User Reviews

General Burkhalter has removed a priceless painting from The Louvre in Paris to present to Goering on his approaching birthday. With bombing intensifying all along Germany, the General asks Klink to store the painting. While showing the painting, LeBeau becomes upset with the thought of them taking French treasures and steals the painting. But with Klink's head on the line they have to figure out a plan to get the painting back to France and not get Colonel Klink in trouble.

So the way out scheme is to have Hogan, Lebeau and Schultz take a trip to Paris and get someone to paint a copy of the painting. Thus returning the French art and getting Klink out from in front of the firing squad.

As with this entire series much of the schemes really make no sense. They are written for entertainment value. In this episode, it is unrealistic that prisoners would be taking a holiday in Paris. But with the nicely written script it is fun to get away from Stalag 13 and be introduced to new adventures. Nice watch.

Gallic pride is affronted in "Art for Hogan's Sake" when French Corporal LeBeau becomes incensed once he discovers that General Burkhalter has stolen Edouard Manet's "The Fifer" (or "The Boy with the Fife") from the Louvre in this breezy yet barbed yarn that includes a jaunt to Paris, a showcase for Robert Clary, and a showcase for John Banner at the hilarious climax, all smoothly directed by Gene Reynolds.

Harassed by an Allied bombing raid while transporting the Manet painting, Burkhalter drops into nearby Stalag 13 to have camp commandant Colonel Klink mind the masterpiece, Burkhalter's birthday present to Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering--with fatal consequences for Klink should anything happen to it. Spying on them, LeBeau spots the French painter's opus and, once Klink's office is vacant, steals it. Vive la France!

Discovering it missing, Klink transmits his alarm to Colonel Hogan, leader of the Heroes running their intelligence and sabotage unit from Stalag 13, who pressures LeBeau to surrender the painting. But as they're about to return it to Klink, Hogan, under pressure from Allied leadership for fuller information on German military installations, realizes that the painting is a ticket for gathering that information.

With his practiced blend of plausible schemes and broad humor, Laurence Marks scripts another tongue-in-cheek caper that has Klink believing that LeBeau has destroyed the painting in a fit of passion (those hot-tempered Frenchies!). However, LeBeau happens to know a skilled painter of reproductions of masterpieces in Paris; as a Frenchman, he can persuade him to paint a copy of "The Fifer" even for the Germans. Thus Hogan and LeBeau have their ticket punched to Gay Paree and can observe military installations along the way--accompanied by Sergeant Schultz and Corporal Langenscheidt, of course.

En route to Paris, Hogan, assuming that Klink's travel-authorization letter won't be sufficient, convinces Schultz to don a general's uniform to help them through checkpoints. In Paris, the group attracts the attention of an inquisitive Gestapo agent (John Crawford), who tails them to the apartment of copyist Verlaine (Norbert Schiller) and his daughter Suzette (Ina Victor). While searching the apartment, he grows increasingly suspicious--until he happens to run into a half-smashed Schultz, still in his general's regalia, in full autocratic mode for this hilarious pinnacle.

Banner's comedic spotlight emphasizes the talents of this veteran character actor given more to do than simply mug in disbelief at the Heroes' antics. Similarly, Clary, a solid if unexceptional actor, was a French Jew who survived German concentration camps, and he had moments throughout the series when he could channel that depth of feeling into his performance; here, it is when he decides to steal the Manet, with his range of emotions clearly palpable.

Casual viewers (and reviewers) who think the scheme makes no sense fail to notice how Marks carefully sketches out his plot mechanics and paints them into a complete portrait by the end, delivering not just an entertaining story but a pointed lesson on how the Heroes one-up their German captors. If "Art for Hogan's Sake" isn't an original masterpiece, it is certainly a fine reproduction. Vive la France!