User Reviews

As a Boris Karloff fanatic , I had to track down this episode. I had seen it as a child on it's original run , and always remembered the scenes of Boris fighting the windmills, a la Don Q. Boris is a nuclear scientist who has developed anti-missile technology. Of course, it's up to Culp and Cosby to convince the nutty Boris that the good old USA will use his discovery for the good of humanity. In the meantime , Karloff leads our heroes into some bizarre situations that are life threatening including deadly encounters with some nasty German agents who also want the technology for their own evil purposes. Boris is surprisingly athletic here, considering that he had just filmed "Die , Monster, Die" , playing the entire movie from a wheelchair. Here, he runs (albeit with an obvious leg brace), is flipped up in the air by Spanish peasants, and wonders about energetically, giving a wonderful performance as an old man with Alzheimers. This episode really shines compared with some of the other TV work he was doing at the time (The Girl from UNCLE , The Wild Wild West). Karloff fans will want to see this one.

"Mainly on the Plains," from Feb 22 1967, remains one of I SPY's best remembered episodes, due to the stunningly energetic performance of a 79 year old Boris Karloff, whose busy 1966-67 TV season had already yielded THE WILD WILD WEST ("The Night of the Golden Cobra"), THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. ("The Mother Muffin Affair"), and the animated Chuck Jones classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." On location in Spain, Robert Culp's Kelly Robinson and Bill Cosby's Alexander Scott accompany nuclear thermodynamics expert Don Ernesto Silvando (Karloff) on a journey from Seville to Madrid. The professor is more than absent minded, as his fascination with Don Quixote (61 different volumes!) extends to him reliving events in Quixote's life en route, managing to earn Kelly much physical pains from windmills, peasants, police, and shepherds. Meanwhile, the Germanic villain Horst (Carl Schell), in failing to convince the master dialectician Don Ernesto of his phony Austrian heritage, keeps tabs on the three until his henchmen are ready to make their move. The unknown cast of extras include one uncredited actor only months away from his starring debut in Spanish terror, Paul Naschy, who appears at the 24 minute mark, among a half dozen peasants wearing berets (the short one in a dark jacket), accosted by Don Ernesto, and good naturedly tossing him and his comrades in the air. It was after filming that Naschy observed the seemingly abandoned Karloff, in tears waiting hours for the ride back to his hotel, inspiring the title of his posthumous documentary "The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry." Of course, inspired by Lon Chaney's Lawrence Talbot opposite Bela Lugosi in "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man," Naschy himself jump started the horror genre in his native Spain with "La Marca del Hombre Lobo," released in the US as the misleadingly titled "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror," another connection to the Karloff legend. At this stage of his lengthy career, only two years before his death, Boris is surprisingly active throughout, constantly on his feet with his ever present cane, with only his final feature film, "Incredible Invasion," demanding as much of him in a physical sense. Bill Cosby always cherished the memory of working alongside Karloff, as did so many other performers during his lifetime, and he waited only a short time before doing another role in Andalucia, Spain, shooting the horror feature "Blindman's Bluff," a US co-production eventually released as "Cauldron of Blood," playing a sightless sculptor whose creations are actually murder victims of his domineering, faithless wife (Viveca Lindfors).

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Towards the end of his life, Boris Karloff still managed to make appearances in several vehicles I - and others still hold dear (anyone familiar Mad Mad Monster Party? How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Aside from making several - so-so films, Mr Karloff also made appearances on several TV series I love, including Wild Wild West, The Name of The Game, and this -in a way his most touching, and in a way, reflective appearance.

I'm fortunate to have met Mr Karloff several times as a (very!) small child, and though I have fleeing memories, I've got the pictures to see him with me (my father told me he was a wonderfully gentle, kind person, and one thing he regretted was that he never liked to frighten children, but my dad also told me one of the reasons he loved spending time with me is he made me laugh a lot)

Mr Karloff is a Spanish professor who's an genius in thermodynamics (as Scotty tells Kelly, he's a 'thermodynamacist' - try saying that 3 times quickly), who's mathematical formulas are valued by both sides - for their ability to help make anti-anti missiles (it sounds funny, almost unreal, but that's the game of brinkmanship).

The professori's not one who'll just give the work; in fact, he's almost a pacifist, but he's also a deep respect for genuineness and a lover of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

The episode is a road trip of sorts, as Scotty and Kelly accompany the professor - because he genuinely likes them -and an agent of the opposition, who - after failing to win over the professor (who sensed his disengenuineness, trails them.

One quality of this show I love is the postcard-like scenery, and here, the sights of La Mancha Spain are front and centre; open flat vistas, and yes; windmills.

It's a beautifully shot trip the 3 are on (Kelly says to Scotty, 'this is the way to see Spain; an open car, with the sun bearing down and the wind on your face...', I could get lost in it).

The beauty here is an important part which compliments messrs Karloff and friends, and I couldn't recommend better traveling companions