Leo G. Carroll Movies

When a wealthy friend of the San Francisco police commissioner reports that his dog is missing, a disgruntled Ironside (Raymond Burr) passes the responsibility of locating the pooch to his assistants Ed (Don Galloway) and Eve (Barbara Anderson). Meanwhile, Mark (Don Mitchell) finds out that the lost dog is in the hands of some two-bit thieves who've decided to "achieve greatness" by kidnapping the pets of the rich and famous--and they're not above eliminating anyone who gets in their way. Frequent Ironside director Abner Biberman takes on an acting role in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released theatrically overseas, How to Steal the World was comprised of two episodes from the American TV series Man from U.N.C.L.E. U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuriakin (David McCallum) investigate when fellow agent Barry Sullivan and European general Leslie Nielsen disappear. Shortly afterward, five of the world's top scientists are mysteriously abducted. The trail leads to the Himalayas, where Sullivan has set himself up as potential world dictator, hoping to use the combined talents of the scientists to build a device that will spread mind-controlling gas throughout the planet. How to Steal the World was originally telecast in two weekly installments as the "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair"--the final two episodes of Man From U.N.C.L.E., which had been cancelled by NBC to make way for Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Man from UNCLE comes to the big screen in this spy thriller comprised of episodes from the popular television series. The story centers around the attempts of evil THRUSH operatives who endeavor to abduct a professor who has developed a formula for turning salt water into gold. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Some extra footage was added to segments of two episodes from the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68) to create this feature film-length espionage adventure that was released theatrically in some countries to cash in on the James Bond craze. Ordered by their secret organization U.N.C.L.E. to stop the sinister group THRUSH from obtaining a top-secret nuclear weapon, spies Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) travel to Switzerland. Once there, Solo is lured into a trap by a comely enemy agent, Serena (Senta Berger). Kidnapped by THRUSH, Solo is replaced with an exact double who infiltrates U.N.C.L.E. Kuryakin eventually becomes suspicious due to his friend's odd behavior and takes steps to learn the truth, while Solo attempts to escape from captivity and stop THRUSH's plot to get its hands on the weapon. The episodes represented in the film are "The Double Affair," which first aired November 17, 1964, and "The Four Steps Affair," which originally aired February 22, 1965. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This feature-length espionage thriller is an expanded version of an episode of the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. entitled "The Alexander the Great Affair." Mr. Alexander (Rip Torn) is a power-hungry multi-millionaire who wants to take over the world from his compound in Greece, with Alexander the Great serving as his role model. Alexander starts his bid for world domination in a small but strategically crucial Asian nation, where he plans to assassinate the President and render his chain of command helpless with a chemical weapon that destroys a person's will to win. International agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) are sent out to stop him, while Alexander's wife Tracey (Dorothy Provine) has her own ideas of how to deal with him. The original airing of "The Alexander The Great Affair" led off the second (and most popular) season of the TV series; the theatrical release of One Spy Too Many proved somewhat less successful. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, an aspiring actress pays her bills by working as a maid for various households. One of her employers is a wealthy and prominent publisher. After accidentally running into each other a number of times on the New York streets without recognizing each other, they begin to fall in love. She wants to take him home, but she is ashamed of her humble quarters. Believing that the publisher is out of town, she decides to take the lover to that apartment and pretend that it is hers. The lover/ publisher did have a business trip, but it was canceled. He decides to go along with her ruse and pretends that he has never been in his own apartment before. The trouble is, he now has no home to go home to; instead, he begins bunking with his business partner. In the end, both would-be lovers learn the truth, but they still refuse to tell each other that they know. Things get a little crazy, especially when the maid has all her girl friends dress up as hookers and come for a wild party at his apartment. He has the last laugh when they end up in jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In its efforts to emulate the campy hyperbole of the Batman series during its third season on NBC, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. overplayed its hand disastrously, losing