April 17, 2000 "DEVIL DOGS:
By Josh Becker
STOCK SHOTS: Black and white stock newsreel shots of World War One: the trenches; Germans in spiked helmets; British soldiers wearing puttees and saucer-shaped steel helmets; French soldiers in their unique, football-style helmets; old military vehicles; wagons pulled by horses; nurses in floor-length dresses and bonnets. A VOICE OVER NARRATOR speaks: V.O.
NARRATOR STOCK SHOTS: The Russian Revolution; a group shot of Czar Nicholas 2nd, Alexandra, and the rest of the family (with the sound of a firing squad's rifle reports); Trotsky; hammers and sickles; trains painted with revolutionary murals; statues of the Czar crashing down, etc. V.O.
NARRATOR STOCK SHOTS: American flags fly; parades of American soldiers marching down streets; troops ships sailing; soldiers at the ship's rails. V.O.
NARRATOR DISSOLVE: EXT. AMERICAN COMPOUND/ CHAUMONT, FRANCE - DAY An American flag snaps in the breeze over row upon row of temporary-looking, wooden barracks with black, tar-paper roofs, reposing on green grassy hills. A TITLE READS: "CHAUMONT, FRANCE" EXT. TRAINING GROUND - DAY American troops are put through short-order drills by loud-mouth drill sergeants. Marines stick straw-filled dummies with bayonets, crawl through the mud, climb wooden walls with full packs, practice throwing hand grenades, etc. DISSOLVE: INT. BARRACKS - NIGHT The barracks is filled with sleeping Marines on cots lined up along both sides of the room. We move along the lines of sleeping Marines until we come around a wall into the Sergeant's quarters, where we find GUNNERY SGT. DAN DALY, a 44-year old, thick-necked Marine from Brooklyn, New York, lying on his cot, seemingly asleep. There are piles of hardcover books stacked all around. Sgt. Daly turns from lying on his back to his right side, then suddenly flips over to his left side, then returns to his back -- he's clearly having difficulty getting to sleep. He returns to his side and slowly his breathing evens out, the lines and creases in his face ease up and he begins to fall asleep. Just as he seems to be asleep, Daly bolts awake startled.
Daly shakes his head, rubs his weary eyes and sits up. He lights a cigarette and a candle, takes a book from one of the piles, puts on reading glasses, sighs deeply and begins to read. DISSOLVE: STOCK SHOTS: Germans soldiers in their undershirts yank the cords which fire huge artillery pieces, while other soldiers load in more and more big shells. V.O.
NARRATOR EXT. FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE - DUSK It's a lovely early summer sunset casting warm rays over the rolling French countryside. A paved road runs into the distance. The road is jammed with REFUGEES: country folk fleeing their homes, pushing carts, carrying bundles, screaming babies. Included among the refugees are ragged, weary, beaten FRENCH SOLDIERS: some still have helmets, some still have weapons, most are drunk, holding wine bottles. A DRUNK FRENCH SOLDIER staggers past a WOMAN WITH A BABY. WOMAN
WITH BABY A SUBTITLE READS: "Coward!" The drunk soldier flicks the bottom of his bearded chin with his fingers. In the distance gunshots can be heard. Everyone turns around, noting the sound, then quickens their pace. An automobile stalls, blocking the road. Horse drawn carts and the long line of people all come to a halt. The DRIVER of the car looks at his WIFE and little DAUGHTER beside him, then gets out and cranks the starter. It won't catch. The mob surrounding the car grabs hold of the vehicle and begins to rock it. The wife and daughter are thrown around until the driver gets them out of the car just as it is flipped off the road. The mass of refugees and defeated soldiers swarm past like ants. A German bi-plane buzzes over from the east. It begins firing it's machine guns and dropping bombs. The refugees dash to either side of the road, throwing themselves to the ground. A moment later come trucks filled with German soldiers, followed by a seemingly endless double line of marching soldiers. The refugees and the French soldiers all flee at top speed: wagons turn over, bundles are dropped, people fall down. V.O.
