Thu 6 Aug 2015
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE KARATE KILLERS (1967).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films , TV mysteries[8] Comments
THE KARATE KILLERS. MGM, 1967. Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Joan Crawford, Curt Jurgens, Herbert Lom, Telly Savalas, Terry-Thomas, Leo G. Carroll, Kim Darby, Diane McBain, Jill Ireland, Philip Ahn. Previously seen on TV as the 87th & 88th episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: “The Five Daughters Affair” (Parts 1 and 2), 31 March and 7 April 1966. Director: Barry Shear.
Like The Man in the Green Hat, which I reviewed here, The Karate Killers is the feature-length movie version of two The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes. Directed by Barry Shear, who had a fairly prodigious output in television, this light, but nevertheless mildly entertaining movie features guest appearances by stars such as Joan Crawford, Telly Savalas, and Jill Ireland.
While the plot isn’t particularly interesting, it moves forward with enough vigor to keep the audience engaged with the nearly non-stop action. U.N.C.L.E. agents, Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin (McCallum), trot the globe in search of five women, all daughters of a murdered scientist who found the means of extracting gold from seawater. Shades of Goldfinger, anyone?
It’s an altogether amusing, if light on substance, late 1960s spy film. Look for Czechoslovakian-born actor Herbert Lom as Randolph, as the villain from THRUSH and for an amusing sequence in which Solo and Kuryakin sip tea in a Japanese geisha house. No one would likely categorize The Karate Killers as a bold work of art, but as pure entertainment, it’s not all that bad.
Editorial Comment: For those of you who live in Los Angeles area and would like to see this on the big screen, it’s scheduled to be shown at the New Beverly Cinema next Saturday, August 15.
August 6th, 2015 at 10:17 pm
I enjoyed the UNCLE series when it was on, but the one or two I’ve seen in the last year or so, I wasn’t terribly impressed by. I have the entire series on DVD, so I won’t give up it just yet. I’ll try again.
Jon wrote the review and I added the credits, and what did impress me what the long list of cast members, all more or less well-known. I suppose I could research it myself, but did all UNCLE shows have such a star-studded cast, or was this was artificially enhanced because they knew a they were going to go theatrical with it?
August 6th, 2015 at 10:54 pm
The first two seasons were good and the final season tried to get a bit more serious, but middle period UNCLE is about as substantial as a puff pastry.
August 7th, 2015 at 12:34 am
One of the best website for us MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. fans is The Spy Command (formerly HMSSWEBLOG). It has been busy covering the upcoming film (as well as the flood of other spy films coming out). It recommends five episodes for new fans to watch to prepare for the film.
The pair “Quadripartite Affair” and “The Giuoco Piano Affair” (both directed by Richard Donner)
“The Never-Never Affair”
“The Foxes and Hounds Affair”
“The Concrete Overcoat Affair” which became as noted earlier “The Spy in the Green Hat” This came from the third season “when the drama-humor balance got out of whack in favor of humor.”
“The Test Tube Killer Affair” came from the fourth season when the series reduced the humor.
August 7th, 2015 at 12:58 pm
I’d appreciate if someone could attend the screening and confirm whether the U.N.C.L.E. films were intended to be shown at the 1.33:1 aspect radio or something more theatrical–likely 1.66. The DVDs are 1.33, but I don’t know if the feature versions are supposed to be.
August 8th, 2015 at 2:12 am
Steve:
MGM was a comparative latecomer to weekly episodic TV, but they were always committed to maintaining their “more stars than there are in Heaven” image.
When they started making double-length episodes (two-parts on US TV, features overseas), MGM apparently gave Norman Felton instructions to make the doubles more elaborate than the standard weeklies, meaning bigger guest star names, larger and fancier sets, bigger budgets to cover it all – the latter to be covered by the overseas licensing fees for distributors.
It was really that simple – much like old Hollywood, when MGM’s B-movies always looked better than most other studio’s As.
August 8th, 2015 at 11:20 pm
Marty, Comment #4.
I was hoping that someone would leave a comment saying that they’d check out the New Beverly showing, but so far, not.
It’s a great place to see old movies. It’s owned by Quentin Tarantino, and I’m told he helps put together the list of movies scheduled every month. When Jon was living in LA this past winter, I went to visit a couple of times, and we saw three or four movies together there.
August 8th, 2015 at 11:22 pm
Mike D.
Bigger stars and bigger budgets for the two-parters. I assumed as much. but it’s good to hear from someone who knows more than I assume.
September 6th, 2015 at 11:22 pm
I understand that there were alternate versions of some scenes or sequences that took adavantage of the different standards of theatrical films and TV in the Sixties.
Also, all of the feature-length versions are now available for download or on DVD-R from Warner – apparently in cleaned up prints and 1080- transfers. You can get some info at Comicmix: http://www.comicmix.com/2015/08/23/the-man-from-u-n-c-l-e-movie-compilations-are-now-on-digital-hd/