StanleyWheeler

Earlier this week between writing and working and mowing and etc, I wedged an episode of Combat! into my schedule. I also caught about 22 minutes of The Wrath of Khan. I'm only including a write up on one of those here.

Season 1 Episode 12:”The Prisoner”

Written by Robert Kaufman. Directed by Robert Altman.

The setting around the camp reminds me of a Star Trek Halloween episode (“Catspaw” which also has something else in common with this Combat! episode as you will see below).

Braddock sneaks into camp. He says he lost his watch; that’s why he’s late. Littlejohn reminds Braddock that he sold the watch to him. (I can tell that Braddock is lying about the watch. He’s about to lie some more). Hanley wants Capt. Harper on the radio but Braddock says it doesn’t work; the batteries are dead. There’s a guy I haven’t seen before: Bialos. He’s the runner for Lt. Booker’s 1^st platoon. Why has he come to see Braddock? Because he traded good k-rations for dead batteries and he wants his rations back. When Hanley discovers that Braddock traded the dead batteries for k-rations he has a discussion with Braddock about whether he should go back into the line or continue as his runner.

Braddock at length decides he’s more valuable to the squad as a runner—the conclusion Hanley wanted him to reach. With the platoon unable to move, with no phone lines in yet, and no working batteries in the radio, Hanley needs someone to run back to Harper for orders or information. Braddock sees that he has fallen into Hanley’s trap.

After the intro we see someone belly-crawling through some low mist (see earlier “Catspaw” reference). It’s Saunders with a mouthful of mud and a report on the enemy positions. The Germans are dug in deep. Armor won’t do any good and it’s too soupy for air support. (Here comes what may be the central piece of the episode set up). Maybe the kraut colonel they recently captured can be of use. That colonel hasn’t revealed anything yet. Saunders wonders about pulling back. Hanley indicates the folly in that notion by stating that in their present position the German 88’s can’t reach them, but if they pull back they would be slaughtered. (This all sounds like a distorted and unlikely set of facts to keep the squad or platoon isolated and in need of extracting info from the prisoner). A shell lands nearby as Hanley finishes speaking. It’s the new danger: AA shells are being launched at them. (Which I doubted was possible,but was actually a tactic employed by the Germans).

Cut to Braddock making his way through the mist. He’s called upon by another American for the password. The soldier comes out looking for Braddock who surprises him. It’s Chekov! (Uncredited role for Walter Koenig) I half expected him to speak with a Russian accent. He has been in combat “ever since yesterday.” There’s a little bit about Chekov calling Braddock “sir” and Braddock saying he’s not a sir. (I’m thinking that my initial guess was wrong and this “sir” business is foreshadowing that Braddock is going to be taken prisoner and will be exchanged for the colonel).

Braddock gets in to see Capt. Harper. In Altman fashion the meeting takes place before two candles (in fairness, it may not have been an Altman convention in this case, but the kind of light likely available inside—but then later he does a nice shot with the two candles by the subject’s face—it’s signature Altman). After Braddock reports to Capt. Harper, there’s a call from a colonel who needs a driver who’s familiar with the company positions—Braddock knows the positions because he’s Hanley’s runner. It looks like he’ll be driving the colonel. (Looks like operation Braddock for colonel is starting to take shape).

There are more treats in store. The colonel’s sergeant is played by Richard Bakalyan who I associate with criminal types for his other roles. Colonel Clyde is played by Keenan Wynn and he comes out at his gruff, overheated best—like a freight train with a moustache and a cigar. Nobody does the bluster like Keenan Wynn.

When Braddock introduces himself, he is flustered by the colonel’s bluster and calls himself Sir Braddock. (More foreshadowing?). Braddock is regretting his decision. When the colonel is ready to go, Braddock is still coming from the shower. In the rush, he forgets his dog tags and wallet (Now I’m sure he’s going to be switching places with the colonel at some point). Clyde informs Braddock that he will drive; he says that he used to drive midgets before the war. When asked if he ever drove a midget, Braddock replies, in the best joke of the episode, “They wouldn’t drive with me, sir.”

Braddock starts sneezing. He attributes the sneezing to the draft and Clyde makes him take his coat. (The transformation from private to Colonel continues). Clyde drives like a maniac on speed. He swerves the jeep to miss a cow in the road. Braddock is thrown out. Clyde appears to go into the creek with the jeep. Braddock lies unconscious until a German patrol finds him in the middle of the road wearing a coat with colonel’s eagles on the shoulders—that’s Braddock wearing the coat, not the road; although a road does have shoulders and eagles could land there. He also has the colonel’s helmet. The Germans immediately become deferential. He offers them a cigar from the colonel’s coat pocket but the German instead lights it for him. He protests that he is only a private, but none of them speak English. He is taken to a German officer who speaks English, but doesn’t buy Braddock’s story.
Meanwhile, back at the company HQ, Colonel Clyde is overdue.

 An American patrol has seen that a colonel was taken prisoner by the Germans. They suspect that it’s Colonel Clyde.

Braddock gets the full officer treatment from the Germans and when he meets three other prisoners, they believe he’s a colonel too. When Braddock finds out that the other prisoners haven’t been fed, he goes into full Colonel Clyde bluster to get the Germans to feed them, and to let them ride on the car rather than walk behind.

At German HQ, Braddock learns that the Germans know all about Clyde. He doesn’t take kindly to the German efforts to confirm his identity now that he has embraced being Colonel Clyde.

The Germans see through the façade but want to trade him for their captured colonel anyway. They send one of the prisoners back to Hanley with the proposal. It’s Tom Skerrit.

The prisoner is sent on to HQ. He is convinced that the colonel he saw was Clyde based on Braddock’s impersonation and cigar smoking. The proposal is to trade Clyde and the other 2 GI’s for the German colonel and his aid. At this point Colonel Clyde enters HQ! He’s marked with dirt like Braddock was when he first appeared before Clyde. Clyde puts 2 and 2 together and realizes the Germans have Braddock. He arranges to pull a fast one on the Germans by putting a couple German privates in the uniforms of the German colonel and his aid for the exchange. The exchange goes as planned and the irate Germans attack, falling into Clyde’s trap.

Conclusion:

I was disappointed that there was no French spoken. We saw little of Hanley and we barely saw Saunders. This was pretty much the Shecky Greene show. He did a decent Keenan Wynn impersonation, but I would have preferred more Wynn and less Greene. There wasn’t any machinegun fire that I remember—I expect machinegun fire and some squad-to-squad combat from a show whose very title is a bayonet exclamation point following the word “Combat.” This is a show for and about manly men (and citizen soldiers) caught up in the toothy jaws of—need I say it—combat. Do I make myself clear? This was a decent but predictable lower tier episode without any surprises (except for Walter Koenig’s brief appearance--"Catspaw" was the first episode of Star Trek in which he appeared, although it was not the first with Koenig in it to air as "Catspaw" was held for airing near Halloween). I give it two-point-five-rounded-up-to-three of five bayonets.

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As for progress on Power to Hurt, I've passed 49K words; many of the characters are in desperate situations and the action will continue to tramp forward to the climactic battle.

I want to do a series of posts on The Wrath of Khan (probably as I watch the movie in 20 or 30 minute increments) and I have a book review of Sanderson's Oathbringer to write. Maybe the latter will have to be a separate bonus post.