The Incident (1990) watch online HD

One of the earlier reviews of this fine little TV movie suggested that it stretched credulity to believe that German POWs would be found so far from Europe. Yet by the end of the war, over 375,000 German POWs were in several hundred camps throughout the United States, mostly in the South and Southwest, far from critical war industries in the Midwest and along the Eastern seaboard. There were over 425,000 total Axis prisoners in the US by 1945.

The Incident is a really well-made movie. Director Joseph Sargent, still at it in his late 70s or early 80s, created memorable TV and theatrical films such as "The Marcus Nelson Murders" (to become Kojak), "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three", "Miss Evers' Boys", and "A Lesson Before Dying."

I was pleasantly suprised by this made for TV murder movie.

Walter Matthau plays his part well and the storyline has enough twists and turns to keep your attention up. Added to this is that there is a strong storyline that doesn't insult the intelligence too much and has elements of realism to it (although not quite sure how German POW's managed to make it to the USA from Germany)

Worth a look 7/10

Top-notch acting, excellent research, and interesting characters punctuate this intriguing story. Deftly mixing humor with personal anguish and political intrigue, the plot twists it way towards a surprising conclusion. The production values are so good, It's hard to believe that this is a made-for-TV movie. Appropriate for the entire family.

As always, I was impressed by Walter Matthau's performance in this movie. Matthau played Harmon Cobb, a small town lawyer during the Second World War who is assigned to defend a German prisoner of war (Peter Firth) accused of murdering the local town doctor (Barnard Hughes.) The case seems open and shut, and Cobb's basic role - as he is clearly told by the presiding judge (Harry Morgan) - isn't to mount a serious defense; it's merely to make the process look good. (In fact, the judge makes it clear that he assigned Cobb because he believed Cobb to be incompetent.)

Cobb has to deal with the antipathy of the townsfolk, who are convinced of Geiger's guilt, as well as his own anti-German feelings (as a World War I vet, and especially after he receives news that his son was killed in Europe.) But he ultimately settles into the role he's been given, and gradually uncovers an unsavoury cover-up taking place at the POW camp with the full knowledge of its commander (Joe Horvath.)

This is a surprisingly good story that does keep the viewer guessing most of the way through. Ultimately, I found it to be a little too far fetched to really be believable (which knocked it down a couple of notches in my estimation) but it was still a pretty good who-dun-it sort of mystery.

7/10

Whether or not Walter Matthau made this and a subsequent television film with the intention of trying the waters to create a series co-starring Harry Morgan is a question I can't answer. Matthau and Morgan made these two moderately interesting films together, set in the 1940s and dealing with an attorney named Harmon Cobb and a lower level Federal judge named Bell (Morgan). The chemistry between the two was good in their scenes, but one wonders how long the story lines would have been kept up - especially as in the first film Morgan's judge is somewhat flawed as a person.

This film dealt with a subject rarely touched on in our World War II films or books - that during the war years nearly 370,000 Axis and Fascist Prisoners of War were held in camps in the southwest United States. The reason for these out of the way camps was to keep them far from the war industries of the west coast and the mid west and east and south. As far as I know there were incidents in these camps of vicious killings, but usually they were die-in-the-wool Nazis finding a fellow prisoner who was not as supportive of the regime or was of questionable (i.e., racially mixed) heritage. In one case a prisoner was killed and five Nazis were tried and several hanged for the murder. So there is a basis for the story line, though here it is taken beyond that point.

Cobb is a defense attorney that the government asks to defend a Nazi prisoner of war Geiger (Peter Firth) by Judge Bell. The German soldier is accused of killing a doctor (Barnard Hughes) in the prison infirmary, and the evidence seems clear that Geiger did attack the Doctor (he does not deny this). So Cobb's defense would be relatively weak to begin with. However it is wartime, and the doctor was the only one in the town Cobb lives in, and his neighbors are upset that he would agree to defend a Nazi. Moreover, Cobb and his daughter-in-law learn that his son (who was drafted) has been killed fighting in France. So this assignment is far from his favorite type of work.

