Lesson for a Lover

Lesson for a Lover is the sixth episode of The Gallant Men. It was written by Richard Landau & Jerry Davis and directed by Charles R. Rondeau. It aired on November 9, 1962.

Plot summary
Able Company's four platoons are split up for a nighttime advance on German positions. A thick fog bank helps obscure the men, but not enough to avoid detection. German troops open fire, cutting down several soldiers. Artillery fire blasts the already-barren landscape and German tanks make a safe retreat very difficult. While trying to escape, Pete D’Angelo and Lt. Kimbro are each shot in the arm. D’Angelo helps Kimbro back to safety, but the lieutenant reveals he has been blinded.

Conley Wright visits the military hospital in Naples. He brings D’Angelo his cherished guitar. D’Angelo jokes around and cautions Wright that Kimbro is in poor spirits. Wright explains the lieutenant is suffering from hysterical blindness. Maria Carducci, a well-dressed hospital volunteer, enters the recovery ward and D’Angelo immediately tries to charm her.

Wright relays to the cold Kimbro a doctor’s opinion that his vision will return after a couple weeks’ rest. Kimbro rejects the optimism and says doctors can’t easily help him. Wright leaves, but tells Carducci to pay Kimbro a visit. He doesn’t want to see her, and says volunteers are usually rich or bored. Maria gently persists, saying she is neither, and Kimbro gradually drops his standoffish behavior.

Carducci returns home and a suave man, Francioso Cardinale, is already there. Formerly a wealthy man, Cardinale has arranged to sell stolen drugs from the military hospital in order to recover his riches and status. He tells Maria to aid him by gaining access to the hospital’s supply room.

Back at the hospital, Kimbro has had a change of heart and now fondly looks forward to Maria’s visit. Carducci enters the hospital lobby and briefly picks up the supply room key before taking a key for recreation locker instead. Kimbro feels her face and says she is beautiful. The next day, Kimbro and Carducci sit beneath a tree. The lieutenant’s mood has improved considerably since their first meeting. Maria avoids directly answering when Kimbro asks what she did before the war, and when he asks if she is in love with anyone, she professes she doesn’t know what love is.

Later, while strolling on an open-air terrace at the hospital, Kimbro tells Wright he wants to see, and isn’t sure why his vision hasn’t returned. D’Angelo says he will be headed back to the front soon, and Maria proposes a party at her house to celebrate his recovery. While preparing her home, Cardinale and henchman Fabio arrive and bother her. Cardinale reminds Maria of the drug heist. When she resists, he threatens to introduce himself to Kimbro, hinting that she has an embarrassing past. Carducci relents and draws a map of the hospital for Cardinale and Fabio.

That night at the party, everyone’s having a dandy old time until air raid sirens sound. Kimbro uses the opportunity to get frisky with Maria, but notices he can see the flashes of bombs outside. Back at the hospital Kimbro further tests his returning sight and is pleased. Meanwhile, Cardinale enters the hospital lobby; outside, Fabio is disguised in an American army uniform and has commandeered a truck. Maria picks up the supply room key and gives it to Cardinale. She is surprised by Kimbro and takes him back to the recovery ward as Fabio slips into the supply room.

The scene shifts to battalion MP headquarters, where Kimbro is being interviewed by an investigator. The plot was uncovered somehow and Fabio was killed trying to escape. Maria is thought to be involved, but has been uncooperative. Kimbro is disappointed, and he ignores her when she tries to speak to him in the lobby.

Kimbro returns to Able Company, but is in no mood for the friendly welcomes of his buddies and Capt. Benedict. Kimbro insists on getting back into action, and despite his better judgment, Benedict agrees to send him on a patrol. In the field, Kimbro behaves daringly, endangering the other men. When forced to turn back from German fire, Kimbro sends D’Angelo, Hanson and Lucavich back. D’Angelo helps Kimbro fire a few mortars at the advancing Germans, but Kimbro sends him away.

Wright arrives back at the command post warns Benedict that Kimbro may not be thinking clearly. D’Angelo, Hanson and Lucavich approach and share the same opinion. Before Benedict can send a patrol to rescue Kimbro, the lieutenant appears, rubbing his eyes. Wright asks if he’s okay, and Kimbro replies that his eyes are fine, but he needed time to think on his own. Wright says Maria turned herself in to the military authorities and hopes she’ll see Kimbro again.

The episode closes with Wright’s speculation that Kimbro and Maria might have a future.

G-2 Report

 * In act one, director Charles R. Rondeau experiments with theatrical fog and a sparsely-dressed set to create an effective eerie atmosphere. Silhouetting the actors against the fog creates a ghostly image, heightened by the absence of musical scoring. By coincidence, the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. has a similar appearance on foggy or snowy days.
 * Rondeau made a more questionable choice in not depicting the drug heist, in which Cardinale’s henchman was killed. We are told about it after the fact in act four.
 * This episode introduces Naples as a second setting for The Gallant Men. The men of Able and Conley Wright will return to Naples many times in future episodes.
 * Exactly what Maria Carducci’s big secret is, is never revealed. Dialogue in act two vaguely implies she might be a prostitute, or was one in the recent past. There is also a hint that she and Cardinale might have been married or had some kind of relationship. But none of this is made terribly clear.
 * The song Pete plays in act two is an acoustic version of “My Heart Belongs to You,” The Gallant Men theme written by Sy Miller. Though it is never heard in its entirety in an episode, Eddie Fontaine performs portions of the song in “The Gallant Men (Pilot)” and “Robertino.”
 * In act three, D’Angelo sings and strums “Hard Hearted Hannah,” a 1924 song written by Milton Ager with lyrics by Jack Yellen, Charles Bates and Bob Bigelow. In addition to being a popular standard, the song may have been selected for this episode because its rights belonged to Warner Bros. A version of the song was featured in the 1955 movie Pete Kelly’s Blues; Capt. Benedict himself, William Reynolds, played Kelly in a 13-episode TV spinoff in 1959.
 * Pete references his previous arrangement with Conley Wright for use of his typewriter, a gag established in the pilot. In act three, D’Angelo raises the daily fee to two bucks after Wright wisecracks about his musical skills.
 * The slimy Cardinale is played by John Van Dreelen, an actor whose film and television credits spanned more than forty years. He played many one-off roles, mostly as villains or antagonists.
 * Wright’s closing narration hints at a future for Kimbro and Maria Carducci, but she is never mentioned again in the series.
 * Maria's apartment is seen, re-dressed, in "Retreat to Concord," "One Moderately Peaceful Sunday" and "Some Tears Fall Dry." The military hospital set is seen again in "Tommy."