Thanks all for the responses.

I'd forgotten about John Huston's 1963 film The List of Adrian Messenger (appreciate the reference) in which a retired operative of MI5, the British security intelligence agency, investigates the death of a friend, with the trail leading to a master of disguises. Several big name Hollywood stars of the era have cameo roles in it, with their famous faces obscured by latex masks and makeup. It became the film's promotional gimmick, and it certainly requires no stretch of imagination to assume that the ending of The List of Adrian Messenger, plus the pre-title sequence to From Russia With Love (already mentioned) was enough to plant in the minds of those writing early episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. that they could make use of the same concept.  I still can't recall any specific earlier use of the idea in a television series, though, but it probably did occur.

The latex mask subterfuge was so striking because as a plot device it could engineer such a radical altering of perceptions about a key figure in a teleplay, both in the minds of the other characters and often the viewing audience as well. In addition, unlike radical reconstructive facial surgery, that "total identity transfer" could be assumed with relative ease, and then discarded immediately when no longer needed, a plot device that the later 1960s series Mission Impossible would exploit for maximum effect.


  

Last Edited By: alizarin1 May 21 10 2:11 PM. Edited 2 times.