I've often said I prefer the fictional world of spies to the real deal. What really went on during the Cold War (and the new Cold War?) could be pretty grim. But it is interesting to hear stories and learn more about how groups operated. The May edition of Car and Driver, for example, had an interesting article about patrols who would travel in east Germany to report back on movements of troops and equipment. Although there was some small tolerance for mutual reconnaissance, there were many instances of patrols having to make a run for it- often traveling in fast off-road vehicles. And the BBC reported on June 23rd about a Russian KGB man who trained Soviet spies, often over decades, to successfully plant themselves as citizens of foreign nations in order to gather intelligence. One common method in the pre-internet days was to study cemeteries and find names of people who died young and who were the approximate age of the agents. They would then assume those identities and start a new cover life. Amazingly, a group of ten Russian sleeper agents were arrested in New York in 2010. This case apparently inspired The Americans TV series, which I couldn't stand by the way (Any story that relies on violence and sex in the first ten minutes to get our attention is too crass and inauthentic for my tastes. I'm sick of characters acting and talking like "tv people"). My favorite sleeper-agent story is probably The Carriers, episode 10 from the first season of Mission Impossible. The plot centered around the IMF team (with the help of George Takei) infiltrating a fake town, where sleepers were trained to act "American". The government suspected the baddies were cultivating biological weapons, so the team was sent to sabotage the operation and leave undetected. That was the beauty of Mission Impossible: get in, sabotage, and send the enemy back to the drawing board wondering where they made a mistake. I sure hope the movies can capture that someday, rather than relying on gun battles. Below: Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain) of the IMF team in The Carriers (1966). Related post: Spy Camera Guide. In other news, my episodes of the Cocktail Nation radio show from Australia are now live: Episode #1(Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), Episode #5 (The Avengers). Enjoy!
Mission Impossible made its television debut on this day in 1966! Produced for CBS during the height of the Spy Boom, the program featured an interesting shift away from the standard formula. Instead of following the exploits of a single hero, or two buddies, MI focused on a team of operatives. Each episode began with the controller (Briggs in season one, followed by Phelps), who would visit a dead-drop location to learn about his assignment from an anonymous (self-destructing) recording and packet of photographs. One memorable location was a photo booth, where the instructions were hidden in a locked grill near the floor (see images below from Photo Booth). The screen would then cut to the controller's modern apartment, filmed from a high angle, where he would flip through his roster of spies to find the right talent needed for the mission. Another convention of the series was its dynamic credit intro (see example below); A lighted match! A burning fuse! And then key scenes of the episode- all to the sound of Lalo Schifrin's iconic theme. Mission Impossible is one of my few favorite US television series from the 1960s. Actor Martin Landau (Space 1999) did a brilliant job portraying his various cover identities. The show also followed the conventions of suspense and heist films, in that the facts around each case were laid out in detail and the viewer would then be on the edge of their seat, waiting to see if the IM force could succeed. In a world oversaturated with explosions and gun battles, the series offered a refreshing approach: the team's aim was to sabotage the enemy, and to get in and out undetected. One of the great qualities of MI was also its tendency to focus on eye contact and silent communication between the characters. These guys didn't need heavy armament- or even much dialog. Their professionalism and cool reserve under pressure made them the most unique spy characters from the era. In my favorite episode from season one, The Carriers, George Takei (Star Trek) was brought in to go undercover in a village set up to train enemy spies to infiltrate the west. Mission Impossible ran from 1966-1973 and was brought back for two seasons by ABC in 1988. Tom Cruise began his action film adaptations in 1996, in which he focused mostly on the adventures of his character, Ethan Hunt. But there has been nothing like the original. Happy 50th! Below: Examples of season one credits and various images from the early days of Mission Impossible. Enjoy!
