Get Smart (TV Series) Smart Fell on Alabama (1969) User Reviews

The Dirty 1/4 Dozen

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 2 May 2008]

Funny script has 86 take on the Lee Marvin role from "The Dirty Dozen", leading a team of convicts sentenced to life in prison on a suicide mission to plant a fake code book in the safe of KAO's Colonel Kyle K. Kirby (John Dehner).

They have a funny training sequence in which the team pickpocket keeps stealing Max's watch (at one point, the Chief tells Max to synchronize their watches. Max calls out for Farley to synchronize his watch!) and the team tough guy Murphy (Don Megenzo) demonstrates his power. One of the best gags comes when 86 orders Farley (Larry Vinent) to lift the keys from a KAOS guard and he not only takes the keys but the guard dog as well! Again the powers that be returned to the idea of giving Smart a memorable adversary as they cast John Dehner as a Colonel Sanders like figure. He does a good job with the material he's given. The three convicts (who are given full pardons if they can survive this mission) are mostly forgettable.

The one running bit that kind of falls flat is a running joke where 99 keeps calling Max to tell him she's having labor pains. The problem is the gag is VERY out of character for 99, who as an experienced CONTROL agent, would know not to call Max while he's out on assignment. Instead, she's written as a giddy bride, and its just not her.

I also suspect a rhyming wordplay bit was cut, perhaps just out of the syndicated version of the show, only because there's an awful lot of "K's" and alliteration in Colonel Kyle K. Kirby and the KAOS courier to be accidental, but no verbal bit develops.

Max is leader of "The Filthy Four"

[FlushingCaps · 9/10 · 24 January 2021]

Max is on a train where he needs to switch code books with a courier for KAOS. Agent Porter is assisting and Max thinks it's ingenious that Porter would disguise himself as a train porter. They drug the drink of "Bohrman" in the next compartment and Max hears sounds that the knockout pill worked. The Chief has told him that the codebook is taped to Bohrman's chest. But when Max enters the other compartment, he is bumfuzzled on seeing that the agent is an attractive woman.

Back at the Chief's office Max is chastised for picking a fine time for being a gentleman. So now he has to go to where the codebook was taken to make the switch. This is a southern plantation-despite the episode's title, no specific state is mentioned for the whereabouts, although there is plenty of mention of the plantation owner, Colonel Kyle K. Kirby and his huge chain of Tennessee Fricasseed Frog Legs. Of course, it's an obvious nod to Colonel Sanders, as this colonel also dresses like the real colonel.

I love the scene where he and Bohrman are talking about how if not for passing out KAOS information, all of his restaurants would be losing money. The colonel laments about the many offerings not selling well. Bohrman suggests he try selling chicken, but the colonel asks, "Who would buy that?"

My favorite line is when Bohrman talks about being bored. Kirby tells her that he's been saving something for her, up in the attic. "It's something my daddy left me years ago...Nobody knows this, but I've got a slave left." Of course, if they had actually presented someone in that role, it would have taken the humor away. As a script line, I thought it was hysterical.

Because the plantation is a veritable fortress, Max is given three assistants, recruited from prison. If the mission is successful, these men will be given full pardons. They are a strong guy, a safecracker, and a pickpocket. He is to be given two weeks to physically train these men so they can get into the house. But that is changed to less than one week because they learned the code book is being passed on earlier than previously thought. The physical training scenes were very funny, with all of the men easily scaling a wall, swinging across a pond on a rope, etc.-all except Max who, let's say, struggles with these feats.

As Max is about to leave for the mission, Larabee comes to the apartment, where he sees the very-large 99 and asks, "Did you have the baby yet?"

Max is not thrilled with the timing of this mission as 99 is almost ready to have her baby. Now I think they had this part put in so 99 wouldn't be almost missing from the episode. Max wants her to call him whenever labor pains start, and she does call him several times when he is working at getting into the plantation house.

Once inside, due to his usual clumsiness, Max winds up having to finish opening the safe. Here he seems to have suffered amnesia, as he tells the safecracker "I never opened a safe before in my life"-forgetting when he did so while playing a safecracker a few years ago in Season 2, episode 5.

I think this serves as a great example of the kind of episode that represents the best of the series. If 85% of the time was spent getting into the mansion, it would seem to be dragging. Here we get an opening scene on a train that only seeks to explain why Max failed to get the job done on his first try, setting up the need for a more complicated way to do so. One of the main scenes was the physical training of the men-which wasn't at all needed to get to the finish, but presented many laughs along the way. We had some wonderful comedy lines from the guest star, John Dehner, who had that deep voice that could make him a most effective bad guy. And we had a few funny scenes as Max and his trio of prisoners were working to enter the mansion. The finish was rather humorous as well. I give it a 9.