Pride of the Marines Page #8

It ain't pretty,

but neither am i.

Whose turn

is it next?

I'll take it, red.

In the evening,

by the moonlight

you can hear

those darkies singing

in the evening,

by the moonlight...

any of you birds

hear talk about goin' home for christmas?

Yeah. Wish i could

believe it.

Wonder what kind

of a christmas

they have

in california?

I hear they got no snow,

but they got variety.

One year, fog;

the next year, rain.

I heard everybody

who's fit goes home,

walking cases

get a furlough.

That's the scuttlebutt.

Speak up, red.

Or write it down.

If i did write it down,

you couldn't read it.

You blind bat.

Ha ha. I've heard

of bedroom eyes.

Red here's got

a bedroom voice.

Well, i guess

i'll be stuck here.

Me, too.

You're

a walking case, al.

Yeah, except i got

no place to go, see?

Well, i know

i'm going home.

The doc says

for good.

I telephoned my wife

last night

to give her

the glad news.

When i told her

i was comin' home,

she got

all choked up, couldn't talk.

Just busted out

cryin'.

Don't you hate it

when a dame cries?

No, with me

it's different. I'll tell you why.

When a guy gets

married, like me and my girl did,

and goes overseas,

a lot of things can

happen by the time you get back.

The way she cried

told me a lot of things.

Told me how much

she wanted me back.

Sometimes,

when a dame cries,

it makes you

feel good.

You read in the paper

about a guy's wife runnin' out on him,

and right away,

you think it's gonna happen to you.

Lee:
I figure it

this way.

Any guy's wife

that would double-cross him

while he's

in the service

will do it

in peacetime, sooner or later.

What's the first thing

you're gonna do when you get home, bill?

I think i'll spend

about 3 solid weeks

just saying hello

to my wife.

What are you gonna do

after you get tired saying hello?

I got myself a nice

little street corner

all picked out

for my business.

You lucky stiff.

Lee:
Hi, virginia.

Virginia:
Hi, lee.

Join the gofer sewing circle.

We're cookin' up a storm.

Sure it's not

private gab?

We got no secrets

from you.

Irish has been

telling us

about a business

he's going into,

after he gets

his discharge.

Yeah, on a corner.

Oh, if it's

on a corner,

it must be

a saloon or a bank.

Which is it,

irish?

You're not

even close.

Twice in his life

my old man got his name in the papers.

The first time,

in 1917.

He was the first

to enlist in milwaukee.

The second time,

in 1930.

He was the

first vet to sell unemployed apples.

Any of you guys

want a piece of my street corner?

I ain't bright,

but i'm honest.

Count me in.

"Irish and schmid,

apples and pencils. "

We oughta do all right.

Aw, come on.

Climb out of your foxholes.

What's the matter,

you guys think

nobody's learned

anything since 1930?

Think everybody's

had their eyes shut

and their brains

in cold storage?

I'll tell you guys

something funny.

I'm scared.

I wasn't half as scared

on the 'canal.

If a man came along...

anybody...

and told me

i'd have a decent job the rest of my life,

i'd get down on my knees

and wash his feet.

Well, i'm

not scared.

You talk like a guy

with dough in the bank.

You ask me what

i want out of life.

Well, i'm not

an ambitious guy... 30 bucks a week.

Enough to take

my girl out on a saturday night,

a ball game

on sunday... that's about all i ask.

Or is that too much?

You're a cinch.

Things are

different now.

The whole country

has its eyes open.

Won't be like

1930 again.

That's pretty

music,

but i don't

understand the words.

What about

the g. i. Bill of rights?

I'm going to college

on that.

They guarantee

your old job back, bill.

They guarantee

your job, do they?

I wrote my old boss

to get my job back.

What did he write me?

Quote, i'll tell you

what he wrote.

"I'm in a new business,

and your old job just ain't. "

There's nothing in

the g. i. Bill of rights to cover that.

You can't

get your job back if it doesn't exist.

That's gotta

be considered. Considered?

Now i'll come out

and say what i'm thinking.

How about them considering

the silver plate in my head?

How long did we get

to consider

when they said,

"hit the beach," at guadalcanal?

They said, "go,"

and we went.

Well, that's ok.

Well, i want

some considerin' now.

I got a wife.

I want to support her.

The doc says i can

never do heavy work again, ever.

Well, i wanna work.

My boss says,

"no job, nothing to come back to. "

How do i know

anybody'll ever want me?

Yeah. Yeah, when i get

back to el centro,

i'll probably find

some mexican's got my job.

Quiet.

I'm sorry, juan,

you're a mexican, but you're different,

y-you're one of the guys

in "b" company.

Nah. I'm not

different, joe.

I'm just a mexican,

like a lot of other

mexicans who fought.

You dumb coot.

He's got more foxhole time

than you've got

in the marine corps.

Can i put in

my two cents?

You guys are all jumpy.

Nobody can blame you.

You're shut off here,

and sometimes it must seem

as if nobody cares.

Who does?

Well, people care,

all the people.

Civilians aren't

strange animals.

They're your own fathers

and mothers and wives,

your sweethearts,

your friends,

and believe me,

if they can help it,

you're not going

to be let down.

Aw, that's

a dame's...

i mean, a female's

point of view.

So the g. i. Bill

sends some guys back to school.

Gets some

other guys jobs.

Gets a guy started

on a farm.

So maybe we'll even have

prosperity for two years after the war

while we catch up

on things...

like making diaper pins

and autos,

things the poor civilians

did without.

But what happens

after two years? Answer me that.

A bonus march.

No, sir.

You guys think because you did

the front-line fighting

you can take a free ride

on the country

for the rest

of your lives... no, sir.

Look, there's no free candy

for anybody in this world.

I know what i fought for...

i fought for me.

For the right

to live in the u. s. a.

And when i get back

into civilian life,

if i don't like

the way things are going,

ok, it's my country.

I'll stand on my own two legs,

and i'll holler.

And if there's

enough of us hollering, we'll go places, check?

Check.

Listen to these

two characters

checking each other off

like a couple of bookkeepers.

So what? We agree.

Only you ain't got

the books to check, that's what.

You ain't gonna

write the piece.

You ain't gonna

run the country.

You're just a couple

of ex-heroes sittin' around in a hospital.

I'm going to be

a lawyer.

Who says, in 10 years

from now, i won't be a congressman?

I'm going into politics

with both feet.

And if i have anything

to say about it,

my kid isn't gonna

land on any beachhead.

And if any old windbag

tries to sell me the idea of shipping oil to japan

or doing business

with any new hitler, he'd better start ducking.

Ok, junior.

I'll check that.

And i'll put

a little handwritin' on the wall for you, too.

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