Assignment: Munich

The plot for Stanley Donen's "Charade", starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, and set in charming 'Paree' is recycled in what was supposed to be a pilot for a whole espionage TV series. I don't know what other great movie plots the network planned on draining from their original merits, but thankfully, we'll never know. Those of you who haven't seen "Charade", it is about a recent widow who finds herself being chased by three men who most likely killed her husband, and who is also being courted by a mysterious yet charming man who may or may not be on their side. Although the cast in this film isn't in the same league as the original, they are all talented people who could have and should have been allowed to create interesting characters. Same goes for the location. Munich is the most beautiful and interesting city in Germany, yet the film could have been shot in Portland, Oregon for all the effort there was in making the most of the scenery. The film was also shot in the dead of winter, I guess in order to bring out a feeling of 'gritty realism'. I only wish the director had watched "The Third Man" for some inspiration on how to make gritty realism look interesting! Movie trivia fans will enjoy this TV-movie for its 70s nostalgia, for making comparisons with the original, far superior "Charade", and for having the opportunity to see Robert "Mike Brady" Reed play high camp.

I still recall the swastika wallpaper in the summer house outside of Munich. The swastika wallpaper was common in Germany during 1933-45. I was surprised to see it in the movie! I guess they were really shooting on location in Munich. World War II had only been over for 25 years at that point, but whenever I see this movie, I still notice that crazy Nazi wallpaper. Not a bad movie, and certainly better and more original than anything that has come out of Hollywood in the last few years. Roy Scheider was good, as was Basehart. I also liked seeing Werner Klemperer, and the under rated and under appreciated Robert Reed did well too. Pernell Roberts (trapper john m.d.)also starred as one of the crooks.

The pilot was picked up by ABC as part of their 1972-73 weekly series "The Men", which was designed to utilize the "wheel" rotating show format used so successfully by the NBC Mystery Movie series. The wheel format used several independently produced shows in rotation in the same time slot. This allowed for higher production values for each of the shows in the "wheel" as there were several weeks available to shoot each episode of a one-hour format TV show.

NBC had Columbo, McMillan and Wife, McCloud as staples throughout the run and had other fill-ins such as Madigan, Banacek and, at the end of the run, Quincy M.E. which broke out as its own series for another seven years.

ABC's "The Men" launched with Assignment Vienna, Jigsaw, and The Delphi Bureau. The "Assignment: ..." location was moved from Munich to Vienna to retain the Germanic feel, but avoid the impossible logistics of shooting on location in a city hosting the 1972 Summer Olympics at the time.

For the series, Robert Conrad replaced Roy Scheider as Jake Webster and Charles Cioffi replaced Richard Basehart as Major Caldwell. Anton Diffring replaced Werner Klemperer as Inspector Hoffman. The yellow BMW was replaced by a yellow Corvette Stingray convertible.

Roy Scheider drives a great yellow (gelb) BMW 1972 2002 Cabriolet, which is very rare in the United States. It has a sunroof, and a plastic back window that rolls down. Very unique. I would love to have a car like that. He wrecks the car on some steps during the movie and it made me sick. Is nothing sacred? The movie is a normal 70's type European spy/cold war type and nothing mind inspiring. It is on the same level as Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty's "$", made in "West" Germany at the same time period. Fun to remember the culture back then, if you were around like I was. Germany were soccer world champions and were spending a lot of money to promote the country, one of the ways was by backing movies like this.