A year or so before James Bond got involved in an adventure involving Japanese volcanoes, the men from U.N.C.L.E. beat him to the punch. Directed by Joseph Sargent, and scripted by Mark Weingart and Sherman Yellin, 'The Cherry Blossom Affair' begins with scientist 'Dr.Grayson' ( Robert Riordan ) arriving by plane in New York. Agents of THRUSH kill him and attempt to steal his can of film. Instead it winds up in the hands of independent film maker 'Cricket Okasada' ( France Nuyen ). Napoleon Solo manages to get it from her and take it to Mr.Waverly. It contains film of erupting volcanoes. Someone has developed a means of causing 'natural' eruptions. THRUSH want the device. So do U.N.C.L.E. Solo and Kuryakin head for the East...
This hails from Season 2, in my view the best of the four 'M.F.U.' seasons. This particular episode, while hardly a straight spy story, is enjoyable hokum. As the villains, we have the late Woodrow Parfrey as 'Kutuzov' of THRUSH Eastern, and Jerry Fujikawa as 'Harada'. A couple of nice 'death trap' scenes - Solo is staked out over a bed of fast-growing trees, and Illya nearly succumbs to that old ploy - the room whose floor slides back to reveal sharp spikes. The sight of a skeleton in the trap is an amusing if ghoulish touch. Later in the episode, we get the offbeat spectacle of Solo being used as a marionette in a kabuki theatre production.
A brief clip of 'Dr.Kildare' - starring Richard Chamberlain - is a further joke. The hit medical soap was also produced by Norman Felton's Arena Productions.
This hails from Season 2, in my view the best of the four 'M.F.U.' seasons. This particular episode, while hardly a straight spy story, is enjoyable hokum. As the villains, we have the late Woodrow Parfrey as 'Kutuzov' of THRUSH Eastern, and Jerry Fujikawa as 'Harada'. A couple of nice 'death trap' scenes - Solo is staked out over a bed of fast-growing trees, and Illya nearly succumbs to that old ploy - the room whose floor slides back to reveal sharp spikes. The sight of a skeleton in the trap is an amusing if ghoulish touch. Later in the episode, we get the offbeat spectacle of Solo being used as a marionette in a kabuki theatre production.
A brief clip of 'Dr.Kildare' - starring Richard Chamberlain - is a further joke. The hit medical soap was also produced by Norman Felton's Arena Productions.