Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Leofwine_draca This isn't so much a feature film but rather two episodes of the popular TV series THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. strung together to make a feature-length production. The result is just the same as watching the television series but only longer. The production is light and breezy, emphasising comedy over drama and with plenty of action in the style of the James Bond films and their ilk from the period. Any fan of the series will find the template familiar: secret agents Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are sent to stop a ruthless madman, who operates off the coast of Italy, from destroying the atmosphere of the earth with the aid of an evil scientist. Of course what it all boils down to in the end are explosions, grenades, lots of fist-fights and gun-battles with armed guards, plus tons of romance and everyone overacting as best they can.Vaughn and McCallum have by now settled comfortably into their respective roles, with McCallum as a dedicated action man and Vaughn as the Lothario, whose escapades with a pretty Italian girl lead to much of the Italian mafia coming after him! The supporting cast is very good with lots of comedic performances from the old timers, even Elisha Cook appears. Villain Jack Palance chews the scenery as only he can and is great fun as the baddie, whilst Janet Leigh has a great role as a female killer who gets a kinky thrill every time she kills or tortures a guy! The film is strong with sexual suggestion and pretty racy in parts, and in addition the plentiful action sequences are both fun and engaging (even if the stuntmen are a little obvious at times). I really enjoyed the finale which includes a fight in a flooding room. A bright and breezy spoof of the popular "spy" clichés of the decade, this is an unassuming and fun affair that passes an afternoon nicely in a lighthearted way.

jimdoyle111 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' had started out as James Bond in your living room with weekly adventures showing how Napoleon and Illya saved the world each week and thwarted THRUSH with the aid of some innocent party. It worked well for the first season then it started getting humorous which worked initially, but it took the edge of the show, and then it completely lost it attempting to be a spoof. (If producers had looked at the James Bond series they would have noticed that they were about to release 'You Only Live Twice' and at no point had the Bond films sank into the camp humour we got from MGM / Arena.) 'The Spy In The Green Hat' was the fifth feature made from the TV show and although it wasn't the worst of the series, it was far from the best. Alongside Robert Vaughn and David McCallum were Jack Palance, Janet Leigh and old timers Joan Blondell and Allen Jenkins. The story is nonsense about THRUSH controlling the weather and there are scenes of Italian stereotypes waving their arms a lot, making pasta and swearing revenge. It doesn't work on any level.Here's what I wrote about it in my book "What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)". Interviewed in the 1980s, David McCallum felt that part of the decline of 'The Man From UNCLE' was to start spending the budget on guest stars rather than on good story lines and location filming, and "The Spy In The Green Hat", which was made up of the two-part episode 'The Concrete Overcoat Affair", had Jack Palance and Janet Leigh, and had a story about a scientist diverting the Gulf Stream, but it also had a story thread where Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) is pursued by a bunch of elderly Italian gangsters who feel he has dishonoured one of their girls. It was daft, unfunny and tedious and had fans wondering if it could get worse. The one interesting piece of casting was Will Kuluva as a THRUSH man. He had played the original head of UNCLE in "To Trap A Spy" but was replaced by Leo G Carroll after a misunderstanding at MGM. (Sponsors had said fire 'Kuryakin' and the producer thought they meant Kuluva.) "When The Boys Meet The Girls" with it was MGM's fourth and last attempt to make Connie Francis a movie star in a tepid remake of the 1943 film "Girl Crazy". She was joined by Harve Presnell, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, and Hermans Hermits, who sang 'Listen People'.Adapted with permission from the author from 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)'.Jim Doyle is the author of 'What We Watched In The 1960s (In The Cinema)', 'What We Watched In The 1970s (In The Cinema)" and 'What We Watched In The 1980s (In The Cinema And On Video)'

Hotwok2013 All told five full-length feature films were made by the MGM studio from spliced together episodes of The Man From Uncle. "The Spy In The Green Hat" is, in my opinion, the best of them. This is no small part due to Jack Palance who plays a terrific villain Louis Strago & Janet Leigh who plays Strago's secretary Miss Diketon. Janet Leigh was 39 years old when she played this role & looks really hot. Miss Diketon takes pleasure in killing people at her boss Strago's behest & Janet Leigh found herself a really juicy "bad girl" role here that she makes the most of. Despite her surname having lesbian overtones she is secretly in love with her boss Strago but his feelings for her are not reciprocated. In their very first scene together she is shown breathing heavily whilst massaging his back for which Strago rebukes her. Later he tries to get her transferred out of his department & she turns against him. The other female interest sees Leticia Roman playing Pia Monteri the daughter of an Italian Mafia mobster whom Napoleon Solo is almost forced into marrying. Later in the movie there is a very entertaining fight between her & Miss Diketon. All in all, this is not a movie to be taken too seriously, & it was never intended to be, but is very entertaining.

jamesraeburn2003 The Spy In The Green Hat was the first UNCLE film that was only released in the overseas market. The previous four outings had been released theatrically in America, but US audiences weren't prepared to pay to see in the cinema what they had already seen on television. The Spy In The Green Hat was made up from the season three two-parter "The Concrete Overcoat Affair", (episode 1: 25/11/1966), (episode 2: 2/12/1966). These were not transmitted in the countries where the film version was released so there it would be a completely new story. This was the case for most of the other UNCLE films.Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuriyakin fail to capture Dr Von Kronen the world's most wanted Nazi criminal who joins forces with THRUSH agent Louis Strago (Jack Palance) in order to develop of series of missiles to divert the gulf stream thus altering the world's weather patterns and giving THRUSH what it always wanted - control of the world!Out of the eight films released to cash in on the success of the TV series, The Spy In The Green Hat is probably one of the best. The supporting cast is good with Jack Palance on fanatical form as meglomaniac Louis Strago, Janet Leigh as his psychotic secretary and Eduardo Cianelli, Allen Jenkins and Jack La Rue are fun as the aging 1930's Italian gangsters who are pursuing Solo in order to force him to marry their young niece after he spent the night in her room hiding from Strago's henchmen. Robert Vaughn and David McCallam are their usual irreplacable selves and not forgetting the always reliable Leo G Carroll as UNCLE chief Mr Waverley.The American TV version has been released on VHS in the UK but has long since been deleted. We can only hope for a DVD release in the future.