SPY VIBE

LAMBRETTA TWIST

Rolling out of the week looking at Mod style by Liam Gallagher and the new documentary The Who, The Mods, and the Quadrophenia Connection, I discovered an amusing curiosity for Vespa fans- "The Lambetta Twist" by Quartetto Cetra and a little 1960s, Italian Space-Age style. Not quite Mods and Rockers at Brighton, but definitely a time capsule. Could almost be a moment from the new OSS17 films. To all you scooter-riders around the globe, twist away! And for you Mod fans of The Who looking for something with more edge, the classic documentary, The Kids Are Alright, was released today on Blu-ray!

NEW PRISONER RELEASED

The recent AMC mini-series based on Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 23rd. Read the review at DoubleOSection here.

From Amazon: The Prisoner miniseries is a reinterpretation of the British 1960s cult hit series that starred and was co-created by Patrick McGoohan. The Premise: A man, known as Six, finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no memory of how he arrived. As he explores his environment, he discovers that his fellow inhabitants are identified by number instead of name, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing whom to trust, Six is driven by the need to discover the truth behind The Village, the reason for his being there, and most importantly -- how he can escape. Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ , The Thin Red Line) plays the role of Six; and two-time Oscar nominee Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code) co-stars as Two.

JEREMY DUNS ON FLEMING'S DIAMOND SMUGGLERS

Our Man Jeremy Duns (Free Agent) has published an interesting article about Ian Fleming's The Diamond Smugglers and the book's near-brush with the big screen. The article is available here at The Times Online.

MOD STYLE: PRETTY GREEN

It's been a while since Spy Vibe reported that Liam Gallagher (Oasis) formed a new men's designer clothing line inspired by Mod style. If Spy Vibe is "1960s Style Meets Action", then anyone who has seen Gallagher strut to the edge of the stage and belt out a tune knows that this guy has it in spades. Liam's passions are music and clothes, and his new company, Pretty Green, continues to offer some really cool gear! Spy Vibers will know that Mod culture has been through many waves and incarnations. As discussed in the new documentary, The Who, The Mods, and the Quadrophenia Connection, the 1979 film version of The Who's classic concept album coincided with an upcoming underground Mod subculture (including Jam master, Paul Weller- another rocker-turned limited edition designer). Mainstreaming Mod fashion in the early 1980s seemed to kill the integrity of the movement, perhaps as it originally did in the mid-1960s. Nothing deflates the power of a subculture like success. But despite the mass-packaging of Keith Moon-style RAF target T-shirts and the like, an authentic group of Mods has endured. Perhaps these waves are not so much revivalist as much as they are, for some, sincere updates for each generation that identifies with Mod sensibilities . From what I know of Liam, he'd probably laugh at any analysis and remind us that these clothes are -just plain cool, man! Quoted on Live4Ever, Liam said, "It's more about style than fashion, and Pretty Green won't take any notice of trends. Fashion comes and goes. Style remains." Along with limited edition Mod parkas, boating blazers, and Lennon-inspired caps at Pretty Green, you'll find a number of collarless jackets, scarves, and even a wool coat that references Paul McCartney's "Fool On the Hill" segment in Magical Mystery Tour. It appears that Liam is having fun with this project. As for his music, the last I heard is that Liam is writing new material and planning to record with Gem and Andy. Hopefully Ringo's son, Zak Starkey (The Who), will return as drummer. Pay a visit to Pretty Green and check out the catalog, as well as an archive of videos and interviews. For you iTunes people, here is Spy Vibe's best-of-Liam tracks from Oasis: Songbird, Meaning of Soul, Better Man, Born on a Different Cloud, Love Like a Bomb, Guess God Thinks I'm Abel, I'm Outta Time, and the cover of My Generation by The Who.

YOJIMBO MEETS DANGER MAN

Masaru Sato (1928-1999) was an aspiring soundtrack composer who found his great inspiration in Akira Kurosawa's 1950 masterpiece, Rashomon. Sato went on to assist in Kurosawa's 1954 classic, Seven Samurai, and enjoyed a ten-year collaboration with the director on a number of films, including High and Low and Red Beard. But it was his unusual use of Jazz themes, percussion and strings, and harpsichord/keyboard sounds in Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) that brings the composer's work to Spy Vibe- and where Yojimbo meets Danger Man.

There was a quite a creative wave hitting the world in the early-mid 1960s. As Sato was scoring Yojimbo in Japan in 1961, Edwin Astley (1922-1998) was already into his first year composing music for Patrick McGoohan's run as John Drake in TV's Danger Man. Listen to sample tracks from each composer below. The similarities are most acute when hearing Astley's keyboard cues, but even his Danger Man theme illustrates notes of comparison. Sato and Astley were working in different countries, but they found a kindred sound to ignite their dramas. Though one might categorize Yojimbo as a period piece and Danger Man as Espionage/Adventure, I would say that the approach that these works share help to define what we might now term Cold War-era spy music. From Yojimbo and Danger Man, one can hear echoes of future scores from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and other 60s spy adventures. Two interesting pieces of trivia: Pete Townshend of The Who was married to Edwin Astley's daughter, bringing two Spy Vibe fave worlds together. Kurosawa's Yojimbo, of course, was re-made by Sergio Leone when he launched the Spaghetti Western boom in Italy with Clint Eastwood in Fistful of Dollars (1964).

Masaru Sato's Yojimbo soundtrack is available through Screen Archives Entertainment. Full sets and compilation CDs of Edwin Astley's scores are available through Network. Review of the upcoming Blu-ray edition of Yojimbo from The Criterion Collection here.

LA DOLCE VITA: FELLINI

Francis Coppola said that when he was coming up in film in the 1960s there were three giants: Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini. I first saw a Fellini film when I was twelve and I was quite baffled by it (Juliet of the Spirits). But my imagination was also ignited by the images I saw. From that moment on, I knew there was an outer border where some creators dare to dwell. Fellini began as a cartoonist (another reason for me to relate to him), and he made an important transition from the Neo-Realist films of post-war Italy to wildly imaginative works that allowed fantasy and dream imagery to collide with narrative. The movie that rests between these two periods is the classic, La Dolce Vita (1960). Famous for its scene between Anita Ekberg and Mastroianni in the Trevi fountain, La Dolce Vita brought the emotional level of his earlier characters into a hip, young setting. Images of Vespas, open-top sports cars, and Mastroianni in his dark suit, thin black tie and sunglasses established what we envision as early-mid 1960s Italian cool. It is a Spy Vibe that has been copied and parodied countless times (did anyone see Saturday Night Live's La Dolce Gilda?). The open sexuality and loose morality of the film caused quite a scandal- a scene that was humorously played out in another Mastroianni film a couple of years later, Divorce Italian Style.

A new Fellini book is due from Rizzoli in March. Federico Fellini: The Films. Published on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of La Dolce Vita, this is the most authoritative survey ever of Federico Fellini's complete oeuvre. This definitive and important contribution on Federico Fellini chronicles the body of work of one of the most influential and revered directors of all time, and one of Italy's most important modern cultural icons. It features the great director's own drawings, sketches, storyboards, notes, and commentary along with behind-the-scenes photographs- both on set and off- and covers each film from the entire span of his career. Largely never before published, the material collected in this lavishly illustrated volume is drawn primarily from the archives of the Fellini Foundation and from the Fellini family's private collection. Incidentally, Rizzoli has a similar book devoted to Kurosawa coming out in early March as well!

Like Teshigahara and Takemitsu, Fellini enjoyed a special collaboration throughout his career with one composer- Nino Rota. Below is the quintessential piece from his soundtrack to La Dolce Vita, a sound that would help define and inspire the resurgence of lounge soundtrack music in the 1990s and a song covered by the band, Combustible Edison.

TATI TIME

News from The Criterion Collection about a special event this weekend: A boon for Los Angeles Tati fans this weekend: The Magnificent Tati, a new documentary by Michael House that traces the career of the Playtime auteur, premieres at the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre, as part of the series Tati Time. After the screening, the Aero will show rare shorts co-written or directed by Tati, including Rene Clement's 1936 Soigne ton gauche and Tati's 1947 School for Postmen. The usual gems- Mon oncle, M. Hulot's Holiday- will also be there to delight. Spy Vibe's coverage of the Mid-Century Modern Playtime here.

IRWIN ALLEN CONTEST WINNER!

Humberto is the winner in the random drawing for The Complete Time Tunnel from Hermes Press! Thank you to all of the Spy Vibers who wrote about their fave Irwin Allen shows. It was awesome to hear about the qualities, both narrative and visual, that interested you. More contests coming up, so please enter for new chances to win Spy Vibe prizes. Visit Hermes Press to check out the full catalog of cool 1960s Gold Key comic reprints.

