Gideon's Army

SYNOPSIS: Saunders and his squad liberate a concentration camp of sick and starving Polish laborers. Unwilling to leave these helpless men behind, Saunders lies to Hanley in order to buy time and get transport for them. When a German column approaches, Saunders enlists the aid of these unarmed men in convincing the enemy that they are outnumbered.

REVIEW: "Gideon 's Army" is Combat's only venture into the holocaust -- pity they did it so tentatively. The episode starts out very well: the first act is rather excellent, the second act still above average, but then it slides rapidly downhill.

This story avoids the ethnicity of the prisoners, simply referring to them as D.P.s (displaced persons), just off-the-street Poles, not Jews or members of any of the other groups that the Nazis targeted. The likelihood of finding Polish D.P.s in France at the time was low. The death trains ran from West to East. The Nazi-labeled "undesirables" from France were shipped to Poland, not from it. This labor camp (and there were lots of them in France) should have been peopled with Frenchmen.

What rescues this story, as usual, is Saunders. Some excellent moments as again he tries to win an unwinnable situation (with an off-stage assist from Hanley). That radio call between Hanley and Saunders is classic, epitomizing their relationship caught somewhere between friends and soldiers.

Director John Peyser creates some beautiful visual images in this episode. He has great long shots from the top of the guard tower and across the prison yard. One sweeping shot going from a closeup of a nervous Billy high in a tree down to a stoic Littlejohn on the ground is magnificent.

NOTES, ODDITIES, AND BLOOPERS:

• Richard Jaeckel enters battle with an MP40, but surrenders with an 98K rifle.
• Saunders asks an awful lot when he orders the squad to allow one German to survive the shootout. With all the lead flying, how did they decide which one would survive?
• Keep an eye out at the top of act two when two Germans burst into the house between Billy and Saunders: they both open up, killing the Germans, but should also have killed each other in their cross-fire.

ABOUT FILMING THE EPISODE: Conlan Carter did the Bible-reading scene in one take. "We didn't even rehearse it. I just took the Bible and said 'Why don't we shoot this thing. Cause it's gonna be tough to get it. You might as well run the camera and if it works, fine, and if not ...' And it just rolled out. I'll never forget that. It was one of the few shows they did that with, the voice-over thing."

CAST:

Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders


Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley

Milton Selzer as Colonel Glinski


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


Albert Szabo as Karacz
Reggie Nalder as Man With One Eye
Ray Baxter as Cougher
Marc Cavell as Jan
Peter Hellman as German Sergeant
Dean Heyde as German Soldier
Lou Robb as German Lieutenant


Richard Jaeckel as Sgt. Buxman