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#18: THE TRIAL
Summary:
To stop the diehard head of the KGB named Joseph Varsh, Dan Briggs, staying at the Hotel Berlik, poses as an American scientist, on an agricultural study mission in the collective farms, contacts Lisa Goren, the wife of dead agent Stephen (code name: Frederick) and peacemaker Deputy Kudnov and manufactures a bogus conspiracy against the State (the sabotage of the Engels dam executed with State explosives) and to be judged by a Soviet jury.
Cast and details:
Security head/Public Prosecutor Colonel Joseph Varsh and his team: Inspector Captain Barsky and killer Moisev, Varsh's mistress Lisa Goren, People's Judge Zubin, Deputy Premier Anton Kudnov are played by Carroll O'Connor, Michael Strong, Paul Lukather, Gail Kobe, Don Keefer, David Opatoshu. Soviet assassin Moisev is sent by Varsh to erase the testimony of Kudnov (see "Operation Rogosh") and Rollin uses a ruse to pretends his death: a small statue puts down on a record player that shows the shadowgraph of Kudnov. Dan poses as American agricultural chemist/saboteur Nathaniel Benton; Dan uses a special device connected to his phone in order to know if his call has been traced. Willy poses as Hotel Berlik baggage handler, a truck driver to catch Rollin jumping from Lisa Goren's flat and a court guard. As in "Operation Rogosh", Rollin is a lawyer: Mr. Alan Webster, defense consultant of Nathaniel Benton! As in the pilot, Rollin fashions a mask of Dan Briggs to meet Lisa Goren at her flat and one of himself for peacemaker Kudnov who does the peel-off in the witness corner. In the corridor of the courtroom, we can see a bust of Karl Marx.
Review:
Another great Soviet plot and a courtroom-oriented episode featuring a dual doppelganger subplot (2 Briggs & 2 Rollin) with a fine cast and a strong Kremlin feel! The spirit of the Moscow trials is well recaptured especially the red stars set and the cameramen who record the tragedy!
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Find my season 1 selection.
Top list (10)
1. Operation Rogosh
2. The Carriers
3. Pilot
4. Odds on Evil
5. The Reluctant Dragon
6. The Trial
7. The Train
8. Snowball in Hell
9. Shock
10. A Cube of Sugar
Good list (10)
1. The Frame
2. The Legacy
3. Action!
4. The Short Tail Spy
5. The Confession
6. The Traitor
7. Old Man Out, Part I & II
8. Memory
9. A Spool There Was
10. The Ransom
Average list (5)
1. The Legend
2. Fake Out
3. Wheels
4. The Psychic
5. The Diamond
Weak list (2)
1. Elena
2. Zubrovnik's Ghost
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#24: THE TRAIN
Summary
Svardia, Central Europe: Prime Minister Ferenc Larya suffers from a heart terminal illness plus a new disease created by Dr. Selby and Cinnamon that can be cured in a Swiss clinic. The IMF customizes a train in order to unmask the malevolent right-hand man Milos Pavel and opens the eyes of the sick Prime Minister.
Cast and details:
Prime Minister Ferenc Larya, Deputy Premier Milos Pavel and his partner General Androv are played by Rhys Williams, William Windom and Noah Keen. First appearance of the travel con, and possibly finest. The episode won the Emmy. Briggs MIA. Featuring two guest IMFers: Dr. Harrison Selby (William Schallert) posing as Swiss Dr. Erich Tieller and art director Oliver Donovan (Richard Bull) and his staff posing as a fumigation company. Cinnamon poses as the nurse of Dr. Tieller who creates the sham of the false illness symptoms: a ring connected to a recording that amplifies the heartbeat and a heart X-ray picture edited with an overlay (hidden in her belt). Rollin poses as a fumigation worker, a Svardia Security agent to get rid of the station master and replaces him.
Review:
A seminal episode that launches the famous false journey con for the first time: a stopped vehicule in a warehouse, hydraulic machinery, sound effects, films, fast drug injections, false hospital and false deceased man. The outcome is memorable: Pavel's dedicated assertions to General Androv followed by Donovan removing the false wall of the hospital! This outcome was recycled during the prologue of Brian de Palma's "Mission: Impossible".
