‘The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ Coming to DVD in March

Vinnie Bartilucci says:

"The Fifteen Years Later Affair" could have been a great deal better if they had gotten a few more UNCLE fans involved a little earlier. Robert Short (Hollywood makeup man (Beetlejuice)) and his friend Bill Mills (uncredited) had been hired as Technical Advisors for the movie, but by the time they came on board, too much damage had been done. The new Thrush logo was an unrecognizable and nondescript rounded rectangle with a lightning bolt through it – no thrush at all in it. They literally had to beg to let them design the new UNCLE logo, to among other things keep the iconic man and globe a part of it. The plot was essentially a ripoff of Thunderball (Bad guys steal a nuclear warhead, hold the world hostage) that just patently ignored massive amounts of continuity and made stuff up out of whole cloth. Justin Sepheran (Anthony Zerbe) was supposedly the head of Thrush, caught by Napoleon Solo years before. Which is fine, if it weren't for the fact that Thrush HAD no single leader; as fans of the series can remember, it was run by a cabal of people who took orders/suggestions from the Ultimate Computer. Keenan Wynn and Geoffrey Lewis play lieutenants who are spoken of as if we're supposed to know who they were. Fun tidbit – After Napoleon exists Del Floria's Tailor Shop (former front for UNCLE HQ), he is taken to its new headquarters, located in a "novelty shop". The original script had it as a 42nd-street porn shop, and there was alledgedly a scene filmed with Mr. Solo entering said shop and going to the back through a peep booth.Janice Friday, the secretary of UNCLE's new head was a nice new character, As was Sir John himself (Patrick Macnee). There's a photo of Mr. Waverly (Leo G Carroll, who died before the special was filmed) on Janice's desk; Sepheran mourns his passing as well. It's obvious the special was a backdoor pilot, but nothing ever came of it. Personally I think man from UNCLE could work today. There's been a couple of spy shows that came close to its level of fun (Sam Raimi's "Spy Game" comes to mind) but none nailed it. I think by now Napoleon or Illya would have risen to the rank of Number 1 of Section 1 by now, and the series would feature a new cast of Section 2 operatives. While the Ultimate Computer should still be running Thrush, a couple recurring seconds-in-command might help make the villains more memorable. Probably updated versions of the delightful heads of Thrush San Francisco as created by David McDaniel. Unlike Wild Wild West (also out on DVD) MfU never had a recurring villain that they could play up. Just another thing on my list of things to do after I become oscenely wealthy, I suppose.