TIME TUNNEL: CONTEST

Enter to win a copy of the 1960s Complete Time Tunnel comics by Gold Key. For those who did not see the show, The Time Tunnel was a Sci-Fi series (1966-1967) about two scientists who fall through the tunnel in their lab into a constant flux through history. As their colleagues struggle to figure out how to bring them back to the swinging 1960s, the travelers engage in weekly adventures to survive. A bit of an Irwin Allen take on Doctor Who, with Allen's signature attention to style and entertainment. Just look at the set designs below! The repetition and perspective of the tunnel itself was a fantastic graphic. Translate those stripes to fashion and you have the costumes from Our Man Flint! That's no surprise, as series Art Director Jack Martin Smith also worked on Our Man Flint, In Like Flint, Batman, Green Hornet, Valley of the Dolls, and Allen's Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

For Spy Vibers interested in checking out the show, see One Way to the Moon. In this Cold War-inspired episode, the two men appear on a rocket ship bound for Mars. The astronauts immediately suspect them as foreign spies! And because of their added weight to the craft, the flight commander decides to make a fuel stop on the moon before bringing the mission prematurely back to earth. Of course, our guys aren't spies. But there is a saboteur on-board! And he's got murder and mayhem planned for the crew! Gold Key Comics are well-known among Spy Vibers for their 1960s TV tie-in comics. For samples, see Spy Vibe's coverage of Man From UNCLE end pages and Mister 8's coverage of Secret Agent #1. To win a copy of The Complete Time Tunnel comic collection from Hermes Press, see details here. Contest ends March 1st.

WINNER!

Gareth-Micheal Skarka is the winner of James Bond: History of the Illustrated 007! Thank you to everyone who entered. It has been really cool to read about your fave spy art. I may have to track down samples of everything and create a gallery post! Remember that there is a current contest for the complete reprint book of Gold Key's 1960s Time Tunnel comics (based on the TV show by Irwin Allen). The deadline for entry is March 1st. Plus- more prizes coming up, including Vintage! Thanks for being a part of Spy Vibe!

SIGNAL FROM AGENT J

For a chance to win a copy of James Bond: History of the Illustrated 007, remember to have your entry in by tomorrow (Feb 22nd). It's been fantastic to read everyone's entries so far! Details here. And if you are a fan of Irwin Allen's 1960s Sci-Fi adventure shows (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants), or the 60s TV comics from Gold Key, enter for a chance to win the new Complete Time Tunnel book from Hermes Press that reprints all of Gold Key's Time Tunnel stories- plus lots of behind-the-scenes info and images. Details here. VINTAGE prizes coming up as Spy Vibe celebrates Year One!

TESHIGAHARA: FACE OF ANOTHER

Before taking on the family business of cutting-edge flower arranging, Hiroshi Teshigahara created avant garde films with futuristic elements and haunting, visual poetry. Like the Paris experience of Picasso, Cocteau, and Satie, Teshigara's Japan of the late 1950s/1960s was a fertile hotbed of collaboration with novelist Kobo Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu. Their 1966 film based on Abe's novel, Face of Another, should stand out for Spy Vibers for its Sci-Fi vibe and unforgettable, modern/graphic set designs. Fans of Akira Kurosawa will recognize lead actor Tatsuya Nakadai -often cast as the nemesis to Toshiro Mifune. Here, Nakadai is given a new face and leads us down the rabbit hole of this startling film about identity and trust. Recommended!

SPY VIBE BIRTHDAY PRESENTS

What's a birthday without presents? Spy Vibe celebrates its first year with a series of contest give-away prizes! Need hints? Think... Gold Key, Irwin Allen, James Bond, Secret Agent...

THE AVENGERS & MATT HELM: WATCHDOG

Spy Vibers will want to stop by Barnes and Noble this weekend and pick up a copy of issue #154 of Video Watchdog. The front and back cover not only feature beautiful photos of John Steed and Cathy Gale from The Avengers, but also cinema's original international man of mystery, Matt Helm. Much of the issue is devoted to writer Kim Newman's excellent (and thorough!) coverage of surviving episodes of the first season of The Avengers as well as complete coverage of season two episodes in the order they were originally taped. In addition to the meaty, Spy Vibe tasty text, Newman provides a number of fantastic photographs. If that wasn't enough to whet your secret agent appetites, Newman also reviews the Matt Helm Lounge box set of the four Dean Martin classics, The Silencers, Murderers' Row, The Ambushers, and The Wrecking Crew. If you can't find Video Watchdog at your local retailer, you can also order issues directly from them here.

Fellow C.O.B.R.A.S. agent Bish reported recently about another special edition magazine on stands now. Put together by the editors of American History, "100 Greatest Spy Movies" is available at Borders and other retailers. The magazine highlights most of the top espionage thrillers throughout cinema history. Though I did not see Deadlier Than the Male listed (what gives?), I did note the newsworthy mention of Triple Agent by French New Wave auteur, Eric Rohmer, who recently passed away. Titles covered from the 1960s are: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Goldfinger, Manchurian Candidate, Ipcress File, Dr. No, Funeral in Berlin, Looking Glass War, Army of Shadows, The Deadly Affair, From Russia With Love, The War is Over, Torn Curtain, The Counterfeit Traitor, Our Man Flint, Operation Crossbow, Billion Dollar Brain, Guns of Navarone, The Venetian Affair, Modesty Blaise, Ice Station Zebra, and Quiller Memorandum. The films are not listed in order of rank or alphabet, so I'm hoping a Spy Vibe reader will uncover a code. The magazine also features many sidebars about how some of the films relate to real spy cases in history.

JASON'S SONG/FILM ON YOUTUBE

Spy Vibe Jason's winning song/film project with the Plastic Ono Band is now listed on Yoko Ono's YouTube Favorites. The visuals are black and white, experimental scenes of ocean creatures, but I think readers may enjoy the Lounge/Jazz approach of the music. You can read more about the project here. Before creating Spy Vibe, I have been composing music and making films for the international festival circuit. My previous film, I Was A Dancer -filmed in Japan- was short-listed for the Sundance Film Festival and screened around the world. Being a lifetime fan of 1960s revolutionary artists like Ono and The Beatles, I feel thrilled and blessed to have had a chance to collaborate with the Plastic Ono Band and to share the results. Thanks for checking it out!

THE WHO: BLU MOD GROUP

Breaking out as The High Numbers, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltry, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle embraced the 1960s Rock and Roll explosion with tunes tailored to Britain's Mod scene. The flip side of their initial single echoed the sub-culture slang, "I'm the Face." To be The Face meant to be popular or cool. With a change in management, the group was reborn as The Who, and embodied the youth generation through Pop Art and Auto-Destructive Art concepts. The use of military insignia (the RAF target) and other icons as fashionable Pop symbols ignited the imagination, and continues to sell T-shorts today! In 1965, the year of the big spy boom and The Beatles' Help, The Who released "Can't Explain" and "My Generation" and rocketed to stardom. As the culture evolved in 1966 and beyond, The Who began to experiment with concept albums and linked song cycles, first in short story/Pop Art form (A Quick One, The Who Sell Out), and then moving into full-blown rock opera (Tommy). Along with The Beatles, perhaps no other band stands today as a reflection of the 1960s as an era of ever-changing narrative and visual revolution. On March 2nd, Universal Music Group will release the excellent documentary, The Kids Are Alright on Blu-ray. Play it loud! Spy Vibers may also want to check out a new (still unseen) documentary called The Who, The Mods, and The Quadrophenia Connection. Looking for Mod clothes? Check out I'm The Face.

MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E: TIM ESTILOZ

A short celebration of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. by reporter/performer Tim Estioloz, originally aired on the Comcast Network.

Spy Vibe turns One today! How did it all start? After a number of movie and comic scripts, and a non-fiction book about cartoon art, I was adapting a movie guide book I wrote into a new blog project. It would be a place to discuss how films go together like elements of a fine feast. A little Fellini here, an echo of Woody Allen there- discussions of the great auteurs and genres in cinema history. But then I heard about the passing of actor Patrick McGoohan. I began to reflect on The Prisoner and the other spy-related artifacts from the 1960s that were so much a part of my background. Before I discovered Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, etc, my imagination was ignited by images of secret agents in tight suits, the sleek lines of the Jaguar XK-E, and Jazzy-Lounge music of 007, Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers. I remembered the spy-fascination of my childhood: making silencers for cap guns out of painted rolls of paper, making cassette recordings from the TV so I could re-experience stories as radio dramas, and collecting spy memorabilia. An avid James Bond fan, I joined the fanclub and savored issues of the club magazine, Bondage. And I waited patiently each year to catch a broadcast of my fave film of the era, The 10th Victim by Elio Petri. As an adult, I loved to look deeper into these old adventures and relish the cultural significance of their production design, costumes, and stories. The influence of the space race, the sexual revolution, and the baby boom was, and remains, thrilling to explore. Although the movie guide book was a solid project, I could not escape the lure of Swingin' 60s Spy Satisfaction. I began the Spy Vibe blog and website on January 11, 2009 with a tribute to Patrick McGoohan.

CONE OF SILENCE

The genius of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry ensured that Get Smart would be a true original. Defining secret agent, nitwit humor, Max Smart spawned many imitations (including most of the kid's programs recently covered in Spy Vibe's look at trench coats). The "cone of silence", here from the pilot episode, still cracks me up. Happy Friday to all Spy Vibers!

