was Ed Wood to direct it.
I saw this on TV when I was about 10 years old and a rabid Hogan's Heroes fan. I was horrified. Yes, even at the tender age of ten I could recognize a terrible film with actors I admired trapped inside it. There's a big difference between playing a not-too-bright character skillfully, and playing a pointless buffoon.
How much of a masochist am I? Enough to re-watch this piece of crud again, 40 years later, when I spotted it online. The ten-year-old me still wanted to cry for my old TV friends, but the 50-year-old me, fortified with copious amounts of cheap wine, managed to appreciate the amusing aspects of Leon Askin's character being Werner Klemperer's flunky instead of the other way around, and to enjoy John Banner's performance the man never missed; I can't understand why he never won an Emmy. Klemperer in his underwear groping a mostly-naked Elke Sommer was just gross whose idea was it to give Sommer's character the last name of 'Schultz', providing Klemperer the unenviable challenge of saying lines like "my darling Schultz"? We get it; it's a gimmick film with a gimmick cast, and that's about as subtle as a sledgehammer between the eyes. I'm sorry, Mr. Klemperer; you were better than that.
And Bob Crane was there. Mostly being Bob Crane. Nothing much to report.
I'd love to see the Rifftrax guys get their hands on this one someday.
I saw this on TV when I was about 10 years old and a rabid Hogan's Heroes fan. I was horrified. Yes, even at the tender age of ten I could recognize a terrible film with actors I admired trapped inside it. There's a big difference between playing a not-too-bright character skillfully, and playing a pointless buffoon.
How much of a masochist am I? Enough to re-watch this piece of crud again, 40 years later, when I spotted it online. The ten-year-old me still wanted to cry for my old TV friends, but the 50-year-old me, fortified with copious amounts of cheap wine, managed to appreciate the amusing aspects of Leon Askin's character being Werner Klemperer's flunky instead of the other way around, and to enjoy John Banner's performance the man never missed; I can't understand why he never won an Emmy. Klemperer in his underwear groping a mostly-naked Elke Sommer was just gross whose idea was it to give Sommer's character the last name of 'Schultz', providing Klemperer the unenviable challenge of saying lines like "my darling Schultz"? We get it; it's a gimmick film with a gimmick cast, and that's about as subtle as a sledgehammer between the eyes. I'm sorry, Mr. Klemperer; you were better than that.
And Bob Crane was there. Mostly being Bob Crane. Nothing much to report.
I'd love to see the Rifftrax guys get their hands on this one someday.