many of its longtime fans who had preferred the series when it was a relatively straightforward espionage series with a subtle inner lining of satire. Small wonder, then, that The Man From U.N.C.L.E. returns to its basics for its fourth season, eschewing the ridiculous and outrageous elements that had been inflicted upon its previous season, and focusing more on serious, hard-hitting storylines, with thoroughly credible villains and believable gadgetry. Better still, secret agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) have for the most part abandoned their clever bon mots, and in some cases are questioning and even challenging the "dirty" assignments handed them by their taciturn superior Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). Less flippant and more cynical than ever before, Solo and Illya have completely forsaken the "comic-book" elements that had weakened their characters during the past season. And in another marked improvement -- albeit a superficial one -- the traditionally drab New York headquarters of U.N.C.L.E. have been given a complete face-lift, with the walls now "decorated" with state-of-the-art computer equipment (much of its recently purchased from NASA by the series' producers). One of the few artistic carryovers from seasons past is the "recycling" of certain multipart episodes as ready-made theatrical feature films. Examples during season four include the two-part "The Prince of Darkness Affair," which would be seen in theaters as The Helicopter Spies, and the series' two-part finale "The Seven Wonders of the World Affair," soon to be released theatrically as How to Steal the World. Despite the aforementioned improvements and upgrades in its content, the fourth season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was scuttled by two unforeseen developments. The first was the TV industry's overall toning down of violence, meaning that shows of the U.N.C.L.E. ilk would be denied the huge advertising revenues necessary for long-term survival. The other was NBC's decision to move the series from Friday evenings to Mondays, a move made on the assumption that U.N.C.L.E.'s CBS competition, Gunsmoke, was on its last legs. Unfortunately for NBC, Gunsmoke unexpectedly enjoyed a resurgence of popularity -- and this, coupled with already flagging ratings and a lack of sponsor support, doomed The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to an ignominious mid-season cancellation on January 15, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although it started out as a relatively serious espionage series with satirical undertones, by the time its third season rolled around The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had gone over the bend and was indulging in pure, unadulterated "camp," with outlandish storylines (one involving a deadly "hiccup" gas, another featuring exploding ice-cream bars!), shamelessly overacting villains, and cloyingly "cute" dialogue. Credit -- or blame -- for this metamorphosis can be attributed to the enormous popularity of the ABC series Batman, which in "honor" of its comic-book origins trafficked almost exclusively in exaggeration and hyperbole. However, what worked on Batman did not always work on The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and viewers began to grow tired of the series during its third season. (The show's new spin-off, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., proved to be even more out of control than its parent show -- and as result, it wore out its welcome almost immediately!) To their credit, series stars Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, respectively cast as U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, do their best to keep a straight face throughout the ridiculous proceedings; the same can be said for Leo G. Carroll, still a tower of strength in the role of U.N.C.L.E. chieftain Alexander Waverly. And, on a few rare occasions, the series' new absurdist tone paid off, notably in the two-part "The Concrete Overcoat Affair," which at the very least offered a veritable rogue's gallery of veteran gangster-movie actors, including Jack Palance, Joan Blondell, Allen Jenkins, and Jack LaRue. Incidentally, "The Concrete Overcoat Affair" was one of two multipart season-three episodes that would ultimately be released theatrically as "feature films" (its title in this capacity was The Spy in the Green Hat). The other "recycled" effort was the two-part "The Five Daughters Affair," which boasted the guest-star talents of Joan Crawford, Terry-Thomas, Kim Darby, Telly Savalas, Curt Jurgens, and Jill Ireland, and which would hit the theater screens under the title The Karate Killers. And while we're on the subject of guest stars, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s third season features the "dramatic" TV debuts of Nancy Sinatra and Sonny & Cher, as well as acting appearances by future syndicated newspaper astrologer Joyce Jillson and soon-to-be Hollywood studio executive Lynn Loring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Irving Wallace, The Prize takes place in Stockholm, where several laureates gather to accept their Nobel Prizes. At first, the film concentrates on iconoclastic novelist Paul Newman, but he is temporarily shunted to the background when physics expert Edward G. Robinson is kidnaped and replaced by his wicked twin brother. The real Robinson is to be spirited behind the Iron Curtain, while the "fake" Robinson is to disrupt the awards ceremony with an anti-American tirade. Newman gets wind of the plot, and with the help of Swedish foreign office functionary Elke Sommer, he endeavors to rescue the real Robinson and expose the phony-who has yet another trick up his sleeve before the film is over. We'll go along with the fantastic plot convolutions of The Prize, provided we don't have to swallow the premise of another man's voice emanating from that familiar Eddie Robinson mug. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

