a contemporary of Ian Fleming. In fact, in the novel From Russia, With Love, Fleming’s James Bond has an Ambler novel with him on his journey to Istanbul. Amber in 1958 also married Joan Harrison, an associate of Alfred Hitchcock, who oversaw production of the director’s television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

According to IMDB.com, Ambler never wrote an episode of Checkmate. According to the IMDB.com information, he sometimes got a creator credit and sometimes didn’t during the two seasons of the show. (From a few episodes we’ve seen, the “Created by Eric Ambler” credit appears in the main titles during the first season and shows up in the end titles in the second.)

Ambler’s participation (or lack of it) in Checkmate mirrors what was shaping up with the television project originally named Solo: it was originally to have billed Ian Fleming’s Solo, but the heavy lifting of devising a pilot episode story was done by writer Sam Rolfe. Once Fleming signed away his U.N.C.L.E. rights for 1 British pound, Rolfe still only got a “developed by” credit instead of a “created by” credit for the 1964-68 series.

Based on a sampling of episodes, Checkmate is entertaining. One episode (The Human Touch) featured Peter Lorre as the villain. Also, the series, including its theme music, was an early credit for composer John Williams (who called himself Johnny Williams at the time). Still, Ambler didn’t do the heavy lifting in terms of coming up with stories. That was left to others.

As a result, we suspect had The Man From U.N.C.L.E. come out as Ian Fleming’s Solo, the author would have been a kind of front man (even if he had lived past August 1964) while executive producer Norman Felton, Rolfe (who produced the show’s first season) and others done most of the work of devising story lines.

An obscure 007-Hitchcock connection: Charles Bennett

This week, there was a dialogue among proprietors of 007 Web sites among connections between James Bond and director Alfred Hitchcock. Perhaps one of the most direct ties (behind the camera) is also the most obscure.

Writer Charles Bennett worked on 1940’s Foreign Correspondent starring Joel McCrea

One of the most cited examples was how North by Northwest’s crop-duster plane sequence inspired a scene in From Russia With Love where a helicopter dive bombs 007. The U.K. Daily Mail wrote up how Ian Fleming hoped Hitchcock would direct a Bond film before the Eon Productions series began production.

However, the most direct connection is the 1954 adaptation of Casino Royale that aired on CBS, starring American actor Barry Nelson. It was co-scripted by Charles Bennett (1899-1995). Bennett was a screenwriter on a number of Hitchock films, including The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Secret Agent (1936) and Foreign Correspondent (1940). Bennett also co-authored the story that was the basis of the 1934 and 1956 versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much.

By the 1950s and ’60s, a period that included the first Casino Royale adaptation, Bennett was mostly writing for television. His work also included one episode of The Wild, Wild West, “The Night of the Eccentrics,” that introduced Count Manzeppi, intended to be a recurring villain. Manzeppi, played by Victor Buono, would only return for one additional episode (which Bennett would not write). Still, the episode is rather quirky, and includes Richard Pryor as one of Manzeppi’s henchmen.

Salute to Charles Bennett

Not many writers can claim to have collaborated with Alfred Hitcock, did the first adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel or created the (arguably) second-most popular villain on The Wild, Wild West.

Then again, few writers had the longevity or talent of Charles Bennett (1899-1995).

Bennett was a screenwriter on Hitchcock’s <a.1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps.

Decades later, Bennett, along with writer Antony Ellis, adapted Ian Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, for television. It was a tricky affair. Even though CR was Fleming’s shortest novel, it would be used as part of CBS’s Climax! anthology program in 1954. That meant squeezing the short novel (or novella, depending on your personal definition) to a 60-minute time slot. Even though there were fewer commercials then compared to today, it still meant 50 to 52 minutes of airtime.

Bennett and Ellis ended up making James Bond into an American operative (Barry Nelson) and transforming Felix Leiter into a European agent. Also, the writers melded two characters, Vesper Lynd and French agent Rene Mathis, into “Valerie Mathis.”

Here’s the ending of the 1954 production, including the end titles, which haven’t been included in all home video releases:

About a decade later, Bennett penned an episode of The Wild, Wild West. It featured a villain named Count Manzeppi, intended to be a recurring foe similar to the popular Dr. Loveless. Manzeppi, played by Victor Buono (007 screenwriter Richard Maibuam’s choice to play Goldinger), would only appear in two WWW episodes. Still, Manzeppi was memorable. Here, in the Bennett-scripted debut, he confronts a U.S. Secret Service agent (whose life expectency can be measured in minutes) along with a henchman played by Richard Pryor: