This is the best episode I've seen. The story is about betrayal of a young man who put his life and sanity on the line to undertake a secret mission, to get vital information to the French resistance. First,by the lady doctor who is supposed to be working with the underground, but exposes him to the Nazis, and then, we find out, by his C.O., because the information he's protecting is false, designed to trick the Germans. He unexpectedly holds out beyond all normal endurance, suffering through the tortures of chemical injections and a blowtorch. After the war, the C.O. is very troubled and guilt-ridden, the brave man that went through that horror is now a crippled, brain-scrambled wreck, a permanent resident of a service hospital. This is a powerful story, and very adult for it's time. The doctor (Patricia Neal) is not only immoral sexually, she's a drug addict who deals in drugs for her German lovers, and has no reservations about leading the torture session. John Gregson is his usual tough but troubled self, but the problem in this story is unfortunate casting of the lead being Dennis Hopper.
He isn't disciplined enough to play anything but the same character he always plays, the James Dean-like kid with authority problems. He can't turn it off or even down a notch. So at the outset he's yelling and breaking things and questioning loyalties all over Gregson's office (before he's then chosen for the mission)is pretty much like the final scene, after he's cracked up. The title implies that maybe he was chosen for the mission intentionally to break down and give up the false information, yet he is put through endurance tests where several others wash out. So they must have realized he wasn't that much of a weakling at that point.
Another thing- This is supposed to be 1943, isn't it? Yet he freely and repeatedly uses beatnik slang. How could they not catch that?
He isn't disciplined enough to play anything but the same character he always plays, the James Dean-like kid with authority problems. He can't turn it off or even down a notch. So at the outset he's yelling and breaking things and questioning loyalties all over Gregson's office (before he's then chosen for the mission)is pretty much like the final scene, after he's cracked up. The title implies that maybe he was chosen for the mission intentionally to break down and give up the false information, yet he is put through endurance tests where several others wash out. So they must have realized he wasn't that much of a weakling at that point.
Another thing- This is supposed to be 1943, isn't it? Yet he freely and repeatedly uses beatnik slang. How could they not catch that?
