User Reviews

This episode has some complex nuances that are entirely lacking in modern television, and is one of the top 10 in the series. Any episode featuring Littlejohn (Dick Peabody) is a good one in my book, but this one pulls at you. Vic Morrow's directing may have a lot to do with that, but so does the script and the acting.

The children are an orphaned family. They are pathetic, reduced to robbing from dead soldiers and trying to sell wounded ones. Henri is the hard-core leader, and the youngest, Marcel, wants to be like Henri. John just goes along. Christina (Vicki Malkin), though, is a standout. She is the glue that holds them together, and their conscience. Her acting is amazing.

Christina, while following Henri's order to watch Littlejohn, tries to give him water and food and bandage his wound. Marcel rats her out to Henri when Henri returns.

When Henri tries to sell Littlejohn to the Germans, claiming he is an officer, the Germans find that he has robbed dead Germans and force him to take him to the American officer. Henri arranges to have two of them step on the mined porch, killing them. When the German Sergeant (Paul Busch) comes out of the building carrying Marcel, Christina regretfully shoots him.

The ending is the most poignant scene, with Marcel robbing the body of the German who was just shot carrying him, while Christina insists on returning Littlejohn to the American lines and getting to an orphanage. Henri refuses to believe there is such a thing and does not join them, remaining to pick over the dead Germans.

If this episode was a physical object I'd stab it in the knees. It's not very often where I arrive at an installment of Combat that I outright hate, but there's so many problems with this one I don't even know where to begin, and it pains me to see Vic Morrow was behind it. Gulliver starts with Saunders and Little John riding in a GMC. Saunders tells Little John he should have the rest of the day to himself and sends him to walk alone back to American lines. He hitches a ride in a jeep with another soldier and then gets attacked by a Messerschmitt (which is actually a repainted American P-51). The driver is killed and the plane strafes Little John as he tries to run, hitting the right side of his abdomen. Little John manages to make it to a forest but becomes too weak to move due to his injury and collapses. He is eventually discovered by a band of very young children not much older than 9. He is put on a cart, tied down, and taken to a houseboat. One of the kids, Henri, orders Little John inside. As Little John tries to walk away, Henri reveals that he (somehow) has a handgun. Little John is taken inside and has his hands tied behind his back. Henri and his friend John tell two young girls, Christina and Marcel, that they're going to american lines in order to see if they'll have any success ransoming Little John. If the americans aren't willing to pay to get him back, they'll sell him to the Nazis. Henri and John reach american lines, but because they're just kids, they're told to get lost. When German artillery starts attacking, they call the americans stupid and run off. Meanwhile, Little John begs for water inside the houseboat but Marcel taunts him by keeping it just out of his reach and then pouring it on her doll. Christina disapproves of this and gives Little John water. She seems to be the only one sympathetic to him. After Henri and John get back, the kids eat dinner, and Little John tells them they don't have to live like animals trying to scavenge things from dead combatants. Henri announces his new plan to give Little John to the germans. When the latter scoffs at the idea, Henri tells him they'll tell the germans Little John lied about being an officer when he's really a lowly private. Henri and John set out to find the germans and come across a camp they set up. A german lieutenant in charge is told by the boys they have located an american officer and want money for him. The lieutenant seems enthusiastic at first, but when he discovers Henri has a stolen ring with a swastika on it, he smacks him in the face. The lieutenant tells his sergeant and two other men to go to the houseboat and retrieve Little John. After they arrive, Little John tries to leave, but is held at gunpoint by Christina. As the germans see Little John is not going to come out, two of them decide to go in, but set off a mine and get killed. The last german goes inside and gets Little John, but as he's leading him away, he's shot in the back by Christina. Little John is saved, but Henri still doesn't trust him. Christina and the others put him back on the cart and wheel him away while Henri aloofly kneels by the road. It was a struggle to sit through this. Children in tv shows about war are rarely a good idea, and these ones have no idea what they're trying to do or how to tell a convincing story. That's not to say Combat can't get competent child actors when it needed to (Andrea Darvi for example) but the difference is that she didn't single-handedly carry the episode. These ones do. Little John is given absolutely nothing to work with. The entire episode from beginning to end is him standing (or rather slumping) around wounded. We don't even know if he gets back to Saunders safely by the end of it. Ironically, Dick Peabody actually injured himself for real during the scene in which he gets chased by the plane (which bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous Hollywood movie) and had to be in crutches for months. It's like this episode is nothing but bad luck. I don't know what Morrow was thinking.