The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series) The Jingle Bells Affair (1966) User Reviews

U.N.C.L.E.'s Christmas Turkey

[ShadeGrenade · 4/10 · 24 December 2009]

This seasonal spy romp hails from the dreaded Season 3.

Russian Premier Georgi Koz ( Akim Tamiroff ) is in New York, and Solo and Kuryakin have to act as bodyguards. He is the target of one assassination attempt after another, most engineered by his own officials. While the U.N.C.L.E. gang endeavor to keep Koz alive, he dresses up as Santa Claus and befriends a terminally ill boy.

Koz is based on Nikita Kruschev, right down to the shoe-banged-on-the-table routine. As played by Tamiroff, he is such a overbearing oaf you do not care if he is blown up or not. This is a typical Season 3 mish-mash ( William Fay's only script for the series ), and everyone gives the impression of being asleep at the wheel. Kent Smith, who was 'Edgar Scoville' in Season 2 of 'The Invaders', plays 'Mr.Macy' of the famous department store, of which there is plenty of stock footage on view.

Gerald Fried's incidental music is loaded with snatches of traditional carols, such as 'Good King Wencelas' and 'Jingle Bells'. It is enough to turn you off Christmas completely. If 'Amos Burke Secret Agent' had been one-tenth this bad, I would understand why it was cancelled after seventeen episodes.

Compliments of the season to all my friends at I.M.D.B., particularly 'Cornonthecobb', 'Ecky Thump', 'Cyril Blake', 'Hyvot' and 'Missstephie'. Have a good time!

UNCLE saves Santa, sort of.

[gordonl56 · 5/10 · 10 February 2015]

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – The Jingle Bells Affair -1966

This is the 74th episode of 1964 to 1968 spy series, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. The series ran for a total of 105 episodes. The first season was filmed in black and with the remainder shot in colour. Robert Vaughn plays agent Napoleon Solo while David McCallum plays Illya Kuryakin. Leo G Carroll plays Mister Waverly, the boss of the secret agency known as U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law & Enforcement) UNCLE's main enemy is THRUSH, an organization out to take over the planet.

This Christmas type episode guest stars Akim Tamiroff as a powerful Eastern Bloc Premier. He is in New York to give a speech at the United Nations. UNCLE agents are assigned to protect him during his stay. Right off the start there is an attempt on his life. UNCLE sets up Tamiroff in a fancy hotel to wait for the day of his speech.

Tamiroff though refuses to stay put and wants to explore the city. They end up in Macy's department store where the Premier wants to by a nightie for his wife. They also meet a Salvation Army worker, Elen Willard. We now discover that Tamiroff's head of personal security, Leon Belasco, is really out to assassinate his boss.

Now there is a constant series of failed attempts on Tamiroff by what must be the most inept bunch of villains ever. There is one scene where head assassin, Leonid Kinskey, fires 14 rounds from his six round .38. And he misses at a range of 15 feet with every round.

Now the writer throws in a bit where Tamiroff dresses up as Santa Claus to help a woman and her sick boy. The usual episode bit with Vaughn and McCallum getting captured is of course present. They use live turkeys to help them make their escape. Needless to say everything is put right and Tamiroff survives.

While this one is not anywhere as bad as the two previous episodes. It still continues the downward spiral the series takes in the third season. Most of the third season episodes play out like bad BATMAN or THE MONKEES episodes.

As a fan of the series (well, of the first two seasons anyways) it is a shame they decided to go the comedy route. It just does not work. Big screen helmsman John Brahm at least gives the episode a decent look. Brahm was best known for the film noir, THE LODGER, HANGOVER SQUARE, THE LOCKET and THE BRASHER DOUBLOON.

Christmas Uncle

[aramis-112-804880 · 6/10 · 10 November 2022]

Solo and Kuyakin are minimized in favor of an overacting Akim Tamiroff as the leader of a Communist state who hates capitalism and the "myth" of Christmas. Meanwhile, someone is trying to blow him up. But which side is the assassin on?

Probably will not be appreciated these days, when the uber-charitable organization The Salvation Army is under fire. One of the heroes is a Salvation Army girl (whom Napoleon who does not seduce).

A few interesting views of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from to 1960s. Tamiroff seems to have a bad effect on others as the usually reliable J Pat O'Malley begins going over the top to match him.

A bit cloying. If you hate Christmas and what it stands for, or if you hate the Salvation Army, you won't like this episode.