Friday, September 14, 2007

The Rat Patrol #6: Desert Masquerade -- David King


When I mentioned the novels based on the Rat Patrol TV series a while back, I said that there were five of them. Well, I was wrong. There were actually six Rat Patrol novels, and thanks to Scott Cupp, I’ve now read that elusive sixth one, DESERT MASQUERADE.

Those of you old enough to remember the TV show probably recall the set-up as well. Four commandos (three Americans and a Brit) run around North Africa in a couple of jeeps equipped with .50 caliber machine guns, harassing Rommel’s Afrika Corps in general and one officer, Captain Hans Dietrich, in particular. DESERT MASQUERADE varies quite a bit from that typical scenario and is more of an espionage yarn, with the four members of the Rat Patrol operating in disguise behind enemy lines as they try to obtain some vital information that will allow the Americans to break a stand-off with a German armored column commanded by Captain Dietrich.

For the most part this novel is a comedy of errors as the author cuts back and forth between the Rat Patrol, the rest of the American force, and the Germans under Dietrich. Everybody thinks they know things they really don’t. Most of the mistakes result from false information being sold to both sides by a group of Arab spies. Everything finally works out so that the Rat Patrol emerges triumphant, but hey, you knew that going in.

I don’t know much about the author, David King, except that his real name was Howard Pehrson and that in addition to five Rat Patrol novels, he wrote a few other war novels and some Westerns as King and also contributed a couple of early books to the long-running adult Western series Slocum, as by Jake Logan, including the first book in the series. DESERT MASQUERADE kind of pokes along in places but ultimately is pretty entertaining if you’re a fan of the TV series, as I was -- and am, since I’ve watched a few episodes from the DVD set Livia gave me for our anniversary last month and so far they hold up pretty well. The music cues seem a little too dramatic and overdone now, but that’s Sixties TV for you. The location filming, with Spain standing in for North Africa, is spectacular. I’m enjoying the show so far and expect to continue doing so.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the moment I'm working my wasy tjrough Season 1 and it hlds up well. still enjoy it. Gonna pick up Season 2 as soon as it drops to $19.99.

Hey, I'm frugal.

RJR

Charles Gramlich said...

Cool discovery. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

Anonymous said...

You know Chris George went on to do some pretty good roles in John Wayne movies, the best being the role in EL DORADO as Ed Asner's hired gun Nelse McLeod ("He's right, Charlie. It shouldn't have taken three of you.") As I recall, the actor who played their ongoing Afrika Korps nemesis was billed as Hans Gudegast, but he later had (or has had) a long career in the soaps as Eric Braeden.

James Reasoner said...

Yeah, I liked Christopher George in those Westerns, too. A shame he never got to do more work in that genre. I also seem to remember that he played the lead in THE IMMORTAL, a pretty good TV movie based on a science-fiction novel by James Gunn.

Eric Braeden has been a regular on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS for something like thirty years now, playing (I think) tycoon Victor Newman. I say I think because I've never watched an entire episode of Y&R despite being an off-and-on fan of some soaps. (THE EDGE OF NIGHT!) Braeden also did at least one memorable guest shot on GUNSMOKE (a series that really holds up well on DVD).

Juri said...

I don't think I much liked his tie-in novel from the Mankiewicz-Douglas THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN, but his kind of a writer always interests me. He seems to have been a literary author at first: there are some records of him with James Jones and some other authors working at Handy Writer's Colony in the late fifties:

http://www.uis.edu/archives/h3.html

There just doesn't seem be anything published under his own name. It would be interesting to know what he was working on at Handy Colony - what's "Now Is Not Forever"?

pattinase (abbott) said...

This is the sort of show I never watched when I was a kid. Instead I watched The Flying Nun or Petticoat Junction because they had girly storylines. Now I know my life would have benefitted by this sort of show--better written and more compelling. Why was I such a girly girl?

James Reasoner said...

Hey, there was nothing wrong with PETTICOAT JUNCTION. I watched it all the way through and enjoyed it, although as I recall the first few seasons were the best. But I always liked Edgar Buchanan and Charles Lane, a couple of fine character actors. And Linda Kaye Henning was cute as she could be.

I don't remember watching THE FLYING NUN very much, though. An episode here and there, maybe. But I believe I read the book it was based on.

James Reasoner said...

Juri,

Interesting stuff! Thanks for the link. Since James Jones' first, unpublished novel evidently still exists in manuscript form, I'm surprised somebody hasn't ever published it. I'd probably read it if I got the chance.

Juri said...

Something I haven't remembered to say: Rat Patrol was never shown in Finland, as far as I know.

Viagra Online said...

Are these novels so good like the TV series? If they are something like that, I would like very much to read them all. I will look for the whole collection. Buy Viagra Viagra

More Birds Please said...

Howard and his wife, Harriet, we're very good friends of mine in the 1980's. We Lived next door to them on N. Willamette In Portland, OR for four years. So nice.
I'm not sure which book it was, but he told me he wrote a book about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Not even sure if he said it was published or not. Harriet said the steam came up off of his typewriter when he did the ghost writing for the Longarm series. lol

James Reasoner said...

Thanks for your comment! It's always nice to connect with someone who knew these authors in real life. The book you're thinking of is BUTCH CASSIDY, THE SUNDANCE KID, AND THE WILD BUNCH, published by Paperback Library in 1970 under the David King pseudonym.

Unknown said...

Did he ever mention his daughters and grandkids?? Just curious