A strong sophomore show for the fledgling series. And the avian reference is fitting as geese play a large symbolic role in the story.
Paul Bryan arrives in Berlin and chances upon an old flame from fifteen years earlier. Eileen Henderson was Paul's girlfriend when he shipped out to Korea in October 1950. But suddenly old friends are acting strange. Eileen pretends not to know Paul, then furtively phones him, insisting he meet her on a certain street corner then hanging up before Paul can sputter a response. What's with the cloak and dagger routine?
Turns out in the intervening years Eileen married a British spy who was apparently killed but whose body has never been recovered. Could he still be alive? Could he be a prisoner of the Reds? The late Mr. Henderson knew a lot of secrets, so if they didn't die with him, someone may find them out. Without evidence of his demise a decade's worth of intelligence is down the drain (along with the millions of dollars that funded it).
What has this got to do with me, wonders Paul. Dapper American intelligence agent Macdonald Carey as Michael Allen appears and is only too happy to inform Paul of what it has to do with him, and why Paul as a good American is compelled to play spy for Uncle Sam. Paul is uneasy about prying into the tragic life of his emotionally unstable ex-girlfriend, who is already coming apart at the seams, jumpy, peering over her shoulder and on the verge of tears and suicide.
Agent Allen effectively plays on Paul's patriotism by taking him to witness East Berlin refugees fleeing communism and finding freedom in the West. A family emerges from a tunnel dug under the Wall into a West Berlin basement. It struck me as a security breach to show an as-yet-uncommitted Paul such a sensitive event and location, but maybe the impressive list of Air Force commendations Bryan accrued in his mere eight months in Korea convinced Allen that Bryan bled red, white, and blue.
Bryan reluctantly agrees to discover what Eileen knows about her husband. Did he die or is he a prisoner of the other side? With American, British, and East German intelligence eavesdropping on her every conversation, abducting her (by means of an amateurish ruse) and threatening her life, Eileen is quickly cracking up. Discovering that Paul, the one man she trusted and clung to as an anchor, is in league with the spies nudges her to the brink.
Diana Hyland did an exceptional job playing the spy's wife, exhausted and so relieved (but also suspicious) to find this oasis from back home suddenly appear in Berlin. Ben Gazzara played well the man between the rock and hard place, doing what was right for reasons that transcended the feelings of two individuals. It was a thankless "damned if you do, damned if you don't" predicament he was placed in.
A highlight of the episode was the verbal jousting between the veteran spy and the retired attorney. Many good questions were raised about one's responsibility and duty even when by right we could refuse. The dialogue was snappy and smart, and perfectly presented by two professional performers.
One revelation raised an eyebrow, however. Paul disclosed his diagnosis to Eileen, saying "two weeks ago" he went in for that fateful checkup and left with a death sentence. Huh? Is Paul telling us that in the span of two short weeks he quit his job, traveled to France to deep-sea dive and romance Katherine Crawford (in the "Rapture at Two-Forty" Kraft Suspense pilot), then ascended the Swiss Alps where he was snowbound with Katharine Ross and murderous dictator Robert Loggia ("The Cold, Cold War of Paul Bryan"), and then descended into Berlin and rekindled the flame with Diana Hyland? Paul is proving true his boast of packing thirty years of living into a year or two!
This episode had a welcome spy vibe, but not that of the trendy and glamorized James Bond, I Spy, or Man from U. N. C. L. E. This was more LeCarre and Deighton than Fleming and Hamilton. The spy business is presented as an ugly necessity in ugly times. Michael Allen says he hates his job, and later admits he can't guarantee Eileen's safety.
A thoughtful show refreshingly free of THE FUGITIVE's gimmick of Kimball being an escaped convict on the run and chased from town to town. Bryan is free to sail on a summer breeze and go where the sun keeps shinin' and the weather suits his clothes.
PS: Another highlight were two songs (one being "Cest si bon") performed by an uncredited jazz combo. Paul quips they probably just played Newport. I hope a music enthusiast comes along to credit the singer and musicians because their short scenes added a whole lot of hip to the happenings.
