Originally airing as another attempt to make an E.C. Comics anthology, Two-Fisted Tales, “Yellow” was taken from the first issue of Shock SuspenStories and was written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Jack Davis. After the movie that had three of those stories aired once, all of the stories made their way into Tales from the Crypt.

“Yellow,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Jim and John Thomas (Predator), A. L. Katz and Gilbert Adler, is about a soldier who keeps letting down his military man father. It’s super tense and filled with gore, plus great acting by Kirk and Eric Douglas, Lance Henriksen and Dan Aykroyd.

“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. Now, where was I? Oh yes.Ready! Maim! And here’s my favorite part. Fire! I call tonight’s tale: Yellow.”

In France during World War I, American soldiers are in the trenches and trying to take a hill for 49 days in a row. Sgt. Ripper (Lance Henriksen) leads his men with courage in the middle of the fight while his superior Lt. Martin Calthrop (Eric Douglas) hides and gets drunk. Instead of allowing Ripper to push on, Calthrop asks him to retreat.

The hill is crucial to the plans of both General Calthrop (Kirk Douglas) — Martin’s father — and German commander General von Furstenburg. As Captain Milligan (Dan Aykroyd) listens, the elder soldier orders his son to take Ripper and two men to repair communications. If he does this mission, he will be transferred away from combat, as he’s a coward. Martin screws it up, dropping the whistle he’s been given to warn his men, which causes all of them to be killed. Ripper barely hangs on — guts all over the place — to call Cathrop yellow before he dies. This causes an instant court martial and death by firing squad once the evidence is examined.

As he waits to die, Cathrop tells his father that all he cared about was the military and not his son. The general tells his son that he’d never let him die and has loaded the guns with blanks. That allows his son to stand up in the face of death and make a speech, saying , “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.”” The men are moved by his bravery and then he realizes that his father lied. This allows him to have a son who wasn’t yellow and his military record can continue without any stain on it.

No one realizes that the Germans have taken the hill.

This is the last episode of season 3. There are four seasons left. Are you enjoying these articles so far?