User Reviews

Actress Kathleen Freeman returns as General Burkhalter's sister, Gertrude, after having a substitute Gertrude the last time the character was on an episode last season. The basic plot is quite simple: A young woman, Maria, helping Hogan learn about German troop movements is picked up by the Gestapo and Hogan gets the idea they can orchestrate a trade if only they can kidnap the visiting general's sister who has come with her brother on a routine inspection of Stalag 13 to see Colonel Klink, as she is again interested in possibly becoming his wife.

The kidnapping on the road takes place as planned and the Heroes keep her in their tunnels, while trying to make her think she's in a cheap hotel in Dusseldorf. Over Major Hochstetter's objections, Burkhalter gets him to release the Underground prisoner. Hogan & Co. transport Gertrude to an abandoned barn on a farm near the camp and phone in the message to Klink on where to find the general's sister.

There are a few laughs, but not as many as the best episodes. The dramatic part works too simply with no twists so it isn't too captivating either.

Four parts I did not like: In the opening scene where Maria is dictating memorized information to Kinch, Carter comes in and tells them Gestapo are coming here now. They stop to debate what Maria should do, right when a speedy escape was needed. In any normal police action of raiding a house-including what I expect from the Gestapo-they would have one or more officers guarding the back door before anyone storms the front door. Here, they burst into the barn where Maria is not more than one second after Hogan and men close the back door on their way out. The extra conversation Maria had almost cost our guys their lives.

More than a couple of times, Klink and Schultz in the office exchange insulting comments about Gertrude's looks in the presence of Burkhalter. He seems annoyed but doesn't do anything about it. Normally, they'd be afraid of offending the general.

It made no sense that Gertrude, who was driven to the stalag in a car and taken down a ladder-like stairs into the tunnel, would think she was in a hotel. She asked about the damp, coolness of her room and they simply said it was a cheap room. What hotel makes you climb, not a flight of stairs down to your room but a ladder? Then, since the car ride from where she was picked up was so short, how could she think she's in Dusseldorf, miles away? When taken up the ladder and a short walk/ride to the farmhouse, how could she think she's come from that far away?

Then, after Maria has been released and they have it planned to take Gertrude to the farmhouse, they engineer a letter to Sgt. Schultz from a mystery woman who wants to meet him at a barn on the farm where Gertrude has been left. Schultz, once again forgetting he is married, is excited about this date, bringing wine and flowers. He enters the barn, finds Gertrude, and just after untying her, they hear Hochstetter, Klink, and Burkhalter outside demanding the release of Frau Linkmeyer. Gertrude exits the barn and Hochstetter has his men begin firing into the barn before she can stop them. Schultz emerges, shaken, not wounded, but the wine and flowers in his hands are shot to pieces, proving he could easily have been killed.

Since the German officers were told, via phone, where to find Gertrude-which they did with no trouble, I cannot understand why in the world they wanted to send Schultz to rescue her. They would have rescued her easily enough. Schultz's presence in the barn was totally, dangerously, UN-necessary. In terms of advancing the plot, it made no sense at all.