Now this is more like it!  With the Summit-Five meeting a few days away. Napoleon visits U.N.C.L.E. HQs in Berlin to check out the security set-up.  However, when the Chief of Security (Don Chastain) turns up dead after rushing out to transmit a message to Mr. Waverly, Solo finds himself one of three suspects (along with Lloyd Bochner and Susanne Cramer) and is later subjected to some grueling interrogation.  Albert Dekker (Dr. Cyclops) turns in one of his final (and finest) performances as the eccentric U.N.C.L.E. Northeast Chief Harry Beldon (he’s rather reminiscent of Dr. Gregory House, too: he pulls up with two women and a bottle of champagne, has a steam room in his office and wears a lavish fur coat with no pants - and all of my past-employers said I was uncouth).

Luigi’s Useless Information: Aside from the wonderful acting and some rather artful cinematography, Season Four also introduces us to Mr. Waverly’s newer (read: more high tech…for 1967, that is) office and his new assistant, Miss Rogers…whom I find somewhat irritating in a Know-It-All-Roger-Moore-As-007 kind of way.  Miss Rogers is played by Barbara Moore…who was also in Deadwood ‘76 with Arch Hall, Jr.  She would later all-but-disappear from film/television altogether.

Dr. Stoller (Paul Lukas), a scientist running a fencing school front in Guadalajara, has created a new breed of supermen (how he has accomplished such is never revealed).  Thrush is interested in his new playmates and have requested that his best and brightest pupil, Greg Martin (Christopher Jones) destroy a village in Greece to prove his might.  Lynn Loring, Milton Parsons, D’Urville Martin and Martin Kosleck guest star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Christopher Jones was envisioned as the next James Dean (or so producers had hoped)…but the late-60s drug scene, a failed marriage and the death of friends Sharon Tate and Jim Morrison left Jones emotionally unfit to carry on an acting career.

Thrush is determined to assassinate industrialist Mark Tenza (Broderick Crawford) and his son Adam (Chad Everett) and our boys are assigned to protect them.  Unfortunately, the elder Tenza is unwilling to co-operate.  When a barely decipherable recording from a deceased man alerts Illya to a figure known only as “J”, it seems that only Adam knows the answer - but he won’t talk, either.

No, it isn’t Satan as the protagonist in this two-parter - it’s Bradford Dillman!  Dillman plays Luther Sebastian - a master criminal who is wanted in 22 countries.  When U.N.C.L.E. learns that evil scientist Dr. Kharmusi (John Denher) has created a “Thermal Prism” capable of generated intense heat beams (or a “laser” if you will), they recruit Sebastian to help them steal the prism with the promise of total amnesty.  Things get a little complicated with the arrival of Annie (Carol Lynley) and Askoy siblings (all played by H.M. Wynant) who are determined to get Annie’s fiancé and the fourth Askoy brother out of a Turkish prison (Billy Hayes?).  Things grow even more complicated when Sebastian pulls a 180 and suddenly intends to dominate the world with the prism as per the cult he belongs to!

Luigi’s Useless Information: The members of Sebastian’s cult wait for the Old Man to speak (for the first time in decades) - thus signifying their place in the world.  The Old Man is played by none other than John Carradine.  Sid Haig makes a quick appearance in the first half as one of Denher’s henchmen.

The incomparable Jack Lord guest stars in this one.  Jack (complete with ascot and accent) plays a former Thrush agent that occasionally provides U.N.C.L.E. with information (it’s really all a double play on his part) that is being hunted down by his former associate Valandros (Nehemiah Persoff).  Illya gets brainwashed in this one.  Leslie Parrish, Richard Angarola and Paul Kent co-star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: I particularly enjoyed one scene involving some pyrotechnics: Solo shoots an explosive on the ground and a rock flies into the air - barely missing the camera (and probably hitting someone that was standing behind it).

Barnaby Partridge, a minor Thrush affiliate determined to reach the top, runs the hard-to-pronounce Club Thanatopsis, a casino in the Caribbean with a private gambling room in back where high-ranking government and private officials alike get to (literally) play for their very lives.  Kuryakin gets brainwashed in this one, too.  Charles Drake, Nobu McCarthy, Robert Ellenstein and Karen Carlson co-star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Personally, I think all casinos enable you to gamble with your life.

Karmak, an old adversary (played with gusto by the venerable Darren McGavin) has a bone to pick with Solo and Kuryakin.  He arranges the kidnapping of Kuryakin from his hospital bed and holds him prisoner in a gas chamber, arranging for Solo to track him down in a condemned 10-block area of Manhattan so that Karmak the Magnificent can play The Most Dangerous Game (complete with a big bad cat as a pet).  Marlyn Mason co-stars as Solo’s accidental Fay Wray.  A recommended episode.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Stefan, Karmak’s assistant, is played by cult fave Timothy Carey, a man who made a career out of portraying sociopaths and henchmen.  Of his many parts, two of his most famous roles will always be The World’s Greatest Sinner (which he also wrote, produced and directed) and (of course) his portrayal of Ulysses in Bayou (1957), a box office flop that producer Michael A. Ripps would later add-to, re-edit, and subsequently re-release as Poor White Trash (1961) - which would go on to make a bloody fortune on the drive-in circuit and is sometimes referred to (by some) as the dawning of the grindhouse era.

