The Double Wall stood 50 years ago

[Bobbi]

S03E14 "The Double Wall" aired 50 years ago tonight.

The episode follows convict Harry Kellam's (Monte Markham) desperate attempt to have someone believe his innocence. He's in prison for killing his partner, Tom Chaney who we never meet, three years earlier. Kellam is helped along with a death bed confession of the real killer Ritchie (Morgan Sha'an). However, there's a problem: no witnesses heard Ritchie confess. Kellam then goes off the deep end when he grabs a riot gun from a guard named Bates (Al Harrington in a pre-Ben Kokua role) and takes the prison doctor, Dr. Berman (Sorrell Booke), hostage. At the onset, Kellam demands to see McGarrett who Kellam wants to re-open his case.

There are more familiar faces with William Schallert playing Kellam's slimy lawyer Wilkie. We saw him as a slimy lawyer in Season 1's "Once Upon A Time" and as an undersecretary of station K7 in Star Trek's "The Trouble With Tribbles". In McGarrett's first meeting with Wilkie, McGarrett is extremely impatient saying multiple times he has no time. I don't know, if you'd shut up and let the man talk you may actually walk away with some good information?

Another familiar face is Mills Watson who is Banyan, the hired gun by Wilkie and his accomplice Bedford (Peter Whitney) who gives Banyan's his orders. Watson made multiple guest appearances with various Universal produced shows in the 1980s. Needless to say, the three are eyeball deep in murder as we find out during the course of the show. Then there's Cowan (Richard Roat) who actually witnessed Chaney's murder but Wilkie somehow bullied him into not divulging everything he saw. The next familiar person we see is Joan Van Ark as Cowan's wife. I don't know how early in her career this guest role was but she's pretty fun to watch.

When it's all over, McGarrett and Five-O discover Kellam is actually innocent and Wilkie is one slimy character. His motive is simple greed as he had Kellam and Chaney's books doctored to show their company was failing, when in fact, it was flourishing. With Chaney dead and Kellam imprisoned, Wilkie "held all the marbles". Five-O knows this thanks to Danno's work in tracking down Wilkie's garbage of multiple corporations all over the country. The final confrontation is bad for Wilkie because the trio talked about everything in front of Cowan's wife, so now she's a witness too when before all she could tell Five-O was hearsay.

Mr. Mike has a great review here: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log3.htm#62

While this episode has some stock shots with McGarrett arriving at the prison, arriving back at the Palace and where he goes to visit Wilkie (although this is the first instance of the Park Lane turning onto an inclined driveway near a high-rise); it's a solid effort all the way around. My favorite music cue shows up again as McGarrett pulls into the prison, which made me really happy.

Speaking of favorites, one of my favorite scenes of the whole series is in this episode. When Kellam finally succumbs to exhaustion, Dr. Berman takes the gun away and is about to walk out. However, he stops and takes a seat behind his desk to wait out the conclusion to the case. Sorrell Booke is known most famously as Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard but this dramatic role was highly entertaining. I love the fact that the doctor didn't cut Kellam's legs out from under him and gave him the benefit of the doubt. It shows there was some interaction between the characters and maybe there's something in the doctor's gut telling him that Kellam is indeed innocent.

Five-O showed it was ahead of its time again with a prison confession. I don't know how seriously they were taken in late 1970, but they have closed several cold cases, especially in recent years. There are a few that come to mind.

Happy 50th, The Double Wall!!

[John Chergi]

A Great Double Wall 🧱🧱 50 Anniversary post Bobbi. Excellent episode and 1 of the most realistic and superb prison episodes I've seen. Harry Kellam has maintained his innocence even though he was found guilty of murdering his friend and business partner Tom Chaney. Kellam assists the Doctor in the infirmary where he attends to a stabbed prisoner Ritchie. In a death bed confession, Ritchie admits to the contract killing of his partner Tom Chaney. Jackpot Lotto odds that the killer would confess to the innocent man already in prison Kellam. That they would be in the same prison. Kellam's initial high excitement is extinguished🧯quickly when Dr. Berman and a nearby guard Bates did not hear the confession. Kellam sensing an opportunity takes Dr. Berman hostage at gunpoint and has McGarrett summoned to the prison. McG agrees to examine his case and only has so many hours to find the evidence to exonerate Kellam. HFO receives a break as Kellam the prisoner is weary from working a shift. He can't stay up too much longer before sleep overtakes him. The Double Wall is fast-moving as McG and the HFO team have to visit several people in a short time. Wilkie (Harry Kellam's Lawyer) and Ted Cowan (A Witness) are 2 as well as another man who gives HFO important information. Tom Chaney was a more successful gambler than it was reported to be. Through their investigation, McG & The HFO team realize Chaney & Kellam's business was successful. Somebody or others had gone through plenty of work to make it look differently. Cowan finally has the courage to talk and contacts Wilkie the Lawyer. Wilkie doesn't like this development and Banyan the hit man is contacted and takes out Cowan dramatically. He was on his way to visit Wilkie and is shot in his vehicle while waiting for the light to change. I think Mr. Mike and a few people have mentioned this over the years. Don't know how Banyan performed the shooting from the angle shown as there was a line of cars plus Cowan was driving. It would have to be a shot from the street or a person quickly running up to the car and shooting. Very suspenseful ending! I would give The Double Wall 🧱🧱 3.5 stars ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 out of 4 stars. One of the most underrated episodes in the Hawaii Five-O 🌊 catalog. JC

[Todd]

Just watched this one for the first time since the mid-1990s.

I agree with John Chergi that the episode was underrated. I haven't seen it on anyone's "top 10" or "favorites" list, but it arguably belongs there. The only real problem with the episode is that it lacks mystery. We find out very early that the lawyer did it!

The ending has a small hole, as well. McGarrett shoots Bedford in the arm, who then drops his gun and simply leans against the wall, still standing. When Banyan takes Cowan's wife hostage, and demands McGarrett drop the gun, he is suddenly shot through the window by fellow villain Wilkie, who claims that he was simply trying to save the woman. McGarrett snaps back that he killed Banyan out of necessity, to prevent him from talking. But there's one problem! What about Bedford? He's still standing in the hallway, so he could easily talk, even with Banyan dead! Oops! This plot hole could have been fixed by McGarrett killing Banyan, instead of just injuring him!

However, as Mike points out, it's possible that Wilkie saved the day simply to earn leniency from McGarrett or the court, as McGarrett barked at him, "NO DEALS!", seemingly assuming that was what Wilkie wanted.

Like Bobbi, I also liked the scene where Dr. Berman cut the tape off the gun of the sleeping Kellam. Not only was the scene suspenseful (much more suspenseful than the lame action trope of cutting wires on a bomb), but there was a sweetness to the whole thing after the doctor got control of the gun. After almost walking out, he realized that ending the hostage situation could put Kellam's life in danger from law enforcement storming the place. Instead, he simply took the gun, laid it on his desk, sat down in the room, and let Kellam sleep! That was some favor to do for a man who was possibly going to kill him, but Berman seemed to have true empathy for Kellam's situation by the end.

If I were McGarrett, I would have attempted to get a message through to Kellam that the case was close to being solved -- and that he was likely going to be cleared. It was obvious to McGarrett after not too long that it was a frame job. Why leave Kellam twisting in the wind, wondering if any progress was being made? Such a message could have put the doctor in less danger.

Richard Roat, who played Cowan, just died this August, at the age of 89. Monte Marhkam is 87 and still alive. Joan Van Ark is 79 and still alive. Mills Watson, who played Banyan, is 82 and still alive. Pretty good for four of the characters of this 1970 show to still be alive as of July 2022, and for three to still be around today!

Anyway, I give this episode 4 stars. Really enjoyed it.