Get Smart Episode: Our Man in Toyland

This was one of the early episodes of the "Get Smart" television comedy series, which spoofed the spy mentality of the Cold War era. The episode first aired in October of 1965 and featured guest star John Hoyt, a familiar face to television viewers and movie goers in those times, although most people likely didn't know his name. John Hoyt played many a villainous role, and I have to believe it was his likeness that gave rise to the cartoon caricature of "Fearless Leader" on the "Rocky & Bullwinkle Show," which was televised in the early 1960s, first on the ABC network, then on the NBC network. Another familiar face of this episode is that of Helen Kleeb, who made many an appearance in movies, and many more appearances on television for decades. Helen Kleeb lived to be 96 years old, and she made television appearances well into the 1990s. To put this episode's ending into perspective, World War Two, the Korean War and the Vietnam War (then ongoing and escalating significantly) had created a substantial market for military-themed toys, like guns, grenades, bazookas, bayonets and bombs; and yes, I did say "toys." My mother had worked for a (then) major toy manufacturing company a few years before this episode aired, although I can't recall if she ever saw this episode, and "Get Smart" was not really her kind of comedy.      

Main Cast:

Don Adams: Maxwell Smart, CONTROL Agent 86, "Max"
Barbara Feldon: CONTROL Agent 99, "99"
Edward Platt: Chief of CONTROL, "Chief"
John Hoyt: Conrad Bunny/store manager/KAOS agent
Helen Kleeb: Frieda/store clerk, KAOS agent

The Chief of CONTROL assigns Maxwell Smart, along with canine agent Fang, also known as "K13," to find out how KAOS is getting secret government information out of the U.S. to hostile interests through merchandise at a local department store. The Chief already has placed Agent 99 and some other agents in the store and they will report any suspicious activity to Max, who will pretend to be a customer. Max goes to the store and is followed by a KAOS agent. The other CONTROL agents keep track of the KAOS man and report his movements to Max, who meets the Chief in the department store restaurant, where the KAOS agent is arrested. In the meantime, Max had gone to Agent 99, who was working in the perfume department of the store. She tells him she thinks KAOS knows who she is. The store manager, Mr. Conrad Bunny, approaches and Agent 99 tells Max he might be interested in a new perfume called, "Jasmine," which is a code to say she's in trouble. Max says he'll return later.

After the arrest of the KAOS agent in the restaurant, mentioned above, Max goes back to the perfume counter to get Agent 99 to safety, but another woman is there. She tells Max that he is mistaken about another woman having been working there earlier, because she's been the only person there all day. Max plants a microphone on the perfume counter and he hears the woman talking with Conrad Bunny who says that Agent 99 has gotten away from them, but that they have successfully disarmed her. He says that the store will close shortly and then they can search the entire store for 99. The clerk tells Mr. Bunny about Max having been to the counter and asking for the woman who wanted to demonstrate "Jasmine" perfume for him. Bunny remembers the earlier customer and figures the man (Max) is working with Agent 99. He says they must find both of these people and kill them. Max goes to get help from the three CONTROL agents stationed at points throughout the store, but two are missing, and he finds the third agent dead.

With closing time nearing for the store, Max and Fang go looking for 99 and they find her hiding in a small office. She tells Max she's discovered how KAOS is sending the secret information. She brings out a doll, called "Polly Dolly," that is equipped with a small tape cartridge to give it the ability to "talk." Mr. Bunny replaces the doll tape cartridge with one he has recorded with the secret information on it. He then marks the doll in a certain way so that it can be identified as one with secret info on it for KAOS agents overseas. The dolls easily clear customs officials, because no one is looking to play the tape cartridge. So Max and 99 get Fang to take the doll out of the store through the ventilation system to the Chief, which he does. The Chief calls for all available agents so they can raid the department store.

Klutzy Max hits the keys on an organ in the music department of the store, so Mr. Bunny knows where they are. To lessen the light, Max empties his gun shooting out the lights in the room, but when Mr. Bunny and two KAOS agents come in, Max tries to bluff his way with the empty gun. The bluff fails, but 99 picks up a toy water pistol which Max uses on Conrad Bunny, knocking his monocle to the floor, where he steps on it. Max and 99 flee into the toy department where they begin using the military toys to ward off Mr. Bunny and his KAOS agents. The toy weapons cause Bunny and company to seek shelter behind a counter, so Max finds the ultimate toy weapon called "Destructo," a remote operated flying bomb, which demolishes the counter where the KAOS agents are hiding. Max tells Agent 99, "We had at our disposal every fiendish and destructive plaything ever devised for the pleasure of little children. All those poor devils had were real guns and bullets." hahahahahaha!!!! The Chief arrives with several CONTROL agents and as they take Mr. Bunny away, he grabs a gun Max is holding. He tells how he'll at least kill one of them and he fires the gun. It turns out the gun was a dart gun and Max is standing with a dart in the middle of his forehead.
       
Picture is from the 2008 HBO Video release of "Get Smart: The Complete Series" (Season 1)

WORD HISTORY:   

Chaos-This word is distantly related to "yawn," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "chasm," a word English borrowed from Latin, which got it from Greek. It goes back to Indo European "ghih/gheh," which had the notion, "to be wide open." This gave transliterated Greek "khaos," meaning, "large empty space." This was borrowed by Latin as "chaos" and English borrowed the word circa 1400. The use of the word in a religious sense for, "the void in the universe before creation," developed in the 1500s and this developed into the more general "turmoil, confusion, disorder," in the 1600s, the meaning which has carried into modern times.

