User Reviews

Lt. Hanley commands a three-man squad to a sabotage mission with the intention of blowing up a German fuel deposit. Hanley succeeds, but loses two soldiers. While fleeing, Hanley covers the rookie Pvt. Wilder but is shot on the shoulder. Meanwhile Wilder runs into quicksand and is trapped. The wounded Hanley tries to rescue him, but while looking for a rope, he stumbles upon another German deposit. Now Hanley needs to inform the artillery and rescue Wilder before the shells reach their location.

"A Sudden Terror" is a tense episode of "Combat!", with a good story of a replace without experience in combat that is trapped in quicksand. The well written screenplay keeps the tension until the very last scene. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Um Terror Repentino" ("A Sudden Terror")

"A Sudden Terror" is a drama about Private Wilder (excellently played by Brandon De Wilde) getting himself into a major jam after his night patrol sabotages a German fuel dump.

Ed Lakso wrote a good screenplay in that there's character development, and excellent artillery and special effects blended into the story. To strengthen a slow mid-game Ed brought in Bruener (superbly played by Jan Malmsjo) as a hurt German bent on revenge. No one could do it better than Jan. Though the sequence is short, he nails it bringing the viewing audience a memorable scene.

Rick Jason and Brandon De Wilde have excellent on screen chemistry and add excellent acting to the story. Earl Parker, Vic Morrow's outstanding stunt double, makes his only credited appearance in a Combat episode. A. D. Flowers did some great special effects work in both the opening sequence and in conjunction with the terrific heavy artillery fire in the 2nd half.

Combat fans are in for a real treat as heavy artillery fire in "A Sudden Terror" is among the best of the entire Combat television series. Redundancy aside I still feel I missed out on firing the big cannons in my lifetime.

With Vic taking the week off, RIck is on a failed night mission, when his soldier Brandon De Wilde walks into quicksand, that old reliable scare gimmick of many a Saturday matinee adventure movie. None of the cast regulars are present in this episode, and matters get worse when the Germans wound Hanley, who still manages to save helpless Brandon, after briefly being caught in the mire himself.

This cornball situation is dragged out for a full episode -it would have been stupid and boring even if "Combat!' were a half-hour series. The studio set depicting a gnarled old tree and the thick quicksand is as phony as the scripting.