Spies & Lies - 50 Episodes (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the United States, the new medium of television began mass broadcasting just a few short years after the conclusion of World War II and more or less coincided with the rise of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe in the modern historical period that came to be known as the Cold War era. So it came as no surprise that television, looking for topical subjects for entertainment purposes, would use this real world backdrop as inspiration for a number of early shows during the medium's first decade. Before the full blown television spy craze of the mid-1960s that was inspired by the James Bond films (notably "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series," "I Spy - Season 1 and Mission Impossible - The Complete First TV Season," among others), television viewers were offered a number of shows, mostly non-network syndicated series, that dealt with the Cold War threat.
Mill Creek Entertainment's "Spies & Lies" 4-DVD set rounds up 50 episodes from a number of these 1950s era series, including Brian Donlevy's "Dangerous Assignment," Cesar Romero's "Passport to Danger" and Robert Alda's "Secret File U.S.A.," among others. A couple of the series represented, "Mr. & Mrs. North" and "African Patrol" aren't really in the espionage genre, but one can make the obvious comparisons with "Mr. & Mrs. North" and "Biff Baker U.S.A.," with both series featuring a husband and wife team battling domestic criminals ("North") or evil foreign agents ("Baker"). "Counterspy" is an unsold pilot that's well produced with an exciting story, and it's somewhat of a surprise that it wasn't picked up as a regular series.
The best series in this collection, in this reviewer's opinion, is Sheldon Reynolds' "Foreign Intrigue" a/k/a "Dateline Europe" which, like "Secret File U.S.A." (Amsterdam) was produced in post World War II Europe (Paris and Stockholm). Reynolds is arguably better known as the producer of the 1954 "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series" (also produced in Paris) with Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford, but "Foreign Intrigue" is one of the great unsung syndicated series of the early 1950s. Scripts are taut and the series has a genuine noir feel to it throughout. The series' leads were played by Americans in its various incarnations (Jerome Thor and Sydna Scott in the first version, James Daly in the second, and Gerald Mohr in the final version) and at least one episode from these various versions is included in this set. But the vast majority of supporting actors are English speaking Europeans including, among others, renowned Swedish actors Eva Dahlbeck and Ingrid Thulin. In addition to saving money on production costs by filming the series on location in Europe with European crews, the casting of so many European actors in this series adds greatly to the show's authentic feel. "Foreign Intrigue" ran from 1951 to 1955, and served as the basis for a feature film of the same name produced and directed by Reynolds in 1956, perhaps the first time that a theatrical film was inspired by a television series.
A number of these series have had selected episodes previously released on DVD by Alpha Video (with corresponding duplication of some episodes in this collection), and "Dangerous Assignment - Complete Collection" has been released by the Infinity Entertainment Group, but this set represents the first time that so many shows from the spy/espionage genre have been brought together in a single collection. To the best of my knowledge, this release also marks the commercial DVD debut for "African Patrol" and "Wire Service." The cover artwork for this DVD release shows Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond" from the 1954 "Climax!" television series' live presentation of Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" (the screen debut of "James Bond"), but that episode is not included in this collection.
This set is comprised of episodes that are in the public domain and, as is the case with most public domain material, the source material is typically derived from worn, but watchable 16 millimeter prints. Those who have purchased other TV collections from Mill Creek Entertainment like "Best of TV Detectives 150 Episodes" or "Classic TV Westerns 300 Episodes" will have a pretty good idea of what to expect with respect to the audio/visual quality of this set. The series represented in this set include the following (a few are represented by just a single episode):
1. African Patrol
2. Biff Baker U.S.A.
3. Counterspy
4. Dangerous Assignment
5. Foreign Intrigue
6. Mr. and Mrs. North
7. Passport to Danger
8. Secret File U.S.A.
9. TV Reader's Digest
10. Vise, The
11. Wire Service
Despite the less than stellar source material, this is an enjoyable collection of (mostly) espionage series from television's early years and is highly recommended to fans of the spy genre and/or vintage TV fans, in general. My rating is closer to **** & ½.


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