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Season
4
COMBAT! episodes:
[Season 4 : Intro] [The Linesman] [The Main Event] [Hear No Evil] [9 Place Vendee] [A Sudden Terror] [Evasion] [Finest Hour] [Breakout] [The Farmer] [The Raider] [Crossfire] [Soldier of Fortune] [The First Day] [S.I.W.] [Luck with Rainbows] [The Flying Machine] [The Old Men] [The Casket] [The Good Samaritan] [Retribution] [The Mockingbird] [Hills Are for Heroes] [Counterplay] [Nothing to Lose] [Ask Me No Questions] [The Ringer] [One at a Time] [Gitty] [Run, Sheep, Run] [The Leader]
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Combat! reviews by Jo Davidsmeyer
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Episodes are rated from 0 to 4 bayonets
(120) Counterplay
RATING:
1/2 bayonet
First aired 25-Jan-1966
Episode 20 of Season 4
Written by Edward J. Lakso
Directed by Alan Crosland Jr.
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SYNOPSIS:
An impostor masquerades as a French resistance fighter to lead Saunders' squad
on a mission. They are escorting a radar expert to evaluate and destroy a
German radar installation. The impostor leads them through an elaborate ruse,
including a staged raid on a fake radar setup. When two resistance fighters stumble
into the German's lair, the plot is revealed.
REVIEW:
Mark Richman stars in "Counterplay," his second guest appearance on Combat! He leads the squad through an intricate plot in a sloppy suspense story. The
episode is padded with footage of B52s and planes in flight, making the show
look more like an episode of "Twelve O'Clock High" than Combat!
Both the script and direction are weak. The Germans have devised a detailed
ruse and constantly watch the squad throughout their mission but they foolishly
establish their base in a room formerly occupied by the resistance and do not
take the precaution of keeping strangers from entering.
Elements of a coming-of-age story are tossed in, along with a Frenchman making
the noble sacrifice. The story is a hodge-podge of plot elements and stock
footage.
NOTES, ODDITIES, AND BLOOPERS:
� As the squad is in the sniper's sights, they are wet before they enter the
stream.
� The town is part of the MGM backlot that Combat! never blew up. The same streets were used for Annette's home in "Just for the Record" and Anne's orphanage in "The Furlough," among others.
� A bloodless episode: Caje and Kirby kill Germans by striking their faces with
rifle butts. Saunders dispatches one by breaking his back on a rock.
� The squad avoids gunfire to silently kill the radar technicians, then they set
off noisy grenades and Saunders uses the Thompson on the equipment. Why take
the trouble to be quiet in the beginning?
CAST:
Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders
Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley
Guest Star
Mark Richman as Marchand/German Lt.
Jack Hogan as Kirby
Pierre Jalbert as Caje
Dick Peabody as Littlejohn
Robert Crawford as Pierre DuBois
Louis Mercier as Paul DuBois
Gary Lasdun as Marchand/French
Paul Busch as German Officer
Walter Davis as German #1
Gerd Rein as German #2
Chris Anders as German #3
H.M. Wynant as Sgt. Rawlings
and
Robert Ellenstein as DuBois
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