Combat! (1962–1967): Season 1, Episode 32 - No Trumpets, No Drums - full transcript
During an assault on a French village, a Frenchman taking cover in a building is accidentally killed by a grenade thrown into a window by Pvt. Caje. While attempting to make the wounded man comfortable, he soon dies leaving Caje horrified and in a state of shock. Pressing the other villagers for information, he discovers the man had a young daughter whose mother was killed by the Germans leaving her now an orphan. Racked with guilt, he spends every waking moment with the girl while neglecting his squad and responsibilities until Sgt. Saunders, having lost patience, orders him to leave the girl behind and re-join the unit. A German counter-attack on the village is repulsed and Caje finally deals with his guilt by accepting Saunders' premise that "The War" killed the girl's father, not he.
No!
[yellling in French]
My God.
God.
A couple more seconds, he would have put a hole in you.
I've got to check in, you finish mopping up.
Right.
Whoever got those shots...
Thanks.
[Kirby] Sarge, I have to admit...
I didn't ask who it was!
All I said was thanks.
Where's Caje?
He was just behind me.
How far behind?
I don't know.
Doc, Little John, you come with me. The rest of you check out those houses.
And don't miss anything! Let's go.
Caje!
Caje!
Sarge!
You all right?
What happened?
I killed him.
How?
Grenade.
He shouldn't have been here in the first place.
Come on, Caje.
Sergeant?
I killed a Frenchman.
Look, Caje, things like this happen.
Whenever you're ready, I'll be outside.
Hey, Kirby?
That Kraut that was gonna knock off the Sarge,
You plug him?
With all due modesty, I gotta admit it was me.
How come he didn't want to know who saved him?
Sarge didn't want to feel beholden.
Yeah, that's right.
The one of us any more than the others.
I figure he'll save your skin a couple times before this is through, Kirby.
It ain't my skin I'm worried about, Billy.
It's my stomach.
Hey, Caje.
What do you know about the foods that are
native to this area of dear old France?
I'm not hungry.
Well, we are.
Look, since we're guests in this country, you see
and they're your kind of people,
being French, I mean.
See, maybe when the villagers come by, you could talk them into giving us a pig or something.
We could throw a little BBQ, you know?
I said I'm not hungry!
Well, what's with him, anyway?
He killed one of the villagers by mistake.
Our artillery must have killed a few by mistake too.
Yeah well, like you said Kirby, his kind of people.
Well, don't you forget. A lot of our kind of people have been getting it too, you know.
Yeah, but we didn't do it.
And we didn't see their face a split second after a grenade went off.
Caje.
Let's go.
But Sarge.
They knew it was me.
I told them what happened. I asked them to bury him.
Listen to me, Caje, he shouldn't have been in the village in the first place.
They realize it was an accident. They understand.
Understand?
Well,
let's hope that's an end to it.
Hey, what's with Caje?
You speak a little French, don't you?
Two years in high school.
That's good enough.
You come with me.
[speaking French]
Monsieur.
Savez-vous se il avait de la famille?
Caje is pumping them.
The guy won't say much.
Except where the guy lived.
On the barge, in the river.
It was an accident.
Understand?
Un accident.
Whatever's tearing at Caje,
wasn't buried with that body.
Hey, you see anything of Caje yet?
Nope.
Sarge, Caje pulls outpost in an hour. I'll take it for him.
Why?
Well, he's all shook up. I just thought that...
You just thought what?
Caje is such a sensitive soul, the war just became too much for him?
Well, I can't see anything wrong with helping a buddy over a rough spot.
Well, this rough spot is going to have to help himself over.
I don't get him sometimes.
He just doesn't want to lose Caje, that's all.
Caje is shook. Why can't we give him a little extra consideration?
Exactly how much consideration?
What do you mean "exactly how much"?
Well, I mean how can Saunders help any one of us?
You know, if we don't meet him half way,
how can he do his job? Keep us alive?
I don't know.
Battalion's sending out reinforcements.
We'll be moving out sometime tomorrow.
Right.
Where's Caje, on outpost?
He doesn't come on until later. He just took a little walk.
- He's all right, isn't he?
- Oh, yes. He's fine.
Hey!
[calling in French]
[music playing]
You alone?
