User Reviews

Lt. Hanley, Kirby, Littlejohn, Szigeti and Doc are under siege of a German attack; however, a group of Greek soldiers commanded by Colonel Kapsalis in three jeeps with machine guns save them. Lt. Hanley thanks and explains that they have located a German fuel depot and now they must return to their lines with his map so that the artillery fire the place and Szigeti that is seriously wounded. In principle the Colonel agrees, but he does not head to the American lines. Szigeti dies and the Colonel orders Lt. Hanley and his squad to join his men to attack the German depot that is heavily protected. Lt. Hanley is forced to follow the order and soon he learns that the village of Colonel Kapsalis was slaughtered by the Germans and the officer seeks revenge. What will happen to them?

"Vendetta" is a full of action episode of "Combat!", with the participation of the guest star Telly Savalas in the role of a bold colonel that wants to revenge his family and friends murdered by the Germans in suicidal missions. The problem is exactly the excellent action scenes where the Germans look like imbeciles missing the moving targets despite the heavy guns they have while the Allied easily hits the targets with precise shots despite the jeeps moving fast. And nobody hits the searchlights during the night raid. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Vendetta"

"Vendetta" gives us a taste in diversity with respect to Greek culture as was so often incorporated into roles played by Telly Savalas. A group of Greek soldiers gallantly led by Colonel Kapsalis (excellently played by Savalas) appear to consistently challenge the Germans with a vengeance at long odds. And why not? I cannot imagine how I'd feel if I witnessed my entire home village decimated by Nazi storm troopers.

Colonel Kapsalis and his men pull Lieutenant Hanley, Kirby, Littlejohn, and Doc out of a real jam in Rat Patrol fashion. I'm not 100% sure, but this episode might have been a major influence in the creation of "Rat Patrol," a later TV series which ran from 1966-1968. It certainly was a bona fide forerunner to it. Major conflict is created between Hanley and Kapsalis. Hanley wants to follow orders and retreat to his lines with vital recon information, but he is overruled by Kapsalis who wants to blow up the object of Hanley's recon mission using Hanley's newly acquired info. Rick Jason comes across as very angry with Savalas while Savalas is totally unemotional and nonchalant. The contrast is quite amusing. We are treated to the "OPA" dance by Savalas which in Greek culture is a dance of enthusiastic exclamation - kind of a motivational go get 'em thing. The Greek sayings are excellent; death acknowledgment, snowflake on the hand, and catching wind in a net, to name a few.

There's a lot of excellent combat throughout and the night scenes are graphic lighting up and highlighting the action. I'm critical in that realistically speaking, the accomplishments of the combined squads are unrealistic. Lights behind German guns should have been shattered and I do not fathom how Hanley-Kapsalis and company could have won. When one drives by 2 German machine gunners in an open jeep, how could they miss at point blank range?

The so called Messerschmitt scene is fun to watch in that even though the plane was actually a US P51-C Mustang, we can appreciate what our engineers developed in WW II. Again, 3 jeeps and 6 mounted machine guns, I think we'd have caused the plane serious consequences.

I love the ending line given to Hanley by Hot Dogs, the Greek soldier, completely analogous to how a high wire walking troupe thinks - The show must go on !

Actually, as strange as this episode is, it's a pretty fun episode. With everybody zipping around in jeeps this episode really moves. It's actually sped up for commercial television so it looks even faster than it was naturally when it was first made. They want to fit in more commercials which I guess is their god-given right if they so choose. Even the DVD's are sped up. I don't care for it personally.

A common theme in Combat is somebody showing up and pushing the Combat heroes to be even more brave than they already are, actually pushing them into foolish recklessness that could get everybody killed. It creates drama and action. That's why they wrote episodes like this. So that's the vibe of this episode. Somebody pushing our heroes. In this case it's a jerk of a Greek colonel, played by the legendary Telly Savalas. The central problem is should you basically commit suicide just to make some crazy Greek colonel happy? Lt. Hanley has to wrestle with that one.

Someone mentioned The Rat Patrol and it does indeed have a strong Rat Patrol look and flavor and that's fine with me because that's my favorite war show. "Let's shake it...."

The ending is really over the top. I won't give it away, but it's very operatic. I wasn't sure if the colonel was to be pitied or admired.

With Vic taking the week off, a Greek colonel played by Telly Savalas assigned to the British army saves Rick's squad with his set of jeeps outfitted with machine guns when Rick's men are pinned down by Germans. He's a tough guy, ordering Rick around and impossible to deal with, even wanting to leave a wounded man behind to die.

He's got a daring mission in mind, and out-ranked Rick has no choice but to pitch in with him. The Colonel attacks a heavily-guarded fuel depot, and they hide out, to fight another day.

Savalas has a great time lording it over Rick, and even does a flamboyant dance while relaxing one night before battle - creating a marked contrast with inhibited, by-the-book Rick. Ultimately Rick makes a deal, and to protect his men agrees to personally accompany Telly on what shapes up as a suicide raid.

It's an extreme story, not very believable, but a chance for Telly to create a memorable, larger-than-life character.