Illya arrives in the South American country of Querido to come to the aide of Angela Abaca (Madlyn Rhue), an Evita-based character whose life is in danger by The Secret Three, a band of revolutionaries backed by Thrush.  Illya abducts Angela and whisks her off to Switzerland while Solo attempts to find the leaders behind The Secret Three.  Joseph Sirola plays Angela’s husband, El Presidente Abaca.

Luigi’s Useless Information: When Illya foils an assassination attempt at the beginning, he is made a national hero and later mobbed by a group of young Latinas (the lucky bastard) - in real life, this would happen to both McCallum and Vaughn regularly.  Anytime I see anything that even remotely resembles the story of Evita Peron, I automatically think of the “SCTV” Indira skit - Joe Flaherty’s impersonation of Slim Whitman is one of the few things in this world that will cause me to break out in tears from laughing.

Illya is assigned to track down a missing code book at an U.N.C.L.E. Survival School (which is located on an uncharted island).  The commander of the camp (and Kuryakin’s former teacher), Mr. Cutter (Charles McGraw) presents Illya with three prime suspects: John Saimes (Chris Robinson), Melissa Hargrove (Susan Odin) and Andrew Hague (Ray Girardin) - one of whom is a double agent for Thrush and if they’re permitted to graduate with their fellow pupils, it could mean the end for U.N.C.L.E.!  Richard Beymer co-stars.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Out of the 105 U.N.C.L.E. episodes produced, this is the only one that does not feature Robert Vaughn (but his character is nice enough to send his best to Illya and his seemingly-impossible task via Mr. Waverly).

One of the many nice things about the old days of television was that good character actors would be brought back time and time again to play different parts - Will Kuluva is one such example: for his last U.N.C.L.E. appearance, Kuluva plays Dr. Hans Von Etske, an aging Nazi scientist who breaks out of prison with the help of a mind control ray gun provided by Marshal Gurnius (George Macready) and the deadly Colonel Nexor.  Their ultimate goal is to control the President of the United States (does one really need a mind control ray gun to manipulate the President?  Just waving a dollar bill in his face should be more than sufficient)!  When Nexor is killed, Kuryakin assumes his identity (which is convenient considering both parts are played by the same actor) and meets up with the gang in South America.  Meanwhile, Solo has his hands full with an unwanted tagalong photographer (Judy Carne - who looks good in that tiger-print outfit).  Joseph Ruskin plays a Thrush agent.

Luigi’s Useless Information: Note the “N” insignias the neo-Nazis use - I imagine they were created as an alternative to the swastika so that the sensitive viewers at home wouldn’t be offended.

Two U.N.C.L.E. agents are slain after obtaining some top-secret information.  With Illya away (no explanation is given), Andreas Petros (Robert Wolders) steps in to assist Solo and the pair are sent to Greek island Irbos, where criminal scientist Dr. Killman (John Larch) has taken over.  Thrush Central is not very pleased with Killman’s apparent lack of progress on his Earthquake Machine and have sent an efficiency expert to the island (yes, even Thrush suffers from the petty squabbling of micro-management) to see to it that the destructive device is completed on schedule.  When the Thrush expert is killed in an accident, Solo takes his place and is able to infiltrate the camp.  The lovely Barbara Luna (in several flashy outfits) co-stars.

Luigi’s Useless Information: The Piranha vehicle gets a lot of use in the Fourth Season.  Strangely enough, the only time we see any of its nifty James Bondian accessories in use is the one time that neither Napoleon nor Illya are in it!

After a less than triumphant attempt to blow up U.N.C.L.E. HQs in New York, two Thrush agents (Lawrence Montaigne and Barry Cahill) opt for Plan B and steal the prototype for the new molecutronic gun from its creator, Dr. Febray (William Marshall).  Somehow, even out in the middle of nowhere, Solo still manages to find a woman (Ahna Capri).

Mr. Waverly tries to persuade Europe’s top U.N.C.L.E. agent Brian Morton (Peter Bromilow) to call off his upcoming wedding to Laura Adams (Diana van der Vlis) because he can’t stand to lose him.  Meanwhile, Thrush Commander Krohler (Alfred Ryder) is determined to get his hands on the plans for a top secret nuclear submarine and takes Laura hostage in order to blackmail Morton to assist him.

The final (two-part) chapter of the U.N.C.L.E. series begins with agents Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin searching for missing official Dr. Robert Kingsley (Barry Sullivan), who has gone AWOL in order to use a special gas that will conclude the never-ending battle between good and evil (with good being the victor, of course).  Unfortunately, Kingsley doesn’t know that his own wife (Eleanor Parker) is working for Thrush…who is secretly financing his operation.  Peter Mark Richmond (who starred as Adam Chance in the James Bond/U.N.C.L.E. rip-off Agent For H.A.R.M. two years earlier) plays the main Thrush villain and Leslie Nielsen (yes, Frank Drebin of “Police Squad!” is on the case!) co-stars as General Harmon.  Tony Bill, Albert Paulsen, Inger Stratton, and Dan O’Herlihy also guest star.

Luigi’s Useless Information: A majority of this somewhat bland series finale (particularly the end) was filmed at Los Angeles International Airport (Sullivan’s base of operations is shown as being the Theme Building (which was only seven years old at the time).  Enjoy the wonderfully weird scene where Sullivan scolds Leslie Nielsen in which he says “There will be no more discussions, general, no more shooting, no more drumhead courts-martials (sic), no more killing.  I hope I make that clear.” - the amusing part about it is that his lips match very little with what he’s saying and the dubbing is choppy at best, making my answer to that a big fat “Hell, no!”