The Masquers

German soldiers are wearing American uniforms and posing of soldiers in the Allied lines. When Kirby stumbles upon the wounded military Carl Driskoll, he captures the soldier as prisoner to check whether he is American or German. But then they are captured by British Cpl. Tommy Behan that decides to take them to his base. When the trio meets Cpl. Marty Roberts, who was prisoner in an ambushed jeep, Cpl. Tommy Behan handcuffs Kirby and Roberts and they proceed walking to the Allied base. Behan decides to spend the night in a hunter's cabin with his prisoners. During the night, he confronts with two German soldiers and is wounded in the shootout. Now he needs to deliver his machine gun to one prisoner, but he does not know who is who.

"The Masquers" is another great episode of "Combat!" with the story of infiltrated Germans in Allied lines. The screenplay is excellent, and it is difficult to guess who the enemies are since they are disguised of American soldiers. Kirby is again the star of the show. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Os Infiltrados" ("The Infiltrated")

Episode about the real life practice of Germans disguised

as American GI's being put in behind the Allied Lines to

cause death and mayhem. It turns into a real WhoDunnit,

or should I say, Who's the Real German?

Kirby is the only regular in the episode, but that doesn't matter.

An excellent supporting cast and a solid story, never mind that Gavin MacLeod loses his "limey" accent in some scenes.

Nick Adams and Roger Perry were 2 of the biggest Guest Stars on TV at the time and Adams had his own earlier Series and had some Big Screen success as well.

"The Masquers" is a story about chaotic deception & intrigue whereby no one knows the Germans from the Americans.

German infiltrators abound rampantly throughout and almost everyone's playing it safe. William Yates wrote a fine screenplay which serves to keep all players on their toes. Gavin MacLeod plays a strong role as Sergeant Tommy Behan an English soldier bent on survival. Nick Adams plays Private Marty Roberts, a spineless, lazy, troublemaker who's facing desertion charges. Character development & dialog are excellent. Abundant conflict and tension are generated amongst all involved; and Jack Hogan gets a co-starring role as the GI stuck in the middle of it all.

Earl Parker, Vic Morrow's outstanding stunt double along with Paul Busch make cameo appearances in the ending sequence which is very well done. And Private Marty Roberts is in for a very ironic twist of fate.

A cast of excellent veteran character actors makes "The Masquers" very entertaining and keeps the viewing audience guessing as to what happens next.

Gimmicky but entertaining, this is a Kirby-centric episode built around the premise that the Germans have been infiltrating Allied lines, and with minimal clues, we can only be certain that Kirby is the real deal, with the other characters he encounters, possibly Germans in disguise. No one can be trusted and there are several nice twists along the way until Kirby finally sorts things out.

Nick Adams does a very fine job of keeping one guessing as to his rue identity and motives. The script works basically on building a believable sense of paranoia, as jumping to conclusions is a no-no throughout. Gavin MacLeod, with not an iota of comedy in his performance, is very good as a British soldier who captures the other leads, and is definitely who he says he is, providing the episode with a steady center.

We've had episodes before involving Germans masquerading as GIs. These always had an extra level of intrigue, especially when the infiltrator wasn't known.

This episode is even better: yoiu don't know who to trust and one of the regular characters, Kirby, is suspected of being an inflitrator.

The fact that everyone suspects everyone makes for some very interesting situations and a particularly poignant scene towards the end.