Operation Secret

Operation Secret is the twentieth episode of The Gallant Men. The teleplay was written by Richard Landau, based on a story by Elton Floring. It was directed by Robert Sparr. It aired on February 19, 1963.

Plot summary
On a stormy night, the men of Able Company burst into an elegant mansion. Proceeding to the house’s crypt, Pvt. Lucavich and Sgt. McKenna are surprised to see a woman dressed in black standing next to a coffin. Atop the coffin are dog tags belonging to an American officer, Joseph L. Ferni, who died on September 9, 1943 – the same day the Fifth Army landed at Salerno. Ferni’s presence that deep behind enemy lines puzzles Conley Wright. The reporter sets out to piece together Ferni’s story.

The mansion’s owner, the Contessa Loren, is more cryptic than helpful. She urges Wright to abandon his curiosity. Army officials in Naples are of little aid, informing Wright that Ferni does not appear in their records. Wright notices further inconsistencies, including an unexplained incident at an Italian airfield that wounded a German officer, Maj. Neumann. Wright tracks him down at the Allied military hospital in Naples.

Neumann professes he knows nothing about Ferni. Wright brings up Contessa Loren. In a flashback to September 2, Neumann explains to his superior officer, Gen. Kile, that a B-17 bomber crashed in the Gulf of Salerno with no survivors. Though the plane’s markings and recovered documents all point to an American operation, Kile is skeptical the Americans would be bold enough to launch a lone plane. However, he admits the plane could be the prelude to a secret meeting that would secure the surrender and cooperation of the sitting Italian government. Kile and Neumann suspect the rendezvous point for that meeting would be the Contessa’s mansion.

On September 3, Contessa Loren meets with Kile and Neumann at German headquarters. The three appear to have a friendly relationship. Kile inquires about a visit from an Italian officer named Hugo Petra. The Contessa says Petra, acting on the authority of the country’s government, assumed control of her home until September 7. Doing the math, Kile learns the Germans have four days left to interfere with the suspected Allied-Italian meeting.

The morning of September 4, Petra is summoned to meet with Kile. The general hints that Petra is not the suave playboy he appears to be and presses him for information about the presumed rendezvous. Petra casually reminds Kile that Italy considers the Allies to be enemies. Kile lays his cards out, accusing Petra of helping arrange a meeting between Italian leaders and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. Petra gives in, telling Kile that Eisenhower will arrive by plane at an Italian air force field on the ninth of September.

Wright concludes his interview with Neumann. As he leaves, the camera zooms in on a man dressed in black performing a marionette show for the amusement of the patients. Wright goes to a nearby bar to think and make notes. A marionette dressed as an American GI drops onto Wright’s table and, through the voice of the black-clad puppeteer, hints that he may have information that will aid Wright’s investigation. He says Wright is chasing the wrong man. He gives Wright the puppet and leaves.

Wright’s next stop is a hangar of the 1204th Bomber Group, where he interviews a mechanic who saw the crashed B-17 take off from a field in North Africa. He witnessed a confusing scene: two American soldiers fire a machine gun at an American plane. A group of GIs loads what the mechanic calls “zombies” – dead bodies in American army garb. Then a jeep bearing three more men, including one in swimwear, arrives. The men board the B-17 and the plane begins to taxi down the tarmac. An officer walks away from the plane, and it is revealed he is the puppeteer who visited Wright in the bar.

Wright shows Ferni’s dog tags to an Italian partisan group. Getting nowhere, Wright decides to ask if they know anything about the B-17. The partisan leader says he saw the crash. Strangely, he also saw a man in swimwear emerge from the Gulf of Salerno and walk onto the beach. The man is the playboy Kile questioned earlier in the episode. The partisans help him kill an Italian military officer named Hugo Petra. Our “Petra” assumes his clothing, personal effects and identity.

At the mansion, Wright quizzes the Contessa, asking more about “Petra.” She describes him as charming and persuasive. In her flashback, the Contessa exasperatedly tries to keep the Italian government from using her home as the rendezvous point with Eisenhower. “Petra” schmoozes her into going along with the plan.

