Sat 5 Nov 2022
A TV Tie-In Mystery Review: DAVID McDANIEL – The Vampire Affair.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Espionage & Spies[5] Comments
DAVID McDANIEL – The Vampire Affair. The Man from UNCLE #6. Ace, paperback original, 1966.
When an agent for UNCLE is found dead, his body drained of blood in the Transylvanian hills, Napoloeon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are sent to investigate. No one want to even suggest the obvious, but after a while even the obvious cannot be denied.
That quick summary is about all there is to the story. David McDaniel is a good writer, but you can also hint at things supernatural only so long before the hints become hokey. You probably know what is really happening, if not why, as well and as soon as I did all the way through.
One point of interest, quite unexpected, though, is a chapter-length cameo by Forrest J Ackerman, editor and primary writer for the then current magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland and a self-proclaimed expert on both vampires ad werewolves. His presence doesn’t add anything to the plot, and in fact it may take you (jarringly) out of the story for a moment or two.
I think McDaniel captures the camaraderie between the two stars rather well, without overdoing it. But if it’s UNCLE you want, you would be better picking up a set of DVDs for the show — an option, however, I know fully well was not available back in 1966.
November 5th, 2022 at 6:32 am
Yes, but when you buy it brand-new off a spinner rack in El Paso, Texas, and read the whole thing in one sitting that evening, it’s one of the greatest books ever written. Or at least I thought so then. I have reread it once, about 30 years ago, and remember enjoying it but not as much as the first time. One of those “You had to be there” pleasures, I suppose. I liked all of McDaniel’s novels and thought they were the best of the Ace series.
November 5th, 2022 at 12:12 pm
And back in 1966, if you were an UNCLE fan, the only way you could see your two heroes in action was in their regularly scheduled time slot. If you missed an episode, you missed it, maybe forever.
November 5th, 2022 at 12:57 pm
. . . Before DVD, before 4K Blu-ray, before streaming video! Until an episode was rerun in the summer or before your favorite theatrical movie reached TV years later in similarly catch-it-or-miss-it, edited, pan/scan form, your only memento was a paperback novelisation, comic book adaptation, or soundtrack LP.
November 5th, 2022 at 11:07 pm
Poor David McCallum. Can never reflect on that actor without wincing. Force-fed the bitter bread of banishment.
November 5th, 2022 at 11:50 pm
McDaniel probably wrote the best U.N.C.L.E. novels though Peter Leslie and Mike Avallone wrote good ones as did Harry Whittington.
Well, good is a relative term in relation to this kind of book. They are basically updated hero pulps and good in the same sense as a Lester Dent Doc Savage or a Walter Gibson Shadow novel. It depends a lot on what you are comparing them to or expecting.
As a reading experience most fall below the level of a Michael Brett generic Pete McGrath or a lesser Frank Kane Johnny Liddell, but for those wanting more of certain characters they rank a bit higher, and they can be fun. This one is remarkably like one of the better episodes of the series so if that’s what you are looking for…
If you are comparing Doc Smith’s Lensman books to most of his contemporaries he looks a lot better than he does when you compare him to Robert Silverberg and John Brunner or someone today.
Of the novelizations in this series this was one of the better ones. As a book on its own having nothing to do with the series this is a pass. But for fun and nostalgia it’s a hoot — pretty much like the series it is based on.
Lazy,
Where was McCallum banished from other than from Jill Ireland’s bed (and he was co starring in THE GREAT ESCAPE when that happened)? He had another American series (THE INVISIBLE MAN with Craig Stevens) beyond U.N.C.L.E. and was back for the sequel to that series, starred in SOL MADRID and several low budget movies and had small roles in some bigger ones, and starred with Joanna Lumley in the cult SAPPHIRE AND STEEL series.
He played Allan Quatermain in a film version of KING SOLOMON’S MINES and as far as I know had a good if unspectacular career on stage and screen until he signed on to the hit NCIS (more intitials, it must be a sign).
Nothing notably worse than most actors of his generation who ended up on television as movie roles ran out. In addition, he wrote a crime novel and recorded a number of albums as a classically trained oboist plus got work voicing Alfred in several DC animated Batman projects as well as narrating the series ANCIENT PROPHECIES and THE TITANIC THE COMPLETE STORY (he was an officer in A NIGHT TO REMEMBER).
Pretty normal track for an aging youth cult star. Better than most, he wasn’t doing regional theater.
When his American career dried up he went back to England and worked there, but lots of actors have been on that track including in the Fifties big names like Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Cary Grant who fled to England to get work.
Is there a career trauma I don’t know about? His career certainly bounced back better than Ireland who only worked with Charles Bronson for the rest of her career and only got good roles in two of his films LOVE AND BULLETS and FROM NOON TO THREE).
McCallum bounced back pretty well from the Ireland humiliation and gets to be another beloved iconic character on a second hit television series which is more than most of the Ilya Kuryakin’s of the past can say still making appearances on NCIS after Mark Harmon, the star, is gone.