*THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966) Feature Film and 50 similar items

Vintage original 11x14 in. US lobby card from the classic 1960's feature-film version of the smash action/adventure crime television series, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., released in 1966. The image depicts a shot of Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) bound by his wrists to a chair as Tracey Alexander (Dorothy Provine) is wrapped in a blanket. It is unrestored in good condition only with a chip on the bottom right corner; a tear with signs of wear around it on the top border to the right of center; random signs of wear in the borders; and some very small creases simply from handling over time. The color tints are fresh and vibrant without any signs of fading. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. rated so highly in America and the UK that MGM and the producers decided to film extra footage (often more adult to evoke Bond films) for two of the first season episodes and release them to theaters after they had aired on TV. The episodes with the extra footage that made it to theaters were the original pilot, The Vulcan Affair (retitled To Trap a Spy) and The Double Affair (retitled as The Spy with My Face). Both had added sex and violence, new sub-plots, and guest stars not in the original TV episodes. They were released in early 1966 as an U.N.C.L.E. double-feature program first run in neighborhood theaters, bypassing the customary downtown movie palaces which were still thriving in the mid-1960's and where new movies usually played for weeks or months before coming to outlying screens. A selling point to seeing these films theatrically was that they were being shown in color at a time when most people had only black-and-white TVs (and indeed the two first-season episodes that were expanded to feature length, while filmed in color, had only been broadcast in black-and-white). The words "in color" featured prominently on the trailers, TV spots, and posters for the film releases. The episodes used to make U.N.C.L.E. films were not included in the packages of television episodes screened outside the United States.