U.N.C.L.E. script: Sam Rolfe’s Solo is ready for filming Part I

Title card for the Solo series pilot

With Ian Fleming long gone, a pilot would have to be made before Solo would become a series. So, Sam Rolfe used his Solo series presentation (originally titled Ian Fleming’s Solo) as the springboard for the script.

Rolfe’s script, dated Oct. 29, 1963, begins with a sequence based on a 12-page short story in the earlier work. The Thrush attack team is smaller (four operatives now). The tailor shop is now called Del Floria’s (replacing Giovanni in the presentation). But the general situation is the same.

A person only identified as ‘FIRST MAN” enters Del Floria’s, a shop in New York City. “The only occupant occupant of the shop is an old, wizened Italian tailor, DEL FLORIA,” according to the detailed stage directions. An “ancient television” is on a counter with a hand-written note. “No Touch — Broke!”

The First Man tosses his raincoat over the TV set. The man takes off his stained jacket and shows it to Del Floria. While the tailor inspects the jacket, the other man takes out a cigarette lighter, holding it near Del Floria’s face. “He abruptly flips the ‘striker’ on the lighter,” according to the stage directions. “There is a low hiss as a jet of grey mist spurts into Del Floria’s face.” The tailor is rendered unconscious.

Now, three more intruders enter the tailor shop. A changing cubicle operates as an opening into…what?

INT. RECEPTION ROOM – RECEPTIONIST – DAY

Reception is a gleaming, metallic room without windows. The room is Spartan in its simplicity. There are no decorations. The only furniture is a steel desk and chair in the center of the room, set to face one wall (the wall in which the door to the Tailor Shop is set.) The desk top itself contains a small TV viewer and a desk sign that reads “U.N.C.L.E.”

An Asian woman is at the desk (described here as “Oriental GIRL”) but she is overcome by the invaders before she can sound an alarm.

One of the intruders has replaced Del Floria at the pressing machine. One of the team is now at the receptionist’s desk. The Leader and one other move into the bowels of the mysterious complex.

The stage directions emphasize the unusual nature of the facility.

NOTE: THERE ARE NO WINDOWS ANYWHERE IN THIS BUILDING EXCEPT FOR ALLISON’S OFFICE. ALL AREAS ARE COMPLETELY ENCLOSED BY METALLIC WALLS AND CEILINGS. ALL LIGHTING IS IS ARTIFICIALLY INDUCED BY CONCEALED FIXTURES.

Things go well for the intruders until an alarm goes off. Despite this, the leader of the invading team manages to get deeper into the complex.

Solo stands behind a bullet-resistant screen while the leader of a Thrush invasion group opens fire.

REVERSE ANGLE – REAR OF WAITING ROOM – SOLO -DAY

A figure can seen, silhouetted against the rear of the office, standing before the closed door that leads to Allison’s office. The figure (SOLO) stands poised, hands hanging loosely at its side, one holding a gun (P-38).

INTERCUT – THE FIGHT

The Leader raises his gun and starts to fire. There is the soft “snapping” noise as the bullets spew forth. A series of striations appear before the figure of Solo, as if cracks like spider webs are renting the air before him, fragmenting his figure.

WHIRL IN ON SOLO to a CLOSEUP as he stands transfixed…the spiderweb of striations refracting light…

SUPERIMPOSE MAIN TITLE “S O L O” and –

FADE OUT.

At the start of Act I, the action resumes.

FADE IN:
INT. WAITING ROOM – FULL SHOT – SOLO – DAY

The spider webbed lines still hang in space,” the stage directions say. “The Leader’s face reflects shock and fear. He fires again. Abruptly the light in the room dims out and everything is blackness except for the light streaming in from the open doorway. The Leader spins around, looking for another opponent. Sensing movement behind him, the Leader turns and fires. There is a “sewing machine like” hum as the figure of Solo appears behind him, the P-38 (a semi-automatic pistol) unleashing a flood of bullets.

As filmed by director Don Medford, this sequence would be slightly different. For one thing, Solo (Robert Vaughn) fires a Luger pistol. However, the P-38 eventually would be the basis of the U.N.C.L.E. Special, a hand gun with attachments including a larger magazine enabling automatic fire as well as a sight.

Regardless, things proceed more or less as the version eventually broadcast by NBC. Solo inspects the body of the Leader. Illya arrives. The agents discuss what has happened.

Early Solo publicity still with (left to right) Will Kuluva as Allison, David McCallum as Illya and Robert Vaughn as Solo

This script, however, still has Mr. Allison, the U.N.C.L.E. chief referenced in the original series presentation. As in that work, Allison chides Solo for not taking the man alive. He then summons Solo for a briefing.