Paul Bryan arrives in Berlin and chances upon an old flame from fifteen years earlier. Eileen Henderson was Paul's girlfriend when he shipped out to Korea in October 1950. But suddenly old friends are acting strange. Eileen pretends not to know Paul, then furtively phones him, insisting he meet her on a certain street corner then hanging up before Paul can sputter a response. What's with the cloak and dagger routine?
Turns out in the intervening years Eileen married a British spy who was apparently killed but whose body has never been recovered. Could he still be alive? Could he be a prisoner of the Reds? The late Mr. Henderson knew a lot of secrets, so if they didn't die with him, someone may find them out. Without evidence of his demise a decade's worth of intelligence is down the drain (along with the millions of dollars that funded it).
What has this got to do with me, wonders Paul. Dapper American intelligence agent Macdonald Carey as Michael Allen appears and is only too happy to inform Paul of what it has to do with him, and why Paul as a good American is compelled to play spy for Uncle Sam. Paul is uneasy about prying into the tragic life of his emotionally unstable ex-girlfriend, who is already coming apart at the seams, jumpy, peering over her shoulder and on the verge of tears and suicide.
Agent Allen effectively plays on Paul's patriotism by taking him to witness East Berlin refugees fleeing communism and finding freedom in the West. A family emerges from a tunnel dug under the Wall into a West Berlin basement. It struck me as a security breach to show an as-yet-uncommitted Paul such a sensitive event and location, but maybe the impressive list of Air Force commendations Bryan accrued in his mere eight months in Korea convinced Allen that Bryan bled red, white, and blue.
Bryan reluctantly agrees to discover what Eileen knows about her husband. Did he die or is he a prisoner of the other side? With American, British, and East German intelligence eavesdropping on her every conversation, abducting her (by means of an amateurish ruse) and threatening her life, Eileen is quickly cracking up. Discovering that Paul, the one man she trusted and clung to as an anchor, is in league with the spies nudges her to the brink.
Diana Hyland did an exceptional job playing the spy's wife, exhausted and so relieved (but also suspicious) to find this oasis from back home suddenly appear in Berlin. Ben Gazzara played well the man between the rock and hard place, doing what was right for reasons that transcended the feelings of two individuals. It was a thankless "damned if you do, damned if you don't" predicament he was placed in.
A highlight of the episode was the verbal jousting between the veteran spy and the retired attorney. Many good questions were raised about one's responsibility and duty even when by right we could refuse. The dialogue was snappy and smart, and perfectly presented by two professional performers.
One revelation raised an eyebrow, however. Paul disclosed his diagnosis to Eileen, saying "two weeks ago" he went in for that fateful checkup and left with a death sentence. Huh? Is Paul telling us that in the span of two short weeks he quit his job, traveled to France to deep-sea dive and romance Katherine Crawford (in the "Rapture at Two-Forty" Kraft Suspense pilot), then ascended the Swiss Alps where he was snowbound with Katharine Ross and murderous dictator Robert Loggia ("The Cold, Cold War of Paul Bryan"), and then descended into Berlin and rekindled the flame with Diana Hyland? Paul is proving true his boast of packing thirty years of living into a year or two!
This episode had a welcome spy vibe, but not that of the trendy and glamorized James Bond, I Spy, or Man from U. N. C. L. E. This was more LeCarre and Deighton than Fleming and Hamilton. The spy business is presented as an ugly necessity in ugly times. Michael Allen says he hates his job, and later admits he can't guarantee Eileen's safety.
A thoughtful show refreshingly free of THE FUGITIVE's gimmick of Kimball being an escaped convict on the run and chased from town to town. Bryan is free to sail on a summer breeze and go where the sun keeps shinin' and the weather suits his clothes.
PS: Another highlight were two songs (one being "Cest si bon") performed by an uncredited jazz combo. Paul quips they probably just played Newport. I hope a music enthusiast comes along to credit the singer and musicians because their short scenes added a whole lot of hip to the happenings.