Rat Patrol - The Complete First Season
by Frank Baur, Herschel Daugherty, Hollingsworth Morse, Jack N. Reddish, Jesse Hibbs
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Actor: Christopher George, Eric Braeden, Gary Raymond, Justin Tarr, Lawrence P. CaseyDirector: Frank Baur, Herschel Daugherty, Hollingsworth Morse, Jack N. Reddish, Jesse Hibbs
Brand: GEORGE,CHRISTOPHER
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 807 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-31
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Rat Patrol - The Complete First Season
DVD Review: This Show Has Been Locked in MGM's Vault for Too Long
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Description of Rat Patrol - The Complete First Season
Blazing across the North African deserts, itıs THE RAT PATROL, an elite Allied commando team whose mission is to attack, harass and wreak havoc on Field Marshal Rommelıs vaunted Afrika Korps. Join four-man army Sgt. Sam Troy (Christopher George), Sgt. Jack Moffitt (Gary Raymond), Pvt. Mark Hitchcock (Lawrence Casey) and Pvt. Tully Pettigrew (Justin Tarr) as they wage war against Nazis, traitors and wild-eyed fanatics in this action-packed first season collection, featuring all 32 explosive episodes, uncut, unedited and commercial-free!Bestsellers in DVD
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