What follows is a scene that explains the U.N.C.L.E. security system and how the invaders had a lot of information about U.N.C.L.E. headquarters but lacked key data. Namely, the reception had chemicals on her fingers to activate the security badges. Without her doing so, the alarms still went off.

In the middle of the briefing, Illya brings in the surviving prisoners. Except — they don’t survive long. All are dead within moments.

“But they are dead!” Illya says. “But how?!!!”

In the filmed version, the sequence is slightly different. The prisoners are brought before Solo is briefed by Allison. But they end up just as dead. As in the earlier Ian Fleming’s Solo presentation, the audience is eventually told they had ingested a slow-acting poison that would kill them whether they succeeded or failed.

In both this script and the filmed version, Allison gives Solo his mission. An U.N.C.L.E. operative named Lancer had communicated with Allison that a the head of a newly independent African nation has been targeted for assassination by Thrush. The communication had been cut off before it was completed.

TO BE CONTINUED

Fall 1963: Norman Felton casts his Solo

Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo

Producer Norman Felton had to make a decision: Who would be cast as Napoleon Solo, the character he co-created with Ian Fleming?

The task may not have been difficult as finding a Solo for a 21st century movie version of the show (finally cast with Henry Cavill). But it wasn’t a slam dunk, either.

According to Jon Heitland’s The Man From U.N.C.L.E. book, Felton for a time considered a friend, Harry Guardino, for the part.

Also in the running was actor Robert Brown, who five years later would briefly be cast as Hawaii Five-O’s Steve McGarrett until the part was re-cast with Jack Lord. Also, according to the Heitland book, Felton decided to offer the role to Robert Culp, but the actor wasn’t available.

Felton ended up going with an actor already in his employ: Robert Vaughn, 30, who was the second lead in The Lieutenant, a drama about U.S. Marine Corps officers. Felton was the show’s executive producer, with Gene Roddenberry as the creator-producer.

“I was looking for someone who would give the character a certain visual sense of sophistication,” Felton told Heitland in an interview for the 1986 book.

Vaughn, in 2007, recalled the deal being done quickly:

Other work on the project proceeded. Sam Rolfe turned in his second-draft script and Don Medford was hired to direct on Oct. 9, 1963, according to Craig Henderson’s U.N.C.L.E.-007 Timeline.

By November, the rest of the cast was in place. David McCallum would play the small part (in the pilot script) of Illya Kuryakin, a Russian U.N.C.L.E. agent, and Will Kuluva as Mr. Allison, the U.N.C.L.E. chief.

Production was scheduled to begin on Nov. 20. It would be shut down for four days because of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy two days later.

In the coming months, two men named Broccoli and Saltzman would present another challenge.

Earlier posts:

July 1963: U.N.C.L.E. presses on without Fleming

June 1963: Ian Fleming signs away his U.N.C.L.E. rights

July 1963: U.N.C.L.E. presses on without Fleming

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s logo from a 2nd-season episode

With Ian Fleming out of the picture, producer Norman Felton continued to press on with his TV spy project that would eventually become The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

NBC was still interested, but Felton would have to make a pilot episode. NBC had been willing for dispense with a pilot had it been able to promote the show as being created by the James Bond author.

Sam Rolfe, who had been working on the project since March, continued writing a detailed outline for the show. It had gone from a five-page memo in May to a 40-page presentation in early July, according to Craig Henderson’s U.N.C.L.E. TIMELINE.

Rolfe elaborated on the character of Napoleon Solo and devised new characters, including Mr. Allison, the U.N.C.L.E. chief, and a Russian agent, Illya Kuryakin. Author Jon Heitland, in his 1986 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book, wrote that Rolfe reworked ideas from a series he had proposed called The Dragons and St. George.

Felton hired Rolfe to write the script for the pilot in August and the first draft was submitted in mid-September, according to Henderson’s U.N.C.L.E. Timeline. A second draft would be completed in October and Don Medford, who had credits extending back to 1951, was hired to direct.

The question now was who Felton would cast to bring Napoleon Solo to life.

JANUARY 2013 POST: DON MEDFORD, VERSATILE TV DIRECTOR, DIES

JUNE 2013 POST: JUNE 1963: IAN FLEMING SIGNS AWAY HIS U.N.C.L.E. RIGHTS

Don Medford, versatile TV director, dies

Don Medford, a versatile television director whose credits included the pilot for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., has died at age 95, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Don Medford directed The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s pilot.

Medford helmed The Vulcan Affair, the U.N.C.L.E. pilot made in late 1963 and which aired on Sept. 22, 1964, as the first episode of the televisions series. An expanded version was released as the theatrical movie To Trap a Spy.

