Malihini Holiday

"Malihini Holiday"
Hawaiian Eye episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Howard W. Koch
Written by	Robert J Shaw, from a story by Juanita Sheridan
Original air date	October 7, 1959
Guest stars
Patricia Driscoll : Mavis Purcell Duncan Lamont : Peter Purcell Efrem Zimbalist Jr : Stuart Bailey
Episode chronology
← Previous "None (series debut)" Next → "The Waikiki Widow"
List of Hawaiian Eye episodes

"Malihini Holiday" is an episode of the American television detective series Hawaiian Eye.

Synopsis

Stuart Bailey asks Tracy Steele to watch out for Englishwoman Mavis Purcell, who is arriving in Honolulu on a cruise ship. She has had a series of accidents that her brother deems suspicious. Her husband, Peter Purcell, is an artist who will be illustrating a book by Bill Garrison. As the ship docks, the Purcells are greeted with leis by Hawaiian friends of the Garrisons, David Kimu and his fiance Lala Kealoha. Mavis falls overboard and is rescued by David.

Additional accidents happen at the home of Bill and Peggy Garrison where the Purcells are staying, culminating in a tragic car accident that kills Lala. Meanwhile, a stranger, Michael Thompson, is seen talking to Mavis Purcell. While trying to stop David from attacking Peter Purcell, whom he blames for Lala's death, Tracy Steele realizes that the accidents are a blind for a plot by Mavis and her lover Michael. They intend to kill Peter Purcell, and had faked the earlier accidents to make it look like he was trying to kill her. Steele and David rescue Peter from Thompson, but in the process Mavis is accidentally killed.

Episode cast

Series regulars

• Anthony Eisley ...as Tracy Steele
• Robert Conrad ...as Tom Lopaka
• Connie Stevens ...as Cricket Blake
• Poncie Ponce ...as Kim

Recurring characters

• Doug Mossman ...as Security Guard (uncredited)
• Andre Philippe ...as Shell Bar MC (uncredited)

Guest stars

• Patricia Driscoll ...as Mavis Purcell
• Duncan Lamont ...as Peter Purcell
• Efrem Zimbalist Jr ...as Stuart Bailey
• Ross Elliott ...as Bill Garrison
• Edward Kemmer ...as Michael Thompson
• Tracy Roberts ...as Peggy Garrison
• Sal Ponti ...as David Kimu
• Pilar Seurat ...as Lala Kealoha

Musical interlude

All the Warner Brothers detective shows of the late fifties and early sixties had one or more musical interludes written into the teleplay. For this episode, Poncie Ponce plays the ukulele and sings You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, while Connie Stevens sings Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love with the Shell Bar band. The band also plays a Hawaiian instrumental as accompaniment to a classical hula performance.

Episode notes

This debut episode of Hawaiian Eye was tied to the successful parent series 77 Sunset Strip by having guest star Efrem Zimbalist Jr reprise his "Stuart Bailey" character, and by having Connie Stevens use the line "as a friend of mine says, its the ginchiest", a reference to the character of Kookie, as played by Edd Byrnes.

Anglo-Irish guest stars Patricia Driscoll and Duncan Lamont, who portrayed a married couple in this episode, were married in real life.

It was unusual for a television show of the 1950s to have so many people killed, and later shows, for whatever reason, did not have as many people killed as this first pilot episode.