Customer Reviews

Rat Patrol - The Complete First Season

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a teenager when I discovered Rat Patrol in 1966. I was at the time depressed because of the cancellation of another WW II show that I enjoyed very much, 12 O'Clock High, which I sincerely wish they would release on DVD but have not.

The Rats came in to fill that void in my TV watching life and I enjoyed every single episode. What makes a girl or a woman want to watch a war show? NO, it isn't the shoot 'em up 50's or the racing jeeps spewing sand! It's the interesting characters and the stories which had heart to them. With just a half hour they couldn't delve those characters as deeply as 12 O'Clock High did (one of the best character dramas ever) but they made a good go at it. They displayed the many facets of the regulars, Troy (Chris George) who was the original loner/rebel who had to learn to be a team player and to trust others, and Moffitt (Gary Raymond) the intelligent, laid back Englishman whose strong emotions lay carefully controlled just below the surface. Less time was accorded to Hitch (Larry Casey), the cute skirt chaser, and Tully (Justin Tarr) whose love is his jeeps.

The other regular was the German commander Dietrich played by the actor then known as Hans Gudegast who has since gone on to a long lasting career in soap opera as Eric Braeden. What was so great about Dietrich was that, contrary to the popular stereotyping of the German foe at that time, he was not a conscionless, sadistic Nazi. He was a good soldier who loved his country even though in his heart he knew its methods were misguided. He gave a very human face to the enemy and you couldn't walk away from this show hating him. You understood that the enemy is human too.

There were also numerous guest characters in the many different episodes, too many for me to remember and describe, but they were very often memorable and dimensional in their own limited ways so that you felt for them as well.

So ladies, don't turn away from this one because of the war theme. There is a lot here that you will like too, not the least of which is Chris' swarthy good looks and Gary's elegant gentlemanly good looks. I give it a 10... I mean 5... well, whatever the top rating is.

The music and opening credits with the Rat Patrol jeeps flying over the sand dunes grabbed my attention as a kid. The jeeps with 50 caliber machine guns mounted in back, looked so cool flying over the sand and dodging enemy fire. This was probably the reason why I watched this program, since when it was originally on TV, I was too young to understand the storylines. Dominic Frontiere's theme, is bold, powerful, and unforgettable. A great, little piece of music.

Since my memories of the show are so vague, I look forward to viewing this program as and adult, and seeing how the war in North Africa is presented. A bit of historical accuracy would be nice, but all I really want is some good old-fashioned, 60's style war action.

Christopher George was an under-appreciated and mostly forgotten actor, who was only 54 when he past away. He frequently appeared on TV in the 70's, and this is an opportunity to see him as a 60's prime time star. As Sgt. Troy, George was fiery and tough, a familiar role for him. Paul Raymond was British Army Sergeant Moffat. Moffat's lower key personality complemented Troy's more emotional one. Lawrence Casey, as "Hitch" was memorable to me, mainly for his gum chewing.

Probably the cast member most well-known to today's viewers was on the German side. Hans Gudegast, played Capt. Dietrich, who in leading forces of the Afrika Corp proved to be a worthy adversary, bringing a sense of class and honor to the desert conflict. Gudegast later changed his acting name to Eric Braeden, and appeared frequently in films and on TV. In 1980 he became a regular on the daytime drama The Young and the Restless, where he still appears.

The Rat Patrol was created by veteran director Tom Gries, who's directorial credits include the films Helter Skelter, The Hawaiians, The Greatest, Breakout, and Breakheart Pass.

This is what action shows are all about. THE RAT PATROL was another of those television series that had kids playing outside repeating the previous night's episode. The first season had 32 episodes. Compare that to today's television series where the overpaid actors boast about 20 episodes per season. I have noted this before in my reviews for COMBAT! and it also applies for THE RAT PATROL. THE RAT PATROL was produced in an age where actors actually had to work for a living.

The biggest shortcoming of THE RAT PATROL is that the running length of 24 minutes per epidode is too brief to tell the story. In 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s television, many shows stretched 30 minutes of story to fit an hour-long time slot. Even COMBAT! occassionally fell into this trap. Not so with THE RAT PATROL. A half hour was not enough time to develop the plot. As such, some of the episodes are rushed and several shows include occasional annoying narration for things that are already patently obvious.

The exciting RAT PATROL soundtrack was composed by Dominic Frontiere. Frontiere was frequently behind the music for shows like THE OUTER LIMITS, THE INVADERS, and THE FLYING NUN. By the way, some of Frontiere's RAT PATROL soundtrack, note for note, ended up in 1970's THE LAST ESCAPE starring Stuart Whitman.

THE RAT PATROL was one of those television shows that was meant to be military fiction. This series was more of a shoot-em-up western set in Tunisia. M*A*S*H lengthened the Korean War to more than a decade. COMBAT! successfully immortalized the second half of 1944 for five years. THE RAT PATROL achieved no less significance in sustaining the six months following the November 1942 Torch landings into two seasons.

