The Wilby Conspiracy

You can also find a spy thriller called Scorpio on Tubi TV. If you're predisposed to liking spy thrillers, this isn't bad although I think it shits itself in the end.

Burt Lancaster plays the CIA spy, Cross. His boss thinks he is a double-agent and wants him eliminated. Generally a good cast with a plot that should have been tighter. It is a good chance to take a tour around Vienna. They have a great foot chase scene there in and around a construction site. Though lacking in many ways, it's free.

Not a lot (if any) big-vista views of Vienna. Mostly a street here, a street there. You didn't get a big-picture feel for the city. And if it was in major disrepair, that had to be the reason.

But certainly that yuge construction project chase scene was indicative of what was occurring, at least in some areas. Things were being rebuilt and repaired.

Spy movies typically leave me wondering "WTF?" This one was no different. But that's par for the course. Lancaster probably wasn't right for this role. But the spotty writing here and there are what hurt it. It often had the look of a good made-for-TV movie. Still, it was free. And for a spy flick, it was no worse than most.

Agent Artler, you are definitely not a recruiting poster for the CIA.

But then isn't it funny how our entire entertainment-based society much prefers the amped-up fiction of unreality? Could this have an impact on how easily we accept the unrealities of "climate change," transgenderism, and "oh my god, we're all going to die...it's flu season again"?

Even documentaries are highly unreal. Think of those Disney films of the 50's and 60's that were narrated by Rex Allen. These were totally and completely staged stories using live animals. And they were charming. And they never sold themselves as documentaries. They were animal-dramas. Cute. Cuddly. Sort of miss them a little.

But, goodness gracious, I would say most animal documentaries are as staged. That's not necessarily an indictment. In order to witness some of the rare behaviors, you have to control the situation. And a few decades back, there was much controversy over this aspect, that many documentaries were "faked." But I think now they are all mostly "faked" to one degree or another...almost to the point where they might as well have Rex Allen narrate them.

Anyway, we are inundated by fake news and fake reality at every turn. Still, I think that one can glimpse facts and truths from inside of a good piece of fiction (film, book, whatever). An accurate historical drama or book is likely to today tell you more about 1920's Vienna than any Woke or Marxist-based social studies class.

Granted, that's too much to ask of fiction, to be the replacement for the facts we should have been taught in the first place. But needs must when the devil drives, etc. And there are certainly aspects of Scorpio that show at least a bit of things like boring stakeouts.

And where else are you going to find both a Klingon (John Colicos) and a Romulan (Joanne Linville) in the same spy movie?

I'm currently watching on Tubi TV 1982's Enigma with Martin Sheen as a man recruited by the CIA to stop a Russian plot. Ironic because Martin Sheen himself probably hasn't met a Communist he couldn't apologize for. But this is supposedly based on a true story. I'll let you know how it goes.