StanleyWheeler

 A couple Saturday's ago I prepared a Combat! recap. Here it is.

Combat!

Season 1 Episode 15:”Just for the Record”

The episode opens with a farm in Normandy, and a cat inside an abandoned house (I'm wondering if it’s Altman who seems to have an affinity for cats—but it's not). The muzzle of a familiar Thompson pushes through the doorway. The familiar carrier follows. Saunders voice narrates the scene. They’re searching: 8 men and 20 farms to search—in the quiet, hidden danger. Saunders wanders about the house, rolling the search dice. At last there’s something. It’s the cat giving a troubled yowl. Saunders finds a record player. He starts to listen to the recording his mom made for him. The cat meows, and Saunders agrees, “It’s a little too risky.” He’s right. The DM has rolled for wandering monsters. German soldiers burst through the door.

And the opening credits roll. Combat! Starring Vic Morrow and Rick Jason. Guest starring Micheline Presle—and the name Micheline and the location given at the opening of the episode convince me that there will be some French spoken. Written by William Bast. Directed by Lazlo Benedek.

We’ve got a couple trucks passing beneath the opening credits. It looks like Saunders is loaded in with other POWs. They’re a hundred kilometers within occupied France. The POWs—or NPCs, as I like to call them—include, among others, a wounded soldier and a French civilian.

There’s an explosion and Saunders’ truck (or large van) noses into a shell hole. They hear gunfire. When the guard inside opens the door, Saunders pushes him out. A French partisan relieves the young German soldier of his hit points. The French NPC from inside the van shows his handcuffs and tells them where to find the key on the dead soldier.

French NPC enters a small establishment which reminds me of a place in a previous episode where Hanley met a British woman at a table. In this case, it’s a French woman named Annette. She’s wearing a beret. (Notice how I avoided the whole “A French woman in a beret named Annette” phrasing that would have required an explanation about whether it was the woman or the beret named Annette). French NPC needs gas but has no ration coupons. Annette has overheard and enters the conversation. She also wants to return to Paris, and her father used to work for French NPC. The bridge is out, yet he is driving to Paris. Annette has coupons.

In his big van full of produce and POWs, French NPC drives Ms. Beret in the rain. Her coupons and her cigarettes come from a suspicious source. They come to a checkpoint. Their papers appear to pass inspection, but the guards must also check the back.

They pass, but Ms. Beret is now alerted to the fact that someone is in the back of the van. French NPC tells her there are 3 men: an American and 2 Canadians. Beret is not happy and wants no part of this smuggling of illegal aliens to Paris. She will not be a coyote.

They stop at a town about 5 kilometers from Paris. NPC leaves the van to get another man. Beret is left there alone, and a German officer arrives in a car.

In the side mirror, Beret sees the German bring French NPC with another out and place them into the car. Oops, I assumed. NPC does not go peacefully into the car. He breaks away and discovers that his sprinting speed is indeed much slower than that of the bullets from a German submachine gun. AND then they load him into the car. Beret decides to take a walk, but reconsiders. She slides open the little door between the cab and the rear of the van to let the POWs know that French NPC has been taken. Saunders convinces her to take them to the tobacco shop where NPC had intended. She didn’t want to do it, but Saunders kissed the dice for luck and rolled a moderate success on the charm attempt.

At the tobacco shop, the proprietor was expecting only one NPC, not three—and they have four men waiting already. He scores a high persuasion roll and convinces Beret, against her will and better judgment, to take two one of them with her. (We can bet who one of them it will be, no?)

Saunders and Beret walk the street and go to her rather spacious apartment. She puts him in what was the maid’s room. He appreciates what she’s doing, and she hates what she’s doing. Behind the knock at the door is a German officer whom Beret was not expecting until later. He has champagne, silk stockings, and lips to present to her. They’re all warm. They are lovers.

After the officer has gone, Beret and Saunders have dinner. She is not from Paris. He is from Cleveland. Beret plays his record from home. It’s his mother. She calls him Chip.

