!! Yellow

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tales_from_the_crypt_yellow_tv_562504127_large.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:People say that war is hell, but what is it to a complete coward?]]

-> (''we see that the Crypt has been decorated as a battlefield, with the camera focusing on a signpost pointing the way to Verdun, Tipperary, Here, and Eternity'')
->'''Crypt Keeper:''' (''offscreen'') Firing squad! Present... (''the camera turns to reveal him dressed in a World War I soldier's uniform and aiming a rifle'') arms! Hello, creeps. I was just about to ''fire off'' tonight's ''dead''-time story. It's about a young soldier who doesn't want to be in the army anymore. I can't imagine why not. I mean, war's a great equal opportunity ''destroyer.'' (''snickers'') Now, where was I? Oh yes. (''aims his weapon'') Ready! ''Maim!'' And here's my favorite part. '''''Fire!''''' (''fires a round at one of his books, knocking it off the shelf; it falls to the ground and opens up to the story'') I call tonight's tale: '''Yellow.'''

In France, 1918, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the Great War]] grimly lurches onward as an American battalion attempts to take a hill near their trenches. The battalion suffers heavy casualties on their 49th day of continuous battle, and the fearlessness and courage of Sgt. Ripper (Creator/LanceHenriksen), who leads his men from the front, is offset by the cowardice of his immediate superior, Lt. Martin Calthrop (Eric Douglas), who hides in the trenches and drinks heavily from his hip flask. Convinced that the charge is doomed to fail, the lieutenant orders the enraged Ripper to signal a retreat, which the Sergeant very reluctantly carries out.

Meanwhile, Martin's father and commanding officer, General Calthrop (Creator/KirkDouglas), receives an intel report from Captain Milligan (Creator/DanAykroyd) regarding the movements of German commander General von Furstenburg. The taking of the hill is a crucial part of the general's strategy to counter von Furstenburg, and when Ripper reports that the charge failed because Martin ordered a retreat, the general moves to a backup strategy involving another company. The general learns that the other company cannot be reached as communication lines have been cut, and so he orders Martin to take Ripper and two wire men to repair the breach. Milligan advises against this idea because, as Ripper explains, the general's son is [[DirtyCoward "yellow"]]. The general summons his son to explain himself, reluctantly goading Martin to tell his father that he doesn't want to be in the Army anymore. General Calthrop says that he can't give Martin a discharge, nor can he show his son any preferential treatment, but he promises that if he goes with Ripper and the wire men to repair the broken communication line, he will be transferred away from the front, which prompts Martin to agree to his father's terms.

That night, Martin leads Ripper and the wire men into no man's land, but he panics on learning that the breach is dangerously close to the German front line. Ripper persuades him to stay behind, giving him a whistle to signal if he sees any German troops, while he takes the wire men to fix the broken cable. Moments later, a German squad emerges from their trenches. Martin freezes in mortal terror and drops the whistle, the metallic clang it makes alerting the Germans, who open fire on Ripper and the wire men. The wire men are killed in the initial ambush, and though Ripper holds the Germans off for a few seconds, he is blown across the field by an exploding grenade. He lands on Martin, berating the cowardly lieutenant for not warning them about the approaching Germans. Martin pushes Ripper off of him and runs for his life to the safety of the American trench. He lies to his father that he and the repair squad were ambushed, and he shot as many Germans as he could before he was forced to escape. The general tells Martin that he did all he could, and will still get his transfer... until Milligan leads Ripper, barely clinging to life (and his intestines), into the bunker, who exposes Martin as a liar and calls him "yellow" one last time before dying. The general inspects Martin's revolver and discovers it hasn't been fired. He orders Martin arrested and court-martialed within the hour.

At his hearing, Martin is found guilty of dereliction of duty, desertion under fire, and "cowardice in the face of the enemy", being sentenced to execution by firing squad at sunrise, before General Calthrop's men fall back. That night, the general visits his condemned son, where Martin reminds his father that he's [[WellDoneSonGuy spent his whole life trying to please the man]], but now knows that he can never do so because his father wants him to be a soldier under his command instead of his son, and since Martin is openly afraid to die, [[CallingTheOldManOut he berates his father for caring more about the stain that having a coward for a son will leave on his reputation than about Martin's welfare]]. However, General Calthrop confides that he'd never order his own son's execution, so he will be loading the firing squad's rifles with blanks and putting a full pack in the trench behind the execution site so Martin can escape to a new life. His only condition for this act of mercy is that Martin face his death with dignity.

