 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So either they were time-compressed, or 5 minutes was cut from each part? Eeesh.
Take me off your ignore list and read my post, chump!
It's not cut. The story makes sense and there are no odd, abrupt cuts or out of context dialogue.
Calm down. Have some dip. I saw your comments. I was just digging further. Chump. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
I began Season 3 this weekend with the first 3 episodes:
3.1 - The Heir Apparent
3.2 / 3.3 - The Contender Parts 1 & 2 - A satisfying two-parter, but I couldn't help wondering what I was missing with Robert Conrad. Interesting how the opening sequence of going through the IMF portfolio to select the team was used in these episodes. Since they didn't do it in the finale of Season 2, I thought maybe they had dispensed with it, or perhaps they're only going to do it when there are unfamiliar faces included on the team? I dunno.
This is going to sound weird, but the actor who played the boxer LeMoine looked like a white guy in heavy make-up!
Nice to see Sugar Ray Robinson being an effective baddie.
EXCELLENT music in The Contender!
And hey, some new pics in the opening credits!
|
|
|
|
|
|
3.2 / 3.3 - The Contender Parts 1 & 2
EXCELLENT music in The Contender!
Indeed, indeed. This score was so good that it was recycled until season 7.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Speaking of Hollywood Squares, why in the name of all that is holy isn't that show in syndication these days? I don't think I've seen it on the air since I was a little kid in the '70s. GSN shows the insipid '90s/'00s version with Whoopi, but where's the original funny one?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Season 3 episodes I've watched:
3.4 - The Mercenaries - Aaaaaaawesome! I was literally glued to the screen during the lengthy sequence when Barney & Willie are sucking all the gold out of the vault. BRILLIANT sequence that I'll never forget. Interestingly, I watched this just 2 days after Pernell Roberts' death, not knowing that he was in it.
3.5 - The Execution - Again, BRILLIANT. The highlight of this episode for me is the explosive conclusion when Vincent Gardenia is firing bullets at the execution chamber and screaming, but you can't hear anything just like the character in the chamber can't hear anything. Lots of good tension in this tale.
3.6 - The Cardinal - Clever, clever, clever. I like the actor who played the Cardinal.
3.7 - The Elixir - Excellent. Ruth Roman is one classy dame. Great ending.
Side note: I've been watching Get Smart and spotted Barbara Bain in a small role in a first-season episode!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Season 3 episodes I've watched:
3.4 - The Mercenaries - Aaaaaaawesome! I was literally glued to the screen during the lengthy sequence when Barney & Willie are sucking all the gold out of the vault. BRILLIANT sequence that I'll never forget. Interestingly, I watched this just 2 days after Pernell Roberts' death, not knowing that he was in it.
3.5 - The Execution - Again, BRILLIANT. The highlight of this episode for me is the explosive conclusion when Vincent Gardenia is firing bullets at the execution chamber and screaming, but you can't hear anything just like the character in the chamber can't hear anything. Lots of good tension in this tale.
3.6 - The Cardinal - Clever, clever, clever. I like the actor who played the Cardinal.
3.7 - The Elixir - Excellent. Ruth Roman is one classy dame. Great ending.
Side note: I've been watching Get Smart and spotted Barbara Bain in a small role in a first-season episode!
THE EXECUTION is clearly the masterpiece of these four episodes: the acting of Martin Landau and Luke Askew are powerful. This episode always remind me a "Twilight Zone" episode entitled: "Shadow Play". I like subliminal shots of Luke Askew watching the IMFers in both parts inside his cell. It's a shocking and grim episode. Music by Jerry Fielding.
THE MERCENARIES is a treat all the way.
THE CARDINAL has a fine film-making by the great Sutton Roley and another perfect foe cast: Theodore Bikel, Barbara Babcock and Paul Stevens as Cardinal Souchek/Actor Nagorski. It's also a reworking of the season 1 "Old Man Out". Music by Jerry Fielding.
PS: I used to watch a "Get Smart" featuring Martin Landau playing his part of Frank Wayne from "The Council".
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Season 2 screenings:
3.8 - The Diplomat - It's Lee Grant! Dig it.
