Captain Kloss
Encyclopedia
- The name Hans Kloss can refer to two persons: An Austrian lawyer and bank director who eventually presided the Austrian National Bank or a fictional character from a Polish TV-series. This article covers the latter.
Captain Kloss (Kapitan Kloss) is a fictional World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
secret agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
appearing in the 18-episode
Episode
An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
1967-1968 Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
television series Stawka większa niż życie
Stawka wieksza niz zycie
Stawka większa niż życie is a very successful cult Polish black and white TV series about the adventures of a Polish secret agent, Hans Kloss , who acts as a double agent in the Abwehr during Second World War in occupied Poland.The series was...
(Direct Translation: More Than Life at Stake; DVD Movie Translation: Playing for High Stakes; Popular Translation: You Bet Your Life), following earlier live television theater plays. It was, and still is, widely popular in Poland.
He is actually a Pole named Stanisław Kolicki working for Soviet Intelligence, who impersonates a Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
officer, Hans Kloss, of whom he is a look-alike, in order to wreak havoc inside German intelligence services and armed forces. The switch is accomplished after the real Hans Kloss is arrested for spying behind the Soviet front lines. Following appropriate preparation the look-alike Kolicki is allowed to "escape" back through the front lines and return to Abwehr service. While there, he hurts the German intelligence efforts in various inventive ways. Throughout, he manages to make himself appear trustworthy and advances in German ranks, while at the same time making the Germans suspect each other of being defectors, traitors or agents themselves, often resulting in their execution.
Kloss is played by Stanisław Mikulski, who became typecast
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
following this role.
The various episodes of the series are unconnected, apart for advancing in time over the period of war; certain actors even return in different roles. The pilot (Wiem kim jesteś - I know who you are) explains the basic premise.
A recurrent supporting character is Hermann Brunner, a Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
officer, played by Emil Karewicz
Emil Karewicz
Emil Karewicz is a Polish television and cinema actor.-External links:...
, whom the audience loved to hate, a bit like what happened with the J.R. Ewing
J.R. Ewing
John Ross Ewing, Jr., more commonly known as J. R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman, was a central, nefarious figure on the hit CBS television series Dallas . J. R...
character in the Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
series, or Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (Babylon 5)
Alfred Bester is a Babylon 5 character played by Walter Koenig. He is a senior Psi Cop and a recurring antagonist in the series. J. Michael Straczynski named the character after the science fiction writer Alfred Bester, since telepathy is a recurring theme in his work .-Early Life and Career:The...
in Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
. Although Brunner only appeared in 5 episodes out of 18, he usually stole the show. One of his "trademark" sayings was "I hate the sight of a man being beaten... unless I am the one doing the beating".
During the series' first run a German magazine published a ffront page picture of Mikulski, in his Nazi outfit, with a subtitle it considered funny "this is the man Polish women are crazy about", the Polish public was not amused by such jokes.
Captain Kloss is generally thought to be a direct inspiration for the 1970 Soviet television series about Stirlitz
Stirlitz
Max Otto von Stierlitz is the lead character in a popular Russian book series written in the 1960s by novelist Julian Semyonov and of the television adaptation Seventeen Moments of Spring, starring Vyacheslav Tikhonov, as well as in feature films, produced in the Soviet era, and in a number of...
. Of course, he is himself inspired by Konrad Wallenrod and James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, albeit much less directly.
Except for the pilot episode, the series does not reveal exactly which intelligence service Kloss is working for, as in the other episodes he receives his instructions from an unspecified Centrala or Central Control. Hence, the viewer is left to wonder whether it is the London-based Polish government in exile
Polish government in Exile
The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...
or some Soviet intelligence organisation, for example the GRU
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
military intelligence. At the time the series was made, when Poland was still a Soviet satellite state
Satellite state
A satellite state is a political term that refers to a country that is formally independent, but under heavy political and economic influence or control by another country...
, this deemphasizing of a possible Soviet connection made the character of Kloss more palatable to those Poles who resented Soviet domination, and hence preferred a fictional secret agent not associated with the disliked apparatus of Soviet Intelligence. In the 15th episode he is revealed to hold a rank of major in the Polish People's Army, and in the last episode appears in the Polish uniform accompanied by Soviet officers. Overall, the series was relatively free of communist propaganda
Communist propaganda
Communist propaganda is propaganda aimed to advance the ideology of communism, communist worldview and interests of the communist movement.A Bolshevik theoretician, Nikolai Bukharin, in his The ABC of Communism wrote:...
, unlike some other series made at the time dealing with wartime events, and hence remains highly watchable today.
Although the settings are extremely precise, the series is pure entertainment and the main characters in it have no historical basis. His code name
Code name
A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
was J-23.
Comic books
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
albums by Mieczysław Wiśniewski. They are:
- Agent J-23
- Wsypa
- Ostatnia szansa
- Kuzynka Edyta
- Ściśle tajne
- Hasło
- Spotkanie z Ingrid
- Cafe Rose
- Wyrok
- Kurierka z Londynu
- Partia domina
- Noc w szpitalu
- Podwójny nelson
- Żelazny krzyż
- Tajemnica profesora Riedla
- Spotkanie na zamku
- Akcja "Liść Dębu"
- Oblężenie
- "Gruppenfuhrer Wolf"
- Z ostatniej chwili