Mission: Impossible

I have reviewed this show twice on the weekly “What classics did you see…” thread on the Classic Film Board. The first time in 2007 and again last year. Here are my reviews, reprinted for your elucidation and entertainment over two replies.

2007

Mission: Impossible Season Two. Many people who fondly remember this great TV series may not realize that Peter Graves, as the IM Force leader Jim Phelps, didn’t join the cast until the beginning of this, the second season. This season and the third are usually considered the most consistently good of the seven season run (1962-1973) even though there are classic stories in every year. Martin Landau and wife Barbara Bain also join as regular cast members (they were billed as guest stars during Season 1). The fun part of watching was to follow the rituals. The opening credits started with the justly famous theme tune (one of the greatest TV themes ever) and a burning fuse over flash cuts from that night’s episode. Then Phelps would get his assignment from a hidden tape recorder (“Good morning, Mr. Phelps”) which would end with “As always, should any member of the IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow all knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.” Lordy, how many jokes, parodies and pop culture references have been made to that self-destructing tape? Maybe even more than to Bergman’s knight playing chess with death. This is followed by Phelps selecting his team for the mission and then the Apartment Scene where the team talks over some of the tricks they are going to use but without revealing to the viewers how they will be used. Even though most would describe the show as spy or thriller, I always took it as straight-faced, perfectly timed comedy. How else do you explain the convoluted plots, the outrageous gadgets and the uncanny ability to perfectly predict how the bad guys will react to anything the IMF says or does? Marvelous.

Episode One: “The Widow” Actually the sixth hour to be filmed, Graves as Phelps plays a rather minor part in his own scheme and so is introduced as the new leader in a low key. Guest star William Windom is a major drug dealer who gets the ultimate comeuppance. This also features one of the show’s most memorable elevator tricks.

Episode Two: “Trek” A sprawling adventure over a searing desert landscape with set-up situations designed to trick evil Dan O’Herlihy into leading Jim to a cache of stolen treasure. Mark Lenard plays a corrupt military officer. Lenard is a well-known actor to fans of the original “Star Trek” series. There are many parallels to the two shows. “Star Trek” and “M:I” were both shot on adjoining sound stages, Martin Landau was briefly considered for the role of Spock and Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, replaced Landau in the fourth “Mission” season.

Episode Three: “The Survivors” A bit of a disappointment because Our Heroes seem to go to a lot of unnecessary trouble, but this is one of the first episodes where they manage to create a massive illusion. Evil doer Albert Paulsen’s hideout is in the basement of a building in San Francisco so the IMF convinces him that a massive earthquake has struck and he is trapped under tons of rubble with no help of rescue.Later in this season, they will make a terrorist think that he has started a nuclear war.

Episode Eight: “The Seal” Multi-billionaire Darrin McGavin has a priceless art collection in a penthouse. The collection’s room has electrified doors, pressure sensitive floors, and sound detectors. Of course, Phelps’ mission is to steal an item from the collection for the sake of national security. This story contains what is probably the series’ most well-remembered set-piece. The sequence involves a cat. ‘Nuff said. Also, Landau gets to put on some vague Asian-looking makeup and use a silly accent. One of the high points of this – or any other – TV series. Priceless.

Episode 16: “The Emerald” William Smithers and Michael Strong play two formidable villains; Barbara Bain gives one of her best performances. The IMF uses high tech to cheat at poker, fleece a bad guy and retrieve an emerald holding a microdot with enemy plans on it. Nicely done. This one deserves multiple viewings.

Episode 17: “The Condemned” This story steps outside the format. An old friend of Phelps’ is condemned to be executed for murder in a foreign country. Phelps, certain of the man’s innocence, has only a few hours to find the real killer and bring in new evidence. Unforgettable.

mf

I've never been anyplace I want to go back to.

2013

Last week I reviewed the terrible “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and commented on how inept the IM team was. So I decided to return to the classic TV series as a picker-upper. “Mission: Impossible” premiered on September 17, 1966 and ran for seven seasons, ending in the spring of 1972. Conventional wisdom is that the best of the show appeared in the first three seasons until the husband-wife team of Martin Landau and Barbara Bain left for what they hoped would be greener pastures. (Landau was replaced by his good friend Leonard Nimoy who turned in some of his best work over the next two years). However, when Season 5 was in production, as all admit now, writers were simply running out of story ideas. So they decided to make some changes of the kind that with any other show would indicate jumping the shark or nuking the fridge etc. etc. First, the producers decided that the Impossible Missions force would stay home more, spending less time in foreign countries. They would tackle organized crime, usually called The Syndicate. Next, they would leave the regular show format to allow the continuing characters to find adventures within their private lives. Finally, they introduced more danger by having the Missions not always go smoothly, having something or other go wrong and force the heroes to improvise. More of the unexpected happened. They also tweaked the pre-credit sequence so that, most of the time, it starts with a teaser showing some nefarious gangster committing an evil act. This is followed by a quick cut to the Self-Destructing Tape Recording scene in which M:I leader Jim Phelps gets the assignment to bring down the evil-doer.

