The prisoners create an elaborate underground ruse to fool a German spy that has been placed in their ranks.The prisoners create an elaborate underground ruse to fool a German spy that has been placed in their ranks.The prisoners create an elaborate underground ruse to fool a German spy that has been placed in their ranks.
Walter Janovitz
- Oscar Schnitzer
- (as Walter Janowitz)
Jon Cedar
- Cpl. Langenscheidt
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe pilot is the only episode to be broadcast in black and white.
- GoofsCol Klink is wearing a wedding band. In later episodes, the viewer can see the "lighter" skin on his ring finger where a ring had been.
Featured review
Starting at the Crossroads of Seriocomedy
Hot on the heels of the World War Two movie saga "The Great Escape" (1963), the pilot episode of "Hogan's Heroes" scrambles audacity and absurdity along with realism and ridiculousness into a stark (it was filmed in black and white) yet lighthearted look at a serious subject: Allied airmen interned at Camp 13, a prisoner-of-war camp located in "Germany 1942," according to the title card that opens "The Informer," which borrows a situation from another POW movie, "Stalag 17" (1953), in which the Germans plant a spy among the prisoners to ferret out escape attempts.
And just as British prisoner Corporal Peter Newkirk literally falls out at the roll call conducted by past-his-prime guard Sergeant Schultz to create a diversion, one prisoner indeed sneaks out of camp--only to fetch another prisoner, American Lieutenant Carter (Larry Hovis), who escaped from another camp, thus introducing the premise concocted by series creators Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy: Led by American Colonel Robert Hogan, the Heroes are running a covert embarkation center for repatriating escaped Allied prisoners right under the unwitting nose of Camp 13 commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink.
However, the cat among the pigeons is "Wagner" (Noam Pitlik), a German spy posing as an American prisoner who slips through Hogan's security net and reports the Heroes' escape operation to his superiors Klink and Colonel Burkhalter. Hogan's response? Show him their elaborate underground facilities--where even Klink's fetching secretary Helga helps out--then watch him try to convince his superiors of this unbelievable operation.
Richard Powell, soon to become a principal series writer, helped Fein and Ruddy pen the agile, clever script that finds hard-nosed Klink not quite the obsequious fool he would soon become--although Hogan is working him already--along with a League of Nations roster of Heroes: Brit Newkirk, French Corporal Louis LeBeau, African-American Sergeant James Kinchloe, and Russian Vladimir Minsk, played by veteran character actor Leonid Kinskey ("Casablanca").
Kinskey didn't re-up, but guest-star Hovis took a demotion to sergeant to become a regular, and recurring character Burkhalter quickly got promoted to general; meanwhile, Camp 13 soon became Stalag 13 as the series shifted to color for all subsequent episodes. "The Informer" finds an offbeat, intriguing series at the crossroads of seriocomedy right off the bat. Which way would it lean?
And just as British prisoner Corporal Peter Newkirk literally falls out at the roll call conducted by past-his-prime guard Sergeant Schultz to create a diversion, one prisoner indeed sneaks out of camp--only to fetch another prisoner, American Lieutenant Carter (Larry Hovis), who escaped from another camp, thus introducing the premise concocted by series creators Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy: Led by American Colonel Robert Hogan, the Heroes are running a covert embarkation center for repatriating escaped Allied prisoners right under the unwitting nose of Camp 13 commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink.
However, the cat among the pigeons is "Wagner" (Noam Pitlik), a German spy posing as an American prisoner who slips through Hogan's security net and reports the Heroes' escape operation to his superiors Klink and Colonel Burkhalter. Hogan's response? Show him their elaborate underground facilities--where even Klink's fetching secretary Helga helps out--then watch him try to convince his superiors of this unbelievable operation.
Richard Powell, soon to become a principal series writer, helped Fein and Ruddy pen the agile, clever script that finds hard-nosed Klink not quite the obsequious fool he would soon become--although Hogan is working him already--along with a League of Nations roster of Heroes: Brit Newkirk, French Corporal Louis LeBeau, African-American Sergeant James Kinchloe, and Russian Vladimir Minsk, played by veteran character actor Leonid Kinskey ("Casablanca").
Kinskey didn't re-up, but guest-star Hovis took a demotion to sergeant to become a regular, and recurring character Burkhalter quickly got promoted to general; meanwhile, Camp 13 soon became Stalag 13 as the series shifted to color for all subsequent episodes. "The Informer" finds an offbeat, intriguing series at the crossroads of seriocomedy right off the bat. Which way would it lean?
helpful•71
- darryl-tahirali
- Mar 4, 2022
Details
- Runtime30 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of The Informer (1965) in Australia?
Answer