Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: numerous including Michael O’Herlihy, Ron Winston, Allen Reisner, Harry Falk, Marvin Chomsky, Bob Sweeney, Corey Allen, Leo Penn, Alf Kjellin, Via Vision Entertainment
Cast: Jack Lord, James MacArthur, Kam Fong Chun, Gilbert Lani Kauhi
Out on DVD: James MacArthur (left) and Jack Lord star in the television police-drama series Hawaii Five-O that premiered in 1968. The 43-disc collection of the first seven action-packed seasons are available in the one pack from Via Vision Entertainment.
The 1968 television series Hawaii Five-O was certainly a ‘ground-breaking mix of crackling dialogue, suspenseful plots, Hawaiian locales and irresistible soundtrack’.
The first seven seasons (of 12) are now out in a DVD collection. The show’s theme song, composed by Morton Stevens, became popular during the show’s original run.
The tough-as-nails McGarrett (Lord) had come to Hawaii to avenge his father’s death, but when the governor offers him his own task force, he accepts. He oversees state police officers – Danny ‘Danno’ Williams (MacArthur), veteran Chin Ho Kelly (Kam Fong) and streetwise Kono Kalakaua (Zulu).
A few recognisable actors make special appearances in Seasons 4 and 5. France Nuyen and Herbert Lom guest star in the first episode of Season 4. A 10-year-old missing-person’s case is re-opened when an archaeological dig reveals the bodies of a man and a woman who were murdered. In an episode titled 3,000 Crooked Miles to Honolulu, Buddy Ebsen plays a cunning professor who runs an intricate scheme to cash $750,000 worth of stolen travellers cheques in Hawaii. David Canary also guest stars.
In Two Doves and Mr. Heron, Vic Morrow plays a tourist who does not want to press charges after being robbed of his wallet by a hippie (John Ritter). Unfortunately, this means trouble for the visitor as the wallet contains a key to a storage locker that contains $250,000, which he had embezzled from the mainland. Barry Sullivan has a guest spot in episode 19 titled While You’re at It, Bring in the Moon which sees an eccentric billionaire, suspected of killing one of his business associates, too afraid to leave his yacht to clear his name of the crime. He suspects another, and so abducts McGarrett to help him.
One episode sees ‘Danno’ going undercover to flush out a drug ring operating from a vessel in the U.S. Seventh Fleet, while McGarrett seeks a killer whose targets have been wives of Army men who have come to Hawaii to meet their husbands on furlough.
Michael Ansara and George Chakiris guest star in the first episode of Season 5 titled Death is a Company Policy. Duke Lukela of the Five-O team is implicated in the slaying of an underworld figure’s ‘business associate’, as part of a plan to protect a investment that is tied to a building that had Duke’s name on the list of investors. The ‘Boss’ is trying to throw the team off by making sure that anyone associated with (or betrayed by) him are sent to the bottom of the ocean.
Thanks for the Honeymoon has Patty Duke as a guest star. It sees an underworld fringe character agreeing to turn state’s evidence against a mobster if McGarrett releases her from prison and arranges her wedding to the father of her unborn child.
Another episode sees the senior partner in a stock exchange firm creating a daring, and seemingly foolproof scheme, to rob the Honolulu Stock Exchange. Richard Basehart makes a notable appearance.
Fighting to enforce law and order in paradise, the Hawaii Five-0 team faces some of their biggest challenges yet as they fight to keep paradise safe from the most dangerous criminals on the islands.