Operation Crossbow, George Peppard & Sophia Loren Star

The actual story of this World War Two drama is loosely based on historical fact. It is about the German rocket program, which developed the "buzz bombs" (also called "doodlebugs"), known in German as the "Vergeltungswaffe 1," or simply as the "V-1,"* which were launched against England by the thousands during the summer of 1944. These rockets, often called "flying bombs" (German: Fliegende Bomben), carried an explosive charge, but they were relatively slow, low flying and they made a droning sound, which eventually helped the British to counter them to some extent, by shooting them out of the air before they plunged into English cities. The V-1 was followed by the V-2, the world's first ballistic missile. These far more sophisticated rockets began to be fired into England, and into other parts of western Europe, in the autumn of 1944. The movie is about the British attempt to find out more about German rocket development, including about a long range, intercontinental rocket, which Hitler wanted to reach the east coast areas of the United States.   

The first part of this 1965 movie has much to do with German efforts in developing the V-1. As German rocket development progresses, they seek engineers to help them advance their program further. The British plan to infiltrate the German rocket facility with German and Dutch speaking personnel, who will answer the German call for engineers. The British want to gain more knowledge of the German plans and their facility, with the hopes of attacking or sabotaging the German efforts. The British recruit three men (played by George Peppard, Jeremy Kemp and Tom Courtenay), and these men are given identifications of real people who had recently died. The recruits are taught great details about the lives of the men whose places they are taking. The three are finally parachuted into German held territory, where they are helped along their way by a network of anti-Nazis, including a woman, Frieda (played by Lilli Palmer), who runs the German hotel where they will stay. Unfortunately, things get tricky early on for them, as the British find out that one of the dead men being used for cover, a Dutchman (the identity assumed by Courtenay's character), is wanted by the police for murder. The police check the hotel regularly, where they require Frieda to hold the identification papers of all guests. One of the policemen thinks he recognizes the Dutchman's photo, and after some checking, the police return and arrest the man. During his interrogation, he is seen and recognized by a man (played by Anthony Quayle), who had been interviewed for one of the espionage jobs back in Britain, but who was really a German agent. So we now see how this espionage business is a two way street. The recognition of the Dutchman now tips off the Nazis that there is something going on. When the man insists that he is not a secret agent, he is executed, but he never tells the Nazis about the other two men.

Meanwhile, one of the other men (Peppard's character) is paid a visit by his dead cover's wife (played by Sophia Loren). She naturally knows this is not her husband, but the two work out a deal, which will keep his identity secret; however, Frieda, the hotel manager, kills the woman, fearful that they will all be exposed to the Nazis if the woman is let go. The two survivors go off to work in the rocket facility, which is underground. The Nazis are preparing for a major test launch of a powerful new rocket, to be witnessed by an SS general (played by Helmut Dantine**). The agents receive word that the Allies have a plan to bomb the rocket facility, but that they need the men to help the bombing aircraft locate the facility.

With the bombers approaching, the Nazis get a definite identification on Peppard's character from the Gestapo, and they chase him through the huge underground rocket facility, where the new long range rocket launch is temporarily suspended until he can be captured. He gets a machine gun and holds off the Nazis, but he doesn't know which electrical switch opens the rocket launch doors, where the RAF planes would see the lights, and thus know where to bomb. The Nazis capture the other agent, and over the speaker system, they threaten to kill him if the other man doesn't surrender. With the speaker on, the captured agent yells out the number of the electrical switch for the launch doors. He is immediately killed, but the other man opens the doors. The British pilots see the lights shining out of the underground facility and the bombers move in. The SS general orders the launch to go forward, now that the doors are open anyway. The bombs begin to fall, and as the rocket starts to lift off, the launch opening is hit and the rocket explodes, setting off a huge chain reaction in the facility, which is filled with rocket fuel. All inside, including the Allied agent, are killed.     

NOTE: Trevor Howard, John Mills and Richard Johnson, all prominent British actors of that time, also all starred in the movie, but not in the action scenes.  

* Vergeltungswaffe="retaliation weapon, vengeance weapon, payback weapon." By the way, the base words of the German compound are closely related to English, with "gelten" being a relative of English "yield," which once was spelled "gieldan" in English, and with "Waffe" being a relative of English "weapon."

** Helmut Dantine was a long time anti-Nazi, and indeed, he was arrested by the Nazis after Hitler moved into his native Austria, where Dantine, too, was born (Vienna). After his release by the Nazis in the late 1930s, he emigrated to the United States, where he pursued an acting career; ironically, often playing Nazi roles in Hollywood films. He died in the U.S. in the early 1980s.

Photo is from the 2006 Turner Entertainment/Warner Brothers Home Video DVD

 WORD HISTORY:
Rocket-English has another noun of this spelling as the name for a particular plant, and it has a totally different source. This word goes back to Indo European "rukh," which had the notion of, "to spin threads, to spin materials for cloth." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "rukkon," a noun form meaning, "bobbin," a cylindrical shaped holder for use to spin threads." This was borrowed by Italian (from the Germanic tribe, the Lombards? The Lombards controlled a large part of Italy after the fall of the Roman Empire; thus, the Italian province of Lombardia) as "rocca" (bobbin), the diminutive form of which, "rocchetto," was used for a "rocket, missile," because of its shape. This was borrowed by English in the early 1600s, with likely pronunciation reinforcement by French "roquette," which was also borrowed from Italian.