"Vendetta" gives us a taste in diversity with respect to Greek culture as was so often incorporated into roles played by Telly Savalas. A group of Greek soldiers gallantly led by Colonel Kapsalis (excellently played by Savalas) appear to consistently challenge the Germans with a vengeance at long odds. And why not? I cannot imagine how I'd feel if I witnessed my entire home village decimated by Nazi storm troopers.
Colonel Kapsalis and his men pull Lieutenant Hanley, Kirby, Littlejohn, and Doc out of a real jam in Rat Patrol fashion. I'm not 100% sure, but this episode might have been a major influence in the creation of "Rat Patrol," a later TV series which ran from 1966-1968. It certainly was a bona fide forerunner to it. Major conflict is created between Hanley and Kapsalis. Hanley wants to follow orders and retreat to his lines with vital recon information, but he is overruled by Kapsalis who wants to blow up the object of Hanley's recon mission using Hanley's newly acquired info. Rick Jason comes across as very angry with Savalas while Savalas is totally unemotional and nonchalant. The contrast is quite amusing. We are treated to the "OPA" dance by Savalas which in Greek culture is a dance of enthusiastic exclamation - kind of a motivational go get 'em thing. The Greek sayings are excellent; death acknowledgment, snowflake on the hand, and catching wind in a net, to name a few.
There's a lot of excellent combat throughout and the night scenes are graphic lighting up and highlighting the action. I'm critical in that realistically speaking, the accomplishments of the combined squads are unrealistic. Lights behind German guns should have been shattered and I do not fathom how Hanley-Kapsalis and company could have won. When one drives by 2 German machine gunners in an open jeep, how could they miss at point blank range?
The so called Messerschmitt scene is fun to watch in that even though the plane was actually a US P51-C Mustang, we can appreciate what our engineers developed in WW II. Again, 3 jeeps and 6 mounted machine guns, I think we'd have caused the plane serious consequences.
I love the ending line given to Hanley by Hot Dogs, the Greek soldier, completely analogous to how a high wire walking troupe thinks - The show must go on !