Soldier of Fortune

Major role by a greatly underused and vastly unappreciated actor adds to the drama. Night-for-night moody photography by Emmett Bergholz plus the unrelenting score and music coordination of Mssrs Rosenman, Fresco and Lapham really draw me in to this episode. Director Sutton Riley knows where to place his camera and block his actors. The Germans are getting more sympathetic by 1965 and their speaking parts outnumber the Americans'! Theme? "Friendly Fire"! Oh, and "Moral Dilemma"!

"Soldier Of Fortune" is a story about an American Intelligence gathering mission in which the goal is to tap into German phone lines to procure information.

The Sarge leads communications expert Private Andy Marsh (well played by Bert Brinckerhoff) and Private Ed Wallace (well played by William Campbell) into the heart of a German communications outpost. Once in the basement of the outpost, Pvt. Marsh goes to work.

George Slavin wrote a fine screenplay in which there's excellent character development between all 3 and later with the German Meyer (well played by Wesley Lau.) Solid conflict is generated between Wallace, Saunders, & Marsh; and Meyer is cleverly used as a catalyst to heighten it. Mr. Slavin really thought this one out. The viewing audience gets some excellent night heavy artillery fire along the way and a lack of early combat is compensated for at the end. The escape is well done and very believable generating more suspense along the way.

Director Sutton Roley did a fine job in the opening sequence. Camera angles are ideal for generating suspense as the trio permeates the communications outpost.

"Soldier Of Fortune" begins slow. But once the action picks up, momentum builds until the end. Excellent episode !

Sgt. Saunders is assigned with Pvt. Wallace and linesman Pvt. Andy Narsh that speaks German to tap the German phone lines in an occupied town. They head to a cellar of a German telephone center but out of the blue, the town is attacked with shells and a beam collapses and traps Andy that is partially buried in the basement. However, Saunders and Wallace capture the three German telephone operators and they are forced to release Andy. Two Germans try to escape and are killed but the third named Meyer does not react and is tied. The wounded Andy tells that has important information to the intelligence to convince Saunders to not leave him behind but Meyer tells that he is a liar. Who is telling the truth?

"Soldier of Fortune" is a great episode of "Combat!", with the blackmail of a soldier that tries to convince Saunders that he has overheard an important information phone conversation. He does not want to be left behind and holds the information to force Saunders and Wallace to bring him back to the Allied lines. The moral again prevails in the conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Soldado da Sorte" ("Soldier of Fortune")

An underwhelming episode without any guest stars is about an unscrupulous radio operator that is more interested in saving his own skin than contributing to the squad's mission. The absence of Vic's regulars this week is another drawback.

The issue is simple enough but hardly enough to carry an entire show. Even the title is misleading, as this is strictly a contrived almost shaggy dog story as we wait for Morrow to finally sort things out.

The issue of taking a German prisoner's word against that of an unreliable American soldier is terribly contrived, and never as dramatic as it was intended to be.