At sunrise, Martin shows up for his execution, spotting the pack in the trench behind him, refusing the blindfold, and giving a dignified final speech in which he apologizes for letting his fear of dying get in the way of his duties. He further states that he now knows what Shakespeare meant when he said, [[Theatre/JuliusCaesar "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."]] As Milligan gives the firing squad their orders, Martin notices his father [[ICantLookGesture looking away]] and realizes, seconds before Milligan gives the order to fire, that the general lied about loading the guns with blanks. Martin is blown right out of his boots and into the trench by the force of the bullets, whereupon Milligan tells the general, "He died like a man." Calthrop proudly declares that everyone now knows his son isn't "yellow". As the soldiers begin falling back, the camera closes in on the inscription on Martin's hip flask: "To Martin, Let courage be thy name. Love, Dad."
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!! Tropes:
* ActorAllusion: General Calthrop mirrors one of Creator/KirkDouglas' most famous roles as Colonel Dax in ''Film/PathsOfGlory''. Whereas Dax was a moral character who deeply cared for his men and tried to protect them from the capriciousness of the generals, Calthrop has little to no concern for the lives of those under his command, even sentencing his own son to death for cowardice.
* AlmostDeadGuy: When Ripper is blown across no man's land by a German grenade, Martin leaves him for dead and flees back to the trenches, insisting he fought against the Germans, but was overwhelmed by their superior numbers. However, Ripper holds on for just long enough to return to the trench and tell General Calthrop the truth: his son froze with panic, gave away their position by accident, and left Ripper and the wire men to die.
* AnArmAndALeg: The soldier who prepares to tell Ripper where Martin is gets his hand shot off by machine gun fire.
* ArchEnemy: General von Furstenburg is hinted to be a personal rival of General Calthrop, since the General is shown to have a detailed analysis of how the man directs his troops and gives his orders.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: No US Army soldier was ever sentenced to death for cowardice.
* TheBadGuyWins:
** Being willing to trick his own son into getting killed for the sake of wiping away a smear on his precious military reputation makes General Calthrop a disgusting human being.
** In the broader picture, General von Furstenburg comes out victorious regarding the platoon's battle, having succeeded in taking the hill that the Allies were tasked with seizing.
* BladeOfGrassCut: The opening credits play over a shot of a lone flower growing in the middle of a muddy field. Once the musical score fades out and the sounds of battle fade in, the body of a soldier with a massive, blood-drenched wound in his back falls on the flower and crushes it, firmly establishing the WarIsHell tone of the story.
* CallingTheOldManOut: When General Calthrop visits his condemned son before his execution, Martin lays into his father for never being there for him when he was growing up; for seeing him as a soldier under his command than as his son, even though he admitted point-blank that he was never cut out for the military.
* CannotSpitItOut: Captain Milligan tries to tell General Calthrop that his son isn't the best choice for a battlefront position because of his... reputation. When he can't find the willpower to say it without making it sound bad, Milligan allows Ripper to take over and blurt out "He's yellow!" for him.
* ChromosomeCasting: All characters in this episode are male, given that it takes place in the trenches of World War I.
* CourtMartialed: Martin is arrested and court-martialed after Ripper reveals what he did when they were trying to fix the communication line. At the hearing, he's found guilty for his cowardice and sentenced to death.
* CowardiceCallout: Martin is already looked down upon for being a coward ''before'' a German attack on his squad causes him to run for his life and leave his men to die. He tries to convince his father that he did all he could to fight the Germans off, but the mortally-wounded Ripper enters and reveals the truth of what happened, calling out the younger Calthrop over what he did. At his court-martial, he's sentenced to death by firing squad and deemed a disgrace to the uniform (which, in his case, he never wanted to wear).
* CutPhoneLines: General Calthrop finds that he's unable to reach B Company to coordinate his backup strategy in fighting General von Furstenburg, as the Germans have been cutting the Allies' communication lines.
* DaddyIssues: Martin makes it clear that his father has only ever seen him as a soldier under his command, and has never done anything that he wanted him to do, like discharging him from the Army. And that's before he sentences Martin to execution.
* DeadHandShot: In the final shot of the episode, Martin's lifeless hand lies next to his hip flask, upon which we see the ironic inscription "Let courage be thy name" from father to son.
* DeerInTheHeadlights: Upon seeing German troops emerge from their trenches, Martin goes bug-eyed and freezes in pure terror. He tries to blow the whistle Ripper gave him to warn him if they would approach, but his shaking hand makes him drop it, the loud clang it makes on hitting the ground alerting the Germans.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: As cowardly as Martin is, the mentality that he deserves death solely to preserve his father's military reputation can be a hard one to grasp for anyone who isn't part of a similar heritage.
