Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) Highest Castle, Deepest Grave (1971) User Reviews

In homage to a great film noir!

[garrard · 9/10 · 13 March 2007]

A "Laura-esque" tale finds McGarrett obsessed with the painting of the late wife (France Nuyen) of a local industrialist (Herbert Lom). Lord and his detectives get involved when two skeletons are discovered and the mystery of their murder is afoot. Nuyen plays both the wife and her daughter, the latter having a bit of a secret of her own.

The story benefits from great performances from Lord, Lom, Nuyen, and acting coach legend Jeff Corey. The lush score by Morton Stevens is another of outstanding contributions to the series, making his music another of the show's attractions.

This episode was the season premiere of the show's fourth season and was a great one to have that honor.

In many ways, more like a "Movie of the Week" installment instead of "Hawaii Five-O".

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 15 March 2010]

My summary isn't really a criticism of the episode--more of a commentary on the style. Stylistically, this is one of the stranger ones from the series and it played more like a made for TV movie. And, like another astute reviewer stated, it's rather reminiscent of the movie "Laura".

Before I get to the actual episode, there are a few observations about the cast. French-Vietnamese actress France Nuyen makes an appearance. Trekkies will immediately note her as "Elaan of Troyius" from the original "Star Trek. Herbert Lom was the perennially perturbed Chief Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther films. Two interesting acting jobs done by future Five-O members were Herman Wedemeyer ("Duke") playing a judge and Moe Keale ("Truck") from the final (and pretty sad) final season.

The show begins with some archeology students coming upon an old Hawaiian burial site. Most of the bodies are hundreds of years old--but, inexplicably, two are very, very recent--having been murdered about a decade earlier! McGarrett has to try to piece together who they are and who killed them. The problem, however, is that no one is cooperative in the investigation and it's obvious that the mystery is very deep.

Overall, an interesting show but also one that really isn't particularly great. I mostly was annoyed at the idea of a picture of a woman that is so remarkable that people become captivated with it--even McGarrett to an extent. This seemed a bit silly. I did, however, like the solution to the mystery and who the actual killer was. I guessed this correctly about halfway through the episode, but still thought this was pretty clever.