IT TAKES A THIEF

Alexander Mundy is a thief.

To call him just a thief, though, is like calling Michaelangelo a good artist. Just as the latter was a genius in several different disciplines, so too is Mundy a maestro at various forms of larceny. He has hands that can take a bracelet off the most delicate wrist, ears that can hear silent tumblers fall into place, eyes that spot all the weak spots while casing a target, a brain that can change a scheme in mid play. He also has the audacity to use them all whenever and however he chooses and he has chosen enough times to keep in luxury for many years. At least he did before the Fall.

Mundy comes about his larcinous nature 'honestly'. He was taught by his father, a man described by Mundy as 'the greatest thief who ever was' and there is a lot more than just filial pride. He was good enough that most of the people who fell prey to his skills never knew who had hit them, they just knew very valuable trinkets and wall decorations were no longer where they once were and there was no clue left behind. He was so incredibly good that the nickname of 'the Panther' was pinned on his exploits to be able to give the semblance of an identity.

The profits of this lucrative albeit illegal lifestyle was enough to afford the very best of anything and that extended to the finest schools in Europe for his son. The young Mundy was smart enough to recognize the opportunities presenting themselves and at these schools he studied hard and learned a great deal - usually absorbing a wide assortment of knowledge he was planning to use in his own life of crime.

When the official educations came to an end, Mundy went out into the world to make his own way. There was no animosity between the two - they just knew that each man was a loner. Just as the Panther hunted by himself, so did the younger Mundy go off for his own catches. And they were many and they were profitable and Alexander Mundy lived a life and earned a reputation that made his father proud and himself very content. At least until the Fall.

As the series begins, Mundy is in his late 30's. He is described as "extremely handsome with a planed, regular featured face, light brown hair and cool blue eyes that seemed to question everything in sight." In another passage he is said to be "a leashed dynamo". He is very much a ladies man and good enough at it that the women from his past remember him with smiles and sighs. He goes the same places the jetsetters haunt not only because he enjoys that way of life but also because that is where the treasures are.

At least he did until the Fall. This term devised just for this refers to the time when two New York City detectives, tired of the way Mundy was getting away each time, came up with a sting operation to trap the daring thief. While some say that they framed him, Mundy himself talked about how Noah Bain and his younger protege Wally Powers has played him beautifully and when he walked into the snare, he was truly trapped. His sentence was 1-10 years at San Jubal prison.

Mundy was not about to stay behind bars for the full sentence. He was cultivating the guards and other visitors and coming up with his own plan for release. The first was actually underway when his former nemesis, Noah Bain, came to call.

That middle-aged slightly plump cop had traded in his badge for a cloak and a dagger with the premiere American intelligence organization, the SIA. The man had watched several different missions go bad because the agents under his control, good and trained as they were at spycraft, often needed other skill sets. They might learn the basics of second-story work but they were not acrobats. They could study safes and locks but they did not have years of experience with them. Bain realized that sometimes what was needed was not a spy but a thief. He took his thoughts to his superiors and told them about an excellent thief that might be open to a deal.

The deal, or extortion, depending on one's viewpoint, was simple. In exchange for a conditional parole into the custody of Bain, Mundy would work for them. In Bain's words, "Oh, look, Al. I'm not asking you to spy. I'm asking you to steal."

I was a huge fan of the television series. Al Mundy was so very cool with the ladies and with the stealing, so smooth with the schmoozing, and had the greatest hair. When they brought in the incomparable Fred Astaire to play his father on, regrettably only, four episodes, the chemistry was awesome. As a teenage boy, I loved it.

The plots were standard television for the time. Bad guys always had signs pointing them out. There were few good guys in the picture except for Mundy. The women were all drop-dead gorgeous and usually determined to not fall victim to his charm but doing so anyways. I enjoyed them a great deal. Five decades later, I watch them again and recognize their shortcomings and still do not care. Al Mundy was awesome. And he had the greatest crooked grin that told the world, watch out!

Oh, to be Al Mundy!

Don't read the books if you are expected incredible spycraft, but that really goes without saying. Read the books for just the fun of it. And watch the episodes again if nothing else but to watch Robert Wagner, the epitome of cool, play Al Mundy, the epitome of cool. And do some spying-stealing along the way.