3.9 - The Play - Wonderful concept of temperamental actors gunking up the works. Always a pleasure to see John Colicos slithering along with that face not even a mama could trust. I think it was this episode (might have been The Diplomat) that introduced a lovely, lush and almost romantic theme that was used a few times throughout the episode. Very nice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Season 2 screenings:
3.8 - The Diplomat - It's Lee Grant! Dig it.
Features one of the most raw scene of overdose ever filmed on television of the 60's!
The cast is great: Ryder, Lamas, Haig, Grant.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Season 2 screenings:
3.8 - The Diplomat - It's Lee Grant! Dig it.
Features one of the most raw scene of overdose ever filmed on television of the 60's!
The cast is great: Ryder, Lamas, Haig, Grant.
I still think it would have been a nice touch to have had Phelps toss Cinnamon's picture into the discard file during the dossier sequence. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Where's our friend, Jim Phelps? He hasn't posted in a month! 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Where's our friend, Jim Phelps? He hasn't posted in a month!
He is busy in some special assignments in Europe for the Secretary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent screenings:
3.10 The Bargain - Love the opening Phelps scene in a skating rink. This episode featured a cool piano version of the MI theme that starts with a solo piano leading to dual pianos. Very cool. Great episode.
3.11 The Freeze - Holy crap, it's 1980! Really clever story well-executed, and again more great music.
3.12 The Exchange - Really interesting tale, and I like the sequence in which Phelps is upset about Cinnamon being left behind, and Willie approaches him to offer some comfort, then just silently walks away, knowing that nothing effective can really be said. The claustrophobia sequence with the walls closing in on Cinnamon was very cool, and how 'bout that incredibly wacky sequence of simulated driving of the big truck with the guy in the box! That was just crazy! One thing I thought was odd though. Once Cinnamon is rescued at the end, she suddenly comes out of her stupor and seems like herself with little indication that she's messed up. So, was she faking some of her reactions to the drug experimentation, etc.? Her change in mood was abrupt, so it made me question her prior behavior.
3.13 The Mind of Stefan Miklos - OH...MY...GAAAAWD! This is one of the single best episodes of the show and one of the best episodes of any series ever!!! I loved this episode so much that I watched it again the following morning. Aside from the stylized editing, clever plot devices and intricately woven events that all tie together, there is no question that Steve Ihnat is what makes the episode so effective. What's interesting to me is that one of the single WORST performances I've ever seen was by Ihnat in the only episode of the original Star Trek that I can't stand ("Whom Gods Destroy"). Ihnat was just annoyingly over-the-top in that show to the point that I wanted to scream. But here, he is playing such a richly written and interesting character that totally depends on his ability to visually indicate patterns of thought. I loved watching him think and put the pieces together, loved watching him walk around with a swagger and his pipe as if he owned the world and nothing could outsmart him. Even down to the final seconds when he's convinced that the IM Force's attempt to trick him failed. He was simply brilliant and he could communicate so much with just the raise of an eyebrow. The tension was tight, and it's all because of his powerful screen presence. I could gush about this episode for days. A flawless piece of work.
3.14 The Test Case - all I can say is...OWWW.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Come on Banacek! I wanna hear your thoughts because, if I remember correctly, you used to call yourself Stefan Miklos here, no?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Come on Banacek! I wanna hear your thoughts because, if I remember correctly, you used to call yourself Stefan Miklos here, no?
Yep.
3.10 The Bargain
3.11 The Freeze
3.12 The Exchange
3.13 The Mind of Stefan Miklos
3.14 The Test Case
The masterpiece is, of course, "The Mind of Stefan Miklos" (top in all department). Note that this is first score by newcomer Richard Markowitz who first worked on "Mannix", one year earlier. Markowitz's MIKLOS score is extremely well-used in the season 3 final: "The Interrogator".
And there are two seminal episodes that will become templates for the future seasons:
"The Exchange": this is writer Laurence Heath's best script that he will inject in season 5 and 6 episodes. The cast is excellent and note that this is the first part of guest actor John Vernon, one of MISSION's major actor.
"The Test Case": this script launches the first part of a germ warfare trilogy by Laurence Heath: see the season 4 "The Controllers" and the season 5 "The Innocent". Note Martin Landau's second masochist performance from his season 3 triptych initiated with "The Execution" and will end up in "The Interrogator"!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
