3x9 The Come with me to the Casbah Affair

I'm rewatching every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. The Come with me to the Casbah Affair is a cleverly written spy story about a race to obtain a rare book that's used by a Thrush agent to decrypt internal secret communications.

Colonel Hamid is a wealthy Algerian book collector and Thrush agent. When he receives an encrypted message from Thrush central, he realises that his assistant, Pierrot, has stolen his code book. It seems that Pierrot was contacted by UNCLE, and intends to sell the book to them for a million francs. Obviously Hamid wants the book back.

The entirety of the episode is the pursuit of this code book. UNCLE wants it because they've intercepted a lot of encrypted messages lately, and Hamid wants it because he doesn't want to miss an important order from his superiours. Pierrot wants it so he can sell it to UNCLE and run away with the love of his life, a pretty French bistro owner named Janine.

The book changes hands often, and usually for not very long. Illya nearly buys the book from Pierrot, but the transaction is interrupted by Hamid's thugs. Pierrot manages to get the book, and runs off to "the Casbah".

The Casbah, in this episode, is the part of the city that basically hasn't been gentrified. It's the part of town where only true Algerians dwell, and they look out for their own. Pierrot is safe there, and has friends to protect him.

Rogues of Algiers

Pierrot (played by Pat Harrington) is a true rogue. He takes any opportunity to advance his own interests, he makes use of any resource he can, and he's got street smarts. Thanks to Man from UNCLE plots relying on the incompetence of UNCLE, Pierrot comes across as more clever than either Hamid or Solo. He manages to capture Solo and refuses to release the agent until Janine is delivered to him safely. He finds a bug that Solo never notices. He steals from Thrush. He's played as a goof, but the character's smart. Played differently, he'd be the UNCLE agent the audience deserves.

He's not the only rogue in the episode. Ayesha (played by Abbe Lane) is a belly dancer. She ingratiates herself to Hamid, and offers to venture into the Casbah to talk to Pierrot. She doesn't know Pierrot, but feels confident in her ability to seduce him into giving her the book.

She ends up accidentally seducing Napoleon Solo, who's posing as Pierrot because Pierrot senses trickery. Even through the veil of prudish 1960s television, her scheme works like a charm. You absolutely believe that Pierrot would fall for her. She's really good at it, even though all the writer had to work with was innuendo and cliché. When Solo doesn't resist, Ayesha believes her ploy is working, and obtains the book code book.

Or at least, she obtains a version of the code book. It turns out to be the wrong edition, but she couldn't have known that. That's hardly the last we see of Ayesha though, and she's got a few more clever schemes that I won't spoil here.

Atmosphere as a setting

It's hard to ignore the caricature, typical of 1960s media, of the foreign setting. I find it difficult to understand how people in 1960s USA just couldn't, apparently, comprehend that real people with real lives existed outside of the USA. The writers of the episode, I think, did understand that, because the characters are written really really well. They outshine the UNCLE agents, anyway. But the writing gets mistranslated, and much of the casting and acting are parodies of realism.

I think, back then, maybe that was the language of visual media, though. Nobody was aiming for realism, for whatever reason, and were happy to create simplified, child-like fantasy versions of anything that wasn't American. And sometimes, given the past couple of episodes, I guess even the USA was a parody onscreen. this isn't a show about secret agents, it's a show about people acting like secret agents. It's fine for them to be incompetent because that leads to conflict, and conflict is what the plot requires.

But with 2 rogues as lead characters, 3 competing factions (Thrush, UNCLE, and the Casbah itself), and lots of incidental intrigue, this is one of the most plot-driven and atmospheric UNCLE episodes. I think the set designers and cinematographer were trying their best, and it shows. There are lots of atmosphere shots, and several atmospheric shots to sell not just the location but the mood.

Good episode

I think the intent of this episode was to throw UNCLE into a truly foreign setting, one where the rules and laws of international law enforcement don't apply. The UNCLE agents have ID cards and fancy technology, but that's not enough in the Casbah. Neither Thrush or UNCLE are prepared to deal with a society that doesn't adhere to their ethics and priorities. The Casbah is a society that developed before Thrush or UNCLE existed, and its people have their own laws and their own lawlessness. The only way to win in this story is to surrender to the will of the rogues of the Casbah, and so in the end there is no winner in this one, except the resilience of the Casbah itself.