RAT PATROL, THE: THE BLIND MAN'S BLUFF RAID (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas about a desert commando unit comprised of 3 Americans and one Englishman, fighting against Rommel's Afrika Korps during World War II.
The patrol is moving through a minefield when the Germans attack and Sergeant Troy is separated from the others. While they head to their rendezvous point, Sergeant Troy wanders through the desert before he collapses from heat exhaustion. He awakens in a medical tent being tended to by a doctor and a nurse. He cannot see due to sun blindness, but the doctor assures him that it will clear up in a matter of days. Unbeknownst to Sergeant Troy, the entire thing is actually a trap by the Germans: Dietrich has blinded Sergeant Troy so he can give away the location of the other patrol members.
Sergeant Troy makes a pass at his nurse Patricia. The doctor tricks him into revealing the location f the patrol's rendezvous and Dietrich reveals his presence, enraging Sergeant Troy. Dietrich reveals the ploy, and that Patricia is actually an agent for the German intelligence corps. Alone, she reveals that she planned to become an American citizen but joined the corps when she visited Germany due to her love for her homeland. He gets her to kiss him, thus allowing him to switch the eye drops keeping him blind with water. He is then taken away to a POW camp, but on the way he manages to break out and kill his captors, leaving Patricia behind as he rides off on a stolen motorcycle. He reaches the patrol before Dietrich, who is too late to catch him. The episode ends as the rat patrol attacks Dietrich's unit. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: October 24, 1966 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:25:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:91622
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1966-1968
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Stan Shpetner … Producer
- Richard Landau … Associate Producer
- Lee H. Katzin … Director
- Tom Gries … Created by
- Larry Cohen … Writer
- Dominic Frontiere … Music by
- Christopher George … Cast, Sgt. Sam Troy
- Gary Raymond … Cast, Sgt. Jack Moffitt
- Hans Gudegast … Cast, Hauptmann Hans Dietrich
- Lawrence Casey … Cast, Pvt. Mark T. Hitchcock
- Justin Tarr … Cast, Pvt. Tully Pettigrew
- Salome Jens … Cast, Patricia Bauer
- James Philbrook … Cast, Doctor Keller