(104) Breakout

Guest Star Fernando Lamas

Written by Edward J. Lakso
Directed by John Peyser
First aired 14-Dec-65
Episode 14 of Season 4

Facing a German advance, Saunders and squad are ordered to destroy a valley full of construction equipment, to keep it out of the hands of the Germans. Fernando Lamas stars as the Frenchman enraged over the destruction of his property. Lamas' sniper shots at Saunders' men fail to inflict injuries, but attract a German patrol that traps the squad in the quarry. To escape, Saunders assembles an armored vehicle out of the broken equipment on the construction site.

Reminiscent of the film Flight of the Phoenix, which premiered the same year, "Breakout" has Saunders assembling a makeshift tank out of a bulldozer, with the Germans watching. Pretty silly stuff, made watchable by Saunders' scenes stating his philosophy of war. Fernando Lamas makes his first guest appearance in "Breakout." Both he and his wife, Esther Williams, loved Combat!

Rick Jason was delighted to meet Fernando Lamas, since he owes his career to Lamas. His first year in Hollywood, under contract to Columbia, Rick Jason made no films. His first film break came because MGM needed someone to replace the hastily departed Fernando Lamas in the film Sombrero. That film launched Jason's Hollywood career.

NOTES, ODDITIES, AND BLOOPERS:

• Opening sequence is a direct lift from " Odyssey, " including Rick Jason's dialogue.
• Lamas fires an M1 rifle at squad in long shot, but when Saunders sneaks up on him, Lamas has a Mauser.
• Somebody in civilian clothes, wearing a vest, is in background of one shot. As Saunders is crouched next to Kirby, who is on the bulldozer, asking him what he need to make repairs, a man passes behind Saunders in his close-up.
• The Germans let the squad do their repairs unhampered, and they complete their work in only part of an afternoon.
• The metal plates on the wagon shield the men's bodies, but their legs showing through the wheels seem impervious to bullets.

Jack Hogan says about Fernando Lamas: "You couldn't keep a straight conversation for five minutes with that guy, he would turn it into something humorous. Very funny." Pierre, when he heard that Fernando Lamas would be on the set would say, "Oh, God, we're gonna laugh for a week."