The Incredible Hulk (TV Series) Goodbye Eddie Cain (1981) User Reviews

Film noir Hulk

[Chase_Witherspoon · 8/10 · 23 December 2011]

Cameron Mitchell is a Sam Spade-Philip Marlowe styled PI whose services are engaged by an old acquaintance (Anderson) to uncover the plot behind a threatening letter. David (Bixby) is employed by Anderson as the gardener on her vast estate, but his attentions are diverted by the randy teenage daughter (Holmes), and the implication that he's behind the extortion plot.

As the other reviewer remarked, the dialogue is reminiscent of the forties film noir, although less refined (the metaphors are simpler than the Paraprosdokian dialogue that was a signature of Bogart and the film noir genre). Veteran character actor Mitchell plays his Spade-Marlowe inspired character with aplomb (an affable, wily old-school operator with all the appropriate motifs) and fellow tough guy Anthony Caruso appears as a Mafia Don with whom Anderson was once well acquainted.

Bixby (and for that matter, the Hulk) are essentially peripheral to the storyline as Mitchell takes centre stage in this Jack Colvin directed episode. There's a good Hulk-out scene where he transforms after being pinned beneath a car when some goons discover Mitchell spying, but otherwise, this is "Chinatown" with a twist of lime and one of the highlights of the series.

A Very Well-Written Episode

[mark-albright · 8/10 · 14 November 2009]

This happened to come on one of our local rerun channels today, and I was glued to the screen. I remember The Hulk being generally well-written, but this film-noir style episode is particularly good. One almost gets the feeling that the writers came across an old movie script and adapted it for the show. The notable exception to the otherwise excellent script are some awkward lines of dialog issued by Eddie Cain about two-thirds of the way into the episode--lines delivered in an almost goofy style that don't match the somber tone of Cain's narration. Beyond this, the word choices are so sharp, and the delivery so thoughtful, that it really takes you back to a much earlier age of screen writing. Combined with a convoluted plot that will keep you guessing 'til the end, this is a very good episode indeed.

The Private Eye

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 22 November 2014]

Jack Colvin(Jack McGee) took a turn directing this episode, which stars Cameron Mitchell as a private detective named Eddie Cain, who tells the police a tale about how he was hired by a wealthy woman(played by Donna Marshall) to investigate a threatening letter that involves her beautiful daughter Vicki(played by Jennifer Holmes). Also implicated in this plot is the mysterious gardener named David(Bill Bixby) whom he can find no information about. Both men will team up to get to the bottom of this mystery, which will involve ruthless and unexpected suspects indeed...Nice change-of-pace episode with good direction and performances trying to emulate a Sam Spade type of mystery.

More like "Hello Eddie Cain", but...

[flarefan-81906 · 7/10 · 30 November 2017]

Jack Colvin steps out of his role as McGee for an episode (nothing unusual there) and into the role of director (very unusual). This time David is a gardener for a wealthy family, and the mother is being blackmailed with evidence of infidelity. This brings her old friend, private eye Eddie Cain, into the picture. Eddie has deduced that the blackmailer must be working from within the household - and that makes our no-background David the prime suspect.

David running afoul of gangsters is nothing new, but this episode mixes things up by telling the story entirely from Eddie's point-of-view, and having him narrate it film noir style. The narration comes off more as parody than successful pastiche, but it's not awful, and having Eddie Cain as the protagonist is an inspired move. As much is going on with David as in any other episode, but because we can only see it from Eddie's limited viewpoint, it acquires considerable intrigue as we have to piece it all together. It also makes it easier to see why David looks so suspicious.

Considered as a straight-up noir mystery, this episode holds up decently as well. There's a large cast of well-defined characters, a good dose of surprise twists, and a strong balance of sleuthing and action. Adding the Hulk into the mix makes things even more fun. Colvin does fine as a director, too; the filming holds up to the series's standard of solid quality.

The one quibble I have here is that with a name like "Goodbye Eddie Cain", and the series's record of delving into human interest, you'd expect this episode to say a little something about the human condition. It doesn't. But as entertainment, it's quite solid.

Unwatchable

[NxNWRocks · 1/10 · 8 October 2023]

The problem with doing a pastiche of classic hardboiled detective noir is it's almost always a poor imitation with dialogue that is trite. This is the case here, where the constant voiceover framing is extremely irritating and the story is hackneyed. Nicholas Corea wrote much better episodes than this.

Cameron Mitchell just isn't really suited to this role, and his performance grates. By around the 30 minute mark I couldn't stand to watch any longer, and yet I stuck with it but had to concede defeat and fast forward through the last ten minutes. This makes two clunker episodes back to back with the lame Fast Lane episode preceding it.