The Man from UNCLE: More Parodies
More than two years ago I posted about some sexploitation pulp novels spoofing the 'Man from...' theme of the TV series. Since then I have discovered that I not only managed to miss some of the later and more bizarre titles but I've found another parody series. So here goes:
Incidentally, who would have thought there would be Man from UNCLE chewing gum?
I see there was a film out in 1970 called The Man from ORGY:
Do I even need to say that the plot isn't great literature? Also Slappy White is a great pseudonym!
The feminist critic of the Man from UNCLE I've referred to here before would be thoroughly vindicated. Incidentally should you have a little stack of any of these books, don't give them to your teenage son to ensure his sexual relationships are all screwed up, keep them carefully because some of these books are going for $50 upward on Abebooks.
Incidentally, who would have thought there would be Man from UNCLE chewing gum?
Protagonist Steve Victor (Robert Walker Jr.) is a spy and scientific investigator for the group Organization for the Rational Guidance of Youth (O.R.G.Y.). Victor is given a mission to determine the location of three prostitutes that are due US$15 million from their deceased female manager. Victor starts off the trail only knowing that the three women each have a tattoo on their buttocks of a gopher grinning. He is stymied in his efforts by hired assassins Luigi (Steve Rossi) and Vito (Slappy White). Luigi and Vito have an interest in the investigation because they provided financing for the burlesque business. Another prostitute Gina (Louisa Moritz) states her lack of interest in her owed portion of the monies as she does not wish her wealthy spouse to find out about her activities. Gina tells Victor some clues about how to locate the other two women, although Victor later discovers they are both deceased. Gina had murdered them for in actuality she wants the money. She kills Vito by thrusting a knife into him as he is planning on murdering Victor. Gina turns to kill Victor, but he first shoots the woman and she dies after falling from a window.SourceIn the manner of the time this film also had a connected series of books:
Chicago Calling (with a shout-out to your sheltered youth):
ReplyDeleteJust back from a research jaunt, in re The Man From O.R.G.Y.
The book series began in 1965; this movie is based on the third one, The Real Gone Girls.
I was surprised that you didn't notice that the director here was James Hill, an Avengers veteran (the Peel/King transition episode was his, as were a number of others during that period); a few years before, Hill directed the film of Born Free … but that's another story.
As to Slappy White:
Melvin White was a popular Black standup comic from nightclubs, making his first movie appearance here (at age 49).
He had just started doing a double act with Steve Rossi (op cit.), whose previous partner, Marty Allen, had just gone on his own (You may remember Marty Allen as Patrick Macnee's partner in Mister Jerico, which you wrote up here a while back)(See how this all ties together?).
The star here, Robert Walker (Jr.), was the son of the elder Robert Walker and Jennifer Jones, who was trying to get a film career going, with indifferent to poor success.
The clear intent was to do a string of Man From O.R.G.Y. movies, but the timing was askew, and this was one-and-done (ultimately, there were at least 30 books, but that's another story too …).
More Than You Wanted To Know! will return (but only if you bring stuff like this up …).
Mike, this is not more than I wanted to know, it's absolutely fascinating. This kind of knowledge really does tie all this together!
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