T V | House of Stapleton

It Takes a Thief (1968)

Rating

Run Time: 60 min

Color: Color

Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

Sound: Mono

Producer: American Broadcasting Corporation

Genre

Action
Adventure
Crime
Drama

Seasons: 3

Episodes: 66

Overview

Debonair burglar Alexander Mundy is released from jail when he agrees to work for a U.S. agency in this genial adventure. In the second season, he occasionally enlisted the help of his light-fingered father (memorably played by Fred Astaire).

Edward Binns

Wallie Powers (Season 3)

Fred Astaire

Alistaire Mundy

Malachi Throne

Noah Bain (Seasons 1 - 2)

Robert Wagner

Alexander Mundy

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3

1. One Night on Soledade

First Aired September 23, 1968

Guest stars: Nancy Kovack, Madlyn Rhue and Logan Ramsey*Pierre Dushon, son of the Soledade dictator, has been poisoned. The SIA fears the dictator will wrongly blame neighboring Casturo, friendly to the US. Al must steal the body, hidden by the superstitious people in the catacombs.

2. A Sour Note

First Aired September 30, 1968

Guest stars: Suzanne Pleshette, Harvey Lembeck and Gino Conforti*The SIA wants proof Nazi war criminal Karl Muller has a new identify. It is in the safe of Luigi Dimontelli, son of a Fascist Italy bureaucrat. Luigi loves opera. The SIA persuades a diva to perform for him. Al poses as her manager.

3. The Bill Is in Committee

First Aired October 07, 1968

Guest stars: Yvonne Craig, Jocelyn Lane and Roger C. Carmel*Al impersonates a magician and, accompanied by the magician's assistant, goes to a European principality to steal the negatives of compromising photos of a US Congressman, who is being blackmailed into supporting the country.

4. The Thingamabob Heist

First Aired October 14, 1968

Guest stars: Ricardo Montalban, Bill Russell and Sharon Acker*Al must steal a sample of a revolutionary new type of jet fuel, the only trouble is he doesn't know what to look for.

5. Get Me to the Revolution on Time

First Aired October 21, 1968

Guest stars: Ivan Dixon, Wende Wagner, Morgan Woodward, Ena Hartman and Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr.*Al must pose as a cocktail mixologist to gain access to a safe which can only be opened with multiple electronic keys, each emitting a different tonal pitch.

6. The Packager

First Aired October 28, 1968

Guest stars: Alex Dreier and Lee Meredith*A millionaire blackmails Al into doing a job by threatening to expose his involvement with SIA.

7. Hans Across the Border: Part 1

First Aired November 11, 1968

Guest stars: Joseph Cotten, Pamela Austin and Willi Koopmann*Al's simple task this time involves the recovery of a set of papers from a wall safe but, the safe is in a house located somewhere behind the Berlin Wall. Breaking in is the first trick, breaking back out again is the real challenge.

8. Hans Across the Border: Part 2

First Aired November 18, 1968

Guest stars: Joseph Cotten, Pamela Austin and Willi Koopmann*In Part 2 of this Cold War plot, Al reluctantly returns to the home of the East German general from whom he has stolen a set of papers, in order to plant disinformation about another character, in the safe.

9. A Case of Red Turnips

First Aired November 25, 1968

Guest star: Noel Harrison*Mundy is ordered to attend a foreign film festival and steal the only copy of an avant-garde motion picture. The movie's director accidentally filmed eleven American spies making a drop at a location behind the Iron Curtain and if the film is premiered the agents will all soon be captured or dead.

10. The Galloping Skin Game

First Aired December 02, 1968

Guest stars: Richard Kiel, Ricardo Montalban and Martine Beswick*Al must steal a document hidden in a scientific paper at a conference in Rome. The SIA doesn't know which of the 100 papers contains the document. Al deduces that the paper will be handled by a high-value fence, Grobo, and schemes to get on his good side by stealing the Kimberly Diamond and having Grobo fence it for him. Al comes up with a unique solution to obtain the key paper before it's delivered to Grobo, while also keeping the diamond (that the SIA returns).

11. Glass Riddle

First Aired December 16, 1968

Guest stars: Mrs. Robert Wagner (Marion Marshall) and Jason Evers*Al makes a withdrawal from a safety deposit box (not his).

