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There are some memorable scenes in the episode. The first meeting with Mrs. Ortiz and Martin Page sets up the mystery as to why the General won't come to see them. Then the "assassination" of the plaster General in the village square, which is highly reminiscent of the JFK assassination, right down to the scene where Scotty is pulled into the open convertible car over the trunk as it speeds off, just like the Secret Service agent in the film clips of Dallas in '63. I wonder if this aspect of the scene was done on purpose? The tension between Kelly and to a lesser degree, Scotty, and Martin Page begins at the cemetery, and I especially like the exchange that goes;
Kelly : "That's very kind of you, Soldier."
Page: "Isn't it, Civilian?"
When Kelly dons his disguise (which is very convincing) and sneaks in to the hacienda, and has his chat with Mrs. Ortiz, the mystery heightens, and then the General "disappears" and Kelly is shot at, and we still wonder what is going on. The Kelly and Scott are set up and sent into an ambush in a very well filmed scene in a grotto like alley in Taxco. And finally, the scene where they sneak into the hacienda at night together combines a lot of humor at first, but the guys get tough and serious when they capture the gunman.
The final scene with the General, he is debilitated by a stroke, though fading in and out of coherency. The mystery is solved, Page has moved in and takes the General's place with his wife and his leadership of the movement. The General, though debilitated, impresses Kelly and Scott with his personality, and they feel contempt for Mrs. Ortiz for having an affair with Page. This sets up an interesting insight into loyalty and love. She loves Page because "He is what my husband was once." Yet she still has love for the General, as we see at the end. The General still has the strength of mind and body to kill Page to save Kelly and Scotty, but inspite of his wife's treachery, he won't kill her, because he knows she still has love and devotion to hiim in her own way. Scotty's line "He's a good man. Even now" is illustrated to be true at the end.
The final scene with the General is thought provoking and powerful, though some of Kelly and Scott lines in dealing with page could have been written better.
The scenes with Shelby Clavell, by today's standards might border on sexual harassment, but in the 1960's they were acceptable, and should not bother us today seen in that light. We have solved the mystery of the General, but the final mystery of the "Glass Pants" is amusing and the balance between humor and seriousness in this episode is perfect.
It is one of my favorite episodes, and I give it a good solid A.
with Delores del Rio
Author: Tatia Loring
Date: 10/13/01 8:20:16 PM
Return to Glory" ... and I`ll agree with the Colonel on this one ... it is one of my favorites also - written by Mort Fine and David Friedkin, who had a mixed bag of scripts to their credit. This was one of those episodes that I didn`t care for that much the first time I saw it , but saw so much more when I watched it again. The depth of the characters of Senora Ortiz and the General were quite fascinating and complex as was their relationship to each other and to the story. The scenery in this one is fantastic - and so much more detail can be seen on the DVD than on the VHS ... like the main church in Taxco in the background when Scotty is first photographed by their contact. Most of the outdoor scenes were just magnificent visually, just wonderful to look at .... except for the garden scene "outside" the hacienda - where the guys pull off some terrific banter and that great square shouldered sweater on a stick gambit and that cute little dog. The ground looks like it is covered in green shag carpeting or bad astroturf - glad they didn`t trip on it .... and the garden itself looks like a philodendron convention just delivered by the gross to the studio.
Something else regarding that scene ... one of the elements that made "I SPY" such a stand-out (and was one of the hallmarks of the series) was their ability to seamlessly and flawlessly shift between comedy and tense drama - without lessening the effect of either or of the storyline. The delightful give-and-take dialogue in the garden as they try to gain entry into the hacienda was very funny - and didn`t lessen the peril we knew our guys were faced with ... Kelly could turn from charming to coldly and deadly serious in seconds. The guys used their humor to help them "handle" the danger they were constantly faced with.
... and did you see who was doing the "punching out" in this one - that was Scotty handling the brawn in that alleyway fight scene.