IT TAKES A THIEF

Spy Vibers of the 1960s-1970s era thumbed through TV Guide each week like explorers looking for rare treasure. Was a station airing The Avengers or Wild West West? Maybe The 10th Victim or On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Because if they weren’t listed, it meant that it could be another week, another month, or even years until those thin black ties and silencers would show up again on the screen. This was a time before streaming video, before Netflix, Blu-ry, DVDs, VHS, Laser Disc and Betamax. Like many kids, I loved any chance to see the likes of The Prisoner, UFO, Man From U.N.C.L.E., and James Bond. Unless shows were in first run, or we're looking at the 80s -when Bond marathons became more regular, we just never knew when they'd be on. But I had a vision of the future. I dreamed of growing up and having a studio with a kind of library, where I could enjoy studying these adventures in depth. One cannot underestimate the power of the technological floodgates that opened and flourished during this past decade. Not only did we make the transition to DVD, Blu-ray and streaming, various studios around the world have also been busy releasing archival editions of virtually every Spy we ever hoped to find. Apart from a few that still have not made it to release, that dream of the library has come true. A few titles that have eluded major digital releases in disc-form have at least found their way to streaming venues like Hulu. Fellow C.O.B.R.A.S. agent Armstrong Sabian recently posted a reminder that some U.N.C.L.E. episodes are available. Hopefully Spy Vibers have the box set collection for the full complete-library experience. Amazon currently has the set on sale. Armstrong's reminder got me thinking again about other titles that are streaming on-line.

It Takes A Thief made a brief comeback in the wake of Austin Powers when Mike Meyers hosted a week of 60s spies. I seem to recall that episodes started airing briefly. It Takes a Thief began in January 1968 and ran for 65 shows until 1970. The premise: Alexander Mundy (Robert Wagner), an infamous cat burglar, is offered a full pardon in return for lending his special talents to his country. Spy Vibers may recall Mundy's SIA controller cajoling, "I'm not asking you to spy. I'm asking you to steal." Sort of a Mod Squad meets The Saint adventure show, It Takes a Thief has not seen a full digital release, but 63 episodes are available for viewing on Hulu! This is not breaking news, but may possibly be off the radar of some readers. The show is a cool classic that is worth checking out. Head over to our favorite magazine, Cinema Retro, for a wonderful past article about It Takes on Thief on-line.

GERRY ANDERSON UFO MOVIE

Director Matthew Gratzner is working with producers Avi Haas and Henri Kessler to bring a re-imagination of the sci fi classic, UFO created by Gerry Anderson, to the big screen. Legendary producer Robert Evans is behind the scenes in a collaboration with ITC. The movie website's synopsis seems close to the original: Based in the near future - 2020, where a super secret military organization SHADO (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defense Organization) becomes operational. Its purpose, to defend Earth from an Alien race, which has been abducting humans from all corners of planet earth for decades. SHADO's cover is a Movie Studio with their main headquarters hidden deep below the surface. SHADO is run by the extremely dedicated "Studio Mogul" and SHADO Commander Ed Straker who has a cadre of crack operatives with an arsenal of cutting edge futuristic weapons systems and hidden bases on earth and beyond.

Forbidden Planet has posted an interview with the director where they address casting, as well as fan concern about how the new version will incorporate essential elements from the original show. I would not want to see a campy or dated revision, but I do count purple hair, miniskirts, Nehru jackets, space-aged sleek cars, and Barry Gray organ lounge music as essential elements. Partial joking aside, Gratzner says in this excellent piece that "My biggest goal for this is firstly to not alienate the fans of the original show. We're not picking up where the series left off - we are starting from the very beginning. We really take the franchise seriously, unlike a film such as Thunderbirds, where they were saying 'here's a franchise that was great and everybody loved it, now let's put a whole new spin on it...'. We're not doing that. There's a reason UFO has a following, there's a reason that Gerry Anderson has a following, and for us to overlook that or take that for granted would be foolish." Sounds like the project is in good hands.

From FP: "What I want to do with UFO is what Christopher Nolan did with the Batman franchise, or Martin Campbell did with Casino Royale." says veteran Hollywood visual effects wizard Matthew Gratzner, now the director/co-producer of a $130 million Hollywood adaptation of Gerry Anderson’s cult 1970 UK TV show. "UFO is not a spoof, or a parody or a kids' movie. It's a pretty dark story, actually…it is not a show for young children." UFO is set for a 2011 release with photography starting early this year. Spy Vibe will be watching for more updates. Fans may also want to check out the UFO Series website and the Gerry Anderson website, Fanderdson.

FERRARI BY LELOUCH

The New Year offers us a chance to pause and consider resolutions and the passing of time- and nothing says "passing of time" like Ferrari! In the driver's seat today is film director Claude Lelouch. Lelouch had been working on documentaries and was just about ready to pack it all in when he created his Academy Award-winning (and career saving) film A Man and a Woman in 1966. Lelouch had a true knack for capturing the poetry of everyday lives and relationships, and it didn't hurt the film that it starred Jean-Louis Trintignant as a race car driver and Anouk Aimee as a script girl. Poetry-in-motion, indeed. Lelouch was a car enthusiast, and years later he made a rather infamous short film called Rendezvous. The concept? During the length of one reel of film mounted to the bumper of his Ferrari 275GTB, a man rushes through the streets of Paris (without stopping for traffic or lights!) to meet with his love on the other side. The camera was set, the film started, gears slammed into place- and the Ferrari blasted off on its uncertain journey. Absolutely exhilarating! Legend has it that Lelouch could not (or did not) get a permit to make the film, leaving the streets open to the public, and that he hired a professional driver to take the wheel. Made in 1976 (video below), the classic style and sound of the Ferrari roaring over cobblestones in retro Paris has Spy Vibe written all over it!

Claude Lelouch's Rendezvous... from Dat on Vimeo.

CHRISTMAS RUSH FOR 007
Before Pierce Brosnan uttered his "Christmas in Turkey" line in 1999's The World is Not Enough, George Lazenby kept 007 in a frantic Christmas rush for survival in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. No holiday rest for secret agents! After a heart-pounding ski chase down a mountain at night, Bond is rescued by Diana Rigg- another reason to love this classic! Here in French (refresh window if video does not load). Happy Holidays from Spy Vibe!

SPY KIDS: BACK IN TRENCH COATS

Secret Squirrel found its fun Spy Vibe elements in conventions like lethal gadgets- a spy squirrel with a machine gun cane? Now that's 1960s surreal thinking! Episodes showed up on a recent DVD release of classic 60s cartoons and I enjoyed revisiting this dangerous little rodent. But as I started to look at other spy-related programming for kids during that era, I found that they all offered the same basic package: nitwit comedy cloaked in a throwback to hard boiled crime fiction- the trench coat. As we saw on Spy Vibe earlier this year, it was the peeling off of these drab macs that helped give 1960s spies a fashionable boost over their private eye counterparts. Bond's tux hidden under the tight wetsuit! Yet, the trench coat endured throughout spy fiction and remains a catch-all symbol for sneaky intentions (no connection to "dirty mac" stories here- we're PG13). 1960s London counter-culture centerpiece, Barry Miles, said that there was a major turning point in the early-mid 1960s when the cash-earning baby boomers started to come of age. To paraphrase, he said that before the shift, young people all dressed to look like middle-aged people. But after the shift, everyone started trying to dress like young people. So when Cold War spies became popular entertainment, we saw examples of productions embracing the youth-generated curve of that shift. Great examples were The Avengers with those kinky leathers and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. with Mod outfits and miniskirts. In the comedy productions, especially those made for kids, there was a slightly middle-aged approach that downplayed the sexuality and expressiveness that otherwise was a great part of 1960s liberation. Instead of cartoon characters in wild new fashions, the form was watered down for mass consumption and took on the trappings of the older generation. Replace the stubble and Fedora of the private eye with sunglasses and a gadget and you've easily turned the symbol of the 1930s-1950s "gumshoe" (Philip Marlow, Sam Spade) into the symbol of a "spy-in-disguise." Luckily overcoats were more popular back then- maybe a trench coat spy might have had a chance of blending in with the commuters!

There are two claims to the invention of the trench coat, but Burberry certainly has a firm hold on the garment's history. They originally began producing long coats to protect officers from the elements during the Boer War in 1895. A few modifications and wars later, the jacket began to evolve closer to its modern image during WWI, when it was dubbed the "trench coat" as officers wore them in the first trench battles. I'm sure that there are scholars of pulp fiction, Black Mask magazine, etc who could trace when the jacket became indelibly linked with crime fiction. Early pulps pictured private eyes dressed in the look we all associate with Bogart's portrayals of heroes by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. 1965's Secret Squirrel even borrowed from the Bogart lexicon by giving him a sidekick based on Peter Lorre! The WWI aviator's version of the trench coat showed up in European intrigue films, like Fritz Lang's Spione (1928). The trench coat look swept into fashion, and was acculturated for rush hour workers; men and women throughout the decades standing on metrolpolitan train platforms. As Hugh Hefner's sexual revolution took hold in the 1950s and beyond, he was in many ways rebelling against that grey flannel suit/raincoat lifestyle. Bond and the spies that followed in his wake ran with the young crowd in sexy, thin gear. But for kids and spy comedy? It was keep on the baggy side of life.