Well, well, well. Hey...
Wanna share it?
Hey, Caje. Did I ever tell you the story about the
kid who kept hitting himself on the head with a hammer?
Well, they said to this kid, they said 'What are you doing that for?"
and he said,
Because it feels so good when I stop.
That's a very funny story, Sergeant.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's funny.
So why don't you put down the hammer?
Look Caje, every once in a while a guy runs into something and he figures this is it.
A very special kind of a hell arranged just for him.
All I'm trying to do is tell you I've had these things happen to me too.
I've seen
I've seen buddies follow my orders
and end up dead for it.
I know.
You don't know.
But maybe now
you're kind of getting the idea.
You can't personally carry the responsibility. You can't.
All right.
You've got a fire in your gut?
Tell you what you do.
You wash it out.
Come on, Caje, wash it out.
You're not made of iron. I'm not made of iron.
It'd be a lot easier if we were.
Come on.
[clattering]
Easy. Easy.
She's scared.
[speaking French]
Oui.
She lives here.
Yeah, her name is Micheline.
How do you know that?
The boy and man who buried her father
he told us about it after you left.
The boy never mentioned his family to me.
He didn't feel he had to. He didn't see her or the mother around.
He figured there was no point.
She's afraid of me.
She must know.
Come on, Caje, knock it off. She doesn't know anything.
Bosch!
She even thinks we're Germans.
No.
American. Americans.
Comprendre?
American?
Caje.
What's she saying?
She wants to know if I've seen her father.
Krauts came here.
Shot her mother.
Her father hid in the forest.
Came to us for medical help.
She thinks her mother is asleep.
Can't wake her up.
Caje.
I think you better tell her.
Tell her what?
That her father came to me for help and I killed him?
No. Tell her only what she has to know.
And that's all.
Micheline?
Your papa
Vier mama
Sont mort.
No!
No!
- Oui!
- No!
- No!
Sont mort!
Ma mère endormi!
No.
Pourquoi mon père mort?
I don't...
I don't know why your father is dead.
[sobbing loudly]
Hey Caje?
We cooked some chickens up last night.
We thought maybe
Well, I mean we've got some left if you'd care to...
She's already eaten.
Well, maybe she'd like some chocolate or something.
No, thanks.
Caje? I think we're pulling out this afternoon.
She sure is a pretty little girl.
Yeah.
The way she hangs onto him.
Caje, Sarge is looking for you. I think we're gonna move out.
I know it.
Caje?
I've been talking to Monsieur Marceau about Micheline.
He's agreed to take her.
The townspeople will be back in a couple of days.
He'll make arrangements for her disposition.
Disposition? What do you mean?
Well, you've heard the word before, Caje.
We'll probably be moving out this afternoon.
Will you, [stammering]
[speaking French]
What did he say?
He wants to know how much money you're going to pay him to take her off your hands!
We're not going to pay him anything!
We're just giving him a little cash, expense money to
take care of her until the proper authorities take over.
Caje?
Caje! Where are you going?
Let me handle it.
Well, you've been handling it, Sergeant.
I know but maybe in the wrong way.
Well, you better find the right way! In case you've forgotten, we're on standby.
Those Krauts throw down on us? We're going to need every man we've got.
We'll have him.
Not if he doesn't snap to. Did he stand outpost duty last night?
- No, sir. He didn't.
- Why not?
- Why not?
I put Little John in his place.
You gonna find somebody to hold his rifle too?
He'll hold his own rifle!
Well, you better see that he does!
And also that he remember where, how and when to use it!
And the next time he turns his back on me, he's going to face insubordination charges!
All right. Just...
Have the men ready to move out in five minutes.
[speaking French]
Caje!
Caje!
[frog croaking]
[frog croaking]
[Caje imitates frog]
Caje!
Caje, we're leaving right now!
The Krauts are building up ahead.
Marceau is going to take Micheline.
You better say goodbye to her.
Are you sure you paid him enough?
Caje, I've had it! I'm talked out. You say goodbye to her and let's go.
She needs me, Sergeant.
That's nobody's fault but your own.
All right, take her and get out of here.
[yelling in French]
Look, I told you. I warned you not to get yourself involved.
Yeah.
Take the easy way out?
No, Caje! The hard way.
You're tore up but you couldn't handle it on your own so you had to drag her into it
to help carry the load.
and now it's time to walk away and there's nobody to lean on!
Let's see if you really got the guts.
All right, take her out of here.
[screaming] No! No! No!
Hey, Caje.
Come on, Caje, get with it.
The men are ready, Lieutenant.
There's been a switch in plans, Sergeant.
Company wants us to dig in here and wait for reinforcements.
- Why the switch?
- Krauts.
- Krauts.
There's a lot of them up ahead and they're coming this way.
Company figures we'd stand a better chance if we dig in here.
We? You mean one platoon?
One squad. Here in town.
The rest of the platoon will be out on the flank.
All right. Get on so the next squad can dig in.
We haven't got much time so let's move.
All right, you heard the man. Let's go.
You too, Caje.
Sarge.
Please let me go back and get the girl.
What girl?
What girl? You know what I mean.
I don't know any girl, Caje.
You and the men in this squad. These are the only people I know.
Krauts may go back to the barge. I've got to get her.
Caje, will you listen to me?
As long as we're together, you might get through this.
But when it's over,
this squad, the patrol, all of it. It's going to disappear.
Everyone's going to go his own way.
What happened to you here will be forgotten.
Forgotten?
Sarge, if anything happened to that girl.
If anything happens to that girl, you won't know about it!
You'll see what we see, do what we do, no more and no less!
Now you keep taking this personally and you're going to destroy yourself!
Looks like we got some help!
[indistinct]
[screaming]
On our flank!
They flanked us, Lieutenant!
Caje, wait!
[screaming]
Caje, use your head!
But Sarge! Those people! I can't! They'll cut them to pieces!
Well, think of the Krauts first!
Is anything sinking? Isn't anything sinking?
We win, we lose. We live or die fighting the enemy!
The enemy! Enemy! Nobody else! Nobody else!
All right.
Krauts first.
I'm going behind them.
No.
We're going behind them.
All right.
We got reinforcements!
Let's go!
Bonjour, Micheline.
Bonjour, Caje.
Hey, au revoir.
Let's move out!
Goodbye, monsieur.
She asked me to say goodbye to you, Sarge.
You ready to leave this place, Caje?
She asked me how her father died.
I told her the war killed him.
She let it go at that.
Well, how about you, Caje?
You gonna let it go at that?
You know if you went to the barge for her, she may have died because you weren't here.
But I was here.
I'm ready to leave.
[yellling in French]
My God.
God.
A couple more seconds, he would have put a hole in you.
I've got to check in, you finish mopping up.
Right.
Whoever got those shots...
Thanks.
[Kirby] Sarge, I have to admit...
I didn't ask who it was!
All I said was thanks.
Where's Caje?
He was just behind me.
How far behind?
I don't know.
Doc, Little John, you come with me. The rest of you check out those houses.
And don't miss anything! Let's go.
Caje!
Caje!
Sarge!
You all right?
What happened?
I killed him.
How?
Grenade.
He shouldn't have been here in the first place.
Come on, Caje.
Sergeant?
I killed a Frenchman.
Look, Caje, things like this happen.
Whenever you're ready, I'll be outside.
Hey, Kirby?
That Kraut that was gonna knock off the Sarge,
You plug him?
With all due modesty, I gotta admit it was me.
How come he didn't want to know who saved him?
Sarge didn't want to feel beholden.
Yeah, that's right.
The one of us any more than the others.
I figure he'll save your skin a couple times before this is through, Kirby.
It ain't my skin I'm worried about, Billy.
It's my stomach.
Hey, Caje.
What do you know about the foods that are
native to this area of dear old France?
I'm not hungry.
Well, we are.
Look, since we're guests in this country, you see
and they're your kind of people,
being French, I mean.
See, maybe when the villagers come by, you could talk them into giving us a pig or something.
We could throw a little BBQ, you know?
I said I'm not hungry!
Well, what's with him, anyway?
He killed one of the villagers by mistake.
Our artillery must have killed a few by mistake too.
Yeah well, like you said Kirby, his kind of people.
Well, don't you forget. A lot of our kind of people have been getting it too, you know.