NARRATOR STOCK SHOTS: Marching German troops, horse-drawn wagons pulling machine guns and cannons, lines of trucks. V.O.
NARRATOR DISSOLVE: INT. BARRACKS - EVENING A TITLE READS: "6th MARINES, COMPANY 'C' - MAY 29th, 1918." This is the same barracks and the same group of Marines we saw asleep. CPL. MEYERS, a big, good-looking kid of twenty-three from Detroit; PFC. ARGAUT, tall, dark-haired, wiry young man of twenty from Louisiana, as well as PVT. FRENCH, a big, muscular, thirty year old Texan, and PVT. BONNER, a short, goofy-looking, nineteen year old kid are all seated at a table in their undershirts ready to play some cards. Many guys of the 6th are getting cleaned up, preparing to go into town. Pvt. French fancily shuffles the cards. FRENCH They ante up. MEYERS
Meyers takes out a black & white photograph of his pretty, dark-haired sister and hands it to Bonner. MEYERS BONNER MEYERS FRENCH MEYERS PVT. PROVET ZACHIO, a slick, handsome, dark-haired, devilish kid of nineteen. ZACHIO MEYERS ZACHIO MEYERS Everyone turns and looks at PVT. FRANK HEBEL who is the downbeat, secretive guy nobody can figure out. He is twenty-one. Hebel looks up suspiciously. HEBEL Everybody chuckles. ARGAUT MEYERS PVT. SAMUEL MATTHEWS, is movie-star handsome. He's twenty-five. MATTHEWS MEYERS All the dressed-up Marines leave the barracks in a group. FRENCH MEYERS FRENCH Argaut, and Bonner all look at each other, then turn their cards over. ARGAUT
They all sit and look at each other for a long second, then they all shrug. MEYERS ARGAUT
& BONNER French is taken aback. FRENCH MEYERS ARGAUT MEYERS Argaut points his thumb at the wall and raises his shoulders. ARGAUT MEYERS ARGAUT MEYERS Meyers obviously knows all of this. He scratches his chin and looks at the wall. INT. DALY'S QUARTERS - EVENING Smoke hangs in the air. Daly sits on his cot in his skivvies in a pool of smoky light reading a book ("The Interpretation of Dreams" by Sigmund Freud), wearing half-glasses and smoking a cigar. There is a knock on his door. DALY Cpl. Meyers enters the dark, smoky room cautiously. MEYERS DALY MEYERS DALY MEYERS Daly picks up the book and waves it around. DALY MEYERS
MEYERS DALY MEYERS Daly scratches his chin, looks at his book, then closes it and tosses it aside. DALY MEYERS MEYERS DALY EXT. COMPOUND - NIGHT Privates Zachio, Matthews, Hughes, Arbuckle, Gastovich, Maggione, and Swenson cross the compound all cleaned up, their hair slicked back, looking dapper in their green wool uniforms and Sam Browne belts. Hebel follows a distance behind. Zachio is whistling Mademoiselle From Armentieres. PVT. CHARLES MAGGIONE, is a big, nineteen year old, Italian kid from the Bronx, asks: MAGGIONE ZACHIO PVT. ERNEST ARBUCKLE, a thin, pimply-faced, nineteen year old kid, says: ARBUCKLE He imitates Charlie Chaplin's duck-walk and cane-swinging. PVT. PETER GASTOVICH, a weasely, slit-eyed, grinning, twenty-two year old, says: GASTOVICH MATTHEWS PVT. JOHN HUGHES, the smartest guy in the platoon, with a crooked grin. He's Twenty-three. HUGHES PVT. KNUTE SWENSON, is a big, twenty year old, Swedish kid from St. Paul. SWENSON HUGHES They all chuckle, except Hebel, of course, who lags behind and stares at the ground. They arrive at the main gate. EXT. THE TOWN OF CHAUMONT - NIGHT The guys come walking into the quaint French town of Chaumont, with cobblestone