"The Master"--Remastered! (Pt. II)

Howdy!

Here's Part II of our look at "Kunoichi", the episode of "The Master" in which Jack Kelly guest-starred in 1984.

Brian Elkwood applauds at the conclusion of the Chopin piece:

But, the applause suddenly stops when a woman screams from the audience. She sees the ninja assassin on the catwalk above the stage, aiming a gun at Elkwood!

Luckily, McAllister and Max were able to escape from the safe house. Max takes down "The Hawk", and then he and Elkwood nervously watch as McAllister battles with the assassin:

Finally, McAllister defeats the assassin, saving the day and Elkwood's life--again:

(I've obscured the assassin's unmasked face to avoid a "spoiler" for those who haven't seen the episode yet, but the character's identity isn't really surprising if you know the meaning of "kunoichi". ;>)

Elkwood salutes McAllister:

The next day, Brian tells McAllister and Max that it would have been a disaster if "The Hawk" had replaced him at the summit in Geneva:

And, he expresses his gratitude to his old war buddy for saving his life:

The Master is a big slice of 1980's cheese, from the Bill Conti theme music and The Master's A-Team van, all the way to Ms. Harmon's shoulder pads and Crystal Carrington hairdo.

And, yes, it's preposterous every time elderly, frail-looking Lee Van Cleef suddenly becomes a lean, mean ninja fighting machine in the battle scenes. Plus, the scene in "Kunoichi"where McAllister and Max escape from the safe house should have been prefaced with an announcer intoning, "Tune in next week, same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!"

But: I love it! "Kunoichi" isn't spectacular, but it was better than I thought it would be. It was wonderful seeing JK act with Van Cleef once more. Like Elkwood and McCallister, JK and LVC went way back. They previously acted together on TV in the "Man Down, Woman Screaming" episode of the syndicated 1950's series City Detective. They also appeared as themselves in When the West Was Fun in 1979.  And, of course, they also co-starred in the 1968 feature film Commandos.

Before acting with Kelly Harmon in "Kunoichi", JK had appeared with her sister, Kristin Harmon Nelson, in the 1965 feature film Love and Kisses. (Sadly, Kristin passed away in 2018 at age 72.)

And, JK didn't just play a government official on TV--he was also the mayor of Huntington Beach, CA, in 1984!

All 13 episodes of The Master are now available in a remastered DVD set and can be purchased through Amazon and other retailers.  

Please stay tuned for more about JK's TV and movie adventures in TDS! :)