Your appearance, Al Mundy

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Television series
German title Your appearance, Al Mundy
Original title It takes a thief
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1968-1970
length 51 minutes
Episodes 66 in 3 seasons
genre Drama , crime , action series
idea Roland Kibbee
music Benny Golson ,
Oliver Nelson ,
Ralph Ferraro
First broadcast January 9, 1968 (USA) on ABC
German-language
first broadcast		 November 18, 1969 on ZDF
occupation

Your appearance, Al Mundy (original title: It Takes a Thief ) is an American television series with Robert Wagner as an agent in the service of a fictional American secret service.

As the viewer hears every time in the opening credits, Al Mundy experiences comparatively non-violent adventures in contrast to other fictional secret agents . After all, he's not a killer , but a job thief. Right at the beginning of the series, a cunning escape attempt by the imprisoned hero demonstrates that Al Mundy relies on tricks and disguises to achieve his goals. Accordingly, he also refuses to carry a weapon. As a reason for this refusal, he refers to his "professional honor" as a thief. His tasks consist in requisitioning things as inconspicuously as possible, protecting them from theft by others or reversing exchanges. If he is attacked, he defends himself with violence if necessary, but violence is never part of his job as an agent.

Quirks

The combination agent / thief created a hero who differs from James Bond and his countless epigones as well as from other fictional thieves such as Arsène Lupine and Simon Templar . Al Mundy often shows human sympathy for the people he meets on his assignments. He pursues stealing as a profit-oriented activity that he took over from his father and grandfather. When his father actually appears in the series, that gives the series an epic attribute and anticipates elements from Sidney Lumet's 1989 film Family Business .

Guest stars

In the first episode, Senta Berger plays his minder. There are two conspicuously different versions of this pilot film, in which the plot and therefore also its scenes are different. At the end of the episode, Al Mundy has to outsmart the cameras installed throughout his apartment in order to get closer to her unseen. The guard he tricked is played by Leslie Nielsen . In the second season, Al Mundy has to do with the gigantic Richard Kiel , who has more dialogue here than in his appearances as an opponent of James Bond. Stefanie Powers and Lionel Stander , with whom Robert Wagner later also played the leading roles in the television series Hart, also had a guest appearance . Ida Lupino, Peter Sellers and George Takei can also be seen in other roles.

German synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Al Mundy Robert Wagner Rainer Brandt (ZDF dubbing)
Joachim Kerzel (RTL dubbing)
Noah Bain Malachi thrones Friedrich Wilhelm Bauschulte (ZDF dubbing)
Klaus Jepsen (RTL dubbing)
Al Mundy's father Fred Astaire Gerhard Martienzen (ZDF dubbing)
Friedrich Schönfelder (RTL dubbing)

DVD release

In July 2010, the entire first season was released on DVD in two parts as Season 1.1 and Season 1.2 . In November 2010, the first part of the second season followed as season 2.1 . These were published by Polyband / WVG. Since March 2017, the series has been available for the first time in Germany as a complete box with all three seasons on DVD. The publisher is the company Fernsehjuwelen GmbH, based in Walluf.

Awards

The cinematographer Ralph Woolsey in 1968 for his work on the episode A Thief is a Thief is a Thief in the category Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography with the Emmy Award.

Leading actor Robert Wagner was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role in 1970 , but could not win any of the awards.

Web links