The Lieutenant (TV Series) A Troubled Image (1963) User Reviews

Outstanding!

[angelsunchained · 10/10 · 31 December 2019]

Maybe the best episode in the series. Great on screen chemistry between the two main characters. The episode mixes social justice with romance and it turns out to be an outstanding mix. One of Gary Lockwood's best performances.

Lack of courage.

[westernone · 4/10 · 21 January 2014]

Contains spoilers. The story covers Rice's problems in training some foreign soldiers that include a female officer. This causes trouble for both in that though she keeps up with the male members of her group, she has a lot of emotional instability about something. It turns out she's really driven to participate in the small-skirmish war in her homeland because of a cruel enemy attack involving children, and she has guilt about letting them down. Once she's made to come to terms with that incident, she's a changed girl, no longer hard nosed and glum, she's all sweet and bright and no longer has any interest in fighting and she's going home. This must have been, originally, a much better story, because there's so much that doesn't get said, only hinted at. First and foremost, the gal and her cohorts are from an unnamed country, but obviously it's supposed to be Viet Nam.They're fighting village-attacking guerrillas, they speak French, etc. This was aired just two weeks after the Coup de tat that ended the Diem/Nu regime, and our involvement was rapidly heating up, so the country was apparently too controversial to name. The original story concept must have also had some sort of conflict from the aggressive press photographers that follow her around, who are pushy and on the verge of bullying, but then just disappear. And then there's the relations between Rice and the girl that well, almost gets to a kiss, but we back down from a white boy-yellow girl romance, another too controversial topic for this show. It's a "fixed" story. The girl is an unlikely Marine corp trainee, she must tip the scales at about 90 pounds, and looks like a slim fashion model. In the rigorous excercises, which includes lots of climbing, hiking, and mud crawling with a full pack that must weigh more than she does, it's a bit far-fetched as well.