On Location:
Loire, France
(The following text is an excerpt from COMBAT! A VIEWER'S
COMPANION by Jo Davidsmeyer)
During the hiatus between seasons three and four, Gene Levitt took a production crew to
Europe for location shooting. Rick Jason remembers, "They came to Vic and me and they
said they wanted to shoot six weeks in Europe to get some background stuff for stories
next year. They'd already started buying stories, so they knew what they had to shoot
footage for. Vic and I said that's nice. They said they'd pay all our expenses. No salary.
Vic and I said no."
Stuntman Earl Parker went with the crew to Europe and did all the stunts. "They
asked me to go and double Vic whenever needed," says Earl Parker. "From a
distance of course, but they could photograph me pretty close." Local actors stood in
for the other actors. The segments with Earl look as if Morrow is in the shots, but the
other doubles fall short, with an ungraceful man walking stolidly as Caje and a Littlejohn
much slighter than Dick Peabody.
The crew filmed at several chateaus in Lyon, France [correction courtesy of Dodger:
this should be Loire, France] and in the French countryside. The shots are expertly
cut into the episodes "The Linesman," "The Main Event," "Hear No
Evil," and "Evasion."
(The following is written by Dion "Dodger" Osika)
Several Combat! episodes had location footage shot in France. I had never seen
any of these episodes until about two weeks before Recon '98 when I caught
"Evasion" on Encore TV. Immediately upon watching the opening scene I recognized
the chateau where the filming took place. One year earlier, my wife and I spent a week in
France and visited the Loire Valley. We visited several chateaus and little did I realize
we were in the area that the Combat! locations were filmed.
I acquired the other French episodes and recognized sites that we had visited and did a
bit of detective work to locate a few more. Contrary to the Combat! book, the
filming was not done near Lyon, but between Tour and Blois, in the Loire Valley. [Note
from Jo: Thanks, Dodger! Will be corrected if there's ever a re-print of the book]
Three beautiful and historic chateaus were used. Chambord for "The Linesman"
and "Hear No Evil." Chenonceaux was seen in Lieutenant Hanley's escape in
"Evasion" and Chaumont-sur-Loire in "The Main Event." The ruins of
Chinon are used as a backdrop for "Hear No Evil." A bridge across the Loire
River near Langeais was used in "The Linesman."
Several other scenes were filmed in France for these episodes but the locations are not
as conspicuous as the sites mentioned. These scenes were likely done in the Loire Valley
as well, but for now they remain "lost." The map below shows the location of the
chateaus. (Map adapted from Michelin Green Guide. See below for information about this
book.)
Any Combat! fan traveling to Paris should seriously consider a trip to the Loire
Valley. The city of Tours is a one-hour ride on the swift TGV (the French bullet train).
Rent a car in Tours and spend several days visiting the chateaus at a leisurely
pace. I recommend a great handbook for planning such an adventure — Michelin Green Guide: Chateaux of the Loire,
Michelin Travel Publications; ISBN: 2061322042 is an excellent guide to traveling this
area.
Here are links to photos from the episodes and from my trip in 1997. (Click on
the small images below to see pictures from these sites.) |
