Comments from The I Spy Forum continued
But the really cool thing was the fact that Kelly never gave up searching and was where he needed to be at that one moment when Scotty was at maximum risk and needed cover from his partner. Not to mention the irony of the slavers being sold into slavery in place of their intended victims. (My big question here is did any of you wonder where the $500,000.00 got to?)
Nice to see I'm not the only human on the planet who's addicted to this show. Any one who wants to get into filmmaking should watch the series to learn how you can shoot on location with a minimum of equipment and still turn out a quality product. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge of it's making and of various details related to it.
Peace,
Jahbad
Author: Tatia Loring
Date: 10/3/01 5:32:03 AM
OK, I admit it - I`ve always really liked Victor Buono ... he was such a neat villain with a unique flare all his own!!! He had a definite quality of style and cunning and abundant charm!
BUT ...
He was at his very best when he could go over-the-top in campy shows like "Wild, Wild West" and "Man from Uncle" ..... in "Turkish Delight" he came off as extremely restrained, because "I SPY" was not a campy show and it didn`t feature the almost "comic book" villains that Buono specialized in.
So "Turkish Delight" really didn`t work ... though the "fez" was a nice touch ... and he was endearing!
I especially liked the exchanges between Scotty and Buono ... where Scotty uses "Kirk-like" logic to convince Karafatma that he definitely needs 4 agronomists for his exchange ... thus ensuring his continued existence. And, uh, Kelly - if they are kidnapping agronomists left and right - and Scotty goes into an elevator and the floor lights don`t move, AND when the doors open a great big trunk is wheeled out (big enough to hold a person) ... maybe, just maybe ... there is a person inside!!! .... Was Robinson sleeping through "Smuggling Bodies Out in Trunks" 101 or was the writer???
The ending with Scotty on the dock - and Kelly finally arriving "to rescue him" was very well-done ... you could feel a genuine camaraderie between Culp and Cosby in some scenes - and that was one of them.
And the old "switch-er-roo" at the end worked nicely too ... the plot elements somewhat coming together ... but not quite enough to make this episode sparkle.
Middle of road grade for this one!
As ever,
Tatia
Author: Soapy Snide Patterson
Date: 10/5/01 4:17:59 AM
Alright, Tatia has cruelly savaged TURKISH DELIGHT, while Benkovski has managed to salvage it somewhat. Both have acknowledged Victor Buono's undeniable charm.
As I recall, Buono died young, at about 44 -- his girth made him appear older than he was. I have always thought of him
as a latter-day version of either: 1) Laird Cregar, who was also rotund, who also played almost exclusively villains, albeit charming villains, and who were always much older than he really was; he also died young -- this was in the early 1940s; or 2) the longtime WarnerBros contract player Dan Seymour, who appeared in such Hollywood classics as CASABLANCA (1943), TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944), and KEY LARGO (1948), to name a few. Buono spent nearly his whole career playing roles that in earlier years would have been played by either Cregar or Seymour, although he was closer to Cregar in his screen persona. Buono could put aside the irony, and actually play parts of considerable pathos, as he did in Robert Aldrich's WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962).
TURKISH DELIGHT also benefits from the presence of Diana Sands as Dr. Rachel Albert. Sands was a gifted young actress in the early 60s, who did some amazing TV work of great emotional intensity (such as an episode of the short-lived George C. Scott series EAST SIDE/ WEST SIDE, in which she and her husband, played by James Earle Jones, struggle with poverty and discrimination in NYC, as well as rats infesting their child's bed, and taxi-cab drivers that won't stop for them when they try to rush their child to the emergency hospital ward). Sadly, Sands died in the early 70s, just short of her 40th birthday.
It was perhaps not surpising that Buono played his role in TURKISH DELIGHT completely for its 'camp' value, while Sands played hers completely straight, without any sign of irony.
My favorite line from the episode came in the airport men's room scene in which Scotty is trying to pass some information to Kelly, when suddenly someone walks into wash his hands (nobody peeed in those days):
Scotty: "....so after I'd made the incision, the patient looked up at me and smiled. I knew then that my diagnosis had been correct."
Kelly: "Really, doctor, that's astonishing...."
It's so ludicrous I simply have to laugh every time I think of it.
The other thing that stands out about this episode, and which was mentioned on this forum about a year and half ago, is that when Kelly begins his search for Scotty he gets in a taxi cab in Mexico City, as I recall, and ends up at the sea coast. If so, it must have been the longest and most expensive cab ride in television history up to that point, and perhaps for many years hence.
I think the episode is a fun and amusing one -- light, charming, with no real sense of drama or doom, despite the intended fate of the scientists who were, essentially, being sold into slavery. Also, as Benkovski has mentioned, the fine location photography during Kelly's search adds an expansive feel that counteracts the claustrophobia of the dark interiors at Karafatma's lair.
-- Patterson
|