I loved the music in this one .... many individual instruments were heard - lots and lots of ethnic flavor, like the background during the spinning, twirling upside down fire-dancers on a pole (Wa-Wa dancers, I think Scotty called them) at the cantina ... and did anybody else catch Mr. and Mrs. Leonard in front row seats at the cantina - you can see them as Scotty and Kelly walk past their table to meet Senora Ortiz for the first time. I loved the little boy who tap dances in his cowboy boots in the plaza while playing a piece of wood he wears around his neck (he`s probably in his 40s by now!) My favorite though, is the guitar music, that is being played by the little boy for Senora Ortiz when Kelly (in his adorable Mexican worker outfit) finds her in the hacienda ... soft, simple, beautiful melodic guitar music. Wonderful! ... and Mr. Hagen allowed for periods with no music in this one - the juxtaposition of the lively music enhancing the beauty of the locale - and the more evocative music that enhanced the tense dramatic scenes at the end - were balanced perfectly.
I, too, enjoyed the other story of Ms. Clavell, her relationship with Scotty and especially Kelly, and her approval of the guys` expense accounts - the weaving of the two stories including "the glass pants" worked very, very well. I loved the line about a blank space for one of the items on their expense account list and Scotty`s explanation that it was for "invisible ink." (Colonel, I looked up Ms. Bower in IMDB and she`s still with us ... though was not listed in anything past the early 90s ... she did appear in a movie in 1971 - "See the Man Run" which also stars Angie Dickinson, Eddie Albert, June Allyson, and some guy named Culp - though they didn`t have any scenes together. (The photo of the dark haired page-boy wig and moustache is from this movie which I included in that "Moustaches" posting the other day.) Ms. Bower is famous for her role on "Star Trek" in an episode called "Catspaw" about alien "magicians." She co-starred on this episode with Theodore Marcuse (a bit better known to us "I SPY" fans, as the toupee wearing villain Serba in "My Mother the Spy.")
Dolores Del Rio and Victor Jory were both excellent in their roles. I once said that Julie London was synonymous with the word "sultry" ... Dolores Del Rio can claim the term "stunning!" .... definitely a cool, classy lady. Her Senora Ortiz was a fascinating character -- so many facets - intelligent, manipulative, cunning, opportunistic, yet with a warm and human side -- shrewdness and sensuality, all mixed together. She was quite independent, yet dependent on the men in her life. She wanted many things and would do whatever was in her power to achieve them - but it was not to be. When she invites Kelly to come to her room after he meets the General -"to discuss his impressions - so he can leave with a good feeling about them" - there is no mistaking her intentions (and Kelly looks like he was thinking of taking her up on her offer) if the situation had been more opportune. Though she was a good deal older than Kelly, she was still a formidable beauty who knew how to use her "wiles." The scene at the end, where the General has just killed Martin Page and holds a gun on her and says "It is necessary" ... and she calmly answers "Yes" ... is bursting with bent up emotion and beautifully played, as was the powerful scene where she describes Martin as "what her husband once was!" Does anybody know anything more about Ms. Del Rio`s career and background?
And I always liked Victor Jory - and his portrayal of the General was also very, very well done, especially when we first see him with half his face affected by the stroke. He was a powerful man who knew his plans were at an end, but would not falter to his illness and new weakness, though they now controlled him. Though his abilities (and some of his mental capabilities) were profoundly affected, he was still a man of much strength. I had not realized at first that this story was probably done with a nod to Cuba`s Batista, until someone mentioned it earlier ... and yes Colonel - you are right, the scene with someone shooting at the convertible in the plaza - is very, very reminiscent of the Kennedy assassination! Jory appeared with Culp the previous year in that Sam Houston story on the "Great Adventures" series. Jory was President Andrew Jackson and a mentor to Culp's Sam Houston. This is the one where Culp got to wear that very, very large Cherokee turban headdress and stumbled around drunk and got to orate great long powerful speeches .... bet he loved doing that one!!! (Kent Smith was also in this one and later appeared on I SPY too in "Always Say Good-bye!"
As ever, Tatia
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