Even when I was a 10 year old watching the original Combat! series each Tuesday night, the screenplay writing and abilities of the actors to fulfill the potential of that writing outweighed any of my childhood draw towards simple action/adventure.
Watching these episodes today at age 50, I find that memory has not deluded me with nostolgic overestimation. This is among the most beautiful of dramatic TV writing, born from the tail end of an age known for great scripts. As I remember the series (Season IV has not yet been released as I post this review), this season presented the audience the series at the top of its game -- with the most memorable episodes contained on the Season III Operation II disk set.
I encourage you to not watch this series in the same way you watch contemporary TV drama -- I think of shows like Hill Street Blues or E.R. in this context -- where there's emphatic continuity and developing stories from week to week and year to year.
Viewing Combat! as a body of work through successive episodes requires some minor suspension of disbelief from modern viewers. The stories represent less of typical days in the lives of grunts slugging it out in the hedgerows, and rather more of the strange offbeat happenings possible in a war. You'll also need to ignore the fact that Sgt. Saunders earns himself a score of Purple Hearts each season.
Watch each episode in isolation without reference to previous events, and the fruits you receive will be a collection of crisp short stories -- dramatic vignettes which, even on the writer's bad days, nonetheless exhibited notable craftsmanship and skill.
Although I'm unable to confirm this with any authority of knowledge, I should mention that I'm suspicious of the physical quality of the DVD disks in the Combat! collection: I have a brand new DVD player which has been able to run each of the 300+ disks on my shelf *except* for any of the Combat! series, though they do run fine on another machine.
This program has unique introductory music
Many programs of the era had their own introductory music and this program was no exception; the music was by Leonard Rosseman.
They always start out with "staring Rick Jason and Vic Morrow." Instead of great sweeping epics this program focuses on a single squad with their trials and tribulation with confronting the Germans in WWII. Each episode is one hour and has to oppose a problem and a solution in that time. This was back in the time of professional privates.
In 1967-1968 Vietnam if you were lucky certain areas actually had TV broadcasting at 1600 hrs. You guessed it; this was one of the programs. I wonderer what the locals thought of the episode?
This would be a good series to own. Not just for the nostalgia, but the personal conflicts portrait in the program are still with us today.
COMBAT Continues to Excel!
We have now reached the midpoint of the COMBAT series and the show is now only becoming better. While I may find a few more "clunckers" in the third season, that were not present in season 2, this is outweighed by the fact there were far more excellent episodes in total. The actors who comprised the core of the Squad have fully developed their individual personalities and Vic Morrow was now becoming the true centerpiece of the show. There was apparently no clash of egos between himself and Rick Jason, probably because Jason shrewdly had it in his contract that he got paid whether he appeared or not.
Of course, one of the drawbacks in a series such as COMBAT is the main participants of the squad survive every episode, while those poor forlorn "red shirts", or in this case "green shirts" take one for the team. And it is admittedly humorous to find Saunders, Hanley, or Caje, become ground up chop meat, only to never receive the "million dollar" wound that they so hungered for. Despite these obvious restrictions, in deference to a 1960's television show, you can still maintain a sense of realism and excitement while viewing COMBAT.
Some of the Highlights:
1. Odyssey...in another top notch episode, Saunders attempts to get back to his own lines by pretending to be a shell shocked German soldier...in this one, Saunders is able to see life from the other side, and Bert Freed is excellent as an understanding German Sargent who protects Saunders....another tragic story in the making....
2. The Hard Way Back....Sal Mineo guest stars as a cowardly soldier who abandons a trapped Saunders and tells everyone the Sarge is dead....Sal Mineo obviously excels....
3. The Cassock.....James Whitmore plays a German officer who disguises himself as a priest and hides in a church....There is some clever, and at times even tender interplay between himself and G.I. Mart Hulswit (of Guiding Light fame) who, as a former alterboy, finds comfort in the church..the show leads you down a false path more than once....
4. The Hell Machine.....another appearance by Frank Gorshin as he and Saunders attempt to navigate through enemy held territory using a captured German tank......nice claustrophobic feel on how it would be inside a tank....
5.The Enemy....usually whenever a battle of wits was written into the story, it was left up to Hanley to be one of the wits...this one, starring Robert Duvall as a German demolition officer has Hanley trying to outthink his captor....
