Mission: Impossible (TV Series) The Execution (1968) User Reviews

Phony gas chamber con job. Head games.

[lrcdmnhd72 · 8/10 · 23 May 2012]

This particular Mission Impossible episode gives a rather realistic presentation of a gas chamber execution, but with some minor mistakes.

A phony gas chamber is built by the Mission Impossible team in order to convince a mob hit-killer that the MI team kidnapped that he only has a couple of hours to live unless he turns states evidence. Martin Landau, a member of the Mission Impossible team, portrays a prisoner going to this prop gas chamber just ahead of the mob contract killer. Landau gives a phony, yet rather convincing performance by begging and pleading while being dragged into this phony gas chamber. In the meantime, this contract killer is taking it all in and is slowly being convinced that this is all on the level, since both their cells are close to each other. Also, this M.I. episode could not take place in California, since that state uses a two-seat gas chamber. Also, I don't think there were enough cyanide pellets used in this M'I, episode. I think that 12-16 ounces are used, instead of just four pellets(eggs). I'm basing this primarily on the 1958 movie: "I Want to Live," with Susan Hayward.

I detected several minor mistakes. First, where's the priest? Second, I believe that gas chamber prisoners go in their bare feet, not their stocking feet. Socks might trap cyanide gas, thus being dangerous to the prison staff. Third. The tube that's connected to the prisoner's stethoscope is fed through one of the gas chamber's windows. Wouldn't this create an air leak? With cyanide gas, you had better have an airtight seal.

Trivia: Peter Graves plays a reversal in roles in this M.I. episode. In the 1954 movie, "Black Tuesday," Graves portrays death row inmate who killed a cop and robbed a bank of $200,000, is offered a 10 day reprieve moments before his scheduled execution if he will give up the bank's money that he stole. In this M.I. episode, Graves is the one who offers the reprieve to this mob contract killer if he will confess and turn states evidence.

The 1958 movie, I Want to Live, with Susan Hayward, from my own layman's viewpoint, gives a surprising accurate, detailed, realistic and believable presentation of a gas chamber execution.

The IMF gas chamber!!

[JSouth1 · 8/10 · 17 October 2007]

For this mission, the IMF need to implicate Lewis Parma, a mob hood who has found a way to get his hands on all food distribution in the US. (A VERY unlikely scenario..that ONE hood could control ALL food distribution??) To do this..they must "get to" his number one killer, Vic Duchell.

Phelps poses as a produce man who gets a visit from Pamrmas goons, who try to get him to join their "union". When Phelps refuses to do this, he is bullied and his stock ruined with a fire extinguisher.

Phelps then goes to Parma's office, slaps him around and threatens his life. He then makes Parma pay for his damaged stock. All of this boils Parma, who then orders Phelps killed. Parma summons Duchell to kill Phelps..NOW!! Duchell then tells Parma he will "make the hit tonight". Duchell is seen purchasing a few items from a hardware store, and Phelps figures out he is making a "rifle grenade". Phelps "comes home" to his "wife" to his apartment, and Duchell is there to make the hit. However...the IMF have rigged a projection system to make it LOOK like Phepls and his wife are in the apartment..when in fact..they are safely behind padding a distance away.

Duchell then fires his grenade into the window, and the "room explodes". He tires to run away from the scene, but is intercepted by an "angry resident(Willy) and passes out.

Duchell "wakes up" in a small cell, and sees a calender that shows that several years have passed. A man is in a cell across from his and a guard is reading a paper with the headline "two to die!" on it, showing details of 2 executions to be performed that day, by gas chamber. The man in the other cell(Rollin) then lest Duchell know he is on death row..and is scheduled to die in less than 2 hours!! About this time, Cinnamon visits Duchell as his "lawyer" She tells him that Parma denies knowing him....and if he agrees to testify against Parma, he will be given a life sentence instead. Duchell still doubts everything, as the last thing he remembered, he was running and everything blacked out. He refuses to roll over on Parma..still believing that Parma will save him (this happened before, only a few hours from Duchell's execution..so he figures it will happen again.)

About that time, the "prison doctor" enters..and goes to Rollins cell, to prepare him for his "execution". A small disk is strapped to his chest to detect when his heart stops beating. Rollin is "on death row", for the "accidental killing of his wife". In a few minutes... the warden and guards enter, and he is taken to the gas chamber. Rollin breaks down in front of Duchell , kicking and screaming, as he is dragged to the "gas chamber" which is just outside of the cell room. A clock ,angled toward the chamber is set to reflect the scene to Duchell, so that he can see Rollin being prepared to be gassed. He sees Rollin forced into the chamber, strapped down and the door closed..the the door to the chamber room is closed and he can see no more. He KNOWS that HE is going to get this treatment in about 90 minutes or so....about 30 minutes later..the door opens..and The "guards" enter carrying a stretcher with the "Executed" strapped to it, totally covered in a plastic bag.

