Tonight's Wildly Vain Wednesday feature is an episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."
My Editor in Berlin, Lord Litter, is currently enjoying this show immensely despite these horrid times, because "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." was never shown in it's entirety in Germany when it originally aired.
"The Project Deephole Affair" was from Season two of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and was the 26th episode and aired on March 18, 1966.
This is one of those shows that I take for granted that everybody already knows about, but you'd be surprised how much popular culture has been left behind by society today!
But then again, it was fifty-six years ago!
The core cast members of the show were Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, and Leo G. Carroll.
But for me, the real star of this episode was Barbara Bouchet as the villianess Narcissus Darling! Not only is she vain, she's also totally self-absorbed, and has a completely inordinate fascination with herself!
The other awesome guest star is Jack Weston as the deadbeat down and out Buzz Conway! Jack is another one of those special people that among all his roles, he was actually in two episodes of "The Twilight Zone," "The Bard," and one of my all-time favorites, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."
Barbara lives up to the name of her Narcissistic character by constantly primping and priming herself while admiring herself in the mirror!
I might just make a painting of this shot because I think it's very cool, but if I don't, I'll always think I should have!
Ralph J. Rose has the role of a Dr. Remington, a guy who the T.H.R.U.S.H. agents just can't wait to get their filthy hands on. Ralph had six credits to his name, for shows like "The Addams Family," and "Gunsmoke," and "The Andy Griffith Show."
Narcissus might be a self-centered egomaniac, but she does look good from all angles, and has the goods to back it up!
The big bad guy running the show is Leon Askin as Marvin Elom. For a large man, Leon must have had a strong heart, because he lived to be 97 years old. His 137 credits went all the way back to 1950, and included stints working with Superman, Dr. Mabuse, and Sherlock Holmes, and he was in "The Outer Limits" episode "The Inheritors Part 1." Being of Austrian descent, it might have been easy for him to play the role of General Burkhalter on 67 episodes of "Hogan's Heroes."
As it should be, Narcissus just can't get enough of herself!
So what happens is that Buzz Conway gets mistaken for Dr. Remington by T.H.R.U.S.H, so the U.N.C.L.E agents use him as bait, but he's not very happy when he finds the real Doctor dead in his hotel room closet.
But it was just a set-up to scare him, and the knife is fake.
Buzz decides to split the scene via an open window, but doesn't like the height much.
Even though I don't really like to fly much, I can still appreciate a good picture of a 1960's airliner in flight like this!
Wait a minute! I thought Hotels weren't supposed to have thirteenth floors!
Narcissus just keeps on doing her vanity thing, and the joke never gets old!
T.H.R.U.S.H. has a plan to create an earthquake along the San Andreas fault, and make California fall off into the ocean, and takes credit for the 9.2 earthquake in Alaska that claimed 131 casualties two years earlier in 1964.
But in the end, Marvin creates his own personal tsunami when he falls into an open elevator shaft!
So that's it for me and 2020, and I say Good Riddance, go away, take all your crap with you, and don't come back!
