I Dutifully Report

Lieutenant Lukáš travels by train to České Budějovice with his batman Švejk. The kind-hearted but over-talkative Švejk causes a delicate situation when he offends a bald man, in reality the major general. He is told to leave the compartment and accidently pulls on the emergency chord along with the guard. Švejk is thrown off the train at Tábor where the station master is to decide upon his punishment. The compassionate man pays the soldier's fine and also gives him money for another ticket as the train to Budějovice has already left. Švejk, who drinks his way through the money, has to go there on foot. He loses his way and is arrested as a Russian spy in Putim. Meanwhile, Lukáš is assigned another batman, the gluttonous Baloun. Švejk finally arrives at his destination and is given the job of orderly for the march company. The soldiers leave for the front. When they arrive in a small town the unpopular Lieutenant Dub warns the soldiers of the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases but it is he whom Švejk has to collect from the brothel in a totally drunken state. Švejk looks for somewhere for the soldiers to sleep and, by a lake, he finds a Russian uniform left on the bank by a bathing soldier, which he puts on. Only great fortune saves him from punishment by death for high treason. (NFA)