12. To Catch a Roaring Lion

First Aired December 30, 1968

Guest stars: George Takei, Brock Peters and Denise Nicholas*Al returns a stolen item, rather than stealing it.

13. Guess Who's Coming to Rio?

First Aired January 06, 1969

Guest stars: Teri Garr, Michael Ansara, Alejandro Rey, Arlene Martel*Al takes a vacation. Or at least, tries to take one.

14. The Artist Is For Framing

First Aired January 20, 1969

Guest stars: Paul Henreid and Gia Scala*Al is being expertly framed for several jewelry heist. But by who?

15. The Naked Billionaire

First Aired January 27, 1969

Guest star: Sally Kellerman*Daniel Ryder's electronics firm has won a defense contract, but the SIA suspects the reclusive billionaire is being impersonated. Al's old flame Nina Gray is involved with the firm. Can Al trust her help and will she be in danger?

16. A Matter of Grey Matter: Part 1

First Aired February 03, 1969

Guest stars: Joey Heatherton and Barry Williams*Dodie Dubois is a terrible actress with a reclusive rich elderly boyfriend financing her movie career. He is also developing missile technology with countries hostile to the US. Al poses as a distribution agent to find and stop Wolfgang.

17. A Matter of Grey Matter: Part 2

First Aired February 10, 1969

Guest stars: Joey Heatherton and Barry Williams*Dodie's genius little brother Herbie is pressured by Wolfgang to produce from memory a math formula for new rocket fuel. Will Al find Herbie and Wolfgang in time ?

18. Catspaw

First Aired February 17, 1969

Guest stars: Fernando Lamas and Sharon Acker*The brother of the ruler of La Monica has stolen the crown jewels. They are on Clayton Hewitt's moat surrounded estate. The SIA wants to recover them, but Al gets injured. He and Noah hoodwink Al's prot?g? into doing the heist for them.

19. Boom at the Top

First Aired February 24, 1969

Guest stars: Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall and Barry Sullivan*The SIA orders Mundy to give a Washington, D.C., party in hopes he can nab the pickpocket who recently invaded a similar event in order to find a microdot. Complications arise when an acquaintance arrives with a bomb strapped to him in hopes that Mundy can disarm it.

20. The Funeral Is on Mundy

First Aired March 10, 1969

Guest star: Julie Newmar*While on a mission to discredit a crack thief of an adversarial spy group, Mundy discovers the thief murdered during assignment and learns that he is an additional target of the other thief's mysterious assassin.

21. The Baranoff Time Table

First Aired March 17, 1969

Guest star: Jessica Walter*Costa d'Oro secretary Ortega plans a Communist coup in the region and commits it to a paper the SIA wants. Al arouses the suspicions of locals loyal to El Presidente, and must deal with his unreliable contact, palace guest Laurie Brooks.

22. Rock-Bye, Bye, Baby

First Aired March 24, 1969

Guest stars: Gavin MacLeod, Melodie Johnson, Edmond O'Brien*The SIA wants a notebook in the old 1920's era safe of Domino Club owner Manny Grayson. Al wants old San Jobel pal Rocky to help. Noah alludes to Frankenstein's Monster and warns Al of trouble if Rocky gets involved.

23. The Family

First Aired March 31, 1969

Guest stars: Geraldine Brooks, Carla Borelli*Al gets quarantined in the highly secure household of a reclusive elderly oil magnate, to find out who is behind his oil sales to Iron Curtain countries.

24. 38-23-36

First Aired April 07, 1969

Guest star: Nancy Kovack*Al poses as a fashion photographer at an international beauty pageant. He knows only the measurements of the girl who is a dangerous enemy spy, and what a set of figures.

25. The Great Chess Gambit

First Aired April 14, 1969

Guest stars: Nehemiah Persoff, Stuart Margolin, Mar?a Noel, Greg Mullavey*A SAC bomber with three nuclear weapons aboard crashes. The bombs are recovered but the 3311 "Black Box", a failsafe device that receives the plane's "Go Order" direct from the President, is missing and being held for ransom. Al Mundy must outbid the Russians and retrieve the device.

26. Mad in Japan

First Aired April 21, 1969

Guest stars: Sharon Acker, Alex Dreier*After receiving the message "Dangerous Weapon Inside: Code 409" from two S.I.A. agents in the Far East, who may be have been killed, Noah sends Al and Dr. Hopkins to Japan to retrieve the prototype for a portable, hand-held laser gun.