Well, certainly can't say the plot's a hackneyed one. Hungarian patriot Sandor (Warden) gets finagled into pro-wrestling by his wife who just wants to get him out of a Soviet-run Hungarian jail. She trades Sandor's wrestling skills to greedy promoter Steiner for bribe money to free him. Now Sandor's stuck playing a popular Hungarian patriot in the ring while having to lose to an opponent who's playing a Soviet army officer, of all things. Seems Steiner knows audiences are more likely to return when angry that their man didn't win.
The Hungarian revolt of Oct.,1956 was still fairly topical when this episode aired. The Soviets had crushed the revolt over a several day period that got a lot of coverage in our media. So, Sandor's patriot is not only being required to lose, but in the process compromise his allegiance, as well. Unfortunately, this dramatic aspect is not played up. As a result, the 60- minutes is both slender and at times, confusing—is he really a 'winner' for going along with Steiner's humiliating plan.
Anyway, Warden gives his rather thankless role his best deadpan like someone struggling with a new language. It's certainly a different kind of role for him. Tod has even less to do than is often the case, while Buzz makes no appearance at all, supposedly laid up in hospital. I'd really like to get the production notes for this series since I suspect a lot of last minute scrambling went on with such a a sprawling premise and a hurry-up schedule. I suspect something like that was going on here. Anyway, it's really a tribute to the company that they managed to come up with a classic series despite these odds. This entry, however, is not one of them.
The Hungarian revolt of Oct.,1956 was still fairly topical when this episode aired. The Soviets had crushed the revolt over a several day period that got a lot of coverage in our media. So, Sandor's patriot is not only being required to lose, but in the process compromise his allegiance, as well. Unfortunately, this dramatic aspect is not played up. As a result, the 60- minutes is both slender and at times, confusing—is he really a 'winner' for going along with Steiner's humiliating plan.
Anyway, Warden gives his rather thankless role his best deadpan like someone struggling with a new language. It's certainly a different kind of role for him. Tod has even less to do than is often the case, while Buzz makes no appearance at all, supposedly laid up in hospital. I'd really like to get the production notes for this series since I suspect a lot of last minute scrambling went on with such a a sprawling premise and a hurry-up schedule. I suspect something like that was going on here. Anyway, it's really a tribute to the company that they managed to come up with a classic series despite these odds. This entry, however, is not one of them.
