Combat! (TV Series) One at a Time (1966) User Reviews

Tense Episode

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 21 May 2019]

After a successful combat with a German squad, Saunders explains their mission to his men. However a wounded German sergeant has survived and overhears the assignment. He promises to revenge his men killing each American soldier and leaving Saunders for last. One step ahead of the American squad, he becomes a sniper killing the G.I.s one at a time.

"One at a Time" is a tense episode of "Combat!". The story has many good moments but the conclusion is rushed and could be better. Jan Merlin has great performance in the role of a man seeking revenge. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Um por Um" (One by One")

A Little Bit of Suspense

[jmarchese · 8/10 · 8 November 2014]

"One At A Time" is a story about a German squad sole survivor Erich (excellently played by Jan Merlin) who, shocked by the loss of his comrades, sets out for revenge after overhearing American plans.

Esther & Bob Mitchell wrote a good screenplay in that the story flows logically. Character development is adequate with the group exuding fear & apprehension. The opening sequence portrays excellent combat firepower, the essence of Combat.

Director McEveety uses backdrop and camera angle to get the intimidating flash of automatic weaponry. He gets some excellent close-ups of both the fearful Americans and Erich, who emphatically exudes hatred & revenge. His shoot of Private Peal hunting down Erich is outstanding.

The ending sequence is unspectacular; Saunders a bit lucky. I'd hoped for a little more creativity from Writers' Mitchell. All & all "One At A Time" will keep the viewing audience in suspense.

Too obvious with a squad full of nobodies.

[joegarbled-79482 · 4/10 · 6 December 2023]

"One At A Time" sees a German (Jan Merlin "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea") attempting to get revenge on Chip Saunders and his squad. As we have nobodies in the squad, the viewer knows that Merlin will have at least some success. I think we all know that Sgt Saunders would never go on a hunt like this, but we get the Germans acting like brutish Klingons and that Klingon who said that a running man could cut four thousand throats in a single night would no doubt admire Merlin's efforts.

Merlin was a wizard (ouch!!) at playing despicable villains, he just had the face for it, so he was very well cast in this episode. It begins with a thousand squibs going off and the Germans getting the worst of it. Merlin is the sergeant and his squad of youngsters panic and get shot down, trying to make a run for it. The sergeant hides and overhears Saunders' scathing comments, eg, they ran when they should've stayed and made a fight of it. He also hears Saunders telling his squad their destination. From this moment on, he wants to pick off the squad, one by one, leaving Chip Saunders until last, so that HE will feel what it's like to lose your entire squad.

It's not promising at first as one of the nobody squad members finds him and calls for help. In a bit of weak writing, Saunders orders a nobody to take the sergeant back to S2. I doubt that even Caje, Kirby or Littlejohn would be given this task alone, but here we get a nobody doing the job, alone, so it's all too obvious that he's going to fail miserably in his assignment and that the German will notch up his first revenge killing. It's all too obvious to make it that compelling an episode, a squad full of nobodies, we know where this episode is going.

Only 4/10.

One-note revenge

[lor_ · 28 September 2023]

A German soldier (an okay performance by Jan Merlin) blames Vic and his men for the death of his comrades and vows revenge in this mediocre episode.

There's nothing else happening, just a repetitive, reductio ad absurdum format in which the German acts as a sniper dogging the American troops, picking off the men, one by one. Eventually Vic puts this bad guy out of his misery, but not soon enough.

Especially annoying is that except for Littlejohn, the squad is made up of unfamiliar soldiers, all the better to be killed off since none of them have to come back next week. Lack of a name guest star is a further drawback.