His sister Louise talks on the other side of the record and plays a popular song from home. The music provides an opportunity for Saunders and Beret to dance. She says this isn’t her war. Saunders tells her that it’s everybody’s war. I’m expecting the German officer to show up and discover the record on the player. And he does – show up, that is. Saunders takes away his plates and wine glass to his room, but the record is still on the player, and the player is open. I can’t stop imagining that he’s going to discover the record.

Officer tells Beret that he knows the Germans are losing, that Berlin lies to them, and his fourteen year-old brother has been taken into the army. He will soon have to evacuate Paris and leave her. He sees the record. Beret tells him she got it on her trip. It was taken from a captured American and she thought it would amuse the officer—and rolls a natural 20. He believes her. All that worry for nothing.

The next morning Beret brings Saunders breakfast, letting him know that she won’t be back until the night. Cut to night. The phone is ringing and Saunders tells it to shut up. Cowed by the sergeant’s voice of command, the ringing ceases. He hears Beret and her officer drive up below the window, and he hurries to remove any traces of his presence. While Officer goes to shave (who shaves at night?), Beret takes a call. Saunders has to leave immediately. He has to board a barge on the canal—but Saunders, who can lay a sneak on absolutely anyone it seems, fumbles the dice and fails his sneak roll. The Officer catches him before can get out of the apartment.

Officer is calling for backup. Beret tries to persuade him against that course, but she rolls snake-eyes. When Officer shoves her away, Saunders sees his chance. They struggle. The gun goes off, and officer fails the saving throw. Before his final hit points goosestep into the sunset, he admonishes Beret to go with Saunders so the Gestapo won’t take her. As Saunders and Beret leave, the Gestapo arrives.

At the canal, they meet the NPC with the wounded arm. We’re up against the final plot twist now. The complication here is three intoxicated Germans on the bridge. Neither Beret nor wounded NPC can swim. The DM has two of the soldiers depart, leaving their comrade passed out on the bridge. Wounded NPC goes to cross first, and German soldier makes his saving throw, rising up to accost NPC. They struggle. Billy Guard Gruff throws NPC over the side of the bridge before Saunders can get to him. NPC screams for help in the water while Saunders rolls a tragic failure on his dice and manages to let the intoxicated guard get him at a disadvantage. Beret offers a solution to Saunders' problem. She rolls for a sneak attack and successfully plunges Billy Guard Gruff’s own bayonet into his back. NPC has already dropped below the surface of the water for the last time—what with having an injured arm AND not being able to swim. Saunders and Beret cross the bridge. On the barge, Beret collapses in tears.

The barge drops them at the next point where they meet two British officers, Hat and No Hat, disguised as civilians. They have to divide the group with half going with each Brit. Beret goes with No Hat. Saunders goes with Hat.

Cut to Saunders with his men. They’re questioning him about his escape. He sends them off so he can write a letter to his mother and sister, thanking them for the record.

Conclusion:

I didn’t get to hear any French. I saw little of the squad other than Saunders. There wasn’t any classic combat, and only a single instance of machine gun fire—Germans spraying an unarmed civilian. I did predict the complication with the officer finding the record—but I was manipulated into worrying about it, so no points for that. I would say the struggle with the officer for the pistol, and the officer’s demise constituted the third act climax, with the struggle on the bridge ending the fourth act. The brief fifth act simply wrapped it up. Over all, it wasn’t a terrible episode. I give it three out of five bayonets.

Interestingly, as I review this now over a week later, before adding the pictures, I cannot get an image of Beret in my mind—I keep envisioning Inger Stevens, who would have been perfect in the role. Of course, you’re seeing this with the pictures I’ve added and saying, “She’s nothing like Inger Stevens.” I know.

Is life/memory like that? We replay things that happened in the texture or color with which we are familiar. The more aged the memory, the more default texture fills in the blanks. Eventually, I may think that Inger Stevens was actually in this episode when I remember it.

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