The show did not syndicate well in Great Britain. In World War Two the US Army did not have long-range desert raiders. Those honors go to the British and Commonwealth -- and they know it. Still, in watching the television series, it is nice to think that three GIs and one Brit in American jeeps harrassed German convoys and destroyed sturdy "German" panzers and half tracks with grenades.

The pilot episode was shot in the dunes near Yuma, Arizona, not too far from where George Lucas would years later film dune sequences of RETURN OF THE JEDI. In fact, the Yuma convoy sequence reappears in several episodes when the film editor appeared to need additional attack filler. Look for the vintage M-7 Priest self propelled guns.

Location shooting for the following 16 regular episodes was completed in Spain. You can see the difference immediately between the clean bright sand of Yuma and the dirty gray Spanish sand. Spain served as a location for numerous films. Italian westerns used Spain for years. Most of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was filmed in Spain. Director Richard Lester used Spain as the desert setting for HOW I WON THE WAR. Immediatly following THE RAT PATROL, PLAY DIRTY and PATTON would also be filmed in Spain. In fact, some of the Season One RAT PATROL locations are very familiar. The wadi/valley used as El Guettar in PATTON is seen several times in THE RAT PATROL.

Life in southeastern Spain was rough for cast and crew. However, Spain was the place to be for shooting desert films. Spain boasted army surplus weapons and vehicles from numerous countries. Curiously you will also note that Troy and his Rat Patrol are equipped with postwar Spanish Star Largo Z-45's, copies of the German MP-40 submachine gun with a hybrid influence of the US Thompson submachine gun. By the way, the German soldiers in the series were also equipped with Z-45's.

By episode 18, filming resumed back in the American southwest. Immediately recognizable in "The One that Got Away Raid" is that the Rat Patrol is now equipped with Thompson submachine guns. Some Spanish Army surplus followed the production team back to the States. If you look carefully you will see that several of the "German" helmets have a small clasp welded to the forehead area of the steel helmet. Only Spanish Army helmets, produced in Stalhelm coal-scuttle style, bear this modification.

Contrary to popular myth, THE RAT PATROL was not an ABC spinoff of COMBAT! Both creator Tom Greis and actor Hans Gudegast (Eric Braedon) were veterans of the Selmur Productions COMBAT! series, but Mirisch Films and Television took on THE RAT PATROL as its own contribution to the ABC lineup. Curiously, even though he receives co-star billing, Gudegast appears in about only half the episodes.

THE RAT PATROL was also filmed in color. The use of color was an expensive task in the mid 1960s. Even HOGAN'S HEROES pilot episode was shot in black and white. Keep in mind that in the 1960s only a minority of households boasted color televisions. Even those sets were large console-type units that were largely under the viewing control and censorship of Mom or Dad.

THE RAT PATROL has appeared infrequently in syndication. No doubt the series limited two-season run made it difficult to sell. Way back in the late 1960s, I was not much of a RAT PATROL fan, though I did own a RAT PATROL plastic army helmet complete with blurry goggles. I only caught a couple episodes before the series was canceled. A few years later, as I gained a young teenager's appreciation for military history and arranged my free time around televised war movies and reruns, RAT PATROL was nowhere to be found in the greater New York City broadcast area. It was not until the late 1970s that I saw THE RAT PATROL again. Three episodes, "The Last Harbor Raid" Parts 1 through 3, were cobbled together as a movie and shown as a W-ABC late night movie. The 90-minute "movie" received quite a positive write up in the entertainment section of the newspaper. I was hopeful that additional episodes would be paired into 90-minute movies, but none appeared.

Over the years, there have been various VHS cassette episodes offered through various channels. This is the first time the series have been offered in its entirety. The DVD transfer is okay. MGM could have put a little more effort into remastering the image and the sound, but the set overall presents a clear image.

There are no special features, save for an all too brief printed biographical insert, included with this set. First season DVD installments typically lack the usual bell and whistle extras. Hopefully we will see some additional footage and trivia in Season Two.

Rat Patrol was a "not-to-be-missed" TV series for the kids who grew up in the late 60's. Starring Christopher George it is the story of a group of commandos who raid behind the German lines in the African Desert during WW2. Lots of action and suspense. Based on the real life exploits of the British SAS Long Range Desert Patrol under the command of Maj. David Sterling. Anyone who remembers "Combat" and "The Gallant Men" will enjoy this series.

