User talk:Halibutt/Hans Kloss

Hans Kloss (commonly known by his rank as Captain Kloss or a code-name J-23) is a fictional World War II secret agent created in late 1960s by Andrzej Szypulski and Zbigniew Safjan. Kloss appears in the 18-episode 1967-1968 Polish television series Stawka większa niż życie, as well as numerous novels, short stories, comic books and a 2012 spin-off feature film.

Owing in large part to the enormous popularity of the original TV series, Hans Kloss is considered an icon of popular culture in Poland, and is often portrayed as a Polish counterpart of James Bond.

(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.

Both Andrzej Szypulski and Zbigniew Safjan were successful journalists in contemporary Polish press. As they considered their own work for the Polish Television light-hearted, they chose to publish their works under a collective pseudonym "Andrzej Zbych", created out of their first names ("Zbych" being the Polish diminutive of the name Zbigniew).

The original TV series was produced in 1967 and 1968.

Hans Kloss is in fact an adopted pseudonym of Stanisław Kolicki, a young Pole from Pomerania, who is 1941

Jego akcja rozpoczyna się w 1941 roku, kiedy Stanisław Kolicki dostaje pracę w radzieckim wywiadzie. Ponieważ jest uderzająco podobny do ujętego przez Rosjan niemieckiego porucznika Hansa Klossa, otrzymuje zadanie podszywania się pod niego, przez co zyskuje dostęp do tajnych informacji wojskowych. Jako Hans Kloss organizuje siatkę wywiadowczą i do końca wojny przekazuje niemieckie plany radzieckiej centrali.

Scenarzyści serialu, Andrzej Szypulski i Zbigniew Safjan, stworzyli historię Hansa Klossa zainspirowani pierwszym filmem o Jamesie Bondzie, „Doktor No” z 1962 roku. Za reżyserię serii odpowiadali Janusz Morgenstern i Andrzej Konic. Obok Stanisława Mikulskiego i Emila Karewicza w „Stawce większej niż życie” zagrali m.in. Leon Niemczyk, Bronisław Pawlik i Mieczysław Stoor.

He is actually a Pole named Stanisław Kolicki working for Soviet Intelligence, who impersonates a Nazi Abwehr 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 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 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, or Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. 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 front 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 Stierlitz. Of course, he is himself inspired by Konrad Wallenrod and James Bond, 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 or some Soviet intelligence organisation, for example the GRU military intelligence. At the time the series was made, when Poland was still a Soviet satellite state, 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, 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 was J-23.

Comic books
Adventures of Captain Kloss were adapted into 20 comic book albums by Mieczysław Wiśniewski. They are:


 * 1) Agent J-23 (Agent J-23)
 * 2) Wsypa (The Big Bust)
 * 3) Ostatnia szansa (Last Chance)
 * 4) Kuzynka Edyta (Cousin Edith)
 * 5) Ściśle tajne (Top Secret)
 * 6) Hasło (The Password)
 * 7) Spotkanie z Ingrid (Rendez-Vouz with Ingrid)
 * 8) Cafe Rose (Cafe Rose)
 * 9) Wyrok (The Sentence)
 * 10) Kurierka z Londynu (A courier from london)
 * 11) Partia domina (A game of dominoes)
 * 12) Noc w szpitalu (Night at the hospital)
 * 13) Podwójny nelson (A double nelson)
 * 14) Żelazny krzyż (The Iron Cross)
 * 15) Tajemnica profesora Riedla (The mystery of professor Riedl)
 * 16) Spotkanie na zamku (Encounter at the castle)
 * 17) Akcja "Liść Dębu" (Operation "Oak Leaf")
 * 18) Oblężenie (The Siege)
 * 19) "Gruppenfuhrer Wolf" (Gruppenfuhrer Wolf)
 * 20) W ostatniej chwili (At the last moment)