streets and gaslights, singing The Man Who Broke the Bank At Monte Carlo. Hebel hangs behind, not singing. There is the sound of distant artillery explosions. MEN The distant artillery gets quite a bit louder and the guys stop singing. Oh, right, there's a war going on not far from here. EXT. CHURCH/ YMCA - NIGHT They arrive at a church with a banner reading, "YMCA - AMERICAN SERVICEMEN WELCOME" with an American flag flying. Soldiers go in and out. Some of our guys head inside, others hang behind. The laggers are: Zachio, Matthews, Hughes, and Hebel. They all look at each other, shrug, and all head off in different directions. EXT. STREET - NIGHT Hebel walks down the street a few buildings, makes sure none of the other guys are nearby, then ducks into the alley. EXT. BAKERY - NIGHT Hughes walks along an empty street, then steps up in front of a little, closed bakery. Hughes pulls the chain in front of the door ringing the bell. A moment later the old, white-haired baker, M. LAFOLLETTE answers the door holding a candle. He sees Hughes and smiles. LAFOLLETTE HUGHES The old man waves Hughes in. LAFOLLETTE Hughes smiles and enters the bakery. EXT. CHEVAL BLANC CLUB - NIGHT Zachio arrives at the Cheval Blanc Club, a rollicking nightclub for officers. American officers, many sporting canes and walking sticks (a fad of the time), enter and exit the club talking and laughing. Zachio watches the activity from across the street. He lights a Sweet Caporal cigarette and waits, smoke drifting languidly from his nose. EXT. SHADY SIDE STREET - NIGHT Matthews walks along a side street with large, stone houses and pretty, old, over-hanging trees. The rich part of town. The whole street is asleep. Matthews strolls casually along, a stick match in his teeth, his hands in his pockets. He glances up and down the street -- nobody there -- then slips quickly and quietly into the thin alley between two houses. EXT. THIN ALLEY - NIGHT Matthews leans against the wall, flicking his nose with the match. Something touches his foot and startles him. It's a cat rubbing against his ankle and purring. Matthews puts his finger to his lips, miming "Shhh" to the cat. Matthews looks up at the house he's leaning against and grins. He bends down behind a garbage pail, pets the cat, then begins unlacing his high boots. INT. CHURCH/ YMCA - NIGHT Sitting among ONE HUNDRED AMERICAN SOLDIERS are Arbuckle, Gastovich, Maggione, and Swenson. They drink hot cocoa, smoke cigarettes, eat donuts, and sing songs led by the 'Y' MAN, a jolly, middle-aged fellow at a piano. He leads them in Is It True What They Say About Dixie? while doing a cheesy Al Jolson imitation. Everybody sings happily. 'Y'
MAN & CO. EXT. BEHIND THE CHURCH/ YMCA - NIGHT Hebel steps up to the back door of the church/ YMCA. From inside he can hear everybody singing. 'Y'
MAN & CO. Hebel looks around secretively, then goes in the back door. INT. CHURCH KITCHEN - NIGHT Hebel hesitantly enters the kitchen of the YMCA, where several people are busily brewing up large pots of hot chocolate, coffee, and baking plenty of donuts. Standing at one of the large sinks washing cups is MARY McBRIAN, a plain, forty year old woman, wearing a Salvation Army uniform. She sees Hebel and smiles. MARY For the very first time we see Hebel smile. HEBEL Mary flicks soapy water at Hebel's face, hitting him.
HEBEL Mary stops washing cups and wipes her hands. Hebel pulls out a pack of Sweet Caporals and offers her a cigarette, which she takes. MARY Hebel lights a match, igniting her cigarette, then his. HEBEL MARY HEBEL MARY They smoke for a moment in silence, although there's actually a lot of sound: dishes clattering, soldiers singing, etc. Through the din and tumult, Mary McBrian and Frank Hebel steal an occasional glance at each other - God knows why, but they like each other. INT. CHURCH/ YMCA - NIGHT The 'Y' Man with the help of several soldiers sets up a crank projector while other soldiers set up the screen. Arbuckle is delighted, turning to Gastovich, Maggione, and Swenson, he says: ARBUCKLE GASTOVICH ARBUCKLE GASTOVICH SWENSON GASTOVICH Gastovich sticks his face into Swenson's face. Maggione shakes his weary head. MAGGIONE Soldiers turn down the gas jets, the 'Y' Man cranks the projector and the flickers begin. On the screen we see that is in fact a Charlie Chaplin film - The Immigrant (1917). Arbuckle is delighted. ARBUCKLE Arbuckle pushes Gastovich. GASTOVICH On the screen: The deck of an ocean liner rolls back and forth, all the immigrants aboard looking ill. We see Charlie's rear-end, with cane in hand, hanging over the ship's rail, obviously up-chucking. A MARINE hollers out: MARINE Charlie Chaplin comes up over the rail
holding a fish on a line. It's entirely unexpected and everyone
laughs, including the begrudging Gastovich. Matthews is standing in the backyard of a nice, stone house with his boots unlaced. He picks up a wooden rake, reaches up with it and shakes the limb of a thin tree which goes up past a second story window - tap, tap, tap - the limb hits the window. A moment later the window is opened by an extremely cute, dark-haired, seventeen year old girl named NATALIE. She indicates that Matthews should be even quieter upon entering the house. Matthews smiles, takes off his boots, leaves them by the backdoor and goes in the house. In a moment we see through the window Matthews enter Natalie's room. They embrace, kissing hungrily. EXT. BAKERY - NIGHT Above the bakery a light burns in the upper window. INT. APARTMENT ABOVE THE BAKERY - NIGHT M. LaFollette, the baker, smokes a pipe and stares down at a chess board. Hughes sits across from him, also smoking a pipe (somewhat awkwardly), also staring down at the board. They both have cups of tea and plates of cake. Hughes scarfs a big piece of cake now and then, always studying the board. Finally, Hughes makes a move. Mr. LaFollette slaps his head with his palm, looking distressed. Hughes grins, gobbling another piece of cake. EXT. BACKYARD/ NICE HOUSE - NIGHT Matthews' unlaced boots sit by the back door. The cat comes along, spots the boots and begins to play with the long laces. INT. CHURCH KITCHEN/ YMCA - NIGHT There are a pile of eight Sweet Caporal butts on the floor. Coffee cups are being pushed through a window and are building up, unwashed. Mary McBrian and Frank Hebel sit on a bench ignoring the world, smoking cigarettes, drinking cups of cocoa, and talking. They both look at their smoked-down cigarettes, then drop them to the floor. DISSOLVE: EXT. LE CHAT NOIR CLUB - NIGHT Le Chat Noir is the enlisted man's club and sports a sign with a black cat. American service men go in and out. Daly, Meyers, French, Bonner and Argaut step up and enter the club. INT. LE CHAT NOIR CLUB - NIGHT The club is jammed with soldiers, noise and smoke. The door swings open and in strides Daly and his Marines. Daly has his chest out, the cigar clamped in his teeth. Daly and his men march through the crowd, up to the bar and order beers. Sitting at a table off to one side is an thin, wiry Army CORPORAL and a big, burly TOP KICK (which is a Top Sgt.). The Corporal taps the Top Kick on the arm and points at Daly. CORPORAL The Top Kick furrows his brow. TOP
KICK CORPORAL The Top Kick finishes his beer. TOP
KICK The Top Kick stands up and he's huge: 6' 4", 250 pounds, a monster. Daly and his guys are happily drinking their beers when the Top Kick and the Corporal step up. The enormous Top Kick pokes Daly in the chest with his index finger. TOP
KICK DALY TOP
KICK DALY Everybody in the vicinity begins to pay attention. TOP
KICK Daly looks up at the guy. DALY
The Top Kick pokes Daly in the chest even harder. TOP
KICK DALY TOP
KICK DALY TOP
KICK DALY TOP
KICK Daly's right eye and eyebrow are visibly twitching. DALY DALY
DALY The Top Kick simply can't believe it. TOP
KICK DALY TOP
KICK DALY The Top Kick is flabbergasted. TOP
KICK DALY Everyone chuckles and takes a drink; the tension clears. TOP
KICK DALY The Top Kick gets a beer and takes a drink. TOP
KICK
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