Buy "A Time of the Knife" and all the other episodes from
I Spy Season 1
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Comments from The I Spy Forum continued
At the very beginning of "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" - there is a scene as Bob and Carol drive up to the "ESTish" retreat where an Asian gentleman is leading a group in some Oriental movement exercises - and I'm sure it`s David Chow - the police inspector that took care of Kelly so efficiently in "Time of the Knife" with those martial arts moves of his - he is listed as an actor in IMDB, but I wonder if he was some type of judo instructor/expert himself?
And Madlyn Rhue's "hat-scarf thingee" at the end - now that was some fashion-statement!!! ... the entire ending was very cute - Kelly asking after being thrown around like a sack of potatoes by Jean, if he should perhaps "take up Zen" and Scotty's reply, "I think you should take up a bazooka ..."
"A pink belt with a noodle cluster" to you all ...
P.S. I`ll be away for a few days .... guess it will be onto Vol. 3 - "Tigers of Heaven" next week then!
Sayonara!
As ever, Tatia
Author: Colonel Boris Benkovski
Date: 8/7/01 10:45:32 AM
I pretty much agree with SAM, this was a so-so, average episode. There were some good scenes, and good dialogue, but the whole episode seemed to have been kind of "slap-dash" by I Spy standards. A few characters made small appearances without adding substantially to the plot - Mr. Oshima and his secretary were apparently there for the sole purpose of being murdered, and in reality, the plot did not need them. The police detective could have been a much more interesting character, and might have been used more than he was. Alos, there were two lengthy sequences where Kel & Scott followed someone through the streets and scenery of Japan, and this was again some beautiful panoramic scenery , but in this case, I got the feeling that it was contrived, that the plot deliberately worked in the scenes in order to get the scenery into the episode, whereas in most other episodes, these "travelogue" segments fit more naturally into the plot and feel less contrived.
The plot is partially reminiscent of the 1963 Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant movie "Charade", in that the "widow" of a mysterious man has a valuable object without knowing it, and some desperate characters are trying to get it from her. In fact, Madlyn Rhue even resembles Audrey Hepburn, and in that final scene that unusual head gear looks like a similar headdress that Ms. Hepburn was wearing at the beginning of "Charade".
The final 15 minutes, however, are, for my taste, far too similar to "Cup of Kindness" in that Mike has turned traitor and selling out info to the highest bidder. The series was only a few weeks old at this point, and it seems like such a repetition of plot device was not necessary yet. And the whole character of Mike Fane was not very well written. Here was aguy that Kelly and Jean spent the whole episode talking about what a great guy he was, and when we actually meet him, he is a thoroughly cold-hearted bastard written in a very standard and stereotypical way. How could he go from being such a great guy into that cold reptilian viallain sop thoroughly? It would have been much more interesting if the part was written so that Mike was selling out, but his conscience was bothering him, and he was having second thoughts about his actions, and he was very remorseful about Kelly`s life being sacrificed for his scheme. In fact, he could have even had a change of heart at the moment of truth and died a redemptive death. That would have been more fitting for the type of Mike Fane that Kelly and Jean were talking about throughout the early scenes.
The whole episode just seemed to consist of lazy writing, tailored around locations.
Finally, Jean was not badly written up until the end scene. That comic routine of her throwing Kelly at Judo was funny, but it was completely out of character for the personality Jean had established throughout the show. If she was proficient enough at Judo to topple over Kelly, then why did she allow Kraft to molest her in her own apartment. Surely Kraft would have been even easier than Kelly to knock down and defend herself against. And why were her attacks on Mike in the final scene so amatuerish? She could have tossed him around the room too. This was one of very few times I Spy sacrificed the integrity of a major character for a laugh.
The good scenes, apart from the tailing through Tokyo scenes, were the banter in the hotel room between Kelly and Scott before Kelly went to the bath (the Japanese singing, especially). The scene where they practice Judo, and yes, to me, that really did look like Culp and Cosby throwing each other around most of the time. This was a good chance to demonstrate that Kelly and Scotty indulge in the friendly competitiveness that is often such a big part of male friendships. The scene where Kelly is walking back to the hotel in nothing but a towel is hilarious, especially when he hops around because the gravels are hurting his feet. Supposedly, 90% of all people have had that dream where you are naked (or almost naked) in public, and trying to get away un-noticed, and here we see how Kelly reacts when the situation occurs for real, trying to look dignified and inconspicuous - he almost succeeds. Another good scene was the tension in Kelly when Mike is offering him money, and Kelly responds with a back hand across Mike's mouth. The disgust that both Culp and Cosby display for Mike is very well played. Also, the scene in Oshima`s office where Oshima is being uncooperative, and Kelly and Scott are quite short with him is very good as well.
So overall, some good scenes, but the whole finished product, especially the plotting, is not quite up to the high standards of the show itself. Whereas No Exchange was firing on all cylinders, Time of the Knife needed a tune up. I`d call it B- or perhaps C+
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