Subtle interpersonal dynamics and veiled power plays enliven "Kommandant Gertrude" as General Burkhalter's sister Gertrude Linkmeyer (Kathleen Freeman) arrives at Stalag 13 with a fiancé, Major Wolfgang Karp (Lee Bergere), in tow. That seems like good news for Colonel Klink, who is relieved that Frau Linkmeyer won't be pursuing him as marriage material, but the not-so-good news is that Burkhalter is foisting Wolfgang onto Klink as his new adjutant--and he's really just the cat's-paw for the sister of a certain general.
So goes the intrigue in Laurence Marks's typically intricate yet accessible and elegant script that also sees Klink romancing local girl Karen (Leslie Parrish), actually an underground agent who tips Colonel Hogan, the leader of the covert intelligence and sabotage unit stationed at the prisoner of war camp, to Klink's plan to move the guard towers outside the perimeter fence.
This would shut down the Heroes' operations as their escape tunnel would now be more easily detected, and having recently retrieved General Sharp (Johnny Haymer), a go-get-'em General Patton type who had bailed out after his plane was shot down, they must return him to England if only so he'll stop barking at them to get him back home.
And although Hogan, who picks up on Gertrude's scheme to ease Klink aside and install Wolfgang as commandant, convinces her that moving the guard towers would be costly, she slyly counters with another initiative, posting a 24-hour guard in every barracks, that would really put the kibosh on the Heroes' efforts to harass the enemy in any way they can. How will Hogan counter this power play?
Most viewers and user reviewers care little, if anything, about who writes the script for a movie or a television episode and simply assign the catchall phrase "the writers" to the activity. But in "Hogan's Heroes," the difference between Laurence Marks and the rest of "the writers" is like night and day. "Kommandant Gertrude" hums along neatly, its premise plausible and engaging, its plot complications arising organically without overt contrivance, the actions and reactions of the characters credible within the narrative's flow.
Marks wrote nearly forty percent of the series' 168 episodes, by far the most among the credited writers, and his stories were consistently solid, entertaining, and, at their best, insightful given the strictures of a 1960s situation comedy prone to formula repetition that even Marks could not avoid.
"Kommandant Gertrude" was the last Laurence Marks story viewers saw before the end of Season Six (technically, Marks's script for "Easy Come, Easy Go" was produced after this episode although it was broadcast prior to it), which meant that it was the last of Marks's stories they saw before "Hogan's Heroes" got the axe. It is a perfectly emblematic valedictory address from the best of "the writers" on this distinctive, singular World War Two sitcom.
Of course, the reason why most viewers and user reviewers pay little to no heed to "the writers" is because of "the actors," the performers who bring those words and situations to life, and "Kommandant Gertrude" has a bumper crop.
Kathleen Freeman takes her fourth and final curtain call as Frau Linkmeyer (Alice Ghostley had pinch-hit for her once in Season Four), with the industry perennial acing her battle-axe persona by running roughshod over another industry veteran, Lee Bergere, whose Wolfgang has little to do except play the patsy, although he does get off a memorable line to Karen: When asked if he loves Gertrude, the combat veteran frankly admits, "No, but I hate the Russian Front."
Playing Karen, fetching Leslie Parrish is the honeytrap who also gets off an amusing line reading: When Hogan tells her he'll invite her back for another of Klink's nails-on-blackboard violin recitals, she succinctly conveys her dread with a quick, "Don't bother." Even Haymer, in a boutique, one-dimensional role, manages to tighten the screws on the Heroes to resolve Stalag 13's court intrigue as director Bruce Bilson paces Marks's narrative to maximum effect. Season Six might have had three more episodes to go, but "Kommandant Gertrude" is the real farewell for "Hogan's Heroes."
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
REVIEWER'S ADDITIONAL NOTE: Talk about "embarrassing yourself." It's pathetic to see p-brain or p-stain or whatever alias it hides behind post a "review" simply to attack a reviewer's comment. A brief scan of its other many "reviews" quickly reveals a bitter, spiteful troll that must tear others down in order to build itself up to mask its massive inferiority complex while its irritating tone of superiority--"silly mandatory 600 character minimum requirement"--only underscores its own presumptuous opinion of how the site should be used. Although it may be surprising to see that an anus has learned to type, it's not surprising that what it types is nothing but pure fecal matter. Hardly "helpful" except to highlight that it is the one completely ignorant about what "confirmation bias" means.
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