The Salzman Defection: Espionage.
Original air date: 5 November 1967
This episode rerun 19 May 1968
Plenty of nastiness in this episode, one that would do Mission: Impossible proud. It seems an Eastern Bloc general plans to defect, and he shows up at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna. Problem is, his wife, who made it to the States, has been kidnapped.
Add to that, Walter Ronald (played by Frank Marth) murdered State Department employee Frank Darren Murray, and Messrs. Erskine and Colby become involved. They need to track down the kidnappers and find the general’s wife.
- Dana Wynter seems to play an East German noodnik (like Egon Krenz, the last leader of East Germany). Born Dagmar Wynter in Berlin in 1931, Ms. Wynter grew up in England. Spoiler: We learn her character returns to her home country, and that nothing further is heard of her. Implication? She was probably eliminated.
- This episode shows how much the Cold War was still on everyone’s mind. This would remain the case well into the 1980s, until Communism collapsed in 1991.
- Stanley Brown (John van Dreelen) is a ham radio operator who supposedly plays chess with someone in Mexico. Actually, this is a cover for espionage.
Credits:
Directed by: Robert Douglas
Written by: William Bruckner
Performer | Role
- Dana Wynter | Sylvia Prince
- Viveca Lindfors | Madame Salzman
- Eduard Franz | Gen. Erik Salzman
- John van Dreelen | Stanley Brown
- Patricia Smith | Eleanor Brown
- John Kerr | SAC Gary Morgan
- Frank Marth | Walter Ronald
- Pat Cardi | Jack Brown
- Ross Elliott | Neal Greenwood
- Mary Jackson | Mrs. Corman
- Tom Palmer | John Kramer
- Francis de Sales | Frank Darren Murray
- John Mayo | FBI Technician
- Jacqueline Mayo | Secretary