We get a double dose of Hayley Mills in this Disney vehicle: she plays 13-year-old identical twins Susan and Sharon, who meet for the very first time in summer camp. They soon learn that they were separated at a very early age when their parents Mitch and Maggie (Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara) divorced. On a lark, the girls switch places: the one living with Mitch goes back home with Maggie, and vice versa. Mitch is planning to remarry the "wrong woman," vituperative Vicky (Joanna Barnes). The twins conspire to reunite their parents, but the road to reconciliation is rough indeed. It takes a slapsticky camping trip to get rid of the troublesome Vicky and to prompt Mitch and Maggie to renew their vows. The film introduced a hit song, "Let's Get Together," which represented the high point of Hayley Mills' very short-lived recording career. The Parent Trap was based on Das Doppelte Lottchen, a novel by Erich Kastner, which had previously been filmed in German and British versions (real twins were cast in both); over thirty years after Parent Trap was theatrically released, a short series of sequels were made for the Disney Channel cable service, with a grown-up Mills back in her original role(s), and two sets of second-generation twins. Baby Boom collaborators Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer would remake the film with a new cast in 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While having lunch at the Plaza Hotel in New York, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) has the bad luck to call for a messenger just as a page goes out for a "George Kaplan." From that moment, Thornhill finds that he has stepped into a nightmare -- he is quietly abducted by a pair of armed men out of the hotel's famous Oak Room and transported to a Long Island estate; there, he is interrogated by a mysterious man (James Mason) who, believing that Roger is George Kaplan, demands to know what he knows about his business and how he has come to acquire this knowledge. Roger, who knows nothing about who any of these people are, can do nothing but deny that he is Kaplan or that he knows what they're talking about. Finally, his captors force a bottle of bourbon into Roger and put him behind the wheel of a car on a dangerous downhill stretch. Through sheer luck and the intervention of a police patrol car and its driver (John Beradino), Roger survives the ride and evades his captors, and is booked for drunk driving. He's unable to persuade the court, the county detectives, or even his own mother (Jesse Royce Landis) of the truth of his story, however -- Thornhill returns with them to the mansion where he was held, only to find any incriminating evidence cleaned up and to learn that the owner of the house is a diplomat, Lester Townsend (Philip Ober), assigned to the United Nations. He backtracks to the hotel to find the room of the real George Kaplan, only to discover that no one at the hotel has ever actually seen the man. With his kidnappers once again pursuing him, Thornhill decides to confront Townsend at the United Nations, only to discover that he knows nothing of the events on Long Island, or his house being occupied -- but before he can learn more, Townsend gets a knife in his back in full view of 50 witnesses who believe that Roger did it. Now on the run from a murder charge, complete with a photograph of him holding the weapon plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country, Thornhill tries to escape via train -- there he meets the cooly beautiful Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), who twice hides him from the police, once spontaneously and a second time in a more calculated rendezvous in her compartment that gets the two of them together romantically, at least for the night. By the next day, he's off following a clue to a remote rural highway, where he is attacked by an armed crop-dusting plane, one of the most famous scenes in Hitchcock's entire film output. Thornhill barely survives, but he does manage to learn that his mysterious tormentor/interrogator is named Phillip Vandamm, and that he goes under the cover of being an art dealer and importer/exporter, and that Eve is in bed with him in every sense of the phrase -- or is she? ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Frances Howard starred as Princess Alexandria in the 1925 silent version of Ferenc Molnar's play The Swan; Lillian Gish assumed the role in the 1930 talkie version. The third and final adaptation starred Grace Kelly, who had one slight advantage over her predecessors; she would soon become a real princess instead of a make-believe one. And don't think that MGM, knowing full well that Grace would retire from moviemaking upon ascending the throne of Monaco, didn't carefully select the timeworn Molnar play for the express purpose of extra publicity. Outside of its mercenary considerations, The Swan is an enjoyable bittersweet tale of a princess who falls in love with her handsome tutor (Louis Jourdan), only to be required to give him up in favor of an arranged marriage of state. The nicest element of the story is that the prince to whom Kelly is engaged, as played by Alec Guinness, is a decent sort, who voluntarily asks for the princess' hand instead of forcing the issue. Of course, the issue has been forced upon him when he realizes the depth of the love Kelly harbors for her tutor. It may well be that this version of The Swan will be the last; on the other hand, who'd a' thunk that someone would want to make Sabrina again in 1995? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A man with a strangely misshapen face wanders out of the desert near a small town and falls to the ground dead. The county sheriff (Nestor Paiva) tentatively identifies the dead man as Eric Jacobs, a laboratory assistant to Professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll), a research scientist living a few miles out in the desert. But there's something strange about Jacobs; his facial features and bodily extremities are distorted to a point where he's barely recognizable. The sheriff calls in Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar), the local physician, who makes a diagnosis of acromegalia, a glandular disorder that affects the body's growth. He also tells the sheriff that it can't possibly be acromegalia, because symptoms as pronounced as those he sees in this case take years to develop, and the man was in perfect health just three months earlier. Hastings refuses to believe the professor's account of Jacobs' rapid deterioration, but the sheriff takes the word of the scientist. Back in his laboratory, Deemer continues his work, going over tests of a chemical on various animals, all of which are jumbo-sized, including guinea pigs the size of rabbits, baby mice the size of full-grown rats, and a tarantula three feet long. Suddenly, the professor is attacked by his assistant (Eddie Parker), whose face and hands are distorted in the same manner as Jacobs, and who injects the helpless scientist with the experimental chemical before collapsing dead. A fire starts during the attack and in the confusion, the tarantula's glass cage is broken and it escapes the burning laboratory, wandering out into the desert. Weeks go by, and a new assistant, Stephanie "Steve" Clayton (Mara Corday), arrives to begin work for the professor. When Hastings gives her a ride to Deemer's home, the scientist explains to the doctor that he's been working on a radioactive nutrient, that, if perfected, could feed the entire world's population. He also says that Eric Jacobs made the mistake of testing the chemical on himself and it caused the disease that killed him. Hastings and Steve begin a romance, unaware that wandering around the desert is the tarantula from Deemer's laboratory, now grown to the size of an automobile and getting bigger with each passing day. Soon livestock and then people begin disappearing, and the sheriff is at a loss to explain any of it, or the one clue left behind in each case: large pools of what seems to be some kind of venom next to the stripped skeletons of the victims. Hastings takes some of the material in for a test; meanwhile, Steve notices that Deemer is going through some bizarre changes. His mood has darkened and his features now appear to be changing, as the acromegalia, caused by the injection, manifests itself. Hastings learns that one of the professor's test animals was a tarantula, which was presumed destroyed. When he learns that the pools near the deaths are composed of spider venom -- equivalent to what it would take many thousands of spiders to generate -- he's certain that the tarantula from the laboratory survived. By this time, the title creature is bigger than a house and ravaging the countryside, killing everything in its path and knocking down power lines and telephone poles as it moves. Hastings arrives just in time to rescue Steve from the attacking creature, which destroys Deemer's house and kills the professor. The sheriff and the highway patrol are unable to slow the creature, now the size of a mountain and moving at 45 miles an hour, even with automatic rifle fire, as it follows the road through the desert toward the town. Even an attempt to blow it up with dynamite fails when the monster walking right through the blast. Finally, the creature is poised to attack the town, when jets scrambled from a nearby Air Force base (led by a young Clint Eastwood, barely recognizable behind an oxygen mask) swoop in. When rockets fail to divert the monster from its path, the jets roar in for a second pass and drop enough napalm to incinerate the creature. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide