It should go without saying that Combat is firmly a World War 2 show, but as this episode shows, some veterans of war can be shellshocked to such a degree that they think they're in a different conflict entirely. Being another Combat episode that features a talented guest star, you would think that Doughboy would be better than your average installment, but it does have some negative aspects which I'll talk about later. The episode starts with Saunders and the others creeping through a wooded area in order to reach a large German artillery gun positioned on railroad tracks. They start getting shot at by some unknown assailant. Everyone takes cover until Saunders manages to get close enough and the enemy is revealed: a deranged American soldier named Phil (Eddie Albert) dressed in a First World War uniform. Despite ww1 ending about a quarter century earlier, Phil is convinced that Saunders is a german spy and takes him prisoner. He orders him to walk through the woods until they eventually reach a farmhouse, where Phil's wife Marie (Alida Valli) is. Phil is still convinced Saunders is an enemy and tells his wife to keep an eye on him, so he hands her his vintage Springfield rifle. As soon as he leaves the room, she puts the gun down and starts talking with Saunders. She says how Phil was in world war 1 and never really recovered mentally. He had many of his friends die around him, and Marie (whom he met in those days) is still taking care of him. Shortly after Phil returns, germans start surrounding the farm and riddle the windows and walls with rifle and machine gun fire. Saunders and Phil manage to win the gunfight, and the latter is now less wary of his new ally. Phil says that he knows where the location of the large german artillery cannon is, but decides the best course of action is trying to blow it up by himself after shooting his way into the area. Saunders stops him, knowing he'll get killed. Phil, Saunders and Marie decide to find out if Phil is telling the truth or he's just spouting ww1 era delusions, so they start heading to the hill where Phil says the gun is. After sneaking past a ridiculously long convoy, they are spotted by germans and Phil is shot in the back with a Luger. Saunders decides to evacuate Phil immediately, so he reports the position of the artillery gun to friendly aircraft which blow it to pieces. Phil is brought back to US lines, and in a sadly ironic statement, he asks Saunders if the war he's in right now (ww1, mentally) will stop all future wars from happening. Saunders lies and says yes. After seeing this episode, I was surprised to see others rating it so highly. It's good, but there are several I've seen so far that are better. Eddie Albert plays the PTSD stricken ww1 vet well, but his character kind of annoyed me because he's never willing to give Saunders a chance. Even when Saunders says he has tags proving he's american, Phil disregards them and says they're probably stolen. It's also worth pointing out that the huge railway gun (shown in actual ww2 footage in the episode) fires abnormally fast for something that big. Actual railway artillery could only fire about once every 20 minutes, due to the huge weight and size of their projectiles. I still think Doughboy is a special episode of this show because there are probably no other ones in the series that have such a focus on "the war to end all wars", as Phil seems to think of it. Unfortunately, it turned out to just be the first part of a European catastrophe that would flare up again in just 2 decades. It's also worth noting that the Springfield M1903 that Albert carries is authentic and actually saw ww1 service.
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