Wright’s conversation with Contessa Loren is interrupted when a man enters – the puppeteer, though this time he is dressed in a standard business suit. He tells Wright his side of the story. He is David Storm, the American officer at the North African airfield (and OSS to boot). He and “Petra” boarded the plane and placed falsified papers with the dead bodies (revealed to be Germans killed in recent action and dressed as American officers). “Petra” himself flies the plane and intentionally crashes it.

The morning of September 9, as Americans prepare to storm the beaches of Salerno, Kile grills “Petra” about Eisenhower’s arrival. Storm and the partisan leader, disguised as Italian air force officers, await as “Petra,” Neumann and others arrive at the airfield. However, the Germans are taken by surprise as the partisans open fire. “Petra” wounds Neumann and drives his car away from the airfield. He goes back to the Contessa’s mansion, but finds Kile already waiting for him. Kile says the real Hugo Petra’s body has been found and identified. Kile has figured out the whole deception, calling it a magnificent hoax.

The general prepares to kill “Petra,” but he is gunned down by Storm and the partisan leader. The Contessa suggests dumping Kile’s body into the basement crypt. Storm hands her Ferni’s fake dog tags and tells her not to reveal what she has learned.

Back in the present, Storm tells Wright that Ferni never existed. Wright concedes, abandons his story and leaves the mansion. On a muddy road back to Able Company, Wright’s jeep stops to let a string of captured German soldiers pass by. He offers one of the men a cigarette. Noticing the GI marionette puppet in Wright’s luggage, the soldat winks, confirming to the audience his identity as “Petra.” Wright seems puzzled and his jeep resumes its journey.

G-2 Report

 * “Operation Secret” is one of two backdoor pilots that aired as part of The Gallant Men (the other is “The Leathernecks”). A backdoor pilot is a pilot episode for a proposed television series that airs as an installment of an existing series. This episode sought to launch a series starring Ray Danton as a spy operating in Europe during World War II. It was not picked up for a full series order.
 * Though Ray Danton’s spy character is credited as Hugo Petra on IMDB, we know he isn’t the real Petra. The character’s real name is never given. Danton’s espionage days weren’t over with this episode. He later surfaced as suave spy Bryan Cooper in the 1966 movie Secret Agent Super Dragon. The film was eventually lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 * Earl Hammond, who played David Storm, clearly a had a talent for voices and accents. He parlayed that into voice acting. His cartoon gigs included Ultraman, Silverhawks and Thundercats.
 * Albert Paulsen (General Kile) played close to 90 roles in a four-decade career as a character actor. He mostly played Germans or Austrians, including appearances as German military officers in Combat!, The Rat Patrol and 12 O’Clock High.
 * The credits for this episode say Richard Landau’s teleplay was derived from a story by an Elton Floring. However, an internet search turned up none of Floring’s work and no reference to the man himself beyond this single episode of The Gallant Men. It may be that “Elton Floring” is a pseudonym.
 * Filming for this episode must have made a short workday for Roger Davis, Richard X. Slattery and Roland La Starza. They are seen only in the cold open. William Reynolds is seen but has no lines. He gets a few lines with McQueeney in act one.
 * While the backdoor pilot did not succeed in launching its own series, it is a gripping and interesting tale and a rare look at Conley Wright actually doing some reporting. Robert McQueeney carries the workload well, turning in a fine performance as a reporter determined to find substance in mist.
 * On the other hand: Wright is an intelligent man, but he seemed utterly incapable of understanding that Joseph Ferni was a made-up identity designed to fool people. Even when David Storm explained the whole plot, Wright still asked who Ferni was. The guy just told him – Ferni isn’t real! Good grief.
 * This episode is refreshingly free of recycled sets. The basement set seen in the cold open is a re-dressed version of the staircase set seen in several episodes, including “One Moderately Peaceful Sunday” and “A Place to Die.” The contessa’s mansion, Kile’s office and the hospital are all original to this episode.