For A Million...Why Not? is the 8th episode of Season 4 in the original version of Hawaii Five-O
Synopsis[]
While Steve McGarrett is at the Oparta trial (No Bottles...No Cans...No People), a rightwing fanatic war veteran, Hawkins, is the leader of a gang that murders and steals an armored car with $6,0000,000-and Danny Williams has to stop Hawkins and recover the loot! In a climatic scene Hawkins and his gang are trapped in a Oakland California warehouse; Hawkins tries to get away in the armored car; the insane Hawkins is shot, tries to run Danny Williams down in the truck but ends up being burned alive! Of the gang two are dead; three are captured {facing 20 years to life for 4 count of Murder and robbery}. Steve congradualtes Danny for solving the case.
Cast[]
- Jack Lord as Detective Captain Steve McGarrett
- James MacArthur as Detective Danny Williams
- Al Harrington as Ben Kokua
- Kam Fong as Detective Chin Ho Kelly
- Gilbert Lani Kauhi as Kono Kalakaua
- Hawkins...Sam Melville
- Noonan...Al Harrington
- Blumberg...Jack Kruschen
- Printer.....Glenn Cannon
- Driver......Harold Lee
Review[]
- Date of crime is 23 August 1971
- Once again, Al Harrington plays a killer
- Glenn Cannon playing The Murdered printer in the beginning of the episode also shows him dying in "3,000 Crooked Miles to Honolulu"; later he became a series regular playing the Hawaii District Attorney John Manicote
- Plot Holes: In the hijacking 3 guards are killed (2 shot and 1 suffocated when Hawkins pours acid onto the steel floor ) one plot hole is carbolic battery acid produces gases when mixed with seawater (Such as happened with a Sinking U boat in World War II) not with steel alone {Steel and the carbolic acid produces corrosion)! Sulpheric Acid on steel is also corrasive. Besides it also burns the money as well) One connunity blooper not only shows the money being placed in the armored car and a guard closes the door in an ordinary way [not using a key to lock the padlock]; when the 3rd guard is killed he cant get out because the door is padlocked from the outside (in real life the door would have had a securty lock on the inside not a padlock on the outside); also the "killed" guard is shown outside the truck when the money is placed inside the truck which drives away-yet he is not shown getting inside the truckas well ! In real life it would have been impossible for the guard to have gotten inside the truck where he "dies" after the door was locked! A give away that the dying guards "death scene" was filmed on a stage set is that the "walls" are solid..they dont have gun portholes! (The unnamed extra appeared in 3/16 "Ten Thousand Diamonds and a Heart" as a Security Guard who locks down an eleavtor to try to trap the diamond thieves; in 5/30 he appears as HPD Sgt who is shot at from a Bunker.) Also the scene of the money being placed in the truck shows one guard taking the money out and transferred to the truck two others {one the driver and another guard in front seat] and the 4th standing guard {who plays the 3rd "Killed Guard"]....why wernt the two remaining guards following the armored truck? The Diamond Head Tunnel entrance for the ambush was later reused in the 4th Season epsiode "The Ninty Second War" as a entrance to a US DOD underground Bunker
- The Armored Truck actually resmebles 1940's milk truck.
- The Bullets hawkins uses are .50 calibur which cant fit within .30 rifles!
- In the climatic last scene in the shootout between Hawkins and the police, Noonan [the driver] and Hawkins try to use the truck to run Danny Williams down; Noonan is killed and the insane Hawkins tries to use the truck to run Danny Down..but crashes and burns.Connunity errors : A long shot in The last scene shows Noonan in a white shirt driving the truck toward the agents; then a short shot shows the wounded hawkins in a blue shirt on the left hand [drivers side] side trying run Danny Williams down; a giveaway the Hawkins scene was filmed on a stage set is because the truck is gray but the truck frame hAwkins is in is painted blue!
- The Pier dock is supposdly Oakland California but is actually hawaii-it was the setting for 3 epsiodes later "A Matter of Mutual Concern"
- The late Sam Melville also played a part on a three part episode "Gold Train: The Bullet" the TV show Gunsmoke as a member of an outlaw gang that steals a wagon load of gold from a train-yet end up unable to escape in the middle of nowhere, stranded with the gold and no food or water! Ironically, Melville's best known part is that of a policeman on the TV show The Rookies (co-star was Gerald S. O'Laughlin, who played a convict on Hawaii Five-O.). {In his three appearence on Hawaii Five O Melville plays a criminal who always gets killed!
- Take a look at the car Hawkins drives away in after the robbery-a classic 1950's coupe!