2016-08-26

Get Smart's "Ship of Spies", 1

This is part 1 of a planned series of posts on the 2-part episode The Ship of Spies (Part 1, Part 2), written by Buck Henry and Leonard Stern. They won the Emmy award in June, 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy.
In this post, let's summarize the plot in The Ship of Spies, 1.


  1. Maxwell Smart meets the Chief at dock-side bar.
    Max learned from an informer that stolen the plans for a nuclear amphibian battleship is going to smuggle them out of the country tonight aboard a ship. They are waiting for the contact to tell them which ship will be used. However, he won't give that information to Max, because he's afraid they're suspicious already, and if he's seen talking to Max, he'll be in great danger. The Chief agrees to meet the contact.
  2. Max's contact is shot by someone making a CLIP-CLOP sound outside who can't be seen due to the dense fog. The contact stumbles into the bar and collapsed near the Chief and Max.
    When he asks for a drink, Max gives him milk. The contact manages to say "Evening star sails at midnight." before he dies.
  3. The Chief tells Max he is to go on the Evening Star as a passenger and find those plans. Control scientist Parker (played by Milton Selzer) briefs Max and the Chief on the Evening Star using a model.
    Parker also gives Max a pistol phone that he can both shoot and make phone calls from, but not at the same time.
  4. 99 arrives with Max's luggage for the trip.
    He's warned that they don't know what form the plans are in - they could be blueprints or microfilm, for example. Max assures everyone "Don't worry. I'll do the job."
  5. Once onboard and in his cabin, Max is welcomed by Agent 44, who is perched on the sit of the ship outside Max's window.
    Agent 44 gives Max a list of the suspects.
    SMART
    This looks like the complete passenger list.
    AGENT 44
    It is. Don't you know what they call this freighter?
    SMART
    What?
    AGENT 44
    Ship of spies.
  6. After Agent 44 leaves, Max hears a CLOP-CLOP sound outside his cabin door. Consuela Juanita Dorotea Marquita Merendez, a Spanish dancer with castanets, enters his cabin by mistake.
    Max tackles her but can't help flirting a bit, while trying to determine if she might be the person who stole the plans.
  7. After Consuela leaves, Max hears another CLOP-CLOP sound outside his cabin door. He opens his door to see man with a cane CLIP-CLOPS down the corridor, who then enters his cabin. Max goes down the hall to the man's door and knocks but gets no answer. He tries to break the door down with his shoulder, but fails, bouncing across the hall into the open door of the cabin opposite. The cabin belongs to Agent 99, who's arrived to help him. Max uses her cabin to get a running start.
    But now the cabin door across the hall is open and Max crashes though the window of the unlit room.
  8. The cabin belongs to Inspector Sehokian, Armenian branch, International Control. He's been tracking the operation but was just stabbed by a mysterious attacker.
    Before dying, he tells Max and 99 that "The plans, they are not plans".
  9. While inside Sehokian's cabin, they hear the CLOP-CLOP sound of a man in a wheelchair, Hector Baccardo, the famous Portuguese polo player.
    Is he the killer?
  10. Max decides to go up on deck but protectively asks 99 to stay safe in her cabin.
    There's a moment when 99 thinks they might kiss. They don't
  11. Max goes up on deck in the dense fog but takes on gunfire.
    He hides behind the deck railing and returns fire.
  12. The railing gives way and Max plunges into the ocean. He asks 99 if he passes the Control swimming test. She gets her Control file.
    She yells back "No!" through her window. End of Part 1.