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"MAINLY ON THE PLAINS" (I SPY - TV)1966 | |
| Cast:
Robert Culp (Kelly
Robinson), Bill Cosby (Alexander Scott), Boris Karloff (Don Ernesto
Silverando), Carl Schell (Horst), Axel Darner (Kurt), Mona Hamlin (Maid),
Eduardo San Jose (Policeman #1), Scott Miller (Guard), Felipe R. Armengol
(Policeman #2), Angel Jordan (Guard), Antonio Canal (Guard), Jacinto
Molina (uncredited) Director: David Friedkin Producer: Morton Fine, David Friedkin Screenplay: Morton Fine, David Friedkin Photography: Fouad Said Art Director: Julio Molina Music: Earle Hagen Executive Producer: Sheldon Leonard Production Company: Three F Productions (USA) Running time: 51 min. Plot (from video box copy): Years ago, Don Ernesto Silverando (Boris Karloff) was an uncommited scientest who pioneered the technology for the anti-missile missile. Now, Silverando is an eccentric and absentminded professor trapped between his delusions of being Don Quixote and the realties of his earth-shattering discovery. Super spies, Kelly and Scott, are on special assignment to use their irresistable charms and wit to persuade the aged scientist to entrust his secrets to the U.S. Meanwhile, enemy agents, lacking the charisma of Kelly and Scott, have more lethal methods of persuasion in mind. Travel across the plains of Spain as agents battle over Silverando's brain. Notes: A pleasant I SPY episode that showcases the legendary Boris Karloff. Shot on location in Spain. Jacinto Molina, the future Paul Naschy, can be seen as a member of a picnic group who get to bounce Karloff (or rather his double) into the air using a blanket as a makeshift trampoline. Culp and Cosby also get this treatment. U.S. video release: United American Video, a budget label, as THE BEST OF I SPY; EP speed, 1991 release; another I SPY episode, "Get Ye to a Nunnery," is included on the tape. |
Above: THE BEST OF I SPY, the UAV video release that contains "Mainly on the Plains" |
| I SPY # 11,
BLACKOUT DVD Review: Image Entertainment has been quickly releasing episodes of the 1960s cool spy show, I SPY, and have already reached the second season, a part of which had agents Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) travelling about Spain in their fight against Soviet communism and its agents. The episode Naschy fans are interested in is "Mainly on the Plains," as it marked the first (and only) time that Naschy worked on an American TV production, as well as the only time he appeared alongside horror legend Boris Karloff. Well, perhaps, "alongside" is too strong of a word, because Naschy (still Jacinto Molina and a couple of years away from being Paul Naschy) has a tiny role as part of a group of Spanish picnickers who have fun with Karloff and the two American agents. It is a brief scene, and you'll be able to spot Naschy more clearly than on VHS, but if you blink too many times you may miss him. The DVD has fine color and sound, and the TV show is presented full-frame, of course. Other episodes in this quartet set include: "A Room with a Rack," "Get Thee to a Nunnery," and "Blackout," which is what the I SPY DVD is subtitled. Another I SPY set includes an episode which starred Barbara Steele, so horror fans have something to look forward to in picking up this series, which itself is a classic of 60s television, alternately charming and old-fashioned "hip," and frequently moving and surprisingly adult. |
The wonderfulness of Image This DVD is available
at
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