Imagine we were producing the major spy comedies targeted for younger viewers during the spy boom. We are like Mr. Briggs or Mr. Phelps of the Impossible Missions Force, flipping through our portfolio of secret agents: Boris Badinov (Bullwinkle), Secret Squirrel, Max Smart and Agent 99 (Get Smart), Cool McCool, Fred Flintstone (Man Called Flintstone), Lancelot Link, MAD's Spy Vs. Spy. They all have the outfit. Even the bungling Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther) had the right wardrobe to face international intrigue, as did other spoof-film characters played by Doris Day (Glass-Bottomed Boat), Fabian (Dr. Goldfoot), and others. The comedy-spy characters of the 1960s clearly had the same tailor. Just as Bond baddies dressed "Nehru," this batch came from Central Casting with one requirement- wear a trench coat. The costuming and storytelling did not alter much among this group. They didn't have great style. But the characters made us laugh and remain important to 1960s spy culture (and the contemporary spin-off market). In some cases, like the bikini-wow Dr. Goldfoot films, the trench coat reads as a kind of "straight man" symbology in the comedy. What most of these productions lacked in fashion, they made up for in fun gadgets- a theme taken up years later by another trench coat-wearing crime/comedy firgure, Inspector Gadget.

The one major spy character for adults in the 1960s to actually look right in a mac was Michael Caine's Harry Plamer (The Ipcress File). Somehow his working bloke's portrayal brought authenticity to the jacket. It read more as ubiquitous than iconic; character-driven rather than cartoony.

To step into the Swingin' 60s side things, check out Spy Vibe's PEELING OFF THE TRENCH COATS. And because I love getting The Beatles into any discussion if possible, check out The Dirty Macs, a one-off 1968 band that included John Lennon, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell, and Eric Clapton!

SPY KIDS: SECRET SQUIRREL

In the wake of the James Bond phenomenon, the world of entertainment and merchandising brought Cold War spies into the fold alongside cowboys and army men. As we saw in the Mattel toy commercials earlier this month, fantasy play took on a taste for intrigue and gadgets- for the stylish world of Espionage! Spy Vibe takes a look back at some of the secret agent programming for kids that was part of the Spy Boom in the mid-1960s.

Secret Squirrel made his debut in Hanna-Barbera's The Wold of Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel in 1965. He was Agent 000 for the International Sneaky Service and took his orders from his chief in England, Double-Q. Secret shared his missions with a fez-wearing sidekick named Morocco Mole (with Peter Lorre accent). Taking cues from the 007 franchise, Secret battled a Goldfinger-like baddie named Yellow Pinkie with a cool spy arsenal -hat and trench coat filled with gadgets and a machine gun cane. The main voice actors were veterans Mel Blanc (Looney Tunes), and Paul Frees (Boris Badenov in the Bullwinkle Show and the voice of John Lennon and George Harrison in The Beatles cartoon!). Secret Squirrel ran both solo and as part of the Atom Ant show for three seasons.

Secret Squirrel Lyrics

What an agent, what a squirrel

He's got the country in a whirl.

What's his name?

Shhh...Secret Squirrel.

He's got tricks, up his sleeve,

Most bad guys, won't believe.

A bullet proof coat, a cannon hat,

A machine gun cane with a rat tat tat tat.

Fights foreign spies

In his disguise,

Takes him many places,

He's a squirrel of many faces,

Who's that?

Who's that?

Who's that?

Shhh...Secret Squirrel.

Shhhhhhhhhhh.

007 AUDITIONS 1969

It's always interesting to look back at film and television projects to see who might have won the leading roles had auditions gone differently. LIFE magazine has posted a wonderful collection of photos from the auditions held to fill Sean Connery's tux for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). I seem to remember having a copy of the magazine and seeing some of the images, but a number of unpublished photos have been added to their website. Chosen from 400 hopefuls, five actors were in the running: John Richardson (She, One Million Years B.C.), Anthony Rogers (El Dorado, Camelot), Robert Campbell, Hans de Vries (Shalako), and commercial actor George Lazenby.

As seen in the photos, each candidate went through screen tests to determine their on-screen chemistry to woo women, dispatch baddies, and sip martinis. The story is that Lazenby broke a stuntman's nose during the tests, which gave him a physical edge over the others. But take a look at the still test shots over at LIFE. It seems to me that Lazenby shines with a kind of charisma and rises above the rest. I think he was a fantastic Bond and On Her Majesty's Secret Service remains among my top few 007 faves. Check out the audition pictures. Who would you have chosen as James Bond? If you could go back in time to cast the 1969 film, who would you have suggested for the role? Discuss at the Spy Vibe Blog.

EUROSPY ON HULU

The watchful eye of Spy-Fi Channel has spotted a little gem on Hulu that will be of interest to Spy Vibers. Hulu is currently showing the MST3K version of Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966) starring Ray Danton and the ever-lovely Marisa Mell (Danger Diabolik). The film is also available in the MST3K Vol 12 box set. Check it out for a limited time on-line for free.

AGENT ZERO M: MOVIE CAMERA

AGENT ZERO M: SONIC BLASTER

AGENT ZERO M: RADIO RIFLE

THE MAN FROM A.N.T.I.C.O.L.

SPY TOYS: U.N.C.L.E. GUNS & MORE

SPY TOYS: SECRET SAM CASE

SPY TOYS: 007 ACTION PACK

THE MUSIC OF ITC

The folks at Network will release a very cool soundtrack collection this week that spans a large number of our fave ITC classics. Network does an incredible production job on their products. I have the Danger Man and Prisoner sets and they are like archival treasures from the ITC vaults. Network operates like the Criterion Collection and loves to add great extras for fans. The new collection is a great way to sample a variety of theme and incidental music from series such as Man in a Suitcase, The Protectors, Strange Report, Department S, Jason King, The Champions, The Saint, The Prisoner, Gideons' Way, The Baron, Strange Report, The Persuaders!, The Adventurer and more. the CD is being released at a sale price of $21.

Consisting entirely of original as-used-in-the-series recordings (no lacklustre cover versions here!), this set contains some of the best music ever made for television. Celebrated composers Edwin Astley, Albert Elms, Ron Grainer, Robert Farnon, Roger Webb, John Cameron and Wilfred Josephs showcase their skills with a diverse range of musical styles and some legendary theme tunes. Alongside a commemorative booklet it also includes exclusive music suites from The Persuaders!, The Zoo Gang, Return of the Saint and The Baron that are not available elsewhere.

THIRD MAN OOP

A quick Spy Vibe transmission to let readers know that the Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition of The Third Man has gone out of print. No updates so far about when they may resume production. Until then, scope out your local shops to pick up copies before they are gone.

THE ADVENTURES OF RICHARD SALA

THE 10th VICTIM THEME

Spy Vibers know that I have a special thing for this film. I don't know how I came upon it as a kid, most likely on WOR TV out of NYC. I remember looking in the back of TV Guide each week for two things: Beatles films and this stylish gem from Elio Petri starring Marcello Mastroianni. Just as the tunes from the Beatles cartoon, A Hard Days Night, and Help informed my tastes, so did the 10th Victim soundtrack by Piero Piccioni. The vocal scat performance by Mina seemed to promise a kind of fantasy/romance that I could grasp as a youngster. I imagine that the style might sound odd to someone who did not grow up with it. But if you are a fan of other Italian composers who used unusual sounds, vocalizations, and instrumentation (Ennio Morricone for example), that may provide an audio context to enjoy the 10th Victim music. I found a lovely short video of the English version of the theme song, Spiral Waltz, on YouTube that offers a look at some rare stills, covers, and posters.

RETRO SPOOKY STYLE

Spy Vibers may be interested in checking out a current sale over at Deep Discount. Classic horror flicks are 2 for $10, and the list includes some films that represent some of the coolest spooky style and design of the period. Any fan of the macabre, stylish work by Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Richard Sala, Charles Addams will love the Dr. Phibes films with Vincent Price. These really are a must-see and I will write more about them in the future. Also on the list is the cult Hammer Horror classic The Vampire Lovers with the lovely vamp herself, Ingrid Pitt. Other titles include Invaders From Mars, Die Monster Die, and a grindhouse double feature I've not seen called Mini-Skirt Mob/Chrome and Hot Leather. That sounds like a contender for Mystery Science 3000. Check out the sale and enjoy some retro, stylish storytelling during the Halloween season.

007 PROP REPLICAS

The Commander Bond Network announced something rather exciting today. For those of us who combed toy shops as kids for 007 toys, and more often, had to work like NASA engineers to create Bond-style gadgets cobbled from household items (cardboard and black paint make a great silencer), a better-late-than-never deal is in the works to produce officially licensed props from the films themselves. The most interesting prop listed so far is a replica of Scaramanga's golden gun. I wonder if it will assemble from a golden lighter, pen, etc? Click image below to enlarge. 

From the CBN: Big Chief Products Ltd. is proud to announce a license agreement with Eon Productions/Danjaq LLC to produce a range of movie prop replicas, based on the gadgets and related items from the James Bond film series. Working in partnership with appointed exclusive distributor Factory Entertainment Ltd. Big Chief will release a comprehensive range including entry price point replicas, through to high-end collectibles. These authentic, highly detailed replicas of iconic items featured in the James Bond films are officially licensed by EON Productions/Danjaq, LLC and are based on studies and examinations of the actual screen-used props to ensure maximum accuracy.

Items currently in development include 1:1 scale replicas of: Scaramanga’s golden gun from The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); the fearsome metal teeth worn by Jaws in films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and Solitaire’s tarot cards as featured in Live and Let Die (1973). Factory Entertainment will begin offering these exciting new James Bond collectibles both direct to consumer and at wholesale, worldwide from late 2009.

