Red Ball Express Page #2

- All kinds of weather:

rain, snow, desert. - Yeah?

Yeah. Let me tell you

about the time I was on the Mojave Desert run.

It was 120 in the shade,

and I was loaded with popcorn.

All of a sudden, this stuff

started to pop.

Boom, boom, boom.

Would you believe it?

By the time I got to Phoenix,

all I had to do

was add the butter and the salt.

Yeah.

Very entertaining.

Oh, that was nothin'.

Once I was drivin' in the Rockies, see...

Rockies?

- Yeah.

- I pushed a few rigs over those hills myself.

Oh? Pretty cold,

wasn't it?

Hey, what are you

workin' on there, a formula for a secret weapon?

This? This, my friend,

is my future fortune.

The first real novel

that's gonna come out of this war.

Well, what are you gonna call it?

How do I know?

Haven't finished it yet.

What, what, what, why, why, why.

Look, Shakespeare, you write

anything about this outfit, leave me out of it, will ya?

I'm beginnin' to feel like

an end man in a minstrel show.

Then why don't you

tell a joke?

Aw, come on.

He was only kiddin'.

Unit, halt!

Left face.

Rest.

All right, you men,

the army's got a bug in its ear.

That's new?

Don't it always?

Hurry, hurry, hurry,

and then you never go anywhere.

Well, this time the army's gonna

make it up to ya. This time you're really goin' someplace.

Hey, Sarge, don't we have

at least a general or somethin' in charge of us?

There'll be an officer

here in a minute, wise guy.

When he gets here, I want you

to show him you're in the army.

That means you act

like soldiers, not clerks, messengers or ward boys,

even though that's what you were a few hours ago.

Detail. Ten-hut!

How are you, Red?

All right, Sergeant,

take your post.

At ease, men.

My name's Campbell.

I know you're wondering

what this is all about.

The army is setting up

the biggest trucking detail in history.

They're gonna call it

the Red Ball Express.

That's an old railroad term

meaning high priority freight.

We're gonna be part of it.

Our orders are to load up,

catch General Patton, unload...

and then drive right back

and do it all over again.

Load, roll 'em,

unload, roll 'em, until we're dizzy.

There isn't anything

I can add to that.

These are our vehicles

right behind us.

Two men to a truck.

Mount up and follow me

when we move out.

Sergeant Kallek?

Dismiss the company,

Sergeant.

Company, dismissed!

Fall out.

Sergeant Kallek.

Yes, sir.

Put Corporal Green

and anybody else you want in the jeep.

I'll drive

the lead truck.

I thought you lost

your taste for trucks.

You know how the army is. They

sneaked a look at my Form 20 and found out I was a trucker.

They find out

from your Form 20 what kind of a trucker you were?

Okay, Red, if that's

the way you want it.

I'll only mention this once.

We have a job ahead of us...

that has nothing to do with

you or me, so don't let your personal feelings...

get in the way

of those stripes.

Good morning.

Mind if I ride with a professional?

Say, not at all.

I'm one of the Smiths. Call me Taffy; everybody does.

Taffy it is.

My name's Partridge. This is livin', isn't it?

Excitement, drama,

drivin' the open road.

See France

the easy way.

Well, if you go for

this kind of ease, give me just lying around back home.

What'd you do in

civilian life, Taffy?

Bop!

That's what I did.

Sat up on those high traps

with Eddie Mulaney's band, just keepin' the beat.

I've heard Mulaney play

many times. Out of St. Louis, wasn't it?

Out of St. Louis,

out of Chicago, out of New Orleans.

We been kicked out

of lots of places.

Well, as they say in that

other service, I'm glad to have you aboard.

I'm gratified to be ridin'

with a man with your drivin' background.

But after the Rockies,

this'll probably seem like a soapbox derby.

Yeah.

Uh, say, uh, I wouldn't

like this to get around,

but how do you start

one of these things?

Oh!

Now what?

Step on the starter!

Where is it?

Sir, the sergeant said

I was to ride in this truck.

Well, hop in.

Move over, Mack. I'm drivin'.

Oh, sure, Sarge, sure.

My name's Heyman.

I'm Red Kallek.

What do you think

of this outfit, Sergeant?

With an officer like Campbell

in charge, not much.

- You got somethin' against him?

- Yeah, I got somethin' against him. He killed my brother.

I guess we should

get to know each other a little better.

My name's Andrew Robertson.

My friends call me Robbie.

Nice to know you,

Robertson.

I come from Detroit.

Worked on the sports desk of a Negro newspaper there.

I guess that's because

I picked up a medal once in a Golden Gloves.

- Where you from, Lieutenant?

- Hmm? Uh, Colorado.

You work for a trucking company there?

Yeah.

That's a coincidence.

Sergeant Kallek's a trucker from Colorado. D'you know that?

I guess you two

knew each other before the service.

Look, Corporal,

I appreciate your interest.

If ever I want to go

to confession, you'll be the first one I call on.

Sure, Lieutenant.

I get it.

Grab your mess gear!

All right, we'll take

a half-hour for chow while they're loadin' the trucks.

Make it snappy, huh?

Whaddya know,

stew.

Stew, stew.

This is new?

Hey, the guy's a poet

and don't know it.

Lift and load

Lift and load

When the trucks

are loaded, Lieutenant, where are we headed?

Somewhere off the Seine

River, if General Patton's still there.

That Patton. He's really makin' a war out of this.

We must be a pretty important

outfit to be picked to supply the hottest general in the army.

McCord, I have a feeling

before we're through,

this is gonna be one

of the biggest things the army's ever done.

You really think so?

I could be wrong.

I don't think so, sir.

You know, it's great to be on a winning team for a change.

Back in the high school

I went to, we were always getting beat at football.

We won just one game

in four years...

and then only because

their fullback dropped the ball behind the goal line.

One of our boys tripped

and fell on it accidentally.

What position did you play?

I was a cheerleader.

With a team like that,

you must have had the softest job in school.

The softest job? Did you

ever try to get up in front of your student body and scream:

All right, gang,

remember what they did to us last year?

Are we gonna let 'em get away

with it again? We are not.

Let's have a big locomotive

for the team.

Tell you what.

When the going gets rough,

you give us a big locomotive

for the team.

Yes, sir.

And one for the fraulein

One for the fraulein

One for the boys

All right, fellas.

Sorry to break it up,

but gather round, huh?

Come on.

Let's go, everybody.

Here we go.

Now listen carefully.

Finally got the scoop.

Here's the water.

Here's Cherbourg, where we are.

Saint-Lo, Paris,

the Seine River.

Now Cherbourg's gonna be

our main supply dump.

Pick up the supplies here

and move 'em to a forward supply dump...

that'll be designated

by the Red Ball every day.

What's our first objective?

A dump north of Paris, somewhere along the Seine River.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes