For those of you anal about such things, I made a mistake last night and watched “The Night of the Human Trigger” out of order. “The Night of the Red-Eyed Mad Men” aired first in 1965. There are no continuity issues rising out of my error, but at least it is all out in the ope now. Confession is good for the soul.“The Night of the Red-Eyed Mad Men” is not one of the better episodes. It is less outlandishly plotted, with an insane Gen. Grimm (Mission Impossible‘s Martin Landau) with his own private army planning to take over forts in the Southwest and set up his own country. Te episode is a straightforward western, save for a couple Artie-made gadgets as catalysts to get out of tough spots.
Grimm has developed a military strategy which is quite flimsy--he does not believe an army needs a grand strategy. Individual soldiers should be able to overcome any other in close combat. Such a strategy sounds like it could get his army picked off from a distance rather easily. Truth be told, Grimm’s forces never seem all that large or threatening.
They certainly are not sharp. Jim is tipped off to the militia’s existence by a Senator whose niece is engaged to one of its members. Grimm discovers her fiance wrote era letter and the Secret Service has been tipped off. However, even though Grimm is expecting an undercover Secret Service agent to infiltrate the group, he does not suspect the guy who just walked through the door to sign up--that would be Jim--even though he immediately starts asking around about the guy who wrote the letter.
I do not believe these guys have a decent chance of taking over the country. Maye is Pres. Grant was really drunk at the time….
Not much of an episode, but not horrible. Martin Landau plays a good villain. You will probably ave a good time trying to figure out if the governing philosophy Grimm is espousing is fascist, communist, or something in between. His style appears to take elements from a variety of totalitarian sources.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