* DiesWideOpen: As Sgt. Ripper gasps his final words, "You... yellow...", his eyes remain open. Captain Milligan solemnly closes his eyes and tasks the medics with attending "to the Sergeant's remains".
* DirtyCoward: Martin hides in the trenches and drinks heavily as the men under his command die by the dozen in no man's land. When he's ordered to lead Ripper and the wire men to repair the breach in communication lines and keep watch for Germans, he freezes with panic when he spots a squad of German soldiers appearing. He drops the whistle he was meant to use to warn Ripper and the wire men, which alerts the Germans and results in Ripper being grievously injured and the wire men getting shot dead. Martin lies to his father when he flees back to the trench, but the dying Ripper reveals his trickery before he expires, Martin's cowardice getting him sentenced to death.
* DownerEnding: Martin's cowardice gets the best of him, and he lets Ripper and dozens of other loyal soldiers die under his watch. He is sentenced to execution by his own father, who shamelessly lies to him that he's going to let him escape to a new life, and his failures have caused the Allied forces to fall back from the area.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: General Calthrop tells Martin that he'll have the firing squad's rifles loaded with blanks and put a full pack in the trench behind the execution site so Martin can escape to a new life, provided he faces death like a man on the morning of his execution. Certain that he's going to live, Martin faces the firing squad with dignity and gives a brave final speech, but only a few seconds elapse between the realization that the execution isn't fake after all and the bullets hit his body, so no-one notices the façade begin to crack. After Martin is shot, Captain Milligan tells the General his son died like a man.
* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Martin gives a valiant one when he thinks that he's going to survive his execution:
-->'''Martin:''' I tried. But I'm not the man my father is. I'm sorry, and I apologize. My fear of dying got in the way of my responsibility to my men, and the obligations of my commanding officers. I know now what Shakespeare meant: "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." (''salutes'')
* FakingTheDead: Martin's father tells him that he has a plan for him to fake his death and run off to a new life, provided that he takes it like a man. Once the illusion is complete, Martin realizes that his "fake" death is actually the real thing.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Martin sternly asks his father if he would be happy if he returned to the bunker with a bullet in his back. This returns in the final scene, where Martin tears into his father for his stern and neglectful treatment, after the man orders his son's execution when his cowardice gets in the way of his duty.
* FormulaBreakingEpisode: This is the first of three episodes that was originally filmed as part of a canceled series based on "Two-Fisted Tales". It's also the only episode to run longer than 30 minutes.
* GreaterScopeVillain: General von Furstenburg, the German commander directly opposing General Calthrop and his battalion. He's played up as a menacing and highly tactical man, but he's never seen in the episode itself.
* HatsOffToTheDead: After Martin's execution, Milligan takes his hat off while approaching Martin's body, while General Calthrop noticeably does not do so.
* {{Homage}}: The episode is one to ''Film/PathsOfGlory'', as Kirk Douglas plays a general who sentences a man (his own son, mind you) to the firing squad for being a coward.
* HopeSpot: Martin is given the impression that the executioners will be firing blanks at him, so he'll survive his execution and escape to start a new life. He believes this until just before they open fire on him.
* ICantLookGesture: When Captain Milligan yells "Aim!", General Calthrop closes his eyes and looks away, since he already knows the firing squad have been issued live ammunition, but he still can't bring himself to actually ''watch'' his own son die. Seeing his father avert his eyes is what gives the ruse away to Martin, but he only has a split second to process this before Milligan yells "FIRE!"
* IgnoredExpert: Ripper and Milligan try to inform General Calthrop (as politely and reasonably as they can) that his son is a coward who is in no condition to venture onto the battlefield, but the General ignores them to boast that his son is as brave as they come. This results in Martin letting Ripper and two more soldiers die, and Martin himself being sentenced to the firing squad.
* {{Irony}}: Martin's hip flask, gifted to him by his father, has an engraving which reads, "Let courage be thy name". We only find this out in the last few seconds of the episode, after General Calthrop sentenced Martin to death for being "yellow".
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ripper is a hot-headed and quick-to-anger sergeant, but that's because his commanding officer is hiding in the trenches while his men are shot and blown up. When in the company of the higher ranking officers, he cools down slightly and informs them about Martin's retreat with tact and professionalism. That all changes when he barely makes it back to the trenches in one piece.
