The Rat Patrol "The Chain of Death Raid" #1.5 (1966)

Plenty of drama, 14 July 2017

After an encounter in the middle of the desert, Troy and Deitrich are left stranded. After a brief standoff, the pair is taken prisoner by slave traders, chained together, and made to march across the hot sand. After escaping their captors, still chained at the wrists, Troy and Deitrich must depend on each other if they are to survive the desert's heat. But, how long will their truce last?

The Chain of Death Raid is a very, very good episode. There's not a ton of action, but there is plenty of drama. I don't think that I've mentioned the quality of the acting in what I've written about the previous episodes, but Christopher George and Eric Braeden (or Hans Gudegast as he's credited here) are outstanding. You can see the respect and distrust in their eyes. Nice job. This is one episode that isn't served well by the 30 minute run-time. An hour would have given these two fine actors a better chance to fully flesh out their characters and the story. And that leads me to my biggest complaint with The Chain of Death Raid – an ending that felt horribly rushed. Their mission to destroy a Nazi held oasis is carried out in a matter of minutes. It's like The Rat Patrol had a quota of Germans that had to be killed in every episode even if that meant cramming all the deaths into a couple of minutes.

7/10