Combat! (TV Series) The Casket (1965) User Reviews

The Angry French Woman and Her Casket

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 14 April 2019]

Saunders and Caje are bringing the seriously wounded Kirby to the Allied base to have medical assistant when they see a truck with a woman and a teenager on the road. They stop the truck to have ask for help, but the driver, an angry French woman, refuses to bring Kirby. She is transporting a casket to bury her older son that was apparently killed by American soldiers. However Saunders takes the truck from the hands of the woman and drives to their lines. Along the journey, they have serious trouble with the woman and her casket and Germans.

"The Casket" is a tense episode of "Combat!". There are three factors to increase the emotions: Kirby´s leg; the French woman and her casket; and the Germans. The episode is well-resolved in the end, with everybody arriving safe and sound in the Allied lines. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Caixão" ("The Casket")

Great Synergy in a Combat Episode !

[jmarchese · 9/10 · 18 October 2014]

"The Casket" is a story about White Rook borrowing a truck from Madame Carmaux (excellently played by Nina Foch) against her will and using it to transport a severely injured Private Kirby back to an American checkpoint. Madame Carmaux needs to bury her son, a victim of American circumstance. In the back of her truck is his casket.

Writers' Ed Waters & David Moessinger did a fine job with this most unusual story. Character development is excellent with all 5 players getting into the story. Saunders has a job to do; Madame Carmaux has a son to bury; Kirby's hanging on to life; Caje is handyman & interpreter; and Michel (played by Raymond Cavaleri) is the empathetic new man of the family, a bridge to White Rook.

Nina Foch is a real heavy and shows her outstanding acting talent portraying great emotion on screen. Jack Hogan does a great job portraying a fast fading wounded soldier. And as usual Vic Morrow is the glue making it all work.

I'm critical of the gasoline heist; it's just not believable. The Germans would've easily spotted the Sarge under the truck. I love the casket's journey throughout and it's a major credit to Screen Writers' Waters & Moessinger in bringing it to life and making it the center of the story.

The ending is a little sad; there's no smile, no empathy recognizing a happy outcome. All players made this episode a success; great synergy at work!

Tense But Really Good

[shelbythuylinh · 9/10 · 16 December 2021]

The late Nina Foch is a widower who must carry the casket of her son back with her young son when Kirby is near death and that she refuses due to her son being killed by Americans is the reason why.

Saunders has no other choice but to commandeer the truck as she sits quietly but her son speaks great English there. Really it is about getting the casket to burial and getting Kirby to the hospital there.

And that her son and she tried to take back the truck there but are stopped due to not having anymore gas and reluctantly get help from King's Company.

She still has a grudge without a thank you and you would think she would be grateful.

Nina Foch carries the show

[lor_ · 13 September 2023]

Nina Foch is utterly convincing guest starring as a tough-minded Frenchwoman (speaking only in French) whose truck is needed to help Vic get a wounded Kirby to a doctor. This represents a welcome departure from the series "he-men" content -Foch's presence is dominant.

Allied shelling has killed her son, so Foch is more than angry at the American soldiers and unwilling to cooperate with them. She's taking a casket to bury her son in via the truck and the adventure includes her having to save the casket when it rolls down a hill and floats away in a river, almost sinking to the bottom and even drowning her.

It's a suspenseful story, quite different from the pitched battles with German troops of a typical episode.