50 years of "Wednesdays, Ladies Free"

[Bobbi]

Fifty years ago tonight, CBS aired S04E03 "Wednesdays, Ladies Free".

Five-O is on the trail of a warped serial killer (Soon Taik Oh) who strangles his victims and then "dolls" them up with blonde wigs and heavy makeup. The episode opens at the apartment of victim #5. There is a sixth victim during the course of the show. To complicate matters, private investigator Jerry Rhodes (Monte Markham) is in the mix because his wife was one of the killer's victims.

Turns out, the killer has been rejected by his favorite hooker, Cathy (Sheilah Wells), and goes off the deep end. Cathy has left her past behind her and married an Army officer (Norman Dupont). She's even pregnant at this point in her life. Cathy isn't interested in dredging up the past even to get the killer off the streets.

Jerry is the kind of guy that will stoop to any level as he sets up the killer to see Cathy at her new address! The confrontation ends with the killer shot dead by Jerry and Cathy traumatized after being choked. The twist when McGarrett and Danno show up is classic!

Mr. Mike's excellent review and gallery are here: http://www.fiveohomepage.com/5-0log4.htm#75

Another solid episode from the series and again, not one of my favorites but it's well done. I especially like how the team runs down all the commonalities between the victims - where they worked, shopped, and lived. The whole team runs it down even though we don't see every second of that part, it's not needed. We, as viewers, knew what they were doing. This run down leads them to a car wash on King Street where they give free car washes to women on Wednesdays, thus the title. The discovery also leads them straight to the killer, a mechanic who has only been working at the car wash for a few months.

Happy 50th, "Wednesdays, Ladies Free"!!

[ringfire211]

Let’s not forget the excellent and creepy score by Richard Shores! The man doesn’t get enough credit for his creepy/suspenseful scores. This one, Journey Out of Limbo, A Bullet for McGarrett. All top notch works!!!

Most seem to just remember his “action” scores like Forty Feet High, And a Time to Die, 3,000 Crooked Miles, etc.

[John Chergi]

Thanks Bobbi for the 50th Anniversary episodes. Wednesdays, Ladies Free this time. It's an incredible episode! I love how the Strangler investigation is worked from both ends. Rhodes is working the investigation as his wife was 1 of the Strangler victims. He's a Private Investigator. One of my FAV scenes is the amazing all-nighter when the HFO Team combs through each victimology. Age, Employment, Location Of Residence, Married/Unmarried, Religious or Church Membership, and other things. It was excellent writing and realistic how the HFO team tried to find the common thread. I'm glad they had Rhodes in the episode. It added an extra great quality to it. I really felt sympathy for Cathy. She had a new life with a military officer husband. A baby on the way. Her new life was very respectable. Now this killer threatened to ruin everything. Some HFO fans and I think Mr. Mike mentioned it about Rhodes admitting to killing his wife. He should have just zipped his mouth. They would have had to prove Jerry killed his wife in Court. Not easy to prove. Wednesdays Ladies Free is a psychological type episode and serial killer episode. I think it is greater with each watch. On a Four Star scale, I would easily give it 3.5 stars. Maybe even higher. JC

[Mr. Mike]

Let's continue music discussion here:

https://hawaiifiveo.org/forum/showth...-Musical-Stuff

[Todd]

I like when they called Cathy's former clients, and most of them were pretty appalled to be getting a call all those years later.

One of them simply yelled "Not interested!" and hung up!