Evolution of China in spy entertainment

Khigh Dhiegh, who appeared in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and in many episodes of Hawaii Five-O.

The SpyHards podcast recently had an episode reviewing the 1969 movie The Chairman, where Gregory Peck goes into China on a mission. During the episode, there was a discussion concerning Mao Zedong and how he ranked with real-life figures such as Hitler and Stalin.

This post won’t make a judgment. But in the 1960s, into the 1970s, Mao was viewed as a really, really bad guy. This showed up in popular entertainment.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962): This movie, based on a Richard Condon novel, details a joint Chinese-Russian plot to assassinate a U.S. presidential candidate. The lead Chinese operative was played by Khiegh Dhiegh (1910-1991), who has brainwashed U.S. soldiers during the Korean War. One of them (Laurence Harvey) will ultimately pull the trigger.

Goldfinger (1964): In Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel, Auric Goldfinger worked for the Russians. When the book was adapted, Goldfinger formed an alliance with the Chinese government, including agent Mr. Ling.

Real life (1965): In real life, the U.S. still didn’t recognize the communist government of China until the end of the 1970s. It was extremely difficult for American reporters to get into China. On the July 5, 1965, installment of To Tell The Truth (see game 2), a Canadian-born reporter for a U.S. outlet described her experiences in China.

Hawaii Five-O pilot (1968): Five-O debuted as a two-hour TV movie in September 1968. Written and produced by Leonard Freeman, the show introduced Wo Fat (Khiegh Dhiegh again) as the arch-villain who would bedevil Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) for the next dozen years.

Hawaii Five-O, Presenting…In The Center Ring…Murder (1974): In the early 1970s, the U.S. had begun to normalize relations with China. So what to do with Wo Fat? In this episode, the villain has gone independent and is plotting to kill a high-ranking Chinese government official because he believes the leadership of the country is too weak toward the Americans.

Notable birthdays for women of the spycraze

Barbara Feldon with Don Adams on a TV Guide cover

Over the past week, some of the actresses of the 1960s spy craze celebrated notable birthdays.

Barbara Feldon (b. 1933): She is best known for co-starring in Get Smart (1965-70). Agent 99 was, well, smarter than CONTROL’s Maxwell Smart (Don Adams). But she loved the guy and eventually, 99 and Max got married. Feldon has had a long career.

The TV season before Get Smart, Feldon was a guest star on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in The Never-Never Affair. Feldon played an U.N.C.L.E. employee who yearned for adventure. The episode, written by Dean Hargrove, was one of the best episodes of the 1964-68 series.

Nancy Kovack (b. 1935): The actress appeared on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (two episodes, different characters), The Silencers, Batman, Get Smart, The Secret Life of Henry Phyffe (a situation comedy with Red Buttons who looks identically alike to a recently deceased spy), Hawaii Five-O, and The FBI (including one episode where her character was part of a spy ring).

Leslie Parrish (b. 1935): She played the doomed girlfriend in The Manchurian Candidate (1962) as well as characters in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Wild Wild West.series, including the first Dr. Loveless story.

Angela Lansbury in 1960s spy stories

Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian candidate (1962)

Angela Lansbury (1925-2022) is, understandably, being celebrated for a stellar career that lasted decades. That long career included some stops in the spy/espionage genre.

Most prominent was The Manchurian Candidate (1962), concerning an attempt to take over the United States. Lansbury’s Eleanor Shaw Iselin is one of the plotters, who is working with the Soviet Union and China. Her plan calls for an assassination of a leading presidential candidate. One of the pawns in the plot is her own brainwashed son (Laurence Harvey).

Lansbury received an Oscar nomination for best-supporting actress for her performance.

In 2003, movie critic Roger Ebert took a look back at the film. His essay included this passage:

Lansbury’s Mrs. Iselin, nominated for an Academy Award, is one of the great villains of movie history. Fierce, focused, contemptuous of the husband she treats like a puppet, she has, we gather, plotted with the Russians and Chinese to use the Red Scare of “Iselinism” to get him into office, where she will run things from behind the scenes. But it comes as a shocking surprise that her own son has been programmed as the assassin. That so enrages her that, in another turn of the corkscrew plot, she tells him: “When I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you. And what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.” 

After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, the film went into the vault. It finally resurfaced in the late 1980s via home video releases.

In 1965, Lansbury had a chance to act in a more escapist take on the genre: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode The Deadly Toys Affair, which originally aired on NBC on Nov. 12, 1965.

Lansbury played Elfie van Donck, an international star. Her young nephew (Jay North) is a super genius, currently at a boarding school secretly run by Thrush, the show’s villainous organization.

U.N.C.L.E. is determined to get the nephew away. Lansbury’s character becomes involved. The episode is very escapist and Lansbury’s performance fits right in. She’s over the top, but in a pleasing way. Lansbury’s Elfie van Donck even pilots the helicopter whisking our heroes (Robert Vaughn’s Napoleon Solo and David McCallum’s Illya Kuryakin) to safety.

Hawaii Five-O’s most 007-like episode about to hit DVD

The TVShowsonDVD.com website reports that Season 9 of Hawaii Five-O is coming out on Aug. 3.

The first episode in the set is “Nine Dragons,” the next-to-last Wo Fat story and the one episode that perhaps most resembles a James Bond movie. It includes substantial location filming in Hong Kong and a plot that featur’s Wo Fat’s most ambitious scheme and even permits actor Khigh Dhiegh to evoke an earlier role as the Chinese brainwashing expert in the original version of The Manchurian Candidate.

Here’s a sampling:

If Season 9 sells, presumably Season 10 will come out, which includes appearances by Maud Adams and Luciana Paluzzi as guest stars. And if momentum continues, season 11 has a guest appearance by former 007 George Lazenby.