* KarmaHoudini: In addition to sentencing his own son to death, General Calthrop also gets away with inadvertently sending Ripper and the wire men to their deaths as well, as he idiotically put their lives into the hands of his cowardly son.
* MeaningfulName: Sgt. Ripper is a gung-ho and hot-headed soldier who charges directly into the fray in the opening scene.
* NeverMyFault: General Calthrop sends his son out to the breach, where he lets Ripper and the wire men die. The dying Ripper doesn't point this fact out, nor does the General himself, which is why it's forgotten by the end of the episode.
* NoNameGiven: General Calthrop's first name is never revealed.
* OffingTheOffspring: General Calthrop may not pull the trigger, but he ''does'' condemn his own son to death and goes back on his promise to load the guns with blanks, personally loading them with live rounds before the execution. All so he can prove to everyone watching that his son is not a coward.
* OhCrap: After Milligan yells "Aim!" to the firing squad, Martin notices his father looking away. His brave expression vanishes immediately as he realizes there can be only one reason why his father is doing this: the guns are loaded with live ammo.
* ParentalTitleCharacterization: Martin is expected to call his father "General" or "Sir", due to serving under him, further emphasizing how aloof the General is from his son.
* ProfaneLastWords: Ripper uses his last breaths to call Martin "you… Yellow…"
* PublicExecution: Martin's platoon and fellow officers gather to witness his death.
* RuleOfThree: In the opening battle scene, Ripper asks three soldiers if they've seen Martin. The first two are already dead, prompting Ripper to growl, "Damn!". The third points out where he last saw Martin... and gets his hand shot off by machine-gun fire, whereupon Ripper expands his exclamation to "Goddamn!"
* ShotAtDawn: Martin is sentenced to death by firing squad in the early morning, as punishment for abandoning Ripper and the wire men to die and allowing the Germans to ambush them.
* SmolderingShoes: Martin is blown out of his boots when he is shot, which smolder from the resultant cloud of rifle fire. His laces had been taken the night before, to prevent him from hanging himself.
* StagedShooting: To have Martin FaceDeathWithDignity, his father tells him that the firing squad's rifles will be loaded with blanks so that it only ''appears'' that he's been shot, and he can leave to start a new life. Unbeknownst to Martin, the staged shooting turns out to be the real thing.
* StartingANewLife: Martin is told by his father that his execution will be faked so he can escape to a new life. Martin finds out at the last second, however, that his father was lying.
* SuddenlyShouting: Martin does this during his rebuttal to his father.
-->'''Martin''': That is what I'm really guilty of, isn't it, father? Huh? That the WHOLE WORLD KNOWS... THAT THE SON OF THE ''GREAT GENERAL CALTHROP'' IS AFRAID TO DIE?! '''WELL, I''' '''''AM''''' '''AFRAID TO DIE!!!''' (''sobs'')
* TemptingFate: As General Calthrop expresses pride in his son after he hears his about what happened at the trenches, agreeing to transfer him and claiming that he'll never be called a coward again, the barely living Ripper shambles in and calls Martin a coward, before exposing him as a fraud.
* VillainHasAPoint: For all of Martin's cowardice, he does have a legitimate point that he was ''forced'' into his military role against his will, and he should never have been placed in any battlefront-relevant position. In fact, the deaths of Ripper and his wire men are really more of ''General Calthrop's'' fault as it is Martin's, because Martin was forced to undertake the mission despite knowing and ''blatantly admitting'' that he was the worst possible choice for such a mission.
* WarIsHell: It's UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, in the trenches of northern France, a campaign that, in real life, gave hitherto unseen depths to the notion that war is indeed Hell. The battlefields are soaked with the blood of the dead from both sides, and we see numerous characters ranging from nameless extras to major players either dying messy and undignified deaths from enemy fire (Ripper's death is especially gruesome, as half his intestines are on the ''outside'' of his body) or covered in blood-soaked bandages and lying on makeshift stretchers in the trenches.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Martin has spent his entire life trying to please his father by going to military school, West Point, and then heeding his country's call to the trenches of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, just for a pat on the back from the General. Unfortunately, because he's too afraid to die to be an effective soldier, he has never been able to live up to his father's expectations.
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->'''Crypt Keeper:''' (''tied to a post'') I guess Martin finally learned his lesson: No guts, no ''gory!'' (''cackles'') Well, got to go, kiddies. It's time for my ''shots.'' (''pulls a switch to point a load of rifles at himself'') Fire! (''the rifles go off and fill him with lead; he cackles excitedly'') Yes, yes, oh yes! Boy, I get a ''bang'' out of that! (''cackles some more'')