Big Chief director Mark Andrews said: “We are thrilled to be working with EON Productions. As fans ourselves we know people have been eager for James Bond prop replicas for many years. We are committed to delivering a range of products from the heritage era films right up to the current Daniel Craig films which people will be proud to own.” Big Chief and Factory Entertainment are each comprised of industry veterans, who are passionate about delivering high-quality limited edition collectibles and operate offices both in the UK and USA and have worldwide distribution channels.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROGER MOORE

Celebrating Roger Moore’s birthday today, I keep thinking about something Paul McCartney said about admiring Elvis as a kid- that Presley “just looked perfect.” Growing up with reruns of The Saint, I looked to Moore with a similar kind of attention. Not only did he fill those stylish suits with an archetypal heroic physique, he had a perfectly gelled haircut that swooped back across his head- just as heroically. Moore brought a roguish charm to The Saint, raising an eyebrow to the camera and inviting us into that deliciously decadent world of 60s jet setters. The notion of being a jet setter didn't just seem like grist for adventure tales to me as a young boy- it seemed like a future career option! The Volvo P1800, the gentleman thief/spy, the gorgeous actresses and exotic locations. The world of Moore’s Saint was “just perfect” and introduced me, along with The Avengers, to a life-long passion for something that Roger Moore had a lot of- Style.

Roger Moore starred in the first James Bond film I ever saw on the big screen. Though the clothes (and cars) were slightly less cool to my 60-s Spy Vibe tastes, I remember being completely swept up by the soundtrack music, the gun barrel opening and title sequences, and most of all, Roger’s Saint-like charm. Though I enjoy all of the 007 actors, Roger Moore will always carry a certain degree of panache and British-ness that I hold dear. Despite periods when I though I needed 007 to be edgy and serious, I have ultimately realized that the world of 007 offers a cool and fun experience for every mood. After meeting Richard Kiel recently, I re-watched The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker as a double feature. It brought me back to those early experiences in the theater and I found myself once again cheering for the heroic, witty, and roguish Roger Moore.

Some highlight clips from Roger’s career: In an episode of The Saint from 1963 (Luella), viewers got a 9-year sneak preview of future Moore’s Bond with David Hedison (Felix Leiter). Note the hair, the suit, and those winking glances at the audience. In 1964 Roger made this Bond spoof (included as a special feature on the Live and Let Die DVD and Blu-ray disc). Moore starred with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders just before making the leap to Bond. The show grows on me as I open up to its playful tone and 70s-cusp aesthetic. Here is an especially dramatic moment for Moore’s character that offered him a bit more acting room. Lastly, the trailer from The Spy Who Loved Me. If videos fail to load, try viewing from the Spy Vibe Blog site. Images from the Getty Collection and the Daily Mail.

THE 60s EXPOSED

Sue Steward of the Evening Standard reported today that a Photography exhibit has opened at the National Portrait Gallery that captures the decade's styles and design trends through a look at Pop stars. With names like David Bailey, Angus McBean, The Beatles, David Bowie, and Mick Jagger, we know we are in for some Spy Vibe-cool artifacts. A highlight, she writes, is the work of Fiona Adams. Her 1965 image of Bowie and a Mod-styled Jeanette is below. Adams made the now-famous image of The Beatles leaping for the Twist and Shout EP, which has been revived as current Rock Band iconography. 007 Thunderball vocalist Tom Jones is also featured. See below for a 60s live performance! From the Evening Standard:

The subtitle to this autumn blockbuster, "the 60s exposed", carries a whiff of sex'n'drugs'n' rock'n'roll revelations. In fact, it is a nostalgic, impressive documentary marking the rapid changes in pop, contemporary design and photography between 1960-69. A shot of press photographers in raincoats waiting for The Beatles at York Station, by Northern photo-journalist, Ian Wright, epitomises the generation gap.

Each year of the decade, occupies an exhibition space that includes a vitrine-decorated like a Sixties teenager's bedroom with record covers, signed portraits and leading pop magazines, Rave and Fabulous. Opening pre-Beatles, the silk-suited, Elvis-quiffed Billy Fury, Cliff Richard, and Adam Faith are still lodged in Fifties America then everything explodes into pop, psychedelia, rock, mods and soul boys, and the music industry discovers modern marketing, experimental typography and myriad photographic styles.

Old masters such as Norman Parkinson come on board (shooting the Beatles at Abbey Road in deck shoes and slacks), and Angus McBean is keyed into Modernism with hand-painted backdrops to his portraits. Publications chart the new psychedelic lettering and acid colours, designers imitating photographers such as David Bailey. His iconic portrait of Mick Jagger in a parka occupies his personal enclosure. The experimenters were at their peak: Gered Mankowitz making meticulously artfully composed pictures with The Rolling Stones, and Vic Singh experimenting with prism lenses to match The Pink Floyd's psychedelic music.

Of the many now overlooked but outstanding photographers represented, Fiona Adams is best-known for the leaping silhouettes of the Beatles, and her lack of credit for the cover of their EP, Twist and Shout. Light years away, Tony Frank took Tom Jones back to the Welsh Valleys and produced the most lyrical shot in the show. If you’re bored with the glut of Sixties exhibitions, think again: this magnificent collection draws the line under the era- until a new generation discovers it. Until 24 January, 2010 (www.npg.org.uk)

SPACE FASHION

The Baby Boom, the Bomb, and the Space Race- what I like to call the three "booms" of influence on the world of the imagination during the Cold War. I recently posted a short piece, Fear and Fashion, about Space-Age aesthetics and the development of new materials in clothing design. My fascination continues and I have uncovered some wonderful treasures on Youtube recently. Spy Vibers may remember that Astro-Mod looks were popular on both sides of the Iron Curtain, though the stand-out names that come up tend to be Courreges, Rabbane, and Cardin, and the unforgettable costumes from The 10th Victim, Barbarella, and Danger Diabolik (and Roman Coppola's CQ). In this fashion news clip, we get to look through the capsule window of a West German designer (unnamed in the clip), who has offered us cool variations on the whole moon girl image!

KEN ADAM

Ken Adam discusses his background, working with Kubrick on "the war room" for Dr. Strangelove, and the design style that would ultimately define the larger-than-life look of the James Bond films. From the excellent Cold War Modern interview series.

DR MABUSE

When I planned to show my filmmaking class a variety of historical movements in cinema history last spring, I brainstormed a number of genres for one that could span the scope of time and culture. I couldn't quite cover all the bases I wanted to with spies, but crime as a theme eventually rose to the top of the list. Students looked at great classics from all over the world from the early days of feature-length films to the present. Snatch was a big fave, but one name kept coming up when they chose to present their findings to the group- MABUSE! Lang's Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Criterion edition) made a huge impression. By the end of the class they would share knowing glances, shiver, and shout, "the Mabuse!" It's fantastic to see teenagers get amped over a foreign film from 1933! Our group viewing inspired me to go back and re explore the other films in the series.

Currently there is a budget DVD box set in the US that offers a number of the low-budget Mabuse films from the 60s- spawned I gather from the success of Lang's re-launch of the character in the excellent 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. The rest of the series kind of goes down in quality from there, but I still recommend them as entertaining Spy Vibe viewing. I enjoy them mainly for their use of fun genre conventions, like secret rooms, trap doors, sneaky escapes, mystery villains, daring assassinations, etc. And as reported earlier this week, PAL viewers can now see the best of the series- the titles directed by Lang himself- in a restored Mabuse box set due for release later this month. Another inspiration for an all-region player! I wonder how much that new McIntosh Blu-ray/DVD/SACD/DVD-Audio hybrid will cost?

To find out more about the Mabuse legacy, I did track down this book on Amazon, The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse by David Kalat. I have his excellent Critical History of Godzilla (who doesn't?). I haven't checked the Mabuse book out yet, so I hope some fellow Spy Vibers will leave reviews in the comments section. Check out Movie Goods for Mabuse posters. About the book:

The Mabuse phenomenon is recognized as an icon of horror in Germany as Frankenstein and Dracula are in the United States. This work is a study of the 12 motion pictures and five books (and some secondary films) that make up the eight decades of adventures of master criminal Mabuse, created by author Norbert Jacques in the best-selling 1922 German novel and brought to the screen by master filmmaker Fritz Lang in the same year. Both on screen and off, the story of Dr. Mabuse is a story of love triangles and revenge, of murder, suicides, and suspicious deaths, of betrayals and paranoia, of fascism and tyranny, deceptions and conspiracies, mistaken identities, and transformation. This work, featuring much information never before published in English, provides an understanding of a modern mythology whose influence has pervaded popular culture even while the name Mabuse remains relatively unknown in the United States.

DR MABUSE BOX SET

Eureka's Masters of Cinema series will release an exciting box set on October 19th - The Complete Fritz Lang/Dr Mabuse films! For Mabuse fans in the US with multi-region players (set is PAL format), this means a long-awaited restored print of Lang's 1960 cult classic The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. Set details are as follows:

From the early stages of his career across five decades to his final film, Fritz Lang built a trilogy of paranoiac thrillers focused on an entity who began as a criminal mastermind, and progressed into something more amorphous: fear itself, embodied only by a name – Dr. Mabuse.

For the first time on home video, all three of Fritz Lang's Mabuse films have been collected for one package, in their complete and restored forms.

Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler. [Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler.] (1922)
Lang's two-part, nearly 5-hour silent epic detailing the rise and fall of Dr. Mabuse in Weimar-era Berlin.

Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] (1933)
A tour-de-force thriller rife with supernatural elements, all converging around an attempt by the now-institutionalised Mabuse (or someone acting under his name... and possibly his will) to organise an "Empire of Crime".

Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse [The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse] (1960)
Fritz Lang's final film, in which hypnosis, clairvoyance, surveillance, and machine-guns come together for a whiplash climax that answers the question: Who's channelling Mabuse's methods in the Cold War era?

The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse will be released as a special 4-disc DVD box set on 19th October 2009 by Eureka as part of the Masters of Cinema series at the RRP of £49.99. Special features will include:

• Original German language intertitles for Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler., along with newly translated English subtitles for each film;
• Newly recorded feature length commentaries on all three films by film scholar and Fritz Lang expert David Kalat;
• Three video featurettes totalling 90 minutes in length on:
  • The score of Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler.;
  • The creation of Norbert Jacques' 'Mabuse' character;
  • The motifs running throughout the works.
• 2002 video interview with Wolfgang Preiss, the star of Die 100 Augen des Dr. Mabuse;
• An alternative ending to Die 100 Augen des Dr. Mabuse taken from the French print of the film;
• Optional English language dub track for Die 100 Augen des Dr. Mabuse;
• Three lengthy booklets containing a new translation of Fritz Lang's 1924 lecture on 'Sensation Culture', an essay by critic David Cairns, extracts from period interviews with Fritz Lang, an abundance of production stills, illustrations and marketing collateral, and more!

AVENGERS LEATHER IN COLOR

Start your week off with the fabulous John Steed and Emma Peel in this 1966 color short promo. The Avengers Forever website offers some interesting trivia from behind the scenes, including one tidbit that will "appeal" to fashion Spy Vibers: although Mrs Peel is well-remembered for her zippered black leather jumpsuit, the outfit didn't make the transition from monochrome to color with the rest of the show for the 1967 season. This is the only color film of Rigg in her iconic catsuit. Check out Avengers Forever for more. I've always loved this clip because it captures so much of the wit, wisdom, and wardrobe that made The Avengers an eternal fave.

MID-CENTURY MODERNIST

If you haven't visited the Mid-Century Modernist website recently by writer/graphic designer Stephen Coles, stop in for a sweet dose of inspired design. His recent posts include photos of a gorgeous record player by Dieter Rams (good timing as I'm currently fantasizing about buying the new remastered Kraftwerk albums on vinyl), and Eames chair collections.

DANCING RAUMPATROUILLE ORION-STYLE

I thank our Spy Vibe community for introducing me to the German TV show Raumpatrouille Orion, a gem I hope to track down on DVD someday. There are some fantastic clips on Youtube, mostly in the campy-cool area, but this scene of the characters chatting it up in a night club as contemporaries from the future hit the dance floor is just absolutely amazing and a must-see moment if you are in need of a dose of sudden giggles. Try some double clicks if video fails to load.

THE PRISONER BLU-RAY

Juan Calonge at the Blu-ray website posted an update regarding the upcoming release of The Prisoner. I've been waiting for this edition for a long time and look forward to seeing McGoohan in Hi-def (not to mention the Peter Wyngarde tribute sketch!). The set hits stores October 27th and Amazon currently has a 49% off pre-order price of $50.49.

From Blu-ray: Our friends at TV Shows on DVD have the release details for the US Blu-ray edition of the classic British series 'The Prisoner', which will hit store shelves on October 27, released by A&E Home Entertainment, in conjunction with Network DVD. The series will come in five discs, featuring a complete high-definition restoration and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio. Special features include:

• "Don't Knock Yourself Out": this exclusive, feature-length documentary is the definitive look at the production of THE PRISONER, told by those involved in its creation. It includes a combination of archive and newly-filmed interviews with nearly 400 people, including Amette Andre, Bernard Williams, David Tomblin, Derren Nesbitt, Peter Wyngarde, Anton Rodgers, Michael Grade, George Baker and Peter Bowles.
• Additional featurettes:
  • "The Pink Prisoner:": Peter Wyngarde pays tribute to the series in this unique cross between an interview and comedy sketch
  • "You Make Sure it Fits": music editor Eric Mival discusses his role behind the scenes in making 'The Prisoner' and provides a unique look at the Music Bible for the show
• Newly restored original edit of "Arrival" with an optional music-only soundtrack featuring Wilfred Josephs' complete and abandoned score
• Original edit of the episode "The Chimes of Big Ben"
• Production crew audio commentaries on seven episodes
• Image Archive: individual galleries of over 1,200 stills are featured throughout this set, including episodic shots, generic/PR Photos, coverage of the original press conference in 1967 and Jack Shampan's designs.
• Archive material, including textless titles with clean themes by Ron Grainer, Wilfred Josephs, and Robert Farnon, as well as material from Rover, Foreign 'Filing Cabinet' title footage and the McGoohan photo montage from "Arrival."
• Production Paperwork Archive: original scripts for each episode, along with other rarely-seen production documentation, press releases, call sheets and other memorabilia. This unique collection is sourced from the personal archives of Tony Sloman, Steven Ricks, and Simon Coward and is reproduced here with their permission and assistance. (DVD-ROM Feature)
• Exposure strips gallery
• Commercial break bumpers
• Trailers for all episodes
• Preview of AMC's 'The Prisoner' mini-series remake

SWINGING LONDON

A fantastic collection of mid-1960s fashion footage, including Mary Quant, the Mini Skirt, PVC boots and raincoats, and Our Man Patrick Macnee from The Avengers! Try some double clicks if video fails to load.

BIRTH OF COOL

Spy Vibers with an eye for mid-century modern and the culture of modernism will want to check out The Birth Of Cool -a lushly illustrated and researched coffee table book. Flipping through the pages is like club-hopping to visit the movers and shakers  of the era. Major designers and milestone designs are covered from architecture, furniture, record sleeve design, movie set and title production, mass media, etc. There's even some space for Hugh Hefner as they discuss the revolutionary notion of being a cool guy. Other Spy Vibe faves are mentioned, including Hitchcock's North By Northwest.

THE SILENCERS

No actual silencers, but a fantastic video clip of the Dean Martin film, The Silencers, theme song over at the Spy-Fi Channel. Christopher writes: "Continuing my efforts to find rare spy-fi-related clips: buxom Joi Lansing performs the theme from the Dean Martin Matt Helm film The Silencers in this burlesque-inspired musical short for scopitone "video jukeboxes" of the Sixties.

SPY VIBE BRIEF: SILENCERS

Out of the many elements that define the 60s spy vibe, the silencer itself is an important addition to spy fashion and an essential extension of the overall sneaky, thrilling action of the stories. The image of Mrs. Peel in the credits of The Avengers and the ritualistic assembling of the U.N.C.L.E. gun in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. are both prime examples of the silencer as stylish symbol. Then of course, there is the sound! That strange, sudden burst of tire-pump squeal, the target slumps, and the assassin slips away undetected. It's pretty morbid actually, but in the fictional world of spy adventure, the silencer remains a cool accessory. Video clips below of those iconic moments, plus a memorable moment in 007 history when Bond shoots Dent in Dr. No. After the villain unloads his gun into a bed fixed up with pillows, Bond fires a number of shots after his famous line, "That's a Smith and Wesson. And you've had your six." (see time 5:30). Did you ever wonder how silencers really work? Here's a brief explanation on the How Stuff Works website. If videos fail to load below, try some double clicks.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE LAZENBY

Spy Vibe wishes a happy birthday to George Lazenby! For years, I counted On Her Majesty's Secret Service as my fave 007 film (I now accept that there are shifting moods that can even put Moonraker right up there!). I still love the film and really enjoy his performance alongside Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas. From what I've read, Lazenby put in a great effort to make the sudden transition from modeling to acting. He jumped into the franchise during a film that required more range from its leading man, but ultimately I think it came together well. The script was so exciting and touching. I wonder how he might have developed had he stayed on for more films?

DESIGN WITHIN REACH SALE- ENDED

Design Within Reach is currently running a mix-and-match 15% off sale (plus free shipping!). Launched in 1999, Design Within Reach is a fantastic source of classic modern furniture that was traditionally only available through designers and viewable to collectors and MOMA visitors. Here you will find collections with names like Eames and Frank Lloyd Wright. Their shopping experience is like a mini-course in design history. So if you're finally building that bachelor pad or evil lair and need that special ellipse table or artichoke lamp, these guys will take care of your Spy Vibe needs. Some readers may recall that Our Man Tony at Design Within Reach identified a number of pieces in James Bond sets during our set countdown, including the Arne Jacobsen chair in Tanaka's office in You Only Live Twice. Browsing through their on-line catalog, I spied a beautiful Jacobsen Egg chair that looks quite nice in "cloud blue." I suggest that you visit their shops in person if possible because it's so fun to see the pieces and try them out. Store locations here. The 15% sale ends September 14th. Store Blog.

