Honey West "The Abominable Snowman" #1.3 (1965( (TV)

"Well, it was no accident - it was murder.", 19 June 2015

A dying man's last act is to give Honey a snow globe. Honey doesn't understand why, but quickly learns that others are willing to kill to get it.

Yesterday, I decided to re-watch the Honey West series. I had completely forgotten how addictive these episodes are. They're like crack – once you start, you're hooked. Anne Francis is just so watchable. She makes Honey West better than it should. The Abominable Snowman is another nice outing for Honey. The high speed car chase (What a car! And, what a driver!), Honey's dark-haired disguise, and the final fight scene are all highlights. But what I like most about this episode is the twist at the end. It worked. I didn't see that coming at all. Very nicely played.

In this episodes edition of Name That Character Actor, we have two winners: Henry Jones (another one of those "You'd know him if you saw him" kind of guys) and Leon Askin (best known as General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes). Casts like this are another reason I enjoy Honey West so much.

7/10

Honey West "The Owl and the Eye" #1.2 (1965) (TV)

"Snoopers sometimes get shot.", 18 June 2015

Honey and Sam are hired by an art museum to test their security. To prove how inefficient it is, they steal a rare Chinese jade owl. Honey and Sam agree to beef-up the museum's system, only to have the same jade owl immediately stolen - and this time, it's been stolen for real.

The Owl and the Eye is a solid, but not spectacular episode of Honey West. The problem with the episode is its predictability. The thief's identity is telegraphed the minute the cast is introduced. If you can't spot the thief, you haven't seen enough television from the 60s and 70s. The highlights of this episode have to be Honey's date and the final "fight" scene on the boat. The latter is particularly enjoyable with Honey cleverly fighting off a pack of guard dogs.

In the episode's edition of Name That Character Actor, we have Lloyd Bochner. Again, the name may not be familiar, but with 202 acting credits listed on IMDb (and most in television), you'd know him if you saw him.

6/10

Mission to Caracas (1965)

Weak, 18 June 2015

Mission to Caracas is the story of a briefcase containing (a) plans to manufacture a deadly nerve gas and (b) one million dollars in diamonds. Actually, it's the story of the cruise ship murder of the man carrying the aforementioned briefcase. Who did it and where is the case? That's exactly what agent Gil Becker (Rod Carter) intends to discover.

I'm not sure why the movie is called Mission to Caracas (or more precisely, Mission spéciale à Caracas). Once the cruise ship sets sail at about the 15 minute mark, Caracas is a distant memory for the rest of the film's runtime.

Mission to Caracas is nowhere near to being the best Eurospy movie I've seen. It's closer to the bottom of the list. In fact, I'm not even sure you can really call this a "spy" movie (Euro or not). It's more like a bad mystery with some poorly done fight scenes. But the biggest problem I have with the movie is that it never makes a real attempt to let the viewer know the characters. If you don't know them, it's hard to care about them. Our hero, Gil Becker (Rod Carter), is the definition of nondescript. His lack of screen presence make it difficult to root for him. Head bad guy, Boris (Christian Kerville), is just the same. In fact, I'm not sure I even knew his name until the movie was almost over. Finally, Mission to Caracas features a gaggle of 8 or 9 poorly characterized women. Even though I recognized a couple of the actresses (Jany Clair and Janine Reynaud), I don't think I ever figured out any of their names. There's a giant fight scene with all the women and I'll be damned if I knew who was fighting who. It all seemed so random.

Throw in some poorly done music, a lack of suspense, and some lame attempts at comedy and you've got a bad movie. Overall, a generous 3/10 is the best I can do.

3/10

Danger Man "Find and Return" #1.17 (1961) (TV)

Takes too long to get going, 17 June 2015

John Drakes' Mission: Drake sets out to retrieve a woman wanted by the British government for espionage.

I've got to disagree with the other reviews on IMDb for this episode. To me, it's one of the weakest I've seen so far. These episodes are only 22 or so minutes long. As a result, they're usually jam-packed with action with no time to waste. In Find and Return, it felt like the first 2/3 was filler. Drake spent an inordinate amount of time just talking. His scene with Hardy is so leisurely paced you'd think he (and the show) had all the time in the world. To make it worse, by the time the final third rolls around and things start to get interesting, there's not enough time. The final felt rushed.

Other than the last 5 - 7 minutes, other things I liked about this episode: Donald Pleasence' overly ambitious character, Nikolides, and Warren Mitchell's insecure foreign agent, Stashig. Most of these episodes are really helped by strong supporting casts.

Danger Man "The Island" #1.16 (1961) (TV)

Drake's Island, 16 June 2015

John Drake's Mission: After crash landing on a deserted island, Drake must recapture the two fugitives he was transporting to America.

The Island is another in a long line of solid episodes. One of the things I enjoyed was the different feel to this one. Here, Drake is out of his element and unable to control the situation as he often does. A nice change of pace. As I've come to expect, The Island has a good cast featuring the always welcome Michael Ripper.

I've got to agree with the other reviewer on IMDb regarding the two assassins, Jones and Wilson. The moment they appeared on screen, I was immediately reminded of Kidd and Wint from Diamonds Are Forever. The similarities are so obvious that I can't help but wonder if the Bond writers based Kidd and Wint to some degree on Jones and Wilson.

7/10

Supersonic Man (1979)

"What is this tomfoolery?", 15 June 2015

Dr. Gulik (Cameron Mitchell) is an evil mastermind bent on . . . well, I'm really not sure what he was bent on. I watched the entire movie and still have no idea what Dr. Gulick's plan was. In between all the gibberish Dr. Gulick spouts, I don't believe he ever laid out what his ultimate goal was (if he did, I missed it). I don't believe I've ever seen a movie with a more confusing plot. Or, maybe the plot wasn't confusing, but, instead, the movie didn't have a plot. That's my guess.

Beyond the plot, everything else is a disaster. The special effects are the worst, the music is beyond annoying, and the acting is atrocious. Usually I can watch a movie and enjoy it regardless of the dubbing. That's not the case here. The voice actors are terrible. And why was there a need to dub Cameron Mitchell with a ridiculous, over-the-top English accent? And then there's the robot. This movie was made in 1979, not 1939. Just plain stupid. The only reason I haven't given the movie a "1" is for all the lackeys in the matching, multi-color jumpsuits. Watching these guys run around as the island blows-up is worth a point.

2/10