Mission: Impossible (TV Series) Trial by Fury (1968) User Reviews

Phelps's Heroes

[fayremead · 7/10 · 7 July 2016]

In 1953, Peter Graves acted in a prison camp movie set for "Stalag 17." 15 years later, in "Trial By Fury," he worked in the Stalag XIII set of "Hogan's Heroes."

Among the convicts and detainees is an informer who must be exposed. The prisoners, led by the tough Klaus (an excellent Paul Winfield), think they have their man and have already beaten him. Their tempers become much worse after a would-be escaper is killed in a truck. By that time, Jim and Barney are "in" but cannot help the innocent man until they see the right evidence. They find themselves with no choice but to participate in psychological torture.

It's up to Cinnamon (as a Red Cross aide) and Rollin (as a guard officer) to find out how the commandant is informed, then sneak the evidence to their inside colleagues. There are a few contrivances and nitpicks (would any real commandant decode a message in the presence of guests he's never seen before?), and the acting is occasionally weak (Bain sometimes seems ahead of her era, performing at the same level as in "Space: 1999" of a decade later), but the episode as a whole is tense fun. Jim's closing line sums it well.

On the slow side, but has some good moments

[shakspryn · 6/10 · 12 January 2022]

This episode is not quite my cup of tea. The direction is very distinctive, but mostly in a way I didn't care for: lots of close ups, more than usual. The pacing of the episode felt slow to me.

I liked it that we got to see an episode where Jim and Barney really carry the story and are at the center of it. Some fans may not know this, but Peter Graves was in a very well known movie of the early 1950's, where he was an inmate of a WWII prison camp! And here we have a prison camp setting.

Barbara Bain is super beautiful as usual, and looks great in a nurse uniform. The story benefits from a final scene which is one of the best in the history of the series! No spoilers here--you'll have to watch it!

One of the better episodes for Season 2

[pfr1685 · 8/10 · 13 September 2023]

It's nice to see Barney in a role other than the technical wizard, which Greg Morris carries out very well; Michael Tolan as Cardoza is perfect in the part of the guy who is accused falsely of being a spy for the "bad guys" but can't give away his cover as an actual spy for the "good guys"; Sid Haig and Joseph Bernard were equally believable in their roles; the plot retained its usual tension with even a bit of humour (like when Cinnamon asked what one prisoner was in for). If not for some awful overacting in the opening scenes by Paul Winfield, and the rather weak revelation of who the real traitor was (after a nice setup scene), this would have easily had 9 stars. Even as it is, it's one of the better episodes for season 2, showing how the main cast had really grown into their parts (including Peter Graves who had to take over as the lead character this season; unfortunately Peter Lupus as Willy could not be in this episode as well). It's just too bad that "real world" issues would lead to only one more season of this team being together.

THE IMF TEAM GOES TO PRISON.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 21 April 2024]

Right off the bat, if you're a tv buff, you'll notice the sets from HOGANS HEROES in this adventure. Colonel Klink's office, apart from the other barricks, is a dead giveaway here, enough to give you a few chuckles.

Serious stuff though, and with a top cast to keep it going. Michael Tolan plays Santos Cardoza, a member of a Latin American country Freedom Party who has himself arrested in order to cleverly aid the party's leader, Delgado (played by Ernest Sarracino) who was imprisoned by the opposition. There's a flair up among the prisoners, who believe Cardoza is an informer and his days are numbered -- unless the team can expose the real rat. Guessing the fink is fun as there's plenty of guilty faces to go around.

Phelps gets himself thrown in the jug, Rollin plays a guard and the surprise of it all is Cinnamon, playing a member of the Red Cross! By the way, look at all the goodies she hands out to the prisoners. Who baked the cookies? Great supporting cast with Victor French as Leduc. French played some memorable character roles in his career, long before LITTLE HOUSE and HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN. Best of the bad guys is Sid Haig ( still working today) playing Sperizzi and look for Paul Winfield as Klaus.

I agree with the last reviewer, Greg Morris has an excellent role as one of the prisoners, instead of always being hidden in some cramped back room with Willy. Series director Leonard J. Horn gets the job done, especially the rebellious prisoners closing in on Tolan. Horn directed many episodes for MANNIX and the ROOKIES.

Of course, it's not done here... but it would have been a hilarious fake-out had Cinnamon spiked all the Red Cross gift bags for the guards! Infected cookies? Poison cigarettes??

10 Stars for both story and acting, and a great ending. SEASON 2 EPISODE 24 remastered color CBS/Paramount box set. 7 dvds. 2007 release.

Dull!

[mlgayler69 · 5/10 · 17 June 2017]

While I find the fun of Mission: impossible is the convoluted disguises and schemes the group devise, and the 'oh no, has it gone wrong?' moments, this episode has none of those. Pretty much everything just falls into place with little effort from the team. Cinnamon gives out some boxes, a few of them stand around making contrived remarks, but not much else. The commandant walks around a group of supposedly highly dangerous high security prisoners and no one takes him hostage, they capture the supposed informant and ... Make him walk up and down while they say slightly nasty comments at him, and everything the team need to find out is conveniently handed to them. The real informant is revealed by a pretty substandard speech along the lines of; ' My goodness, what do I have here? I found it when I picked the guard's pocket. Why, it's a secret message on a piece of foil'. And the inmates all know who that points to.

Very disappointing and lacking in the ingenuity and complexity of the best episodes.