McHale's Navy (TV Series) Binghamton at 20 Paces (1966) User Reviews

An average show as we quickly approach the end of the series.

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 28 November 2014]

This next to last episode of the series was nice enough. Nothing really stood out as extraordinary or excitingly funny but it was pleasant enough to watch.

The main plot involves a local man, Count Cesare Spinetti, feeling like he was dishonored by Ensign Parker. The Count challenges Parker to an old fashion duel. Parker has been feeling down about being called a coward, so he take up the challenge and will fight the Count. But as things progress in the story, there will be more people, higher up in rank, that will also dishonor the Count and will face the same situation.

The most humorous part of the show is Binghamton at the duel. The way he leaves the grounds was the best part of the show. Other than that scene, it was just an average show that served its purpose. A slightly above average watch.

Binghamton's too bloodthirsty for this to be a great episode

[FlushingCaps · 5/10 · 8 December 2020]

Mr. Parker is at the restaurant in Volafiore, and he notices a girl at a nearby table is crying. He wonders if she perhaps cannot pay her check. But she confides that she just had a big fight with her boyfriend and now he isn't going to marry her. She goes and sits with Parker, becoming surprisingly affectionate, as Chuck is stunned by all of this. When she sees that boyfriend, Marco approaching, she tells Chuck to put his arms around her to make him jealous. Then she gives Chuck a big kiss.

Marco is a big tough guy who starts beating Chuck up, in humorous ways, including pressing his face down onto a table of spaghetti, some of which is hanging from Chuck's mouth as he lifts his head.

Days later, Chuck is still embarrassed, feeling he is thought of as a coward because he couldn't outfight the man. At the restaurant with the skipper, a fancily dressed count enters and Chuck winds up accidentally backing into the count's table, spilling his food.

The count challenges Parker to a duel, and Parker is happy to accept, thinking he needs to do this to show he isn't a coward. McHale goes to Binghamton, asking for a big mission to get Parker away from the count, but when the captain hears about the duel, he encourages it, saying the pride of the navy is at stake.

McHale does come up with an idea that they can gaslight the count into thinking Parker is great at shooting and it seems to work...but here comes Chuck with his finger stuck in his pistol, ruining that plan.

They go through with the duel, with Binghamton and Carpenter spying on the proceedings. Binghamton has told Elroy that he can get Parker-the sure-to-be loser in the duel, and McHale for participating in a duel, which is against the law.

They go through some funny duel scenes-including the oft-used one where our hero paces off backwards so that he is right next to his foe when they turn around-and of course nobody gets killed, but I won't spoil the other parts near the end.

My first complaint about the script is with Count Spinetti challenging Parker to a duel when it was obvious-Chuck was walking backwards and had not even been talking to the count-that him falling onto the count's table was an accident. Hard to figure how the count feels his honor has been insulted.

But the big complaint is that Binghamton, who has always wanted to ship Parker out, seems quite happy to see him get killed. They've had 2 or 3 episodes where the captain thought Parker was dead and he showed all sorts of remorse and sorrow, but in this one, he seemed to gleam with joy at the thought of Chuck being killed.

I did enjoy some of the other scenes as McHale and the count haggled over how the duel would be fought. So overall, I give this one a 5.