I love to show people this episode as an introduction to my favorite TV series. It's really approachable and relatable, and shows off most of the main characters really well. If I don't have time to show them "
In fact, I used this episode to re-introduce my teens to this show recently. I'd shown them a few eps over the years, but they never really got into the show. I have patiently waited for them to be ready to love it, and I think we are getting there! After watching this ep, they asked to see more, so we have watched a couple more eps since, and I'm slowly pulling them deeper and deeper into the fandom, bwahahahahahahahahaha!
Okay, enough maniacal laughter.
Mouthy, rowdy tough guy Kirby... almost shot a baby. And when I say he is shook, I mean he is shook.
Which, when you see how cute this baby is, is pretty understandable. Look at that sweet face! The baby is played by The Monroe Twins, who have no other screen credits, but clearly were very photogenic!
This episode is directed by Bernard McEveety, who directed a total of 31 Combat! episodes. He's a lovely director for an ensemble show like this because he knows how to give the characters all their own moments to shine and their own closeups, and also how to show them interacting in groups. In this particular episode, we have a lot of shots that are composed to show Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) a bit distanced from his squad. He can't be their pal; he has to be their leader. I'll showcase a few more of those throughout this review. It's subtle filmmaking, and so effective.
The Squad is currently behind enemy lines. Saunders learns, via the handytalky, that the American lines are going to be advancing, and the area where they're skulking about is going to get shelled at a specific time. His orders are to get his squad back to the Allied side of the river before that shelling starts, lest they get hit by their own artillery.
Isn't this a lovely shot of four regular characters? Caje (Pierre Jalbert), Billy Nelson (Tom Lowell), Littlejohn (Dick Peabody), and Kirby all assume that they'll be taking this baby along with them as they retreat.
Series semi-regular Brockmeyer (Fletcher Fist) thinks so too, but he's much less shocked about what happens next. Random ENG (Expendable New Guy) Stroback (Don Edmonds) hasn't been around long enough to have a real opinion one way or another, I don't think.
Doc (Steven Rogers) is so sure, he's got the baby all bundled up and ready to go. But Saunders shocks them all.
The baby stays in the barn.
This is not because Saunders hates babies. This is not because Saunders thinks a baby's life is not worth saving. It's exactly the opposite: Saunders knows how dangerous it is going to be to get his men back through enemy territory and across that river before the shelling starts. He doesn't want to put the baby in that kind of danger. He tells the men the baby will be safer in the barn, and they'll do their best to find a civilian and tell it about the baby before they get back across the river.
And here's another amazing shot chock-full of people, with Saunders just a bit removed from the squad. The men let him know just how unhappy they are that he's abandoned that baby, and he bears the brunt of their criticism for a long time. That's part of his job. He has to make decisions, and it doesn't matter if they are popular or not -- they just need to be correct.
But Saunders has a soft heart. We know from other episodes that he has multiple younger siblings. He had a sweet little moment with the baby where he handed it back its rattle and touched its head in what feels almost like a blessing. Everything in him did NOT want to leave that baby alone.
And, eventually, he relents. They haven't found any civilians, and they haven't run into any Krauts, so maybe it's safe for a couple guys to run back and get the baby and take it with them. He finds a convent on his map and says they should be able to get the baby to the convent and still get back to their own lines before the artillery barrage.
Next thing you know, you've got eight men doing everything in their power to take care of that baby. If you're getting 3 Godfathers (1948) vibes, you're not alone.
Every single one of these guys is willing to risk his own life to see to it that this baby is safe. It's so heroic and manly and wholesome that I could swoon.
Saunders still stays apart from the group. The other guys take every opportunity to coo over the baby, tickle it, sing it a song, and generally overload it with love.
The composition of this shot is sooooo good, isn't it? The arms pointing to the baby in the center, the protective circle around it of all those heads and helmets. It's like a Renaissance painting.
Various adventures befall The Squad. They get delayed. They have to discard plans and make new ones. The baby almost dies. And then, a soldier does something stupid and dies, and look at that sorrow in Saunders's eyes. If the soldier had listened to him, had obeyed orders, he would have stayed safe and alive, but he didn't.
Another grouping, as the guys process the loss of a buddy, and Saunders is not quite part of them. Leadership is a lonely job.
We do finally make it to that river. Crossing it is tricky and perilous.
So tricky and perilous that Brockmeyer must remove his jacket AND shirt so that we can all fully appreciate his physique. He's so kind and thoughtful.
I'm going to SPOIL the ending of the episode, so if you care about that at all, jump down to the blogathon banner, okay? I'll keep details kind of vague, but you will learn who survives to the end...
Caje executes a dangerous and cunning plan to get the baby across the river without drowning it. And looks so nice in his borrowed disguise!
Saunders and the remains of the squad wait anxiously for Caje. Brockmeyer takes his own sweet time getting dressed again. Not like we're in a hurry to escape a barrage or anything here.
Annnnnnd we don't escape the barrage. We get stuck in it just a weency bit. The baby once again falls into Terrible Peril, and this time, it's Saunders who leaps to the rescue. He's spent the entire episode refusing to touch the baby after they decided to bring it along. He's given numerous lectures on how much danger they're putting the baby in, and how much danger the baby is putting them all in. The men in his squad have kind of convinced themselves he doesn't like this baby at all.
And then they see just how wrong they were. Because not one of them jumped to the rescue and covered that baby with his own body to protect it from debris and possible shrapnel. Only Saunders did.
Which is why, when they finally do reach a convent where they can leave the baby in safety, they insist Saunders do the final bit of delivery.
And man, is Vic Morrow just completely adorable with that baby in his arms! He had two daughters of his own by the time this was filmed, one of them still basically a baby herself, and you can tell he's very comfortable holding babies, unlike a few of the other guys in the squad. I think that works well for his character -- the episode "Just for the Record" establishes that he has a teenage sister, so we can assume he was old enough to carry her around when she was born. It's assumed that his father is dead, and that he has stepped into a fatherly role for his younger siblings ("Mail Call," also directed by McEveety, shows that pretty clearly), and you absolutely see that fatherly side come out in this last scene.
And it changes your perception of how Saunders has behaved throughout the entire episode. He didn't think that baby wasn't worth protecting. He didn't think it was a nuisance. Time and again, he made the best decisions he knew how in order to keep it safe AND keep his men safe. Just as a good sergeant should.
And we all have to say goodbye to the cute, cute baby and go back to the regular war, all a little wiser than we'd been before. Yes, even including Saunders.
(I was already planning to use the above button, but losing Nicholas Brendon this past week would have made me switch to it if I hadn't planned to use it.)