MOD FASHION BY LIAM

Amidst the news that Oasis has (at least temporarily) split, is the recent spring launch of a fun creative project by Liam Gallagher in the form of a new fashion line for men called Pretty Green. The current front page item on the website is a cool Mod parka (limited run of 350) sporting Liam's logo patch and the copy: "Liam's got #1. Paul Weller's got #2. Which number will you get?" From Pretty Green: Pretty Green is an up-front, straight talking, classic clothing range owned, founded and designed by Liam Gallagher. The Pretty Green team is made up of key industry professionals. The clothing range, which is entirely 'limited edition', will include classic designs across footwear, denim, knitwear, jackets, trench coats, parkas, t-shirts, hats, scarves and accessories; all subject to Liam's final approval. "Clothes and music are my passion. I'm not here to rip anyone off and I'm not doing it for the money either. I'm doing it cuz there's a lack of stuff out there of the things I would wear." -Liam Gallagher 2009

In the short promo films below, Liam talks about his passion for clothes and about the Mod movement and the Who film Quadraphenia as inspirations. As we reported earlier this summer, Paul Weller has also gone into clothing design. It's not a new phenomenon for musicians to cross over into fashion. A notable example is the Beatles' launch of their Apple boutique, which was in part set up as an enterprise to diversify and invest their income in response to the heavy 90% tax they were under at the time. The boutique quickly lost money and was shut down in an event where the public was actually invited to take away remaining inventory for free. Spy Vibe is a big fan of Mod style and of Liam and we wish him the best in his new project. Hopefully he'll have great fun and success working on future collections as well as success as the fantastic songwriter he's proven to be in the last seven or eight years.

DISCOTHEQUE DANCING

A Spy Vibe treat to get your weekend hopping- from ESL Music and Chris Joss. The video's room design at the start may seem familiar to readers. You saw it posted way back in the Spy Set Countdown, which included information about designer Verner Panton.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN CONNERY

A quick Spy Vibe note in celebration. Although he left the role of James Bond and returned- twice- Sean Connery will always be seen by many as the quintessential 007. He had everything working for him: Handsome and charming, deadly and physical, and importantly, he had the era of the 1960s -making his films iconic time-capsules of 1962-1967 culture. This was the era of the space race, the sexual revolution, youth-targeted fashion and consumerism, Swinging London, and despite his famous quip in Goldfinger, the era of The Beatles (prior to psychedelia). The earliest films were produced during Ian Fleming's lifetime. Bond was the original blockbuster adventure (each new film release was "The Biggest Bond Yet!"), inspiring the Spy Boom in entertainment in the mid-1960s. For any Spy Viber who has enjoyed the imitators (Eurospy movies, etc), fun though they are, none can hold a candle to 007, nor, especially, to Connery as leading man -not even his brother Neil/Operation Kid Brother. Connery fit those suits and walked like a panther, brawled with a true sense of animal frenzy and danger, and delivered lines with his iconic Scottish lilt and soft S's. On two personal notes, when I first played with a programmable computerized voice in the early 198Os, I programmed it to deliver dialog from Goldfinger in Sean's accent (the scene when he catches the baddie cheating and confronts him over the radio)! And I have the photo below framed with an autograph in my office, something I envisioned for my adult life back when I was a lad. We love Connery for his Bond, and of course, for his long and continuing career as a fine actor. Essential Connery for me also includes Marnie, The Hill, Robin and Marian, Zardoz, Outland, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Rising Sun. Additional videos below. Read more about Connery's career and birthday wishes on The Commander Bond Network.

SAINT'S VOLVO P1800 RIDES AGAIN

Thanks to a heads up from COBRAS agent Armstrong Sabian, we have a new design gem to drool over. Spy Vibers will surely remember Roger's Moore's sleek little Volvo P1800 from The Saint. From Autoblog:

 Mattias Vöcks is at it again. Back in 2006, the Swedish-born designer who normally spends his days hand-assembling supercars for Koenigsegg used the SEMA to debut his show-stopping custom 1967 Volvo Amazon that was once voted "Sweden's Hottest Volvo." That title may soon go out to another of Vöcks' stunning creations, this time based on the classic Volvo P1800 made famous in part as the car driven by Roger Moore in the British television series The Saint from the 1960s. With help from Bo Zolland from Swedish design firm Vizualtech, Vöcks has added a few modifications to bring the shapely Swedish beauty to modern standards. Aerodynamics are improved by a rear diffuser, flat underbody tray and a front fascia that's been smoothed out and lengthened by 70mm. Powering the beast is a 4.4-liter V8 borrowed from a Volvo XC90 SUV that's been force-fed by a turbocharger and routes its 600 horses through a six-speed manual transmission to the rear wheels. According to a report by Auto Express, this custom Swede is slated to enter small-scale production at some unspecified date in the future. We can hardly wait.

Read more about the classic P1800 from The Saint on The Saint website.

FUTURE FASHION: URSULA ANDRESS

For keeping those cosmic rays out, nothing says Space-Age Futurism like a plastic visor! One of my favorite costumes from The 10th Victim with Ursula Andress (recently re-released on DVD), has a slight Gaultier-Fifth Element feel with its minimalist approach to using strips of cloth. In my research on cold war anxiety and fashion, I've seen many visors/helmets, but none capture my imagination and design-love like the one that Andress wears briefly in one scene in the film as she de-planes in Rome. The white strip over her head echoes the overall theme of the outfit with strips connecting her gloves and arm, and strips fastened around her ankles. It gives her a wonderful cartoony look in contrast to the alternating white and black stripes on her companions' sleeves. Add spy-fi Italian soundtrack music and a story that involves international assassins and you can see why The 10th Victim is one of the only films that I look to as a collector of stills and posters. For more on futuristic fashions (including video), also visit the Mods to Moongirls and Fear and Fashion articles on Spy Vibe. Movie stills and posters are available at Movie Goods.

RICHARD SALA'S CAT BURGLAR BLACK

Out of my collection of original drawings by Ashley Wood, Ben Templesmith, Hector Casanova, Dik Brown, Mort Walker, Johnny Hart, Matt Kindt, and others, the first and prominently framed piece on my wall is a page from the Chuckling Whatsit by Richard Sala. Sala weaves wonderfully textured pages filled with the elements Spy Vibers love to see: disguised mystery baddies, evil lairs, trap doors, secret societies, revolving bookcases, shots in the dark, gruesome henchmen, Calagari-like streets, mystery solving, and sometimes, strong female heroes in Mrs Peel-like jumpsuits :) Sala is back with a new book due out on September first called Cat Burglar Black. I think he probably got your attention at "Cat Burglar?" Once you start reading, his hypnotically macabre style and humor will draw you back again and again.

When K. Westree arrives at Bellsong Academy, she thinks she's left her cat-burgling past behind her. But K. soon discovers the school has a mystery of its own, a hidden treasure left behind by its founder, and she's the only one who has a hope of finding it. As she resumes her cat-burgling in an attempt to discover the school's secrets, K. begins to question if a normal life is really what she wants. Order here on Amazon.

CALDER EXHIBIT

A very special exhibit for Spy Vibers and Modernism enthusiasts in the Bay area: The San Jose Museum of Art is currently showing work by Alexander Calder through December 13th. Calder (trained as an engineer) challenged the long-held notion that sculpture was static and monumental. His inventive, colorful, animated “mobiles” epitomize the innovative, optimistic spirit of early-twentieth century modernism. In all of Calder’s mobiles, his objective was not to represent or refer to nature, but to capture its dynamic actions and unpredictable, living systems. This exhibition will include mobiles, jewelry, and works on paper drawn from Bay Area collections, including the holdings of several of the Museum’s founders and longtime supporters.

On a personal note and shout to my Putney School tribe out there, I enjoyed meals and working under a fabulous Calder mobile for years in the school's dining hall (the "KDU"). The Putney School, located in southern Vermont, has had a long relationship with the Calder family, including two of my schoolmates who are well-remembered for dry wit as much as for their upper-classman inspiration to me as a young photographer. A generation later, I had the joy of having one of their sons as my student. The Calder mobile was donated to the school and, after a long stint in the KDU, is now spinning beautifully in the school's recently completed performing arts center. I can't wait to see the exhibit in San Jose. Hopefully, I can even bring some of my students from San Francisco. The red shapes on the Calder piece below suddenly take on new meaning when I think about the passing of time and of the many relationships and bonds one experiences as a student, and eventually, as a teacher.

IAN FLEMING REPRINTS

I just picked up the first paperback edition of Ian Fleming's The Diamond Smugglers and am already hooked. It's the true story about a master spy-chaser who was brought to Africa to dry up an illicit diamond pipeline. For Spy Vibers who haven't been watching the Commander Bond Network, Ian Fleming Productions have recently reprinted Fleming's two non-Bond books, The Diamond Smugglers and Thrilling Cities. Orders can be made directly from their website.

MODERNISM GUIDE

I came across this new book yesterday that might be of interest to Spy Vibers who collect Mid-Century Modern or might need a visual reference for projects (or to ID production design in your fave 60s Spy Films!). It's a richly illustrated identification and price guide for modern furniture and home design. From Amazon: The cool designs, sleek lines and fashion-forward forms of the open and optimistic feel of the modernism furniture and design is as reflective of attitude as it is ingenuity. The enthusiasm and boundless hope of post-War 1950s America, not unlike our country’s current eagerness for a shot of optimism, is represented in the pages of this beautifully illustrated, inspiring, and informative book. Warman’s Modernism Furniture & Accessories features the furniture and designs that emerged during the prime of the movement, between 1945 and 1985. The collection of 1,000 rich and robust color photos, real-world auction prices and extensive descriptions make this a fundamental reference for anyone with an interest in modernism furniture.

