24. Die Spezialisten (Six Kilos)

Auf dem Honolulu-Airport wird der berühmt-berüchtigte Safeknacker Monashee verhaftet. Um herauszufinden, was diese Unterweltgröße auf Hawaii vorhatte, schlüpt McGarrett in dessen Rolle und bezieht das für Monashee reservierte Hotelzimmer. Schon bald treten die Gauner an ihn heran. Über Tonband bekommt er die Anweisung, aus dem Tresor der Yacht eines reichen Chinesen etwas herauszuholen. (Text: Kabel 1)

Deutsche TV-PremiereFr 17.09.1971ARD
Original-TV-PremiereMi 12.03.1969CBS

This show has been long unavailable for some inexplicable reason. It's not offensive. In fact, it's rather weird. The direction by Seymour Robbie reminds me of a "foreign film." This analysis will be a bit more lengthy than usual, and also contains tons of spoilers. The show begins when safecracking expert John Warnash (a.k.a. Harry K. Brown -- played by Edward L. Dew) disembarks from a plane at Honolulu Airport. As he walks to the terminal, he is hustling some woman. After being paged, he receives an envelope which contains the key to an airport locker. Danno and Chin Ho are standing around looking very stunned. Brown opens the locker which contains a roll of bills and a reservation for a Hilo hotel. Chin approaches and pulls out his badge. Chin is punched to the floor by Brown, who whips out a gun. Danno pulls out his gun and shoots Brown dead. At the Five-O offices, after a brief discussion, McGarrett takes over Brown's persona -- why he does this is never specified. McGarrett says he "cracked a few safes for naval intelligence" which presumably qualifies him to be an expert. McGarrett flies to Hilo. He speaks to some babe, saying "How's the action around this place?" Entering the hotel room he finds a bug in the lamp -- he has also duplicated Warnash's identifying tattoo on his arm. Carl Swanson enters the room with a gun. Played by Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Swanson is one of the major characters of the tense hostage drama, The Box (episode #16) -- Six Kilos was actually filmed first. Swanson queries McGarrett; McGarrett wants to know about "The Man" who is behind the operation. Swanson takes McGarrett to an expensive oceanfront house where he meets his safecracking cronies, Andr (Than Wyenn) and Margi Carstairs (Antoinette Bower). "The Man" issues instructions on a reel-to-reel tape (the tape is in the middle, not the beginning). Danno snoops on McGarrett and his pals from a boat offshore with a high-powered lens. When he takes pictures, the angle is totally wrong -- how can he photograph their faces when they are facing away from the water!! Margi tells the safecracking crew that she works for Quon Ling, who has diplomatic immunity. Their take will be a million bucks, split four ways. We cut back to a scene in The Governor's office. The Governor has an interest in this case (though again, we are not told why) as does some mysterious government official with him. Five-O checks on the house, which is rented by a guy named Hiro Tagati. Back at the house, McGarrett spies an envelope on a table and picks it up, which causes Swanson to freak out and punch him. The envelope contains a tape and blueprints for Quon Ling's ship, where the safe to be cracked lies. The foursome go to the dock to check out the boat where there is a lei seller (rather odd -- is this a busy public dock?) as well as Kono in a taxi. Kono takes McGarrett to a tennis game where he talks briefly with Danno. At the Mauna Loa Hotel, McGarrett meets this beardo who has a bracelet containing the nitro that McGarrett is to use for blowing the safe. Just as Beardo turns this over to McGarrett, some guy who knows McGarrett arrives on the scene and blows his cover!! Fortunately McGarrett threatens to blow them up with the nitro and Beardo is nabbed by Kono. Back at the house, McGarrett shares a drink with Margi, who asks whether she can trust him. She gets philosophical, talking about how ordinary people can become monsters. McGarrett says, "Come on, baby, we were talking moonlight and orchids, remember?" After receiving more taped instructions, McGarrett figures out that the prize in the safe is six kilos of uncut heroin, worth $40 million bucks. (Gold is worth a piddling $35 an ounce.) Margi attends a party on Quon Ling's boat, and Swanson arrives as a refrigerator repairman working for the "Muana Loa Refrigeration Service." The others swim onto the boat and punch out the guards, who don't seem very attentive! Margi knocks out Quon Ling with a Mickey Finn, and Andr locates the safe with a strange detector and cuts a panel out of the wall. (How did Quon Ling get access to the safe then?) When everyone synchronizes their watches, the minute hands are all the same! Some punk attacks Swanson, and his watch is busted. This interferes with his plans to throw the main power switch on the boat, killing the lights. Swanson throws the switch and everything is in chaos. Fortunately the foursome all escape, diving into the drink with the bags of heroin. At the finale, a tape from "The Man" says the payoff money is in a stone lantern, but when Andr checks it out, it's empty. Margi unexpectedly shoots both Swanson and Andr, but she hesitates to blast McGarrett. Fortunately for McGarrett, Danno and Kono appear with guns drawn. The tape recorder is now running at fast forward. When McGarrett puts it on "play", he adjusts it to play back at the correct speed (is this some kind of a variable-pitch recorder?) and "The Man" is revealed to be Margi (the slowed-down voice did sound effeminate). Overall, McGarrett talks far too much in this episode in his "Harry Brown" characterization, more so than he did in a similar undercover role in #7, The Ways of Love. The music by Stevens is mostly recycled from other shows.