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#25: SHOCK
Summary:
Carl Wilson is a US envoy whose assignement is to negociate an agreement with a neutral country but Wilson has been kidnapped by KVD agent Peter Kiri and replaced by actor-killer Gort. The IMF brainwashes the imposter in a warehouse camouflaged as a mental hospital, make him believe he's State bank accountant Georgi Kroll and sends him back home and then saves the real Wilson and unmask the two KVD spies.
Cast and details:
KVD agent Peter Kiri posing as Wilson's assistant Dave Sanders and KVD actor-assassin Josef Gort posing as Carl Wilson are played by Sorrell Booke and James Daly whose masochist performance is a tour de force (see the electroshock scene). Featuring neuropsychologist Dr. Ira Drake posing as Dr. Stanis played by Vic Perrin who injects some drug and inflicts a jolt of 250 000 volts to erase the recent memory of Gort. Cinnamon poses as Wilson's niece Patricia. Dan replaces actor Josef Gort disguises as Wilson and imitates his voice perfectly. Rollin poses as psychiatrist Dr. Malenov and Cinnamon's fiancé Ronald Miller; Rollin does the makeup artist on Dan to turn him into Wilson fast and write the word "study" with a pencil nail on a cigarette! Willy poses as Cinnamon's chauffeur to deliver Dan in a trunk and as an outcast to get rid of two kid intruders. Barney, over the phone, poses as a clerk from the Lorska Hotel and a psychiatrist attendant that holds Gort. Notice the use of the word KVD instead of KGB.
Review:
Considered as the most sadistic episode ever conceived and a dark companion piece to "Operation Rogosh" because the IMF applies the Soviet treatment to cure deviationists on Gort: drug, electroshock, regression combined with the sham of the fake Soviet hospital, amnesia, schizophrenia and its loss of identity, ill person's cries, Rollin as a helpful Dr. Malenov. Agent Cinnamon enjoys watching suffering an Est bloc agent! Writer Laurence Heath fashions the best doppelganger plot featuring three Wilson.
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#21: SNOWBALL IN HELL
Summary:
Boradur, North Africa, a closed down Devil's Island-like jailhouse ruled by sadistic warden Gerard Sefra is his front for an illegal activity: selling a key component known as Cesium 138 to build cheap nuclear weaponery. To help Dan and Willy, Rollin and Barney meet Sefra to write an article for a New York magazine about the prisoners' conditions.
Cast and details:
The sadistic and colourful Commandant Gerard Sefra and his henchman Raff are played by Ricardo Montalban and Warren Kemmerling. Sefra inflicts the torture of the cat aka the whip to Barney who poses as a professional model Pierre Grillou alias vindictive escaped "Papillon"-like convict Jean-Paul Carré. Rollin poses as New York reporter William Blanton from "World News and View" magazine; Rollin poses as a medic, wears polar outfits and hides behing plasma boxes in the cold chamber of the Kronen hospital to empty the container of Cesium. Cinnamon poses as Red Cross nurse Lynn Carlin to work at Dr. Kronen's hospital. Dan and Willy work underground in a tunnel to penetrate the jailhouse and sabotage the generator. From a mine to a pit, the IMF uses a small moving refrigeration unit loaded with the unsteable explosive liquid: Cesium 138.
Review:
A truely great episode that is a torture pamphlet and that announces the technological sophistication and the leaning of the next seasons: see "The Survivors" (the tight tunnel) and "The Mercenaries" (the cell and the device).
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#27: THE TRAITOR
Summary:
To discredit defector US agent Edward Hughes and recovers a secret coded message, the IMF infiltrates USSR's embassy thanks to Rollin replacing a cryptographer and the help of Willy and female acrobat Tina Mara to sneak into the vent and go to Hughes' bedroom and the vault.
Cast and details:
Soviet Ambassador Brazneck and his secretary/head of internal security Koler, cryptographer Victor Belson are played by Malachi Throne, Frank Marth and William Rye: Koler poses as a Hotel Leon groom to deliver a flower present to the Beaumonts. Featuring female guest IMFer acrobat Tina Mara (Eartha Kitt) who travels into the vent. Rollin poses as Soviet Cryptographer Victor Belson/NVD investigator Novich to accuse Edward Hughes. Cinnamon poses briefly as a stewardess to neutralize the real Belson and as Mrs. Beamont staying Hotel Leon along with her husband played by Dan. Willy and Barney pose as workers of the telephone company "Atlantic Utilities" and then switch to a ventilation company: "All Weather Heating Co." Find a pen screwdriver used by Rollin to jam the ventilation and a reversed screwdriver used by Tina to remove the grid of the vent, plus a customized transmitter-vanity case used by Dan, knock out gas releaser matches used by Rollin to neutralize Hughes, a air mattress to hide Hughes' body and a series of mirrors used by Tina to pass through the electric eye that protect the safe.