Yeah, but we didn't do it.
And we didn't see their face a split second after a grenade went off.
Caje.
Let's go.
But Sarge.
They knew it was me.
I told them what happened. I asked them to bury him.
Listen to me, Caje, he shouldn't have been in the village in the first place.
They realize it was an accident. They understand.
Understand?
Well,
let's hope that's an end to it.
Hey, what's with Caje?
You speak a little French, don't you?
Two years in high school.
That's good enough.
You come with me.
[speaking French]
Monsieur.
Savez-vous se il avait de la famille?
Caje is pumping them.
The guy won't say much.
Except where the guy lived.
On the barge, in the river.
It was an accident.
Understand?
Un accident.
Whatever's tearing at Caje,
wasn't buried with that body.
Hey, you see anything of Caje yet?
Nope.
Sarge, Caje pulls outpost in an hour. I'll take it for him.
Why?
Well, he's all shook up. I just thought that...
You just thought what?
Caje is such a sensitive soul, the war just became too much for him?
Well, I can't see anything wrong with helping a buddy over a rough spot.
Well, this rough spot is going to have to help himself over.
I don't get him sometimes.
He just doesn't want to lose Caje, that's all.
Caje is shook. Why can't we give him a little extra consideration?
Exactly how much consideration?
What do you mean "exactly how much"?
Well, I mean how can Saunders help any one of us?
You know, if we don't meet him half way,
how can he do his job? Keep us alive?
I don't know.
Battalion's sending out reinforcements.
We'll be moving out sometime tomorrow.
Right.
Where's Caje, on outpost?
He doesn't come on until later. He just took a little walk.
- He's all right, isn't he?
- Oh, yes. He's fine.
Hey!
[calling in French]
[music playing]
You alone?
Well, well, well. Hey...
Wanna share it?
Hey, Caje. Did I ever tell you the story about the
kid who kept hitting himself on the head with a hammer?
Well, they said to this kid, they said 'What are you doing that for?"
and he said,
Because it feels so good when I stop.
That's a very funny story, Sergeant.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's funny.
So why don't you put down the hammer?
Look Caje, every once in a while a guy runs into something and he figures this is it.
A very special kind of a hell arranged just for him.
All I'm trying to do is tell you I've had these things happen to me too.
I've seen
I've seen buddies follow my orders
and end up dead for it.
I know.
You don't know.
But maybe now
you're kind of getting the idea.
You can't personally carry the responsibility. You can't.
All right.
You've got a fire in your gut?
Tell you what you do.
You wash it out.
Come on, Caje, wash it out.
You're not made of iron. I'm not made of iron.
It'd be a lot easier if we were.
Come on.
[clattering]
Easy. Easy.
She's scared.
[speaking French]
Oui.
She lives here.
Yeah, her name is Micheline.
How do you know that?
The boy and man who buried her father
he told us about it after you left.
The boy never mentioned his family to me.
He didn't feel he had to. He didn't see her or the mother around.
He figured there was no point.
She's afraid of me.
She must know.
Come on, Caje, knock it off. She doesn't know anything.
Bosch!
She even thinks we're Germans.
No.
American. Americans.
Comprendre?
American?
Caje.
What's she saying?
She wants to know if I've seen her father.
Krauts came here.
Shot her mother.
Her father hid in the forest.
Came to us for medical help.
She thinks her mother is asleep.
Can't wake her up.
Caje.
I think you better tell her.
Tell her what?
That her father came to me for help and I killed him?
No. Tell her only what she has to know.
And that's all.
Micheline?
Your papa
Vier mama
Sont mort.
No!
No!
- Oui!
- No!
- No!
Sont mort!
Ma mère endormi!
No.
Pourquoi mon père mort?
I don't...
I don't know why your father is dead.
[sobbing loudly]
Hey Caje?
We cooked some chickens up last night.
We thought maybe
Well, I mean we've got some left if you'd care to...
She's already eaten.
Well, maybe she'd like some chocolate or something.
No, thanks.
Caje? I think we're pulling out this afternoon.
She sure is a pretty little girl.
Yeah.
The way she hangs onto him.
Caje, Sarge is looking for you. I think we're gonna move out.
I know it.
Caje?
