[notting@bobby:~ ]$ rsh localhost ls -l
localhost: option requires an argument -- l
usage: rsh [-nd] [-l login] host [command]

[notting@bobby:~ ]$ rsh localhost "ls -l"
total 4441
-rw-r--r--   1 notting  notting      4476 May 23  1997
16colors.txt
....

This worked on earlier rsh versions.