Captain Kloss

Captain Kloss is a fictional WW2 secret agent appearing in the 18-episode 1967-1968 Polish television series Stawka większa niż życie (More Than Life at Stake), following earlier live television theater plays. It was, and still is, widely popular in Poland.

He is actually a Pole, named Stanisław Kolicki, but operates under the disguise of a captured Nazi Abwehr officer, Hans Kloss, of whom he is a look-alike, in order to wreak havoc upon the occupant. He usually manages to make Germans suspect each other about being defectors, traitors or agents themselves, which results in executions.

Kloss is played by Stanisław Mikulski, who became somewhat typecast 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 Gestapo officer, played by Emil Karewicz, whom the audience loved to hate, a bit like what happened with the J.R. Ewing character in the Dallas series. Although Brunner only appeared in 5 episodes out of 18, he usually stole the show. One of his "trademark" sayings was "I hate the view of a man being beaten... unless I am giving the beating myself".

During the series' first run a German magazine published a front page picture of Mikulski, in his Nazi outfit, with a funny subtitle of "this is the man Polish women are crazy about".

Captain Kloss is generally thought to be a direct inspiration for the 1970 Soviet television series about Stirlitz. Of course, he is himself inspired by James Bond, albeit much less directly.

It is never revealed for whom exactly he is working. It can be either the London-based Polish government in exile (not a politically correct setting) or the Soviet GRU military intelligence (whose existence was not widely known). Anyway, although the settings are extremely precise, the series are entertainment, not historical.

External link

Stawka większa niż życie at the Internet Movie Database