Review:
The last anti-red episode of the season that is satisfying enough and anticipates the next season style because of its execution. The final scene when Rollin crosses the embassy to get out is memorable.
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#25: "Shock"
Summary:
Carl Wilson is a US envoy whose assignement is to negociate an agreement with a neutral country but Wilson has been kidnapped by KVD agent Peter Kiri and replaced by actor-killer Gort. The IMF brainwashes the imposter in a warehouse camouflaged as a mental hospital, make him believe he's State bank accountant Georgi Kroll and sends him back home and then saves the real Wilson and unmask the two KVD spies.
Cast and details:
KVD agent Peter Kiri posing as Wilson's assistant Dave Sanders and KVD actor-assassin Josef Gort posing as Carl Wilson are played by Sorrell Booke and James Daly whose masochist performance is a tour de force (see the electroshock scene). Featuring neuropsychologist Dr. Ira Drake posing as Dr. Stanis played by Vic Perrin who injects some drug and inflicts a jolt of 250 000 volts to erase the recent memory of Gort. Cinnamon poses as Wilson's niece Patricia. Dan replaces actor Josef Gort disguises as Wilson and imitates his voice perfectly. Rollin poses as psychiatrist Dr. Malenov and Cinnamon's fiancé Ronald Miller; Rollin does the makeup artist on Dan to turn him into Wilson fast and write the word "study" with a pencil nail on a cigarette! Willy poses as Cinnamon's chauffeur to deliver Dan in a trunk and as an outcast to get rid of two kid intruders. Barney, over the phone, poses as a clerk from the Lorska Hotel and a psychiatrist attendant that holds Gort. Willy and Barney prepare the torture chamber and its sonic tapestry. Notice the use of the word KVD instead of KGB.
Review:
Considered as the most sadistic episode ever conceived and a dark companion piece to "Operation Rogosh" because the IMF applies the Soviet treatment to cure deviationists on Gort: drug, electroshock, regression combined with the sham of the fake Soviet hospital, amnesia, schizophrenia and its loss of identity, ill person's cries, Rollin as a helpful Dr. Malenov. Agent Cinnamon enjoys watching suffering an Est bloc agent! Writer Laurence Heath fashions the best doppelganger plot featuring three Wilson.
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In Memoriam MISSION writer William Read Woodfield (1928-2001)
Movie Actresses photographer and still photographer William Read Woodfield was born January 21, 1928.
He is known for his involvement as a creative writer for two famous 1960's series: "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Mission: Impossible". Actually, in 1965, Woodfield started on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" as a simple writer, then from season 2 (1965-1966), he formed a duet with associate producer Allan Balter (one of Daystar Productions Vice Presidents--member of the Blue Ribbon Crew--related to the sci-fi anthology "The Outer Limits") to fashion daring espionage scripts.
While leaving Irwin Allen's three series ("Voyage to the Bottom of the sea", few scripts for the first two seasons of "Lost in Space" and a single script for "The Time Tunnel"), in 1966, both men were hired by their friend Joseph Gantman to join the high rank of "Mission: Impossible" and worked as writers and story consultants at once during the first two seasons and, finally, produced the early episodes of season 3 (1968-1969) and, resigned after a professional clash with executive producer Bruce Geller; according to actor-magician Toni Giorgio: “There was always an antipathy between Bruce and Bill”.
To sum-up, Woodfield and Balter launched many classic MISSION concepts and gimmicks as the casino setting and the world of games, the Vaudevillesque husband, the departure episode, the Syndicate, the use of the Soviet country "People's Republic" and its secret police NVD, the doppelgänger and the latex mask's peel-off, the dream machine (plots with fancy devices), the travel con, the Apocalypse con, the supernatural ruse. The question that comes to mind is: between the two men, who writes what and how they manage to split up a script?
For the anecdote, two episodes of "Mission: Impossible" had a town called "Woodfield": see "The Town" (season 2) and "Tod-5" (season 7). What few people knew was that William Read Woodfield was a magician and the founder of a specialized magazine named "Magicana". On "Mission: Impossible", he was uncredited as a magic coordinator which could explain the leaning of the character Rollin Hand. In my opinion, Woodfield carried with him the fantastic element, the "magy" of the technology that was sometimes called: science-fiction.