I've been talking to Monsieur Marceau about Micheline.
He's agreed to take her.
The townspeople will be back in a couple of days.
He'll make arrangements for her disposition.
Disposition? What do you mean?
Well, you've heard the word before, Caje.
We'll probably be moving out this afternoon.
Will you, [stammering]
[speaking French]
What did he say?
He wants to know how much money you're going to pay him to take her off your hands!
We're not going to pay him anything!
We're just giving him a little cash, expense money to
take care of her until the proper authorities take over.
Caje?
Caje! Where are you going?
Let me handle it.
Well, you've been handling it, Sergeant.
I know but maybe in the wrong way.
Well, you better find the right way! In case you've forgotten, we're on standby.
Those Krauts throw down on us? We're going to need every man we've got.
We'll have him.
Not if he doesn't snap to. Did he stand outpost duty last night?
- No, sir. He didn't.
- Why not?
- Why not?
I put Little John in his place.
You gonna find somebody to hold his rifle too?
He'll hold his own rifle!
Well, you better see that he does!
And also that he remember where, how and when to use it!
And the next time he turns his back on me, he's going to face insubordination charges!
All right. Just...
Have the men ready to move out in five minutes.
[speaking French]
Caje!
Caje!
[frog croaking]
[frog croaking]
[Caje imitates frog]
Caje!
Caje, we're leaving right now!
The Krauts are building up ahead.
Marceau is going to take Micheline.
You better say goodbye to her.
Are you sure you paid him enough?
Caje, I've had it! I'm talked out. You say goodbye to her and let's go.
She needs me, Sergeant.
That's nobody's fault but your own.
All right, take her and get out of here.
[yelling in French]
Look, I told you. I warned you not to get yourself involved.
Yeah.
Take the easy way out?
No, Caje! The hard way.
You're tore up but you couldn't handle it on your own so you had to drag her into it
to help carry the load.
and now it's time to walk away and there's nobody to lean on!
Let's see if you really got the guts.
All right, take her out of here.
[screaming] No! No! No!
Hey, Caje.
Come on, Caje, get with it.
The men are ready, Lieutenant.
There's been a switch in plans, Sergeant.
Company wants us to dig in here and wait for reinforcements.
- Why the switch?
- Krauts.
- Krauts.
There's a lot of them up ahead and they're coming this way.
Company figures we'd stand a better chance if we dig in here.
We? You mean one platoon?
One squad. Here in town.
The rest of the platoon will be out on the flank.
All right. Get on so the next squad can dig in.
We haven't got much time so let's move.
All right, you heard the man. Let's go.
You too, Caje.
Sarge.
Please let me go back and get the girl.
What girl?
What girl? You know what I mean.
I don't know any girl, Caje.
You and the men in this squad. These are the only people I know.
Krauts may go back to the barge. I've got to get her.
Caje, will you listen to me?
As long as we're together, you might get through this.
But when it's over,
this squad, the patrol, all of it. It's going to disappear.
Everyone's going to go his own way.
What happened to you here will be forgotten.
Forgotten?
Sarge, if anything happened to that girl.
If anything happens to that girl, you won't know about it!
You'll see what we see, do what we do, no more and no less!
Now you keep taking this personally and you're going to destroy yourself!
Looks like we got some help!
[indistinct]
[screaming]
On our flank!
They flanked us, Lieutenant!
Caje, wait!
[screaming]
Caje, use your head!
But Sarge! Those people! I can't! They'll cut them to pieces!
Well, think of the Krauts first!
Is anything sinking? Isn't anything sinking?
We win, we lose. We live or die fighting the enemy!
The enemy! Enemy! Nobody else! Nobody else!
All right.
Krauts first.
I'm going behind them.
No.
We're going behind them.
All right.
We got reinforcements!
Let's go!
Bonjour, Micheline.
Bonjour, Caje.
Hey, au revoir.
Let's move out!
Goodbye, monsieur.
She asked me to say goodbye to you, Sarge.
You ready to leave this place, Caje?
She asked me how her father died.
I told her the war killed him.
She let it go at that.
Well, how about you, Caje?
You gonna let it go at that?
You know if you went to the barge for her, she may have died because you weren't here.
But I was here.
I'm ready to leave.