Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) A Klink, a Bomb and a Short Fuse (1966) User Reviews

Hogan has all sorts of problems

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 23 September 2014]

In this episode Klink has a new code book that Hogan wants to photograph and get back to London. The first attempt did not go well when Carter forgot to load the camera with film. So Hogan is going to have to try a second time.

Meanwhile, Burkhalter has arrived with a new gadget. It is a device that can find radio waves from anything that is transmitting. And right from the get-go the device, that has an arrow like pointer, directs its arrow to Hogan's barracks. Hogan narrowly escapes but transmitting any info out of camp is now dangerous.

Hogan has a plan to divert the attention away from the device to another situation. But the other situation is more than Hogan bargained.

Another nice script that was enjoyable to watch. There is much going on in this show so you cannot take you eyes off the screen or you will miss something important. And always when General Burkhalter makes an appearance, it just seems funnier. Good watch.

The "phone Bomb" about to blast!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 12 February 2020]

This time the subject is a new German Code's book just arrives at camp as top secret document, however Hogan already knows about, the first attempt to photograph it fails due the Carter forget put the film on camera, unfortunately General Burkhalter appears bring a new device that locate radio waves, in fact it indicate that has some uncover radio at Stalag 13, then Logan needs a new fact to try out mislead and divert the attention to they forget the searching for the hidden radio until appears a solution, that night have a strong bombing nearest the camp, the Hogan suggest to make a phone bomb to get more time, the next day the bomb is stuck in the ground, although it's a real one dropped there, naturally someone has to deactivate it, guess who???

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

I knew you'd choose the wrong one

[scooter-70 · 10/10 · 7 November 2022]

The best moment in the entire series comes near the end of this episode.

The episode plot entails a bomb being found in Stalag 13. At first, Hogan thinks it's a fake, built by Sgt. Carter.

After he realizes the bomb is real, and ready to explode, Hogan has to choose between two wires to cut to defuse the bomb. Hogan asks Colonel Klink which one to cut: one wire stops the timer, but cutting the wrong one will blow up the bomb.

Klink picks a wire, and Hogan cuts the other one. Klink says to Hogan, "If you knew which wire to cut, why did you ask me?"

And Hogan answers, "I didn't know which was the right one, but I knew you'd pick the wrong one.

This encapsulates Klink's ineptitude in such a marvelous, funny way.

Explosive Premise Winds Up a Dud

[darryl-tahirali · 5/10 · 19 March 2022]

The explosive premise driving "A Klink, a Bomb and a Short Fuse" ultimately fizzles in Phil Sharp's contrivance-laden script that epitomizes 1960s situation comedy: sustained wackiness that carries the narrative toward a punchline payoff. Playing it strictly as farce, Sharp emphasizes the buffoonish qualities of the German jailers Sergeant Schultz and especially Stalag 13 commandant Colonel Klink, whose obsequiousness toward visiting General Burkhalter induces wincing at fifty paces, although it is the incompetence of one of the Heroes that sets this dubious narrative in motion.

With Corporal Newkirk having filched the latest German codebook from Klink's office, Sergeant Carter photographs it for transmission to London. Only one problem: Carter forgot to load film into his camera. Meanwhile, Burkhalter, suspecting that Allied radio transmissions are being made from Stalag 13, arrives with a radio detection device that shuts down the Heroes' transmitting even when they're able to successfully photograph the codebook. (The device also previews the comical contraption central to season four's "Klink vs. The Gonculator," not coincidentally scripted by Sharp as well.) How to convey this crucial information to London?

An Allied bombing raid on a nearby railroad gives Heroes leader Colonel Hogan the answer: He has Carter mock up a fake bomb to be planted in the compound, and with the Germans preoccupied with resolving this potentially explosive intrusion, they'll forget about the radio detection device, enabling radioman Sergeant Kinchloe to send the information. (And Ivan Dixon's performance reinforces that Kinch is essentially Hogan's second-in-command.) Sure enough, a bomb appears in camp the next day, with Hogan joining the Germans to, so to speak, kick the tires as they stare at it--unaware that the actual bombing caused part of a tunnel to collapse on Carter, still with the bogus bomb, meaning the bomb that Hogan actually just kicked, triggering that ominous ticking sound, is real.

You could fly a squadron of B-24 Liberators through Sharp's plot holes and logical lapses, so don't take "A Klink, a Bomb and a Short Fuse" for anything but a comedy of errors, although even as a laugh it is already recycling tired tropes about the silly Germans, particularly Klink, who, intimidated by Burkhalter's threats, orders Schultz to tell the POWs to hide any radio they might have to avoid Burkhalter's detection device. Now we know why Germany lost the war. Or not. This explosive premise winds up a dud.