Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) Murder Is a Taxing Affair (1973) User Reviews

A darn good episode.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 27 March 2011]

McGarrett receives a call from the IRS on the weekend. It seems that someone the agency wants for tax fraud has fled to Hawaii and is currently on a plane bound there. So, McGarrett and the gang go to meet the plane--only to discover the suspect dead in the planes lavatory! Obviously someone murdered him and took the dead man's bag--which was stuffed with $600,000! However, there was a glitch in the killer's plan, as when he rushed from the plane (in disguise) to get the dead man's bag, by accident he got someone else's and these innocent folks got the cash! So, the killer spends the episode looking for the cash and killing anyone who gets in his way. Who is the killer? Well, tune in and see for yourself--I don't want to spoil it.

This show had a very novel plot--clever, VERY violent for the series and had some really nice twists. I particularly loved the ending where you have Jack Dodson ('Howard' from "The Andy Griffith Show") acting like an action hero (very briefly) as well as a SUPER-violent ending that you just have to see. Gritty and exciting!

Don Porter

[Flubber69 · 8/10 · 11 August 2022]

Don Porter is outstanding in the primary villain role in this episode. The eclectic fusion of characters from "Gidget" and "The Andy Griffith Show" adds to the fun.

And the piece de resistance: McGarrett jumping from an HPD helicopter wearing a black cowboy hat!

The dominoes of greed

[VetteRanger · 8/10 · 3 February 2023]

My review title might have made a better title for this episode, as a suitcase with six hundred thousand dollars causes the deaths of three people and almost two more.

Don Porter, a staple on series and guest appearances from the Fifties until at least the Nineties, plays an IRS agent on the trail of the original man holding the cash. In disguise, he kills him on the plane to Hawaii, and then removes the disguise to show up and work directly with Five-O to ostensibly solve the case of both the money and the murder!

However, a vacationing couple winds up with the suitcase by accident, in an old identical luggage mistake at the luggage carousel.

It's another in the solid 5-0 history of unique cases. One thing is for sure ... their writing team had great imaginations.

Murder is a Taxing Affair

[ringfire211 · 10/10 · 30 June 2021]

Yet another winner!! Easily a top 5 for the season for me! I remember this one from when I was a kid and remembered the IRS guy being particularly brutal. That was before I even knew what IRS was LOL! I just remembered he was some government guy who was a killer. It took a long while before I saw this episode again and I remembered why I loved it so much. Don Porter was really good as Jonathan Cavell, the murderous IRS agent. Loved how his desperation grew as the money kept slipping away from him. Loved the trap our guys laid for him by having him come back into McGarrett's office to take a look at the hotel guest list. Loved McGarrett's brainstorm about Cavell when he began to shade in the beard and sunglasses on Cavell's picture. Really good detective work in this one! I gotta say that the casting of the couple was interesting because Sally Kirkland was young enough to be Jack Dodson's daughter. But somehow she looked older than she really was so it worked pretty well. Dodson played the town clerk Howard Sprague in the color episodes of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. You really feel their terror at the end when Cavell is about to order them to drive forward off the cliff. Cavell was one obsessed and cold-blooded dude! His leap off the cliff (major OUCH!!!) is probably my favorite ending of any episode! What a way to go and he sure deserved it.

When I last visited Oahu one of the reasons I was looking to stay at the Marriott is because of this episode! :) Always loved the scene where Cavell goes from one balcony to the next after tossing the room. Those Marriott balconies are very recognizable! Of course at the time it was the Hawaiian Regent. Ultimately I ended up staying at the Hyatt.

Another McGarrett Ridiculously Impossible Insight

[WYAdams · 1/10 · 9 July 2022]

As happens in so many episodes, McGarrett suddenly gets divine inspiration from heaven above that leads him directly to the criminal. This time he decides to investigate the federal agent based on nothing, except the need to move the story forward so he could be caught. There was no reason to do it and it ruined the entire episode.