It's Dynamite

Hochstetter, high explosives, and hilarity--what more could you want from "Hogan's Heroes"? Maybe a hot babe, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Wanting to use Stalag 13's cooler as a dynamite depot, Gestapo Major Hochstetter nevertheless refuses to divulge any information to camp commandant Colonel Klink even as he wants Klink to supply him with a driver, someone expendable, to transport the hazardous loads in the opening gambit to "It's Dynamite." Can you say Sergeant Schultz?

Listening in via their electronic bug in Klink's office, the Heroes, Colonel Hogan's intelligence and sabotage unit operating clandestinely from the prisoner-of-war camp, decide to waylay Schultz and help themselves to free dynamite for their missions. However, Schultz's truck seems to have disappeared from the road they have staked out, although the portly sergeant appears back in Stalag 13 the next morning as if nothing was amiss. What happened to the dynamite? And what is Hochstetter going to use it for?

That's the setup for Laurence Marks's typically well-crafted script that balances humor and seriousness in an effective story from the unlikely front lines in the war against Nazi Germany during World War Two. To discover what Hochstetter is up to, Sergeant Carter poses as the "fire chief" of Hammelburg, replete with a glorious fire helmet that must have been filched from a Wagner opera, needing to inspect the cooler for "Fire Prevention Week" as Larry Hovis trots out his wacky-German-official imitation once again.

Accompanying Carter is sultry underground agent Elsa (Lyn Peters), who, posing as his secretary, distracts Hochstetter by inflaming him with her feminine charms. Seldom has Marks approached such slapstick--just witness the Marx Brothers-styled hijinks (if not Three Stooges-styled ones) that ensue from Carter's mischief that enables the Heroes to learn what Hochstetter is up to with all this dynamite.

However, Marks never forgets that the war--and the Nazis--were not all fun and games, and he uses the not-inconsiderable byplay Bob Crane and Werner Klemperer had developed over the course of the series to illustrate this most keenly. When Hogan objects to dynamite being stored in a POW camp, stating that, "it's against all the rules of civilized warfare," Klink replies, "There is no such thing as civilized warfare." That earns him this rebuke from Hogan: "You guys ought to know about that." Capping this exchange is Klink's telling rationale that still resonates today: "My orders are to cooperate with the Gestapo, and when I'm given an order, I obey it. I'm a good German," with the emphasis on "good."

It is this seemingly contradictory blend of merry mockery and cutting critique that continues to make "Hogan's Heroes" such a fascinating viewing experience, particularly in the episodes penned by Laurence Marks, although director Bob Sweeney accents wonderfully with canny shot framing, whether setting John Banner's Schultz up in the opening gambit or pinning Klemperer's Klink down for interrogation in the "good German" exchange. With an explosive mix of laughs and lessons, "It's Dynamite" is a blast to watch.

REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?

"Oh that's okay, I have everybody's address." This was Gestapo Major Hochstetter's reply when an attractive fräulein flirtatiously offered him her home address. To me, this is typical of the classic lines from that outstanding series. Hochstetter, who was brilliantly played by by the late Howard Caine, is one of the main characters in a series loaded with superb comedic actors mocking, undermining and making fools of the self proclaimed "master race." How ironic that Jewish actors would play the same degenerate Nazis who had persecuted them and their families during the dark days of WWII.

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This episode begins when trucks start pulling in to the Stalag. And right behind the trucks is our Gestapo agent, Major Hochstetter, so Hogan knows that something is up. He learns that all the trucks contain dynamite. The TNT is to be trucked out to various locations by the Gestapo.

Hogan is not really sure where all the dynamite is going. They tried to follow one truck but it seemed to disappear between two points that were being watched. It will only be later when Hogan determines why the TNT is being stored and that will lead Hogan to believe Hochstetter is hiding some valuable maps.

There was nothing remarkable about the show other than the strange disappearance of the loaded trucks along a country road. Other than that, not much to this story that has not been played out many times in the series. But when all is said and done, the episode still had enough interest to make for a nice watch.