Combat! Season 1
Combat! Season 2
Combat! Season 3
Combat! Season 4
Combat! Season 5


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Season 5
COMBAT! episodes:
[The Gun]
[The Losers]
[Ollie Joe]
[The Brothers]
[The Chapel at Able Five]
[A Child's Game]
[The Letter]
[Headcount]
[Decision]
[The Outsider]
[Conflict]
[Gulliver]
[The Bankroll]
[Cry for Help]
[The Furlough]
[Entombed]
[Gadjo]
[Anniversary]
[Encounter]
[The Gantlet]
[The Masquers]
[A Little Jazz]
[Nightmare on the Red Ball Run]
[Jonah]
[The Partisan]

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Combat! reviews by Jo Davidsmeyer • Episodes rated from 0 to 4 bayonets 

(140) Anniversary


Telly Savalas and Anne Wakefield

RATING: 1/2 bayonet

Written by William R. Yates
Story by Edward J. Lakso
Directed by Michael Caffey

First aired 01-24-67
Episode 18 of Season 5

SYNOPSIS:

A French resistance fights, Jon, who has lost his wife and daughter in the war, becomes a lone avenger, killing Americans and Germans alike. Suffering from shock and delirium, Jon captures a German officer and threatens Hanley's life.

REVIEW:

This psychological drama is a change of pace for the series. I applaud the producers for trying new styles in the fifth season. Unfortunately, this experiment fell flat. Telly Savalas, as Jon, has all the right moves as an alternately troubled, then dangerous, man trapped in the past. Ultimately, though, he is an unsympathetic madman.

The show has no substance, especially contrasting it with "Cry In The Ruins." The two episodes share a similar premise — a person is driven mad by a tragic loss. Both stories were by Edward J. Lakso (though the teleplay for "Anniversary" was written by William R. Yates). In "Cry in the Ruins," Lakso uses the tragedy of the mother to shed light on the larger issues and to bring two warring factions together. In "Anniversary," no greater message is attempted, no insights offered.

Director Michael Caffey provides some lovely aerial shots and pans of the French village. With creative camera work, Michael Caffey creates beautiful contrasts between Savalas' idyllic memories of a perfect marriage and perfect village, and the reality of a home torn asunder by war. The shots slipping into and out of his memory in the dress shop are well executed. His camerawork surpasses the quality of this episode's script. The show ends, symbolically, with Savalas' broken body on the ground below and the puppet, now hanging from one string, above in the church.

NOTES, ODDITIES, AND BLOOPERS:

· When Telly Savalas is in the church loading his German rifle, he fumbles with the new magazine for several seconds. In the next cut, from a different angle, the magazine easily snaps in.

· Robierre was the collaborator in "The Tree of Moray" and the innkeeper in "Any Second Now."

· Telly Savalas also guest- starred in the episode "Vendetta."

CAST:

Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley
Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders [does not appear]

Guest Star
Telly Savalas as Jon

Jack Hogan as Kirby
Pierre Jalbert as Caje
Dick Peabody as Littlejohn
Conlan Carter as Doc

John Van Dreelen as Lt. Kramer
and
Anne Wakefield as Anne

Emile Genest as Robierre
Richard Jeffries as Pvt. Heller
Michele Montau as Dressmaker
Chris Howard as German Medic
Chris Anders as Karl
and
Sofia-Marie as Marie

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