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Le Deserteur (The Deserter) is Jean-Pierre Aumont, who during WWI jumps off a troop train en route to the battlefield. It's not that he's a coward: Aumont hopes to locate his runaway sweetheart, who has taken a job in a rundown tavern. It turns out that the hero's own mother, a bitter, spiteful woman, is responsible for his girlfriend's present sorry state. Hoping to take her away from all this, Aumont is cornered by the tavern's hateful owner, who intends to turn the boy over to the military authorities so that he can have the girl all to himself. A struggle follows, ending in a killing, but a timely German bombing raid wipes out all evidence of the "crime." Less than two hours after his desertion, Aumont manages to rejoin his regiment, having solved all of his girlfriend's problems in record time.