MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: ILLUSION (TV)
Summary
One in this series of adventure dramas about the exploits of the Impossible Missions Force.
In this episode, the team is tasking with eliminating two dangerous rivals, Emil Skarbeck and Kurt Lom, who are vying for the position of chief of secret police of the East European People's Republic, in favor of a friendlier candidate, Paul Trock. Learning that Skarbeck is "an emotional time bomb," Carter poses as a comely lounge singer, Mona Bern, and performs a few songs at Skarbeck and Lom's favorite haunt, the Traumerie Café. Skarbeck observes that "Mona's" act strongly resembles that of Carlotta Kleve, a singer with whom he was once in love, though Trock notes that Carlotta's mysterious murderer is none other than Skarbeck himself. Skarbeck approaches "Mona," who claims to have been a friend of Carlotta's, but when he accuses her of lying, she claims that Lom has paid her to seduce him. At the same time, Phelps poses as journalist Eric Neustadt and reveals that Skarbeck also killed his brother Josef, the psychiatrist who assisted him during his mental breakdown after Carlotta's murder; he suggests that Lom should "instigate a mental collapse" in his rival by manipulating him to fall in love with Mona. Lom, however, tells his henchman Otto that he in fact plans to frame Skarbeck for Mona's murder.
Skarbeck instructs Carter to record her secret conversations with Lom, and Skarbeck's jealousy is piqued when Mona's pianist Fritz – Hand in disguise – interrupts their evening together, implying that he, too, is in love with the singer. Otto then captures Mona and Lom quickly finds the recording device; elsewhere, Phelps questions Skarbeck, who has fallen into a hypnotic state after taking pills covertly planted by Collier. Skarbeck confesses to killing Carlotta in a jealous rage after she taunted him about her various affairs with other men. Lom tells Carter to make sure that she is seen cavorting with Skarbeck, and that he will contact her with further instructions. Phelps plants the idea that Mona too will humiliate Skarbeck and that he must harm her as he did Carlotta; at her next show, Skarbeck becomes paranoid that Mona is secretly involved with Fritz. "Fritz," however, explains that, having fallen in love with both women, he "made Mona into another Carlotta," only to have both of them fall for Lom instead.
Lom orders Otto to murder Mona that night, and Skarbeck confronts Carter in a panic as Trock calls Lom and invites him to another "jovial evening" at the café. When Skarbeck attempts to strangle Carter, she pricks him with a knockout drug hidden in her ring and then plays dead. Phelps intercepts Otto before he can harm her. "Mona" fails to appear for the next show, and Phelps and Lom confront Skarbeck on the café floor, gloating that they tricked him into murdering her. Armitage trips a momentary blackout, after which an enraged Skarbeck shoots Lom dead – except it is the real Lom, who has just entered, and the man with Phelps is revealed to be Hand in a highly realistic mask. With both men out of the way, the IMF team makes a hasty retreat. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: April 13, 1969 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:30
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:88785
- GENRE: Drama, action/adventure
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, action/adventure; Drama, mystery/suspense; Drama, spy
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1966-1973
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Bruce Geller … Executive Producer, Created by
- Stanley Kallis … Producer
- Barry Crane … Associate Producer
- Gerald Mayer … Director
- Laurence Heath … Writer
- Lalo Schifrin … Theme Music by
- Peter Graves … Cast, James Phelps
- Martin Landau … Cast, Rollin Hand
- Barbara Bain … Cast, Cinnamon Carter
- Greg Morris … Cast, Barney Collier
- Peter Lupus … Cast, Willy Armitage
- Fritz Weaver … Cast, Emil Skarbeck
- Martin E. Brooks … Cast, Paul Trock
- Kevin Hagen … Cast, Kurt Lom
- Horst Ebersberg … Cast, Otto
- Jack Baker … Cast, Cabaret Spectator
- Ethel Wolfson … Cast, Wife
- Robert Wolfson … Cast, Husband