Here we have a "classic" Get Smart opening and a classic Charlie Chan-like ending, with plenty of laughs throughout.
Max is on a passenger airplane and is shown as the only passenger aboard. He summons the stewardess (I know they aren't called that now, but that was the name in 1970) and asks how come he's the only passenger on the plane. She deadpans, "Oh, I hadn't noticed" explaining she was too busy making Max's dinner.
In the latest weird-phone variant, Max inflates a long skinny balloon to phone the Chief. In a twist, when Larabee at the office has trouble keeping air in the Chief's balloon phone, he is able to transfer it to the Chief's regular phone. With all the steer horns and golf shoes and other phones in this series, I always wondered why the Chief had to have a phone that matched Max's.
Max's assignment is to transport a package that's in the baggage compartment. The Chief tells him if he thinks KAOS is on to him, to pull the red handle next to his window and that will jettison the package to the ground. Max informs him that he pulled that hours ago thinking it was the emergency exit. His further explanation is that the men's room was locked and he had to go.
So we see the Chief and 99 developing aerial photos that show where the package landed, on an isolated house's roof. There is a neat twist to the ol' somebody opens the dark room door or turns on the lights ruining the film gag.
Now Max and 99 will pose as stranded travelers to get the most unfriendly owner of the house, Hester Van Hooten to let them stay for the night, so they can retrieve the package somehow. Hester was played by Gale Sondergaard, a Minnesota born actress, in 1899, who had roles in many films in the 1930s and 40s, then did not appear on film or TV between a 1949 and 1969. She was the featured villain in a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie titled The Spider Woman, and also appeared in a movie Rathbone starred in that had nothing to do with Holmes, titled The Black Cat. The cast list for this film is most interesting, including Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, Bela Lugosi, and Alan Ladd.
She was also in a Zorro movie, an Ellery Queen movie, and a 1943 film titled "The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler."
In a raging thunderstorm-arranged by CONTROL-the Smarts show up at the isolated mansion and are first turned away by the butler Hogarth. They try again, and Hester lets them in for a particular reason. On seeing 99, she doesn't just notice that our favorite female spy looks just like Hester's long-dead sister Rebecca, but believes she is Rebecca.
As the couple enters, Hester introduces herself, the swiftly says, "This is my husband, Jason" and a little bald man steps out from behind a curtain, says hello, and steps back out of view.
After being shown to their room, the Smarts are invited to dinner, but they don't know that Hester has decided to kill them both with poison wine. A loud noise before they can drink or eat anything leads to the death of Hogarth, whose body is lying on the staircase. The Van Hootens say it must be Sebastian.
We learn that Sebastian is a man who married Rebecca 20 years ago and killed her on the wedding night. Mild Jason buried her in the basement, and they've kept Sebastian locked in the attic ever since-except on Christmas Day after they've opened the presents. Then he gets to come out and eat the tree.
The wild climatic scene involves Larabee accidentally saving the day, and Max doing a Charlie Chan-like summation, a detailed list of what he thinks happened, including some obtuse facts that appear to have no connection whatsoever with anything, as Max first fingers one resident of the house, then the second. As an example, he finishes one of his accusations by saying, "I noticed that you wound your spaghetti around your fork from left to right." Nothing more is ever said about this.
Some excellent episodes of this series are excellent up until the really-weak ending. This one I think jumps two stars for the hilarious ending bit, which I made sure NOT to spoil. Watch and enjoy. Overall, a solid 9.
Max is on a passenger airplane and is shown as the only passenger aboard. He summons the stewardess (I know they aren't called that now, but that was the name in 1970) and asks how come he's the only passenger on the plane. She deadpans, "Oh, I hadn't noticed" explaining she was too busy making Max's dinner.
In the latest weird-phone variant, Max inflates a long skinny balloon to phone the Chief. In a twist, when Larabee at the office has trouble keeping air in the Chief's balloon phone, he is able to transfer it to the Chief's regular phone. With all the steer horns and golf shoes and other phones in this series, I always wondered why the Chief had to have a phone that matched Max's.
Max's assignment is to transport a package that's in the baggage compartment. The Chief tells him if he thinks KAOS is on to him, to pull the red handle next to his window and that will jettison the package to the ground. Max informs him that he pulled that hours ago thinking it was the emergency exit. His further explanation is that the men's room was locked and he had to go.
So we see the Chief and 99 developing aerial photos that show where the package landed, on an isolated house's roof. There is a neat twist to the ol' somebody opens the dark room door or turns on the lights ruining the film gag.
Now Max and 99 will pose as stranded travelers to get the most unfriendly owner of the house, Hester Van Hooten to let them stay for the night, so they can retrieve the package somehow. Hester was played by Gale Sondergaard, a Minnesota born actress, in 1899, who had roles in many films in the 1930s and 40s, then did not appear on film or TV between a 1949 and 1969. She was the featured villain in a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movie titled The Spider Woman, and also appeared in a movie Rathbone starred in that had nothing to do with Holmes, titled The Black Cat. The cast list for this film is most interesting, including Rathbone, Broderick Crawford, Bela Lugosi, and Alan Ladd.
She was also in a Zorro movie, an Ellery Queen movie, and a 1943 film titled "The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler."
In a raging thunderstorm-arranged by CONTROL-the Smarts show up at the isolated mansion and are first turned away by the butler Hogarth. They try again, and Hester lets them in for a particular reason. On seeing 99, she doesn't just notice that our favorite female spy looks just like Hester's long-dead sister Rebecca, but believes she is Rebecca.
As the couple enters, Hester introduces herself, the swiftly says, "This is my husband, Jason" and a little bald man steps out from behind a curtain, says hello, and steps back out of view.
After being shown to their room, the Smarts are invited to dinner, but they don't know that Hester has decided to kill them both with poison wine. A loud noise before they can drink or eat anything leads to the death of Hogarth, whose body is lying on the staircase. The Van Hootens say it must be Sebastian.
We learn that Sebastian is a man who married Rebecca 20 years ago and killed her on the wedding night. Mild Jason buried her in the basement, and they've kept Sebastian locked in the attic ever since-except on Christmas Day after they've opened the presents. Then he gets to come out and eat the tree.
The wild climatic scene involves Larabee accidentally saving the day, and Max doing a Charlie Chan-like summation, a detailed list of what he thinks happened, including some obtuse facts that appear to have no connection whatsoever with anything, as Max first fingers one resident of the house, then the second. As an example, he finishes one of his accusations by saying, "I noticed that you wound your spaghetti around your fork from left to right." Nothing more is ever said about this.
Some excellent episodes of this series are excellent up until the really-weak ending. This one I think jumps two stars for the hilarious ending bit, which I made sure NOT to spoil. Watch and enjoy. Overall, a solid 9.