But as he gets into it, things begin not adding up. It seems the Doctor wrote a cryptic note that suggests he was having a serious crisis regarding whatever work he was doing in the camp. The note was not regarded as important by the prosecution led by a hotshot attorney named Domsczek (Robert Carridine), but Cobb proceeds to dig deeper into it. There seems to be something hidden in the background of the Doctor's death that nobody in the camp from it's commander Major Lilly (Joe Horvath) on down really wants probed.

The trial has begun, and Cobb seeks to get permission from Judge Bell for looking at some of the Doctor's camp records on other deaths in the camp recently. And here he meets a shock. Hitherto Bell has been a relatively straightforward type who made the government order to defend the Nazi more like a request for help. But now he finds that the Judge is dead set against any chance of the Nazi being acquitted. As he explains to a shocked Cobb, the latter is only a jester, and the hero is going to be Domsczek, and the Judge is going to sentence Geiger to death.

With the help of his friend the local sheriff (William Schallert), Cobb does bluff his way into the prison, and does find more than he bargained for in terms of what is going on. I won't go into further detail, for the story (despite it's improbabilities) might happen under certain circumstances. But he finds Major Lilly has odd ideas about prison trustees and their duties, and he also finds that the reason for the rubber-stamp style of injustice for Geiger has to do with Judge Bell assisting the Federal Government in producing a bargaining chip against the Nazi Government.

For a typical television show it is well acted. It gives Schallert - too frequently given quiet comic parts - a moment to show his abilities to be an effective dramatic actor. It's leads demonstrate how they could squeeze juice out of interesting situations and roles. Matthau and Firth cannot become friends, but their mutual war tragedies (Firth's parents were killed in a bombing) give them a kind of bond. Morgan's Judge is never over-done, but his behavior is interesting in what it tells you about his own personality and what our government does to the so-called "independent judiciary". And Carridine too surprises us, being quite rigidly more honorable than Morgan expects. While a minor film for Matthau it is definitely well-done.

Great story, sensitive direction and superb acting from Peter Firth and Walter Mathau. Firth best known for Flipside of Dominic Hide, Rome and Spooks plays against character but is utterly convincing as a Nazi charged with the murder of a fellow POW.

Mathau as always turns in wonderful performance as the small town lawyer his style contrasting brilliantly with Firth's powerful but minimalist acting. Story raises many issues that are especially powerful in today's highly partisan political climate when we strangers living in our midst.

Watch this movie you will not be disappointed.

A curiously belated (1990) made-for-TV movie in which Walter Matthau really proves his worth. He is so good, and production values so high, that this is a superior work to many supposedly silver-screen projects.

Set in and around a POW camp of WW2 on American soil, in which the inmates are German. Small-town USA has an authentic and believable vintage stamp, whereby a lawyer who usually deals with petty offences (Matthau) is suddenly dragged into the big-time of jurisprudence by a legal system that has been covertly prostituted by political sleight.

The way in which avuncular American simplicity is pasted as a veneer against deep-seated German intrigue and American contrivance, both legal and military, is developed in a careful and well managed way. There's a tremendous sense of foreboding grows as the pawn of sham-justice gradually becomes aware that what appears on the surface to be an open-and-shut murder trial is much, much more.

Walter Matthau is the main player here and acquits himself to perfection. But there's a complementary supporting cast who raise his game to the level we've come to expect from past performances like Charlie Varrick' or 'Pelham 123'. Lots of small and carefully-observed details hold the attention and draw the viewer into the movie's subtle plot-work.

I find very little to criticise in this movie that its good things don't trump outright. Technical issues are up to snuff. Script is solid. You'd easily be persuaded by its style that this work was 30 years older than it actually is. It's comical, it's tense; there's the sort of small-town bigotry that we associate with standard-bearers like 'In The Heat Of The Night', yet its much more recent vintage is never betrayed by ham-handed dependence upon pyrotechnics or cliché.

This movie is highly recommended viewing.

This is a morality tale set during the war when German prisoners are held in various camps across the USA. The story focuses on one, in Colorado, where the small town doctor who also serves the camp is apparently murdered, and a German prisoner is the accused. At the same time 3 American prisoners captive in Germany are being prepared to go to trial, and the US legal system hopes to quickly convict this German to have something to trade for.