6. The Duel.....Saunders, on foot, single handedly attempts to distract a German tank, while the supply truck he is protecting can be repaired before the tank comes upon it...fun stuff here
7. The Steeple...no doubt the true exploits of JOHN STEELE come into play here as a paratrooper is caught on a church steeple...it is up to Saunders to try to get him inside despite the fact that the village is overrun by Germans.
8. Cry in the Ruins....this is one of the best episodes of the season, as Hanley and a German Lieutenant, put aside the war for a moment in order to rescue a woman's child...there is a few twists in this episode and the character study between the two opposing squads is well written.....
9. The Little Carousel...poignant tale of the squads encounter with a young student nurse who wants to help Saunders and his men....deeply moving and an emotional tour de force for Vic Morrow.....
10. The Imposter...Hanley must once again use his wits in order to determine who within his merry band of men is an Imposter....enough monkey wrenches are thrown in as to not make it too easy to figure out.....
Those are a few of the quality episodes, but there are a few duds as well:
1. Vendetta....you would think an episode staring Telly Savales, as a vengeful Greek would be great, but guess again, it's not
2. Birthday Cake....Littlejohn would have been shot had he acted this way in a real war...it is just too stupid, even for a big lug like him...
3. A Walk with an Eagle...this type of episode, where an arrogant Air officer does not respect Saunders authority, has been done before....
4. Fly Away Home....I guess it is good to give the Pigeon Corp their props, and it is a treat to see Neville Brand, but the story is simply not compelling....
5. Mountain Man....there is so little story here, that the first third of it follows the squad walking through the snow, setting markers, and the final third, features Cage skiing through it.....tedious viewing at its worst....
6. The Town that Went Away...this episode, about a bunch of conniving French Villagers, needs to go away.......
Though I may sound a bit harsh concerning some of these episodes, remember that they are far and few between the good to excellent episodes that span this two volume set...
So there you have it once again....If you have read my previous reviews, you obviously know that I am a big fan of this series and welcome them to DVD. I hope you welcome them into your home as well....my minor complaints aside, this set is enthusiastically recommended!
The further adventures of King Company's second platoon are highlighted in all their blazing action and dramatic impact in this four-disc set, which concludes Combat!'s 1962-63 debut season. King Two undergoes a few changes in episodes 17 through 32--Shecky Greene's Pvt. Braddock is absent from the platoon (Greene quit over pay issues) and Jack Hogan, whose Pvt. Kirby first appeared in "The Forgotten Front" (featured in the Combat! Season One: Campaign One boxed set) is now a featured cast member; Emmy nominee Conlon Carter, who would later join the cast as Doc in the third season, appears as an unnamed PVC in disc 3's "Hill 256." The 17 episodes featured here carry the men of King Two to the liberation of Paris, which concludes the season; afterwards, the series would no... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Hailed as one of the best episodic television series about World War II, ABC's Combat! arrives on DVD with its first 16 episodes in a heavily annotated four-disc set that's sure to please its longtime fans. The men of King Company's second platoon (a.k.a. King Two) are the focus of this gritty and realistic series; led by Lt. Gil Hanley (Rick Jason) and Sgt. Chip Saunders (Vic Morrow in an Emmy-nominated performance), King Two fought its way across France for five seasons, beginning in 1962 with the 16 episodes gathered here. The storyline kicks off shortly after D-Day and carries the platoon up to the liberation of Paris, which concluded the season (the second half of season 1 is featured in a separate four-disc set). Cast members rotated in and out of service (Tom Lowell's Pvt.... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Byron Paul - James Komack - Tom Gries - Bernard McEveety (II) - Jus Addiss DVD Release Date: Released the 20 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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It's more of the same as other reviewers. Just terrific, absorbing and great theartre. Enjoy it. Going to watch and episode now. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vic Morrow DVD Release Date: Released the 29 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A host of new faces--and new dangers--await Lt. Zeke Anderson and the men of Bravo Company in the second season of the gritty Vietnam War drama Tour of Duty. Joining the cast for the sophomore season are Kim Delaney as war correspondent Alex Devlin, and Dan Gauthier as chopper pilot Lt. Johnny McKay, who would transport B Company to the jungle from their new base at Tan Son Nhut. But the changes between the first and second seasons went beyond cast and setting--the series took a much closer look at the emotional toll of the war on its soldiers, with episodes devoted to Ruiz (Ramon Franco) suffering a breakdown, grunts contemplating (and committing) suicide, and Bravo’s men dealing with incompetent and even dangerous fellow soldiers (Michael Madsen stars as a sniper with a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Terence Knox DVD Release Date: Released the 28 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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