Also, joining the MI team as a regular this season was 23-year-old Leslie Ann Warren (billed without the “Ann”) as Dana. Instead of the sophisticated Cinnamon, played by Barbara Bain for the 1st three seasons, Warren often posed in the cons as a free-living hippie girl. She’s actually quite good, but the producers who hired her almost at once came to believe she was all wrong for the series. One of the problems they had (but I don’t) was that she brought – and insisted on – some ideas of her own about her character, mainly that she shouldn’t wear a bra. You go girl.

M:I Season Five: “The Killer” (First broadcast on 9/19/70). They put these principles in practice for the adventure that opens the 5th year and it is one of the all-time greats, one that people still remember seeing from its first run. Robert Conrad plays Eddie Lorca, a paid assassin who never plans anything in advance. When he arrives at an airport, he will pick his hotel at random from a phone book then take the second or third cab in line. He will not even plan how, where, or when his hit will take place, often rolling dice to determine his decision. Phelps (Peter Graves), Paris (Nimoy), Willy (Peter Lupis) and tech expert Barney (Greg Morris) must get close to Lorca and be able to anticipate his next move. Very twisty and suspenseful.

M:I Season Five: “Flip Side” (First broadcast: 9/26/70). A typically good episode, although not spectacular, yet producer Bruce Lansbury named this as his favorite story, perhaps because it is the first where Our Heroes tackle illegal drug trafficking. They give us a great villain line-up with Sal Mineo, Dana Elcar, and Robert Alda. Warren is given a nice surprising final line.

M:I Season Five: “The Innocent” (First broadcast: 10/3/70). A story who’s script questions the basic premise of “Mission: Impossible.” While on a mission in the Middle East, Barney is taken prisoner and is near death. His expertise is needed to reprogram a computer to destroy a new nerve gas during production and erase the formula. Now, Phelps has to turn to someone outside the Intelligence community, a computer genius named Dr. Jerry Carlin (Christopher Connelly) who has dropped out to travel the world and doesn’t give a flip about international conflicts. Our Heroes have to blackmail and practically impress him into service while he questions their every move and threatens their own safety. When Jim tell him they want to prevent another weapon from coming into being, Jerry shoots back, “Yeah, one of their weapons.” It is something of a revolutionary concept for a TV story to question its series’ own reason for being. This also featured the 3rd appearance of Sam Elliot as a semi-regular. Elliot is given no credit in the opening titles. Larry Linville, later Frank Burns in TV’s “M*A*S*H,” makes his second appearance as a Bad Guy. It’s unfair, I know, but I have make an effort to take him seriously as a ruthless Russian agent.

M:I Season Five: “The Merchant” (First broadcast: 3/17/71). For the last episode of season five, producers brought in the champ of roguishness and flippant villainy, George Sanders. But working with the legendary actor was not what the cast and producers thought it would be. Sanders was either unwilling or unable to learn his lines. He cut up his script and left small pieces of paper laying around the set on concealed in the palm of his hand. Leonard Nimoy said, “I remember him being a very depressed, sad man. He sat quietly by himself, did not interact with anybody.” Years later, Greg Morris told an interviewer, “Of all the guest stars that we had, he was probably the biggest shock. The man was a shell.” Yet, the writers had supplied him with the kind of cynically sarcastic lines that he was associated with and he delivers them adequately enough. Sanders committed suicide 13 months after this episode aired. This was the last M:I story for Leonard Nimoy. He turns in a very strong closing performance.

M:I Season Six: “Casino” (First broadcast: 2/19/72). Now let’s jump to the last two seasons and the closest “Mission:Impossible” came to a sequel. In this story, Jack Cassidy at his oiliest is the manager of a Syndicate-owned casino. The mission was to get Cassidy in so much trouble with his bosses that he would be forced to testify against them. They manage this by stealing all the money from the casino strong room and framing Cassidy for it. He has to turn to the Feds for protection.

Season Seven: “Kidnap” (First broadcast: 12/2/72). A Syndicate boss, played by John Ireland, spends months looking through security camera photos to identify the people who carried out the robbery on Cassidy’s casino. When he locates Jim and Barney on vacation, he kidnaps Jim – thinking they are master criminals - and holds him so Barney will be forced to find a way to rob a safety deposit box and retrieve incriminating evidence. Barney goes ahead with a plan, also planning to trap Ireland while, in an unused bomb shelter, Jim is working on his own escape. Very nice. Geoffrey Lewis also guest stars. The acting award for this episode goes to Lynda Day George who, although only about three years older than Leslie Ann Warren but more mature-looking, was the female regular for the last two seasons.

The complete run of “Mission:Impossible” is available on Netflix streaming.

mf

I've never been anyplace I want to go back to.

I just loved this show. I watched most of them back in the 60's. I still enjoy them on Netflix. One of my all time favorites. Thanks so much for the background info. Harold.

I watched the entire series recently. It was much better with Martin Landau and Barbara Bane and Leonard Nimoy. I didn't care much for the new characters after those three left.