Walter Matthau is Harmon Cobb, small town lawyer who is pretty much broke and considered a second tier lawyer. Against his will he is told to defend the German, his other option is disbarment and jail. So he goes into it half-hearted. But soon he is receiving poor treatment from his own friends, and then finds out there may be much more to the story, and he begins an investigation in earnest.

Robert Carradine is good as the Harvard-educated prosecuting attorney. Brit Peter Firth is the focus as Geiger, the prisoner accused of murdering the doctor. Barnard Hughes is Doc Hansen. Harry Morgan is the tough Judge Bell. William Schallert is Harmon's friend, Wallace, who helps uncover key evidence.

Pretty good TV movie.

SPOILERS: The American commander of the camp is the guilty party. He runs a tight prison camp by letting the German Nazi Party members have free reign during the night. Any prisoner who steps out of line is beaten to death with bats. The doc knew this and was tired of the guilt and was about to expose it so they murdered him too, and framed the German.

I've *just* finished watching this movie on a fuzzy, out-of-range over-the-air television station and I completely agree with the previous comment that this is a good little made for television movie and it could have made a pretty enjoyable series. It's undeniably Matlockesque, but with Walter Matthau as the nosy attorney it has a markedly different tone than that of the popular series starring Andy Griffith.

The "differentiator" for this show is that it's set as a period piece, though the writing isn't especially deft at pulling you into the time period and some of the details (such as prisoner's clothing) is likely incorrect for the period.

IMDb indicates that there are two more of these shows... and sure enough, even as I write this comment, the second "episode" of this "movie series" has started running on that over-the-air station. You can't help but think that this may have been an abortive (or unsteady) attempt to take these characters into a regular series.

Really, if you have the chance to catch it on cable or order it from your favorite DVD rental house, give this show a whirl. If nothing else, you'll enjoy seeing Harry Morgan (of M*A*S*H fame) playing a crusty old judge with a strange hate/pity relationship with Matthau's lazy-man attorney... good stuff!

Harmon Cobb is a small town lawyer more at home in the local restaurant than he is in the courts. In the years after the war, Cobb's town is home to Camp Brennan – a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers. Doc Hansen is one of the few local people who gets into the camp and, although he can't tell anyone about it, something appears to have him shaken up. After seeing him drunk late at night, Cobb wakes the next day to learn Doc has been murdered in the camp and that it appears a clear-cut case of murder by one of the senior German prisoners – Geiger. Forced to act as Geiger's defence by Judge Bell, Cobb faces the wrath of the townsfolk as he tries to do his best with a difficult case.

A few weeks ago I watched the tvm Incident in a Small Town and I must admit that I was entirely unimpressed by it – in fact I thought it was poor. I found out after watching this film that it was one of a series of films involving the character of small town lawyer Harmon Cobb and I was surprised that, if this was the quality of the series, that more than one had been made. So when I saw this film in the schedules I decided to give it a try and see what justified a couple of films. Here we actually have a reasonably good story that deals with interesting conflicting emotions in the characters while a pretty good courtroom drama is delivered without too much fuss. Of course being a TVM it isn't that good but it does do the job. I would have liked the film to get to grips with the feelings of the characters a bit better, rather than just showing the town turn against Cobb in the obvious way they did or having to use a clumsy plot device to show how dedicated he is to truth and justice for all.

However it did do enough to make it interesting and provide more than the rather obvious main narrative to hold the film together. Matthau seems happier here than he did in the sequel I saw – there he just seemed bored with the character and the story. Here he has something to work with and, although it is essentially the same sort of character he usually plays, he is still interesting. The support are reasonably good without ever threatening him. Firth is solid as Geiger, Morgan is familiar as the judge and the rest fill in around the edges without anyone really giving a bad performance.

Overall this is an OK tvm that has an OK courtroom drama at its core while also doing enough with other ideas to be interesting. It isn't great but it is quite good if you are watching daytime TV in an undemanding mood. Matthau dominates it and makes it better than it probably deserved to be but generally it does all hang together well enough to be worth a look.