Customer Reviews

The Best of Mission Impossible, Volume 5 [VHS]

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Want to bend your mind a bit? Let the IMF do it with these two as Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) matches wits with hyperintelligent secret agent Stefan Miklos (Steve Ihnat in one of his best performances ever) as Phelps seeks to destroy a spy ring that has penetrated American intelligence by leading the enemy's most accomplished thinker through turn after turn to completely dupe him in the process. When your brain stops hurting with the dense plot and amazing attention to logical detail, try the even more phenomenal "Live Bait" where Phelps and the IMF must keep American spy Orin Selby (John Crawford) by being unmasked by enemy security chief Helmut Kellerman (Anthony Zerbe in another fine guest role). Watch for the great subplot with Kellerman's faithless assistant Brock (Martin Sheen) and his scheming girlfriend (Diana Ewing). Buy this video *now*.

Two of the most intelligent and elegantly-wrtten episodes of the all-time great, "Graves-and the Landaus season" Mission: Impossible. If you haven't seen these two, you haven't watched Mission: Impossible at all. Don't miss them.

Not sure why one of the best TV shows has not made it to DVD yet. Poorly recorded VHS is no longer acceptable.

Good video. Poor delivery.

I was really annoyed by the fact that the video producers decided to shave pennies off of their costs by recoding in SLP (Super Long Play) mode.

Both of the episodes on this tape are extremely cerebral in the sense that there are two convoluted schemes and counter-schemes in simultaneous action. In "The Mind of Stefan Miklos", the IM team must convince the brilliant enemy intelligence agent Stefan Miklos that a double agent working for the Americans is in fact not the traitor. To do this, they must lay down a scheme that Stefan has to discover, it must consist of a small number of very subtle clues and it relies on Stefan's photographic memory for extreme detail.
The clues are difficult to spot and not immediately explained, so the viewer is often puzzled as to why there is an emphasis on certain aspects of the situation, for example the matchbook. While it is all explained at the end, there are times of dissatisfaction due to lack of understanding. At the end, Miklos' belief that no one is more intelligent than he is proves to be his undoing, as the scheme of the IM force works and Miklos is convinced that another man is the double agent.
"Live Bait" features young Martin Sheen as a nerdy and ambitious lieutenant in the communist intelligence service. The enemy secret service has captured an American agent and they are subjecting him to severe interrogation to extract information. The goal of the IM force is to retrieve the agent and to implicate the boss of the Sheen character. Once again, the leader of the enemy intelligence service believes that he is the smartest person in the business so he sets down a convoluted trap for the American forces and one of the other enemy intelligence agents.
In reality, the enemy leader is being led by a trail of symbolic breadcrumbs to the false conclusion that the Sheen character is a traitor. Rollin poses as an enemy agent and infiltrates the communist compound in order to learn where the American agent is hidden. Rollin also discovers that the enemy agent is booby-trapped with an anti-personnel mine. Forced to deal with all eventualities, the technical wizard Barney is able to come up with solutions to every problem the IM force encounters.
While "Live Bait" is also cerebral, the actions of the IM force are easier to follow than in "The Mind of Stefan Miklos." The late 1960's were a time when black actors were not yet often placed in roles of authority and responsibility where they could exhibit intelligence and cunning. MI was an exception, for the Barney character played by Greg Morris was as clever and as capable as any character on television at the time. The producers of IM are to be commended for casting the role of Barney the way they did.

Both "the mind of Septhen Meklos" and "Live Bait" are good but "Live bait" is the better one. Put them together and you literally got "The Best of M:I". I think buy this item would be both the "smart" thing to do and the "right" thing to do.

This entire series needs to be put on DVD soon and with many special features! I loved this show since I was a kid. The original TV show blows the movies away ... BIG TIME.