To improve the camp's inspection rating, Klink transfers in a stern German sergeant who quickly makes life miserable for staff and prisoners alike with his overly strict and unwavering adher... Read allTo improve the camp's inspection rating, Klink transfers in a stern German sergeant who quickly makes life miserable for staff and prisoners alike with his overly strict and unwavering adherence to all regulations. All want him gone.To improve the camp's inspection rating, Klink transfers in a stern German sergeant who quickly makes life miserable for staff and prisoners alike with his overly strict and unwavering adherence to all regulations. All want him gone.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe Lieutenant who leaves the tunnel at the beginning of this episode is the same one who escapes from "Camp 13" in the very first episode and changes places with Carter. Hogan called him their "outside man".
- GoofsWhen the prisoners straggle out of the barracks just before Franks's uniform starts falling apart, Newkirk and LeBeau can be seen wearing each other's caps in the wide shot, but in their close-ups they are wearing their own hats.
Update: This is not necessarily a goof. Newkirk and LeBeau swapping hats could just be part of the plot to discredit Franks (by being out of uniform). In any case, between the time they are last seen wearing each other's hats and the time they are correctly attired, there is a short scene where Klink says, "Sergeant Franks, this is shocking!" During that scene, Newkirk and LeBeau are not visible. The scene is long enough for them to have exchanged their hats again so they are correctly attired.
- Quotes
Col. Hogan: The bunks are 28 inches apart.
Col. Hogan: How about that.
Sergeant Reinhold Franks: Regulations say bunks must be 27 inches apart.
Col. Hogan: We needed the space for dancing.
Here's the setup: Having received a substandard efficiency rating, Stalag 13 commandant Colonel Klink is determined to remedy that by poaching uber-martinet Sergeant Reinhold Franks (Milton Selzer) from another German prisoner-of-war camp to whip his camp and its occupants, guards and prisoners alike, into shape. Literally, as Franks is fond of leading both on long runs that leave the POWs too tired to dig out a collapsed tunnel that, unbeknownst to them, has trapped American Lieutenant Bigelow (Stewart Moss), whom Hogan's Heroes, the intelligence and sabotage unit operating covertly from Stalag 13, have helped to escape while tasking him with taking along information on a panzer division passing by whose rumblings caused the tunnel collapse in the first place. (Couldn't Sergeant Kinchloe have radioed that information in?)
Meanwhile, Franks's mania for adhering zealously to regulations ensnares even Klink, burying him in paperwork. In desperation, Klink turns to Colonel Hogan, leader of the Heroes, to help him get rid of the hoary "The Ransom of Red Chief" just-deserts trope of being careful about what you wish for because you just might get it. Let's just say that the solution doesn't quite have it all sewn up and leave it at that.
Not helping Sharp's cause is the casting of Seltzer as Franks. A wonderful character actor ubiquitous on television at the time, Selzer, not exactly a spring chicken, played sad-sack types (think: hapless scientist Parker on "Get Smart") who were hardly an exemplar of the Aryan Superman trumpeting Deutschland uber Alles. Maybe that's the real joke, but Sharp's zero-dimensional characterization of Franks gives him no motivation except a blackmail threat courtesy of a cousin who works in Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering's office and, mentioned all-too-briefly in passing, a desire to get ahead in the military, so this would be uncharacteristically sharp subtlety from a dull, blunt knife. Hardly likely. This secret weapon comes apart at the seams.
More entertaining is reading the Goofs page for this episode. Some real eagle eyes, guys--and you know these just had to have been submitted by guys--with incisive observations regarding the metric system, the physical properties of invisible ink, and the order of battle for a panzer division. Too bad this is for a wackiness-ensues situation comedy whose uber-goof is that everyone speaks English, even the Germans when they're speaking only among themselves. So, great job of missing the farcical forest for the fallible trees. But be careful--Sergeant Franks might jump on your case about that. Achtung!
- darryl-tahirali
- Apr 1, 2022