JACQUES TATI PLAYTIME

In the Criterion Collection’s new efforts to bring masterpiece films to Blu-ray, one particular release this week should be on the radar of fellow Spy Vibers who love modern design- Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967). As he had done in his previous film, Mon Oncle (1958), Tati uses his alter ego Monsieur Hulot to examine and poke fun at the mid-century fascination with all-things Modern. Tati studied the architecture of airports, offices, supermarkets, and other public institutions during his promotional trips for Mon Oncle, making observations that became his next project. In this outing, Hulot enters an architectural labyrinth, like a modern-day Thesius, and makes his way through a variety of humorous situations. The 70mm photography of Paris buildings and interiors alone is worth the price of admission, especially knowing that Tati's crew built the sets (and actual buildings!) from glass, plastic, wood, and concrete over a production period between 1964 and 1967. The set was dubbed Tativille. They constructed beautifully modern spaces, vast with long hallways, glass walls, cubicals, escalators, and decorated the sets with minimal furniture and props that often became the source of his humor. To trim the budget, Tati used cutout extras for crowd shots who stood in the background to "interact" with live extras.

In one of my favorite scenes (see video below), Hulot accompanies a friend home where he lives with his family in a kind of department store window. We watch from outside as they sit, chat, watch TV, and people pass by on the sidewalk. Soon their actions appear to interact with the neighbors (in a facing shop window). It is a wonderful, quirky comedy play on consumerism and the isolation of modern lifestyles- not to mention a foreshadowing of the voyeuristic nature of contemporary reality show entertainment and the films, The Truman Show (Peter Weir/1998) and The Model Couple (William Klein/1977).

Tati's films are mostly without dialog and the humor is quite charming. If you saw the fabulous animated film The Triplets of Belleville (a tribute to Tati), then you will know a bit what to expect. Much of Tati's humor in Playtime is based on sounds- the sounds of people moving within and interacting with modern spaces and technologies. There is a fantastic essay on this over at Spectacular Attractions. If you read French, check out the Tati exhibit of sets, sketches, models, props, fashion and more at the Cinematheque Francaise.

DVD Beaver: Jacques Tati, the choreographer of the charming, comical ballet that is Playtime, casts the endearingly clumsy Monsieur Hulot as the principal character wandering through modernist Paris. Amid the babble of English, French and German tourists, Hulot tries to reconcile the old-fashioned ways with the confusion of the encroaching age of technology. Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the endearingly clumsy, resolutely old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modernist Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, Playtime is a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion. [See also the Blu-ray review.]

SHAG INTERVIEW

Josh Agle (Shag) has captured our imaginations and retro-lovin' hearts by mining elements of the Spy Vibe form of 50s-60s culture in his paintings. His universe is filled with evil lairs, bachelor pads, femme fatales, cocktail lounges, Tiki and Mid-Century Modern, and Vespa-riding hipsters. Read more about his influences, career, and more over at Mod Culture, and a cool nod over at My Design Fix.

FEAR AND FASHION

A recent trip to NYC yielded some excellent Spy Vibe treasures, the cream of which is the book Fear And Fashion in the Cold War by Jane Pavitt. Pavitt is the Senior Research Fellow in Product Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. She has acted as lead curator for numerous exhibits and has published essential studies of post-war design, including Fear And Fashion in the Cold War and Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70. What our C.O.B.R.A.S. agent Wesley Britton has done for the field of spy fiction and cultural history, Pavitt has brought to the world of architecture, fashion, and design of the Cold War era- a style that I feel is an essential element to 1960s Spy Vibe. Would the James Bond films have been as successful, for example, if Dr. No had been a two-bit mobster instead of a radiation suit-clad baddie plotting to sabotage space tests? It brought the world of spies away from the mahogany desk world of the private detective and into the futuristic, larger-than-life world that we now love as 60s spy adventure. Read more on our Fear and Fashion page. See also the Spy Vibe article, MODS TO MOONGIRLS.

SPY VIBE MUSIC

Spy Vibe music was composed by me (Agent J) back in the day with live recordings, loops, samples, and Sony Acid Pro, often with audio samples from The Avengers, The Prisoner, Bond, and Eurospy films. Listen to MP3 or WAV files on the Spy Vibe Music page.

KEVIN DART INTERVIEW

On the eve of the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, Spy Vibe had a chance to ask Kevin Dart a few questions about the exhibit for his new book Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7, his all-time favorite illustrations and films, his projects, and about his plans for this week's convention. Read more on Spy Vibe's KEVIN DART page. Also, check out Double O Section for a fantastic review of Kevin's book and the aesthetics of 60s spies.

PATTI'S GROOVE

A wonderful track on the Garage Girls compilation by Patti's Groove has been put to a fantastic collection of Space Age, Op & Pop Art-inspired fashion stills from the 1965-66 era. Have a groovy day!

SCI FI ASSASSIN: LOGAN'S RUN

A Cold War-influenced classic, Logan's Run comes to Blu-ray this November. Humanity has been confined for generations in a shopping mall-like dome, allowing for some very cool futuristic set design by Dale Hennesy (In Like Flint, Fantastic Voyage). The tone of the future, like THX 1138 by Lucas and Fahrenheit 451 by Truffaut, is quite lulled into submission by consumerism and pleasure (in this case- sensual pleasure). Overpopulation is controlled by deatha t age 30. To run is deemed deviant by society and punishable by death. The main character of the film is indeed an assassin- a member of a sanctioned death squad that hunts down 'runners' and executes them. Logan is sent undercover on a mission to join the runners and expose what the government fears is an underground railroad to freedom in a place whispered about in dark alleys called Sanctuary. So begins Logan's Quest that brings him, and his community, toward self-awareness and survival. Read more on our SPIES ON DISC page.

BRIEFLY BERGMAN

One of the joys of the current Criterion Collection sale at Barnes and Noble is a chance to re-visit and further explore some of the great masters of cinema. As fellow C.O.B.R.A.S. writer Armstrong Sabian and I have discussed, there are many titles in the collection that will appeal to Spy Vibers, including films by Hitchcock, Melville, Suzuki, and titles such as The Spy Who Came Into the Cold and Charade. For many years now I've enjoyed programming film events for schools and communities, and Criterion's move to Blu-ray has upped the level of our digital viewing experiences. I picked up the new copy of The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman and have found myself swept away in a fabulous re-discovery of his work. Though Bergman can't be accused of making stylish spy films, he is important to mention as a member of the small community of filmmakers who truly showed mastery of the medium through his blend of deeply human motifs and themes and outstanding (and stylish!) photography. He is indispensable as a key figure in the cinematic art scene of the 1950s and 1960s. Among my various experiences this week with Bergman, I came across two bits that may be of interest here. Fans of the stylized thrillers of Mario Bava (Danger: Diabolik) who think Bergman only made quiet chamber pieces may be excited to re-visit his 1968 film Hour of the Wolf (trailer below).

Another wonderful surprise came from one of my all-time favorite writer/directors and heroes- Woody Allen (Casino Royale/photo below), who wrote in the introduction to Bergman's Images: My Life in Film (Arcade Publishing/2007): "Bergman, for all his quirks and philosophic and religious obsessions, was a born spinner of tales who couldn't help being entertaining even when all on his mind was dramatizing the ideas of Nietzsche or Kierkegaard. I used to have long phone conversations with him. He would arrange them from the island he lived on. I never accepted his invitations to visit because the plane travel bothered me, and I didn't relish flying on a small aircraft to some speck near Russia for what I envisioned as a lunch of yogurt. We always discussed movies, and of course I let him do most of the talking because I felt privileged hearing his thoughts and ideas. He screened movies for himself every day and never tired of watching them. All kinds, silents and talkies. To go to sleep he'd watch a tape of the kind of movie that didn't make him think and would relax his anxiety, sometimes a James Bond film." Fans of Allen will recognize his many nods to Bergman themes and visuals throughout the years. The most comical being of course Woody's spoof of the dance with death (The Seventh Seal) in his 1975 comedy Love and Death, pictured below.

In our culture of compartmentalization, it is refreshing to remember that Art, and cinema is Art, can appeal in all kinds of ways as we need it to in our lives; That a Spy Viber in love with Mid-Century Modern, 60s spear guns, silencers, and Jaguar XKEs can find the style and human expression of Bergman deeply satisfying; That Ingmar Bergman, while dwelling over stories like Persona, Hour of the Wolf, Through a Glass Darkly, and Fanny and Alexander found joy and satisfaction in the exploits of Ian Fleming's secret agent 007. Look at the composition of the second still below from Persona. The tilt of the hat, elbow, piping, sunglasses, and roof lines- one of the great designs of 1966 at the height of the spy boom. If you are up for re-exploring or discovering Art House cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, I encourage you to add Ingmar Bergman to your list. His films vary in pacing and tone (he made about 60 movies), and are often worth the investment.

NORTH BY NORTHWEST BLU-RAY

Spy Vibe fans of Alfred Hitchcock will be happy to hear that his classic North By Northwest will be coming to Blu-ray this fall. Read more about the design aspects of this much-anticipated release on our SPIES ON DISC page.

IAN FLEMING RAYMOND CHANDLER INTERVIEW

Our Man Jeremy Duns, author of the new spy thriller Free Agent, alerted us to a fantastic conversation between Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler posted on-line. The two authors discuss the nature of heroes, villains, research and details, and of the adventure novel. Click here to sit in on this historic interview.