Combat! episode reviews by Jo Davidsmeyer
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Episodes are rated from 0 to 4 bayonets
(118) Hills Are for Heroes, Part 1
(119) Hills Are for Heroes, Part 2
RATING:
4 bayonets
Written Gene L. Coon
Directed by Vic Morrow
Part 1:
First aired 01-Mar-1966
Episode 25 of Season 4
Part 2:
First aired 08-Mar-1966
Episode 26 of Season 4
SYNOPSIS:
Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley
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Hanley must secure, at any cost, a strategic road guarded by two bunkers.
Machine gun fire from the bunkers decimates the platoon and wounds Saunders. With no
artillery support, Hanley is ordered again and again to try to take the hill. The suicide
runs take a heavy toll in lives and morale, especially Hanley's. With help from a tank,
the bunkers fall, but half the platoon lies dead on the hill. Before Kirby and the others
can climb to the top to claim their prize, the platoon receives orders to fall back and
abandon their hard-fought position.
REVIEW:
Jack Hogan as Kirby
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The squad's doomed attempt to take a hill provides a searing anti-war commentary.
"Hills Are for Heroes" is Vic Morrow's greatest gift to Combat! fans. His
direction is remarkable, especially the exquisite composition in his shots and the
evocative performances he elicits from the actors. Peabody and Jalbert turn in standout
performances. Both Jack Hogan and Rick Jason do their best Combat! work in this
episode.
This episode has a great team feel. Morrow peoples the scenes with full-platoon
strength. Earl Parker, Vic's stunt double, has a featured, but uncredited, role in Part 1
as Chester, the machine gunner who questions Kirby about Hanley.
Gene L. Coon (of "Star Trek" fame) wrote the screenplay. Morrow helped him
craft the dialogue, but took no script credit. The story gives viewers several great
Saunders moments: his refusal of the morphine, his gentle reassurance of Littlejohn, and
his spectacular PPT (patented pep talk) to Hanley.
Vic Morrow and Rick Jason
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"Vic did not direct me in one scene, until the last one, when I sit
down and I fall apart," says Rick Jason. "I had gone over the hill in the first
rehearsal. And Vic says, 'Okay, Cut. Let's take five minutes. Rick come on, let's go in
the dressing room. Frank come on.' Frank [Kowalski] was on the book, so he had to be
there. And Vic talks to me for five minutes. And then he says 'All right, let's do it.' I
did the first three lines and suddenly Frank got up and ran out of my dressing room. Ran.
I mean, he didn't walk out, he ran out. After we shot the scene and we did it in
one take, by the way, and we printed the first take I went over to Frank and asked
why he ran out of the dressing room. And he said, 'You absolutely freaked me out. The
difference between what you had done in the rehearsal and what you did in the dressing
room I was so freaked out I had to get away. You got to me. You got right to my gut
and I couldn't stay there.'
"It's among the best work I've ever done in my career," says Rick Jason.
"And I thank Vic Morrow for that. I've watched 'Hills' several times, and every time
I do, I think about his direction. Not my performance."
NOTES, ODDITIES, AND BLOOPERS:
· Caje wears a pinky ring in several shots
· Part 1: Hanley enters bunker
wearing a pack; when he gets inside, he has no pack.
· Kirby has a bandage on his
left index finger in some firefights.
· Part 1: In the last firefight
of part 1, when platoon starts up the hill, the machine gun is picked up, then next shot
it is picked up again.
· Part 2: The squad never
checks the tank to see if any of the crew is alive.
· "Hills Are for
Heroes" shows how a few well-prepared and well-equipped men can stand off a superior
force.
· Selig Seligman was so pleased
with the episode, that he threw a wrap party after filming. At the party, Frank Kowalski
gave the episode its current title.
· This two-parter tops all the
actors' lists as favorite Combat! episode, even Tom Lowell, who does not appear in
it. Dick Peabody rates it as possibly the best war film ever made.
ABOUT FILMING THE EPISODE:
Pierre Jalbert as Caje
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Morrow filmed "Hills" at Albertson's ranch at Thousand Oaks,
because MGM did not have the terrain the story needed. Two German bunkers and the American
bunker were built on location. A replica of the American bunker was built on an MGM
soundstage for filming the interiors of the bunker. Vic dragged out his twelve day filming
schedule to 21 days, more than doubling the budget. ABC regularly sent notes to Vic about
the over-run Vic used the notes to light his cigarettes. By finish, Vic Morrow
spent a half million of ABC's dollars.
CAST:
Rick Jason as Lt. Hanley
Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders
Jack Hogan as Kirby [listed on separate card in part 2]
Pierre Jalbert as Caje
Dick Peabody as Littlejohn
Conlan Carter as Doc
Paul Carr as Kleinschmidt
Joseph Walsh as Einstein
Anthony Call as Morgan
Michael Forest as Company Commander
Earl Parker as Machine Gunner (uncredited)
Steve Marlo as Radio Operator (uncredited)
Walt Davis as tank driver (uncredited)
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