McHale's Navy (TV Series) Who Was That German I Saw You With? (1966) User Reviews

Kraut Killer Binghamton-- who knew?

[kfo9494 · 9/10 · 25 November 2014]

In one of the better episodes from the last season, Pete Morgan from Globe Magazine is set to visit the base to make some pictures of McHale and his crew. Binghamton has got word about Morgan's arrival and wants his picture on the front page instead of McHales, so he sends McHale out on a mission. But what McHale is going to do is wait for Pete Morgan and then take him out on the mission with them. So they are waiting at the docks for Parker to arrive with Morgan.

Binghamton gets wind of McHale disobeying his order and goes out to his tents to make sure they have gone. But what has happen is a German patrol has come up on the tents and now are dress like American sailors. When Binghamton gets to the tents he is taken hostage by the Germans.

Later Parker also gets captured and now Binghamton is being led through the streets in hopes of finding a jeep for the Germans to make a get-away. Binghamton only has one hope and that may be his worse enemy- McHale.

This actually was a well written and funny script. The situations were humorous and the acting was the best we have seen in a few shows. For some reason, when Binghamton first goes into McHale's tents and drops the bullets out of the gun, that action was so typical of our brave Captain. And when Carpenter tells the photographer, in the presents of the Germans, that the Captain's nickname is 'Kraut Killer Binghamton' that was a side-splitting moment. The episode made for a good time. One of the better entertaining shows in this last season.

Even Germans know the Dodgers are called "Bums"

[FlushingCaps · 10/10 · 7 December 2020]

This episode stands out to me for a unique reason. Sometime in the late 1980s, I was flipping around the TV dial late one night and had a crystal clear picture on Channel 22. There is no channel 22 anywhere in mid-Michigan where I live. I had a good antenna that could pull in 27-some stations, but only a couple were over, barely over, 100 miles away. But on this night, this Channel 22, which I learned came from Pittsburgh, about 350 miles away. They were running an episode of McHale's Navy, and during a commercial, I learned they were running another one when the current one ended. I tuned the dial on my VCR so I could record this channel-kind of like tuning the dial on an old radio-and recorded that next episode-which is the subject of this review. No station in my area had shown McHale reruns in nearly 20 years and I delighted in this one.

No I just watched this one again today, and still think it one of the series' best shows. A famous war photographer is coming to Voltafiore, and to Binghamton's chagrin, he is not there for action pictures of a desk captain, but the fighting crew of the PT-73. The captain figures he can steer things his way by ordering the 73 out on a mission. But McHale outwits him by setting it up for Mr. Parker to pick up the photographer at the air strip, after sending Binghamton a fake message saying the airplane would be delayed for an hour. The plan was for the boat to go on its mission, with a slight detour to a point where they could pick up their ensign and the photographer, Pete Morgan, played by the ever popular Herb Vigran, who was a guest on almost every TV sitcom in the 1950s and 1960s and beyond with IMDB listing him with 379 credits.

Binghamton finds out that the plane will not be late and wisely figures McHale engineered the other message and is trying to steal his glory. So the captain, by himself, sneaks out to McHale's base to catch them all in violation of his order to go out on patrol. Unfortunately for Wally, a small group of German happened on McHale's place a few minutes before, and they changed into extra navy uniforms, just in time to capture Binghamton. It seems they got separated from their patrol and they just want to use Binghamton's Jeep to get back, with Binghamton going with them to talk them through any Allied roadblocks. On the way, they run out of gas, so they are pushing the Jeep towards town to find some gas.

We then see that Mr. Parker's Jeep has broken down on the road, and he winds up renting a bike from an Italian man so he can take it to the airstrip. En route, he comes upon Binghamton and the Germans and becomes their second prisoner.

They arrive in town and Carpenter ignores the captain's orders to get some gas for these "new sailors" as he tries so hard to get Pete Morgan to take Binghamton's pictures for Globe Magazine's cover. He tells the photographer about his captain being known as "Kraut Killer Binghamton," a nickname which the captain tries to disown, as does Chuck, not wanting to offend their captors. Poor Carpy, he cannot figure out why the captain is arguing with everything he says. Nor can he figure why the captain is so concerned about these sailors, who, Carpy says can easily catch a ride on a truck to get to wherever they are going.

After a long wait, McHale and men return from their mission, wondering what happened to Mr. Parker and Pete Morgan. They meet up with Fuji, who is orchestrating a big celebration because Binghamton won't be around to foil them anymore, since he's been captured. Of course, McHale knows he has to try to rescue the captain. He takes his men into town trying to find him. He sees that the captain and Chuck are with Morgan and are hostages of the four Germans in sailor suits.

He quickly schemes to rescue the others in a clever way that I won't reveal. It was the main, funny scene in an episode full of funny scenes.

For once, none of McHale's men faces a court martial, none commit any thefts, and about the only really silly thing Chuck says is when he is with the Germans and Carpenter and Morgan, talking about Globe Magazine, he turns to the German sergeant and says, "That's a real big magazine. Do you get it in your country?" He tries to cover when Morgan is bewildered by that question, by saying, "He's from Brooklyn. We like to tease him that Brooklyn is another country. (A running-joke of sorts in the era.) The sergeant goes along, mentioning "the Dodgers." One of the other Germans joins in, "Yah, der bums (pronouncing it with the German sounds "dare booms" instead of the American "dem bums.)

We did see that Fuji saw the captain being captured, but we didn't have any clue he would be decorating for a big celebration party until McHale & Crew returned to their base. That extra laugh was the clincher to me, this is an outstanding episode, a 10.

Just to finish, I never got that Pittsburgh station again after that night.