| The RAT PATROL Episode and (shameless) Ratings Guide |
| The Lighthouse Raid Season 1 Episode 13 (Airdate: Dec 5, 1966) |
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Fairly high |
4 directly attributed to him. A lot of group machine gunning so who knows who killed who. |
Nothing to write home about. Was not very visible in this episode. |
Never took his helmet for the short time he was in the show. | No Dietrich |
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Guest Cast: Emile Genest -- Mathias
Writer: Daniel L. Aubry commentary: Tully and Moffitt transport a liberated French underground general to a rendezvous in a deserted lighthouse. Hitchcock stands lookout, disguised as a German guard. Troy, though, is held captive inside the lighthouse -- betrayed by Mathias. Moffitt tries to reach him but ends up unconscious. In the ensuing fight, Mathias is killed and Troy manages to signal the trawler into the area to take the general to safety. Another one of those episodes many fans wish had never happened.
Jan's Notes: a.k.a. And I didn't get a thing to eat
This show starts off okay. The guys sneak in to a Gestapo outpost to rescue a French
underground General. They kill off all the Gestapo, who by the way are wearing the de
rigeur trench coat and fedora. They look like Spy vs Spy from Mad magazine. Then
the show goes downhill rapidly. Tully and Moffitt "borrow" a vehicle from the
Gestapo to transport the French General to the lighthouse where the French
underground have made arrangements to pick up the general and they have exactly
four hours and 23 seconds, no... 22 seconds, no... 21 seconds. Better get going, Time
keeps on slipping, slipping in to the future. They take off in one direction. Hitch and
Troy take off in a another direction in separate Jeeps. However, they are all going to
the same place. Guess Hitch and Troy are taking the high road while Tully and Moffitt
are taking the low road.
Hitch commandeers the sentry position at the gate leading to the lighthouse while Troy
goes to introduce himself to the lighthouse keeper, Matthias, and his lovely wife,
Yvette, who is an excellent cook. However, the lighthouse keeper has been informed
about the reward of 100,000 marks offered by the Germans for information leading to
the capture of the general and decides to take advantage of the offer. So Troy walks
into a trap.
Matthias is really stupid. He has been working with the underground all this time. It
never occurred to him that the French underground would retaliate after they learned
about his traitorous actions. Did he figure they would just shrug and mutter "C'est la
guerre!" And where did he figure he was going to go with his thirty pieces of silver?
What a goof!
Moffitt shows up with the general after leaving Tully with Hitch back at the sentry
post. He finds Troy with a gun pointed at his head and a very self-satisfied goof.
Then Yvette shows up and starts yelling at the goof (visions of Faye and Ned danced
through my head). Troy and Moffitt exchange looks as if to say "Oh, no not again,"
then Troy disarms Goof.
Now it really starts to get stupid! While Troy is off with the wife trying to find a
lantern or something, Moffitt is left with Goof and the sick general. The general starts
to groan, and Moffitt turns his back on the Goof to check on the general. Moffitt would
never, ever do that. He is far too savvy a soldier to do such a dumb thing. So Goof
escapes and instead of running out of the light house in search of the Germans who
are stationed there, he runs up the spiral staircase, making me real dizzy. Shades of
Vertigo! And then it dawns on him that his actions will not exactly endear him to the
French underground. Duh! So he decides to try to relight the lighthouse beacon. Isn't
that overkill? Why didn't he just open a window and try to attract the attention of the
Germans walking sentry duty down below? This guy is a real loser with a capital L.
Troy tries to talk the guy down but is unsuccessful. So after a brief tussle, Troy
throws Goof over the railing, signals the underground fishing boat, and sees off the lovely
wife whose cooking he never got to try.
All this time, Tully and Hitch are hanging around the sentry post, killing nosy
Germans, I guess.
This episode was written by the same guy, Daniel Aubrey, who wrote the Gunrunner
Raid, which explains why it is so tortuous to watch. Different directors though. Jon
Peyser directed this one, he of Combat!, while Katzin directed Gunrunner.
Just goes to show that no matter what the talent of the director, you have got to have a decent
script.
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Anne's Notes: The Incompetence Raid
1 April 1999; reprinted from the Yahoo! Message boardJan's right--the Lighthouse Raid is a pretty lousy episode! I call it the Incompetence Raid because so many people exhibit so much of it.
First there's the Gestapo. Forget that they are wearing clothing appropriate to 60 degrees Fahrenheit when it's about 120 or so. People are firing at them from above, so what do they do? I know: let's run--all together now!--into the center of an open square in the midst of the people firing! It doesn't seem to occur to them to seek cover or to scatter so that some can draw fire while others escape.
Then we have amazing incompetence on the part of Troy. Troy is in wonderful condition (sigh): combat-toughened, muscular, mm, where was I?? Oh yes. He has a really long fight with the lighthouse keeper, who is middle-aged-to-old and clearly out of shape. Troy should've kicked his butt in nine seconds flat, but it drags on and on and on.
I suppose we should be grateful, because the fighting gives us a break from the script.
Then we have Moffitt, who, as Jan pointed out, is far too savvy to turn his back on the lighthouse keeper, who promptly knocks him out.
Then the lighthouse keeper gets his turn to display gross incompetence. Let's face it, from his perspective, Moffitt is a liability. And he's unconscious. Kill him, you idiot! Not only does the lighthouse keeper not kill him, he doesn't even TAKE HIS GUN.
Then Troy gets to be incompetent again, in some of the dumbest dialogue in the whole episode. He comes running in and finds Moffitt just coming around. Surely he must realize that the lighthouse keeper would have FIRST knocked Moffitt out and THEN left while Moffitt was unconscious, but that doesn't stop Troy from asking, "Which way did he go?"
Moffitt then solemnly points to... THE ONLY DOOR.
DUH!!!!
At least Moffitt has an excuse... he has a head injury. Troy just has a really bad script.
And another painfully long fight that should've been over a whole lot faster. Jan's right about the vertigo, too.
For a final crowning touch, Hitch gets a moment of Incompetence all to himself. If you watch carefully at the very end, he stalls out the jeep.
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