Besides that pilot, Medford directed at least 32 episodes of the Quinn Martin series The FBI, including at least two two-part storylines. One of them, which aired in the 1966-67 season, was release outside the U.S. as Cosa Nostra, Arch Enemy of the FBI.

Medford also directed episodes of a number of other Quinn Martin shows, including Twelve O’Clock High, The Invaders and The Fugitive, including the final two-part story where Dr. Richard Kimble finally caught up with the one-armed man who killed his wife. You can view his full IMDB.com bio by CLICKING HERE.

The FBI’s homage to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

We were checking out the DVD release of The FBI’s second season and came across what had to be a clear homage to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as The FBI's Lewis Erskine

The FBI episode involved was the first of a two-part episode called “The Executioners,” in which guest stars Walter Pidgeon and Telly Savalas play a pair of mob bosses and aired in the spring of 1967. Anyway, here are the similarities to U.N.C.L.E.

U.N.C.L.E.: U.N.C.L.E.’s New York headquarters uses Del Floria’s Tailor Shop as a front. U.N.C.L.E. personnel go into a changing room, pull on a hook, which activates a hidden door that leads to the security entrance, where viewers would see Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) enter.

The FBI: La Cosa Nostra uses Milo’s clothing store in New York as a front. Mobsters go behind a changing screen that obscures a door. Once inside, they pull a hook, which activates a hidden door that leads to La Cosa Nostra’s hidden armory.

Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in an U.N.C.L.E. publicity still.

Another similarity: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s pilot, The Vulcan Affair, was directed by Don Medford, and later released as a movie, To Trap a Spy. The FBI episode was directed by Don Medford and later released as a movie, Cosa Nostra, Arch Enemy of the FBI (outside the U.S.).

Meanwhile the new DVD has three bonuses. 1) At the start of part I, we have the “bumper” where announcer Hank Simms says, “Next…The FBI…in color!” That has been stripped from other episodes after it went to syndication and color became commonplace. 2) In the main titles, we see the Ford Motor Co. logo. “The Ford Motor Company presents…The FBI, a Quinn Martin/Warner Bros. production!” That’s from the original broadcast version and has been stripped from other episodes after the show went into syndication. 3) At the very end, we see star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. tell us we’ve only seen the first half of the story and to tune in next week.

UPDATE (Feb. 22): We watched Part II on the DVD. It also has the Ford Motor Co. as part of the main titles. At the end (no spoilers): we see a brief sequence with Efrem Zimbalist Jr.: “Next week, The FBI will not be seen so the Ford Motor Co. can present an inspiring motor picture, The Robe, starring Richard Burton, Jean Simmons and Victor Mature.” Zimbalist assures viewers that The FBI will return in two weeks.

UPDATE (April 14): Warner Bros. uploaded a clip from Part I of The Executioners to YouTube showing the secret Cosa Nostra weapons drop. Decide for yourself whether Milo’s resembles U.N.C.L.E.’s Del Floria’s secret entrance.

The lost (or at least misplaced) episode of The FBI

UPDATE (Sept. 16, 2015) — It turns out the book 2003 book Quinn Martin, Producer has the answer. The episode was not broadcast by ABC because sponsor Ford Motor Co. feared a boycott by Asian Americans (as detailed on page 75 of the book).

ORIGINAL POST: We were checking out Volume II of season 1 of The FBI and got a surprise: there are *16* episodes in the four-disc set, meaning there were 32 total first-season shows of the Quinn Martin-produced series.

Why is that a surprise? Well, a few years ago, when AOL was streaming episodes of The FBI, it only provided 31 episodes from the first season. And IMDB.com only lists 31 first-season episodes as well, at least as of Aug. 16.

It turns out there was one more and it has an espionage theme. In “The Hiding Place,” Inspector Lewis Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is dispatched to a small, predominantly Asian-American town in Oregon. One of its residents is a traitor, having served as a military officer for Japan in World War II without ever having renounced his citizenship. That man, in turn, committed war crimes during the war — and has just tried to kill a young man following a hit-and-run accident.

“The Hiding Place” apparently was produced during the middle of The FBI’s first season. It still makes a reference to Erskine having a college-age daughter and the inspector being a widower. Lynn Loring, who played the daughter in early episodes, is listed in the end titles while not appearing in the episode itself. Loring was dropped from the show by mid-season. “The Hiding Place” may be the final episode the character of Barbara Erskine is even mentioned.

Evidently, ABC didn’t care for the episode and dropped it in at the very end of the season. In any case, it has surfaced again with Warner Bros.’s release of the DVD set. We plugged in a few details for IMDB.com (including credits for writer Robert Leslie Bellem, director Don Medford and for executive producer Quinn Martin and his producers).