Thrush brainwashes an Italian fashion designer to get at a woman aristocrat whose retired-diplomat husband is in charge of a secret government conference which, if destroyed, will allow Thrush to "take over the world". (Got that?) Meanwhile, they also break into UNCLE's Rome HQ and steal a communications device that would allow them to eavesdrop on all UNCLE channels (the spy agency didn't think this one thru very well, did they?), forcing the good guys to resort to public telephones, until it's recovered. These 2 threads converge when the thief drops it off at the designer's apartment-- at the exact moment he's hosting a party of models-- one of whom's young daughter picks it up, thinking it's just a piece of jewelry. Not so much hiding in plain sight, as lost in plain sight.
This same girl develops a crush on Mark Slate while he's posing as an Italian cop (his accent reminded me a bit of "Paul" from THE PROTECTORS), while April poses as a rep of a company that wants to buy ALL of the designer's output for the year, and he, very unprofessionally, goes wild over her.
Though complex and quirky, this isn't a bad episode, except that the 3 villains all come across as rejects from BATMAN's 2nd season. Ted Cassidy is a bloodthirsty thug (it's hilarious when April walks right into him and then looks up, up, up), while John Carridine is a raving-mad scientist. The only performance I can remember of his more over-the-top than this was in Woody Allen's "EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)". And then there's the main guest-star, Edward Andrews. For the life of me, I knew I'd seen him, but I had to look over his resume to be reminded, he played Molly Ringwald's grandfather in "SIXTEEN CANDLES"!
Also in the cast were Dee Hartford (who gets my vote for one of the most beautiful and classy ladies to ever work in Hollywood), and Lisa Loring as her SPOILED, BOSSY, BRATTY daughter. It was cute when she took a liking to Mark, but less so when she got angry whenever any other (older) woman looked at him. It got toxic when, the instant Mr. Waverly recognized she was wearing the missing communications device, she ran out of the room screaming, "IT'S MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" This caused one of the most shocking scenes in the story, when one of the models clobbered Waverly over the head with a stick. You JUST DON'T do that to him, and a moment later, he'd pulled out a gun and was holding an entire room full of people at bay, while sorting out who were really the good guys and the baddies.
Twice in this story, Mark got clobbered, and the 2nd time, I found myself thinking, I can't see Napoleon or Ilya being that over-confident. Meanwhile, in the first few stories, April gave the impression she was new at this and still learning, but, in this one, she was REALLY professional, and I could tell she was genuinely betting better at her job.
I've heard so many awful things about this season, but so far, all I can say is, this was WAY better than what a friend of mine and I referred to as "The Batgirl Show".
This same girl develops a crush on Mark Slate while he's posing as an Italian cop (his accent reminded me a bit of "Paul" from THE PROTECTORS), while April poses as a rep of a company that wants to buy ALL of the designer's output for the year, and he, very unprofessionally, goes wild over her.
Though complex and quirky, this isn't a bad episode, except that the 3 villains all come across as rejects from BATMAN's 2nd season. Ted Cassidy is a bloodthirsty thug (it's hilarious when April walks right into him and then looks up, up, up), while John Carridine is a raving-mad scientist. The only performance I can remember of his more over-the-top than this was in Woody Allen's "EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)". And then there's the main guest-star, Edward Andrews. For the life of me, I knew I'd seen him, but I had to look over his resume to be reminded, he played Molly Ringwald's grandfather in "SIXTEEN CANDLES"!
Also in the cast were Dee Hartford (who gets my vote for one of the most beautiful and classy ladies to ever work in Hollywood), and Lisa Loring as her SPOILED, BOSSY, BRATTY daughter. It was cute when she took a liking to Mark, but less so when she got angry whenever any other (older) woman looked at him. It got toxic when, the instant Mr. Waverly recognized she was wearing the missing communications device, she ran out of the room screaming, "IT'S MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" This caused one of the most shocking scenes in the story, when one of the models clobbered Waverly over the head with a stick. You JUST DON'T do that to him, and a moment later, he'd pulled out a gun and was holding an entire room full of people at bay, while sorting out who were really the good guys and the baddies.
Twice in this story, Mark got clobbered, and the 2nd time, I found myself thinking, I can't see Napoleon or Ilya being that over-confident. Meanwhile, in the first few stories, April gave the impression she was new at this and still learning, but, in this one, she was REALLY professional, and I could tell she was genuinely betting better at her job.
I've heard so many awful things about this season, but so far, all I can say is, this was WAY better than what a friend of mine and I referred to as "The Batgirl Show".