Product Description
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Filmed entirely on location in Hawaii, the show followed Jack
Lord as he played Steve McGarrett, head of an elite state
unit investigating "organized crime, murder, assassination
attempts, foreign agents, felonies of every type." James
MacArthur played his second-in-command Danny ("Danno") Williams,
with local actors Kam Fong, Zulu, Al Harrington, and Herman
Wedemeyer, among others, playing members of the Five-O team.
Guest stars included Helen Hayes, Ricardo Montalban, Leslie
Nielsen, ert Lom, Hume Cronyn among others. McGarrett's
nemesis is the evil Wo "a Red Chinese agent in charge of
the entire Pacific Asiatic theatre.
.com
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The sky is blue, the sea is a brilliant turquoise, the surf is
up, the scenery is lush and gorgeous, and Steve McGarrett's hair
is as stiff as the breeze blowing in off the Pacific. In other
words, all is right with the world as Hawaii Five-O: The Third
Season arrives in a six-disc, 24-episode (including a pair of
two-parters) box set. McGarrett, of course, is the main man in
the islands' crack, four-man unit; played by Jack Lord,
he's the guy memorably described by the New York Times as "beyond
cool but still so square he could have been Lawrence Welks cop
brother-in-law." Not much has changed in his universe as the
series moves into a new decade (these episodes aired in 1970 and
'71). McGarrett is still the humorless embodiment of moral
rectitude; imperious, often sarcastic (especially when dealing
with the fools from other law agencies who dare
challenge his authority), he's one of those guys whose moral
superiority is unquestioned, especially by him. Steadfast cohorts
Danno (James McArthur), Kono (Zulu), and Chin Ho (Kam Fong) are
still on hand, as is the usual assortment of bad guys, most of
them risibly stereotypical--including arch-nemesis Wo (Khigh
Dhiegh), a kind of cut-rate Bond villain who speaks elaborately
formal English as he plots to help Red China overthrow all that
is good and righteous in the free world. And as in the first two
seasons, Hawaii Five-O's style is notable primarily for the lack
of it, especially in the stiff acting (with the exception of a
few guest stars--notably Hume Cronyn, who's terrific in the
season's most amusing and clever episode, "Over 50? Steal"),
lukewarm action sequences, and appalling hair (if bad cuts and
silly sideburns were a crime, the streets would be empty and the
prisons full). But then, that is precisely the show's charm.
Also as in past seasons, the Five-O crew takes on crimes both
common (murder, robbery, extortion, kipping) and not so much;
in "Reunion," some World War II vets are convinced they've come
across the Japanese officer who tortured them during the war,
while "The Last Eden" features with eco-terrorism and "And Time
to Die" deals with China's nuclear secrets. In the end,
regardless of the problem, it's McGarrett and company's dogged
work that solves it. Meanwhile, the music remains the
series' hippest element by far; while Nancy Wilson might not be a
particularly convincing junkie in "Trouble in Mind," her
renditions of the title song, "Stormy Monday," and other tunes
are absolutely first-rate. Bonus features are again limited to
brief, previous-week promos for each episode. --Sam Graham