Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) The General Swap (1967) User Reviews

Klink is more alert than Burkhalter for once

[FlushingCaps · 9/10 · 26 May 2020]

This one begins with the men seeing an American prisoner brought into camp, and they soon learn he is a General Barton. They are ordered by London to spring him.

Hogan's first thought is to get the Krauts to believe he is only claiming to be this general by convincing them that Americans in general are taught to claim to be generals when captured so they'll be treated better. There is a short scene with another new prisoner, who Hogan gets to claim to be the same general. Klink takes Hogan to the first general, held temporarily in the cooler, and the man is so hostile to Hogan that he gives up and admits this is the real Barton.

Then Hogan gets the idea to get the Germans to agree to a switch by capturing a field marshal coming to camp the next day. They capture him in his staff car with a roadblock and take him to camp. Then they bring the captured general's plane which was also brought into camp without its wings, taking it apart and reassembling it in their tunnel.

With the field marshal blindfolded, they take him to the plane and make him think he is being flown to England. He goes on the radio to the Germans ordering them to accept the trade of General Barton for himself. The Germans agree and the trade is made without a hitch.

I get the feeling the part about having the other prisoner claim to be the same general was added in because the script was running short. It served no other useful purpose and it wasn't really funny.

I thought the most interesting scene was when General Burkhalter and Klink are listening to the field marshal in Klink's office and Hogan speaks for a moment. Klink recognizes Hogan's voice and gets Burkhalter to hold up until he can make sure Hogan is still in camp. Hogan gets alerted in time and switches uniforms back into his POW duds and goes to Klink's outer office. They all listen to a special message from Prime Minister Churchill (Newkirk) telling them to make the trade. Burkhalter says to Klink that they should go on with this, unless you (Klink) think that was also Col. Hogan on the radio. What was so cool about this was that Klink was smarter than Burkhalter here, as he recognized Hogan's voice and insisted they make sure they aren't being fooled. Burkhalter has heard Hogan enough that he should have said, "Klink, you're right for once. That IS Col. Hogan." And even when they saw him a moment later, they should have sent guards to search the barracks for signs of the field marshal-who would have been found easily, inside Hogan's room.

One of the funniest scenes was when the Heroes were moving the plane into their tunnel, pulling it away from Sgt. Schultz, who was busy eating a candy bar while talking to Hogan, telling him how diligent he is in guarding things and how nothing gets past him-right as the plane is being silently wheeled away behind his back.

The "Not-Bloody-Likely" scenes here are the big field marshal being driven through the countryside with only a driver and no other guards or officers with him, making it easy for the kidnapping to take place; and that their little tunnel that barely held the shell of an airplane could convince the field marshal he has been taken to England and then to a British POW camp. For one thing, he'd wonder how the plane landed so close to a ladder he had to climb, which was just a dozen feet or so away from the room they took him to before they took off his blindfold. And he never even went outside between the plane and the POW camp.

Of course, we don't care too much about some things not being totally logical here. A rather interesting AND funny episode-a 9 from me.

A rather routine script.

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 6 July 2014]

A rather routine Hogan's Heroes script where an American General is captured by the Germans and just so happens arrives at Stalag 13. With the prize catch, Klink has called Field Marshal Von Heinke to be present at this special attraction for the German side of the war. With the American General somewhat of a rude prospect for escape, orders are received from England that the General is to be freed at all cost. Now Hogan must think up a scheme to free the General from the Stalag.

It just so happens that Hogan decides to capture the visiting Field Marshal and propose a prisoner swap. But it will not be easy when Klink gets suspicious about the events.

Not the most exciting or funny show in the lot but it does entertain enough to make for a nice watch. There is a funny scene when Schultz is suppose to be watching the captured plane but gets side-tracked when food is offered. Other than that scene, it is very routine.

Care to Swap a Generic Recipe for Sitcom Succotash?

[darryl-tahirali · 6/10 · 24 March 2022]

As veteran television writers, producers, and even creators of a service situation comedy (the short-lived "McKeever and the Colonel"), R. S. Allen and Harvey Bullock understood the recipe needed to make an episode. So, for "The General Swap," their second collaboration for "Hogan's Heroes," to the general farcical spices of audacity, absurdity, hilarity, and incredulity they added series-specific ingredients:

---Elaborate ruse by the Heroes, the intelligence and sabotage unit led by Colonel Hogan stationed at Stalag 13, necessary to solve the problem they face? Check.

---High-level obstacle Hogan encounters, in this case, being called a traitor by recently-captured American General Aloysius Barton (Frank Gerstle)? Check.

---Audacious stunts that strain credulity, such as reassembling part of a bomber fuselage in their underground tunnel system, or Corporal Newkirk impersonating Winston Churchill on the radio? Check.

---Odd fixation on high-ranking officers, here with Barton and German Field Marshal von Heinke (John Myhers), after having a captured German general feature prominently in their previous episode, season one's "The Prisoner's Prisoner"? Check.

---Stalag 13 commandant Colonel Klink being flummoxed by Hogan and toadying to General Burkhalter as the butt of a joke? Check.

---Klink's Sergeant of the Guard Schultz both acting the buffoon and looking the other way to the prisoners' hijinks? Check.

Waiter? Check, please. It's not that Allen and Bullock's ingredients don't blend properly, only that you've tasted it all before, that they're simply checking all the boxes for a flavorless "Hogan's Heroes" episode lacking any and all distinction.

Hogan's orders from London are to spring Barton by all means necessary, no easy task given the heavy guard around him. Moreover, unaware of Hogan's covert mission, Barton thinks he's collaborating with the Germans. In desperation, Hogan plots to kidnap von Heinke, en route to Stalag 13 to join in on Barton's interrogation, make him think he's been taken to England (hence the bomber ruse in the tunnels), then arrange for a prisoner exchange--"The General Swap"--endorsed by none other than Churchill himself. Well, Newkirk masquerading as Winnie as Richard Dawson gets to show off his impersonation abilities.

Make no mistake, there are laughs to be had in "The General Swap," the whole caper more or less makes sense as long as you don't think too hard about it, and there's even a lump-in-the-throat salute at the end. But Allen and Bullock ultimately serve up a generic sitcom succotash that begs to be swapped for one with a much more distinctive flavor.