Works as a solo writer on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea":
season 1
"Mutiny", "Doomsday", "The Invaders", "The Exile", "The Enemies" and "The Condemned"
Works as a writer on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea":
season 1 (with George Reed)
"The Saboteur" (with George Reed)
season 2 (with Allan Balter)
"Time Bomb", "The Cyborg", "The Peacemaker", "Monster From Outer Space", "Killers of the Deep", "Deadly Creature Below", "The Death Ship", "The Menfish"
Works as a writer on "Mission: Impossible":
season 1 (with Allan Balter)
"Odds on Evil", "The Ransom", "The Carriers", "The Legacy", "The Frame", "The Diamond", "The Confession", "The Train", "A Cube of Sugar", "The Psychic"
season 2 (with Allan Balter)
"The Survivors", "The Slave, Part I & II", "The Seal", "The Council, Part I & II", "The Photographer", "The Emerald", "The Counterfeiter", "The Killing", "Recovery"
season 3 (with Allan Balter)
"The Contender, Part I & II", "The Execution"
Works as a producer on "Mission: Impossible":
season 3 (with Allan Balter)
"The Mercenaries", "The Heir Apparent", "The Diplomat", "The Contender, Part I & II", "The Execution", "The Cardinal"
Anecdote:
Before working on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" Allan Balter and Robert Mintz wrote an espionage script for the first season of "The Outer Limits" entitled "The Hundred Days of the Dragon":
http://membres.lycos.fr/tmcr/daystar/tol_s1/tol_eps02.shtml
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A definition of MISSION
MISSION must be explained with the idea of theatre and propaganda.
MISSION uses a lot of theatrical figures of style.
MISSION is pure dramatical art.
MISSION is a reflection of itself.
I think that I think that I think ...
The player sees himself stuck into two mirrors and witness an infinity of facets.
The player is self-conscious that's why the audience become the player and react like the player.
Martin Landau plays Rollin Hand who plays General Dominguez.
From an actor's viewpoint, it's a real challenge and also stimulating.
MISSION is, above all... narcissistic.
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Happy 78th birthday to MISSION composer Benny Golson!
Name: Benny Golson
Birthdate: January 25, 1929
Profession: jazz composer, saxophonist, conductor, arranger, occasional film music and TV composer.
Favourite Works:
TELEVISION
“Ironside”
“It Takes a Thief”
• Bruce Geller shows
“Mission: Impossible”
(season 5)
“Flip Side”
“A Ghost Story”
(season 6)
“Blind”
“Blues”
“Mannix”
(season 6)
“See No Evil”
Notes:
For “Mission: Impossible”, he creates the Syndicate sound of the last two seasons (1971-1972) because one of his scores (entitled “Blind”) is endlessly recycled and tracked over and over. For “Blues”, he writes not only a score but writes one song (“Judy’s Gone Now”) with actor Greg Morris (who performs it) and arranges Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay”.
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Mission: Impossible - Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) Takes Over The IMF With 2nd Season DVD Debut
Posted by David Lambert
2/20/2007
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to head to stores on June 5th and purchase Mission: Impossible - The 2nd TV Season. As always, should you or any of your Impossible Missions Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck.
Yes, CBS/Paramount has officially announced the second season DVD release of the original Mission: Impossible series. Peter Graves joins the cast without ceremony, as his character - Jim Phelps - quietly replaces the departed "Dan Briggs" (the actor, Steven Hill, reportedly left the series due to the show's shooting schedule, which included Saturdays and therefore was a conflict with Hill's Jewish religious beliefs).
The 25 episodes during the second season run 1254 minutes (almost 21 hours) on DVD, and include such guest stars as Mark Lenard, Peter Lorre Jr., Darren McGavin, Vincent Gardenia, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Victor French and Paul Winfield. Here's a look at the cover...the match is lit! Can't you just hear the theme song in your head right this minute?
Link to this page:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6949
All news for this show:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/shownews.cfm?ShowID=2819
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Now, if only the producers of the Law & Order franchise would apprehend (no pun intended) the benefits of having the entire cast pile into an old laundry truck and drive off into the fade out till next week.
Peter Lupus, what a great name!
Not if your doctors are pumping you full of prednisone to cure the medical condition with the same name.
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