This show was crazy, it was like the A-Team with real violence (as much as could be shown in the 60s, anyway). In my early teens watching the reruns, I was too anal to get past the historical inaccuracies of the vehicles and tactics, but now I am surprised at how well the show stands up. They packed a lot of story into a half-hour, and though the scripts did little for character development, the characters seemed well-fleshed out sheerly on the strength of the casting alone. Some of the directorial techniques and camera angles were nifty, too. I like how some episodes seem to start already well into the story, almost like a James Bond movie (I suppose this was to quickly get into a plot which would normally be too long for a half-hour show). The color on this set is marvelous, and gives the entire show a richness as I had never seen in the washed out reruns. And what a pleasure to see a war show where the characters don't plod through feeling sorry for themselves every step of the way, or boo-hooing over every enemy they shoot. Relax and enjoy this in a comic-book kinda way, and it might just prove addictive in the easily digestable doses it comes in.

I enjoyed this as a child during the 1960's--and I was bothered by anachronisms back then. The Rat Patrol turned history on its ear and requires considerable suspension of disbelief--when that is achieved, it is a grand romp through North Africa during World War Two.

Oddly enough, the most realistic portion of The Rat Patrol are the German convoys using American trucks. Rommel used anything on wheels. Turnabout was fair play--at Cambridge, England, the Land Warfare Museum at Duxford displays two command post caravans captured from Rommel by Montgomery and used by Britian's premere field marshall for the rest of the war.

My favorite character in this series was Sergeant Moffit--though the long-suffering Hauptmann Dietrich had my sympathy. The real Long Range Desert Group and Special Air Service were totally British shows, and were both active prior to the Torch landings. Except for the OSS, there was little American presence until after Torch, which landed on 8 November 1942. The SAS gun jeeps had quite a few more machine guns--usually .303 Vickers "K" aircraft guns. The Browning M2 HB and AN/M2 aircraft guns were both used in the television series. German equipment in the TV show appeared to be American equipment of the 1950's--probably Spanish Army stuff (the series was filmed in Spain). To my knowledge, the Germans didn't use the Boys AT rifle--but Dietrich's troops often had one on TV.

Can anybody identify the submachine gun used by the Rat Patrol? They used Thompsons, MP40's, and one other that I cannot find in standard reference books. I suspect it is post-war Spanish, but I am not sure.

I still have fun with the show. The writing could have been better, but this is one of the few 1960's TV shows that started off in color. Slapped together on a tight budget, the special effects are still amazing today. Don't use this as a tactical primer--you'll lose against anybody with basic combat training. Consider when this television series came out--1966. The spy craze was on, Vietnam was just becoming a household term in America, the counterculture was winning Hollywood...I guess making the Rat Patrol an American unit was a marketing decision. Given the popularity of the 007 movies and the Avenger television series, I don't know how the executives missed the boat on this one, but the series is fun anyway. I just have to check my vanity when I pop in this DVD

Based on a real special forces unit that faced Rommel in WWII, Rat Patrol is an interesting and inventive adventure series.

The unit that Rat Patrol is based on is the Long Range Desert Group. It was a combat group designed to cause severe damage to the Germans behind German lines. They would sometimes remain behind the German lines for months at a time, spreading "a little alarm and despondency" throughout the German forces. Although LRDG was formed almost exclusively of New Zealand troops, with a few British units thrown in for good measure, the show Rat Patrol is dealing with a mostly American Unit.

Although one would assume that the show would grow repetitive after a time (how many different ways are there for two jeeps to destroy a column of German trucks and tanks?), most episodes the Rats face a new situation to test their fortitude.

The Rats:

Sargent Sam Troy: the leader of the Rat Patrol, is a strong, decisive leader with a soft side that will occasionally show up and surprise everyone. He masterminds most of the raids and commands great loyalty from his fellow Rats. He's on the small side physically, but is pretty efficient in a fight. Diplomacy isn't his strong point-unless he has a gun/grenade/detonator in his hands. For some reason, he tells his men to get going by shouting, "Let's shake it!"

Sargent Jack Moffitt: Transferred into the Rat Patrol in the first episode of the series. Throughout the first few episodes he transitions from annoyingly intelligent British replacement gunner to an incredibly important part of the RP unit. He knows every language spoken in the area and is an expert in desert tribes. Whenever RP needs to infiltrate a German camp, Moffitt is your man-his German is pretty good. His wry sense of humor and his professor-like demeanor hide a rather explosive temper, so watch out!

Private Mark "Hitch" Hitchcock: Well educated and from a fairly sophisticated background, he still retains as much of the wealthy playboy as is possible while driving a Jeep (with a 50cal mounted on the back) in the middle of North Africa. He drives Sgt. Troy's Jeep. He tends to be reckless and very vocal when he disagrees with a decision, but he is very loyal to both the unit and the people that make it up. He likes to say, "Who was there, Sarge; you or me?" when Troy questions his judgement.