Once again, Cinnamon returns, offering the deal to Duchell::in return for his testimony, he will be spared from death. Cinnamon leaves, and once again, the mirror clock shows the chamber being prepared for HIS execution.

Meanwhile...Parma knows nothing of this. he has not seen or heard of Duchell's whereabouts for more than a day. A tip (from Rollin, as Duchell) reveals that Duchell is in a warehouse not far away..and Parma decides to go and find him.

By this time, Duchells appointment has neared. The "doctor" enters to prepare him, and soon...the warden comes. with no reprieve, the warden announces his execution"by lethal gas until dead". He is then told to go to the chamber. Like Rollin--he puts up a fight, and is dragged kicking and screaming into the chamber.

Inside, Duchell can see and hear all of the final steps to activate the gas generator. First--the "air is sucked out", to form a partial vacuum(in a REAL chamber, this is a safety measure to prevent gas leakage in case of an leaking seal), and then, he hears the "acid being poured" into the holding bucket" below him. The curtains are then closed--and finally--the execute lever is slowly clicked forward, slowly lowering the "cyanide pellets" into the acid. as the pellets hit the acid (from the audiences view), a reaction begins to take place, and " cyanide gas is produced", and begins to rise towards Duchell. At this point--he breaks and screams that he will talk, as the pellets are lifted out of the acid.

(it is not revealed if the pellets are REAL cyanide or not, likely, they are some inert substance, made to "look" like they produce poison gas, but this is unlikely--more likely, they are moth balls or such.)

Duchell then begins to reveal the hits he did for Parma, to the fine details. All of this is recorded, as Parma enters the warehouse, sees and hears Duchell, and tries to get him to stop. He then shoots at the chamber to kill Duchell, but the glass is bulletproof. Rollin then points a shotgun at Parma, as the IMF take the tape leaving Parma and Duchell for the police to take into custody.

One of the most realistic MI's, with a VERY convincing gas chamber scene. Probably would NOT hold up in court, as the IMF "tortured" Duchell, but makes for a good mission!! HIGHLY recommended!!

The Bad Guy isn't big enough to carry out the threat to the food supply.

[FloridaFred · 7/10 · 28 October 2021]

The premise is good (someone is threatening the entire supply of food to the nation). But instead of using a corporate board of directors (Tyson, Kraft, Nestle, Heinz, etc.) or someone else very powerful, the writers posit a local racketeer as the bad guy.

One man and his goons shaking down the local grocery distributors does not pose a strong enough threat to take over the entire national food supply. And it certainly does not warrant bringing in the IMF.

Setting that aside, the psycho-ops on the "death row" are perfectly played. Martin Landau is at the top of his game as the sweating, terrified death row inmate being led to the gas chamber.

A decent episode, but the writers should have had a much larger corporate figure or board of directors as the bad guy.

Just to answer the question of "Why?"

[smartalan · 7/10 · 24 December 2007]

The big reason for the mission is to prevent the US economy being held hostage by the mafia as they would control the cost of all food sold. Parma even says that he can guarantee prices will be kept high because he controls all distribution. In other words, there would be no supermarket sales unless he said so! Increase the price of food and the domino effect starts. Gee, didn't that actually happen with sugar and coffee? Imagine if it were all foods at once! I liked this episode but have to agree that the reality aspect that some of the other episodes enjoy are really stretched with this premise. I give great props to Martin Landau for his fearful scene before he is "executed" as it matches the great scenes he had in The Heir. That was the only reason I subtracted some points.

Too Many Plot Holes, Way Too Small A Villain For The IMF

[verbusen · 5/10 · 13 February 2007]

This was entertaining to watch, but far from a very good MI episode. I am thinking it may be my personal tastes but believability is what makes Mission Impossible make or break. When the IM Force is doing their dirty work on our sovereign soil it losses a lot because I know the government forces that would be involved and prevent such an occurrence. Of course I guess we could say this was before the mid 70's and the restrictions that were put into place by congress against domestic surveillance, but confessing under duress is a major plot hole here so what was the point in all of this? I just didn't see the true resolution in any of this, and why would the IMF be brought in to bring down a local mafia produce dude? I guess there were no rouge nukes/biological/chemical weapons to be found that week. I'll give it a 5 as it was just OK.