Hogan's Heroes (TV Series) How to Cook a German Goose by Radar (1966) User Reviews

There something strange about that Corporal from the get-go.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 18 September 2014]

Stalag 13 has just received a new prisoner, Corporal Walter Tillman, who is actually long in the tooth for a Corporal. Anyway Hogan and his men are leery about the new POW as his actions are very suspicious for someone that just got caught by the enemy.

After Hogan pulls a prank and blames it on Tillman, Klink is ready to transfer the guy to another camp. That is when Hogan learns that Corporal Walter Tillman is actually General Tillman Walters of the signal corp, and is there to place a radar device so that the Allies can properly bomb a rocket plant.

With little time before the air-raid is to take place, Hogan must get the radar device mounted and keep the General in the camp long enough to make sure the job is done. But when the plan looks like it is coming together, Hogan learns that the mount is six inches off. this will cause the Allied bombs to miss their target.

This is a nice story even with the fact that the Allies would have never sent over a General for such a dangerous task. But we forget that fact as we get into the story that was interesting and amusing. So what if the script is a bit far-fetch, its a TV comedy sitcom and we were entertained - and that is why we watch.

spoiler note--- When the General leaves the prison camp to get back to London, would that make Klink have an escape prisoner on his record since he was assigned to Stalag 13?

Cooked Goose with Cheesecake for Dessert

[darryl-tahirali · 5/10 · 9 March 2022]

You might think that the Allies were scraping the bottom of the barrel to stop Nazi Germany's war effort when the new prisoner just arrived at Stalag 13, American Corporal Walter Tillman (J. Pat O'Malley), looks old enough to be collecting Social Security in "How to Cook a German Goose by Radar." Right off the bat, he looks suspicious to Colonel Hogan and his Heroes, who initially think he might be a German plant intent on spying on them.

Indeed, Tillman is a plant--just not the one they suspect. Tillman is actually Tillman Walters, a general in the Signal Corps on a mission to plant a miniature radar device somewhere in the prisoner-of-war camp to help guide American bombers to a German rocket factory thirty miles from Stalag 13. After verifying Tillman's actual identity, the Heroes assist him in surveying the camp for the optimal location to plant the device, but even before this misdirection-laden episode gets to its climactic challenge, you might be wondering why it was necessary to send such an old general on such an elaborate ruse in the first place.

In fact, you could fly a squadron of B-17 Flying Fortresses through the plot holes apparent in writer Phil Sharp's utterly--and poorly--contrived script, although the narrative's constant hand-waving provides enough distractions to keep you from thinking about them, at least initially.

Chief among those is comely Cynthia Lynn, whose Helga, Klink's blonde secretary, is flattered by Hogan to pose for some cheesecake photos in her bathing suit, ostensibly to help her break into the movies after the war, but actually to distract a guard in a critical location. With O'Malley phoning it in, this is one cooked goose you have to scrape off the bottom of the "Hogan's Heroes" barrel, but you might enjoy Lynn's cheesecake for dessert.