Private Tully Pettigrew: Call him the sentimental silent type. Emphasis on silent. In some episodes he says no more than two or three lines. Despite this, and Sgt. Troy's habit of making him stand watch while the rest of the Rats head into danger, Tully has a close bond to the rest of the group. He drives Sgt. Moffitt's Jeep. A native of rural Kentucky, he finds his "place to shine" under the hoods of the Jeeps. He can get a Jeep battered running again in a remarkably short space of time.

And then, you can't forget the recurring bad guy of the series:

Hauptmann Hans Dietrich: A very intelligent German officer, he is usually handicapped by the incompetence of his fellow soldiers and the fact that the RP has a four to one advantage. Dietrich puts a face to the enemy, but it is never a face you would rather pity than fight. Well, sometimes-when the RP has just destroyed something the Germans wanted intact-he looks like he would have preferred death to explaining to his CO how the RP did it again. Although Dietrich loves his country and is loyal to his army, his honor and sense of decency are frequently tested. An enemy you can respect, this Panzer Hauptmann handles his constant defeats with a great deal more grace than manywould. Admittedly, he will yell at his subordinates when they let the RP get away again.

One thing to note: The scenes in other languages have not way of telling the audience what is happening. Unless Moffitt is there, because he knows everything. This is interesting, but can occasionally be a little frustrating: Dietrich is yelling over his telephone in German. We have no clue what he is saying. You can guess, of course, but a translation would be nice sometimes.

Altogether, Rat Patrol is a fun series with interesting characters and unexpected plots. The half-hour time restriction limits a lot of character development, but what development that can be fit logically into the story is always neatly in place. Sometimes, ok, many times, the show requires you to suspend reality to believe the story. But I don't think that is always a bad thing.

The most important contribution of Rat Patrol is that it reminds us all of the heroic work of the Long Range Desert Group. Shake it!

FINALLY this has been released on DVD!! I simply can't wait for season 2!
I discovered this on tv in the 70's when it was shown as reruns. It ran at 4:30 am and as a kid I would get up early specifically to watch this show. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it as much in adulthood as I did when I was a kid, but definitely yes! It is great entertainment!

While it does have some flaws and isn't the best with historical accuracy, there are still great reasons to watch it. It is just cool! There's nothing more exciting than watching the jeeps speed over the sand at extremely high rates of speed and jumping over the dunes. It's a great morale booster for other "flag wavers" such as myself that definitely believe in the superiority of the United States and love happy endings for our soldiers. I love watching how the guys always stick together, put the country first and foremost and their willingness to die for the cause if necessary even if they don't agree with certain policies handed down by the government. There is an episode where the propoganda ministry is broadcasting on the radio and Hitchcock just shakes his head at the ridiculous accusations made. He definitely believes in the cause. (I think that quality seems to be lacking in today's society)
I also love the fact that they don't seem to "hate" the enemy, Troy helps Dietrich out of bad situations from time to time instead of just point blank killing him. There is a level of respect there.

Obviously it has less graphic "action" than today's tv shows, in one episode Sam Troy is being beaten by the German guards who captured him and he had only a small spot of blood on his face. And two episodes have exactly the same battle scenes, the first being when Moffit is getting ready to be taken to Gestapo headquarters and is rescued by the others, the second when Moffit impersonated a badly injured German in a hospital and is discovered. Both exits from town are the exact same scene. There are other various "flaws" in the show, not the least being that Dietrich was never "sent to the Russian front" or "executed" for incompetency by consistantly not disposing of the troublemaking Rat Patrol despite various opportunities to do so.

When watching this it definitely stirs an interest to reread the history of WWII and find out how it really happened!

My all time favorite character in these episodes is Tully Pettigrew who portrays a simple country boy sent off to war who is fulfill his duty to his country. He isn't an ivy leaguer like Moffit and Hitchcock. He represents the typical soldier that fought in WWII. Justin Tarr is simply a great actor!!

I too as a kid remember the opening scenes with the jeeps jumpin' and the 50 kickin'! It was something that made me jump up and yell WHOAH! I used to pick up my toy M-16 and help the "Rats" kick some real booty and shoot the Germans along with them.

I am glad to see some of these studios are now finally reading my mind and putting out great shows that deserve to be put out.

Another great WWII movie coming out on DVD here in December is Attack Force Z, a great little movie starring a young Mel Gibson and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park). Excellent, excellent, excellent movie that is based on an actual Australian Special Forces group that went on many missions against the Japanese and hardly few if any ever survived to talk about it.

That movie and this series Rat Patrol are a must have!!!

I loved this series, despite some unrealistic scenarios. It fueled my interest in archeology based on an episode that had both the Rats and Dietrich trying to resolve a conflict without blowing up the artifacts. Unlike most series I watched as a kid, I was interested in all the main characters (although Tully was a particular favorite) on both sides of the desert war. I'm thrilled that this wonderful series will be released on DVD. I hope that both seasons are released.