French site which reviews Classic H50

[Mr. Mike]

I have rediscovered this French site which is mainly for The Avengers, but it also reviews tons of other TV shows, including Classic H50. Some of the opinions regarding our favorite episodes will make your eyes pop, though.

Unless you speak French, if you want to translate stuff to English, you must use a browser which has a "Translate (to English)" prompt found by right-clicking on the page; choose this prompt, which will change everything to English (or your preferred language).

At the top of the page for each season, there are large arrows. Click on the right pointing arrow to go to the next season, or the left arrow to go back.

Note that for H50, there is an error. If you click on the first thing in each season's list, it will not work (this has been reported); if you click on the second show, you can then scroll backwards to the first show.

If you want to see other series that have been reviewed, click on the link that says HORS SÉRIE at the top of the page, which will produce a drop-down menu.

To see the H50 section of the site, go to this link:

https://lemondedesavengers.fr/hors-s...-police-d-etat

[Mr. Mike]

Here is a sample of reviews from the French site, for The Bells Toll At Noon. This is translated to English with Google translate, I have not cleaned up the translation at all.

This episode gets ONE STAR out of four from the reviewer:

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Charlie Hazard (Kevin O'Connor), must reveal important information to McGarrett. Steve gets angry at the man's lack of caution and he is right: he is shot dead by a hitman at noon in front of a church.

Jack Lord is behind the camera to direct this episode. Multiple guest stars Milton Selzer and Don Knight are back.

Father Neil (Mel Ferrer) witnessed the murder. He was waiting for Charlie who had a meeting with him and wanted to talk to him.

Shortly after, Tommy Saito (Jimmy Borges) meets Steve and talks about his murdered sister. The two men listen to the killer with the spectacled rifle, who makes a group of students laugh by telling funny stories. The latter, however, has a voice that is particularly painful to listen to. His name is Johnny Kling (Rich Little) and he makes Steve laugh.

The killer keeps seeing Raoul Walsh's "The Fantastic Twenties" at the cinema over and over again with James Cagney and Humprey Bogart, and tends to think he is Cagney. He goes to James Kellman (Milton Selzer). He brings the man to his knees and shoots him after pretending to be "Mr. Cagney", then phones McGarrett to challenge him.

When Steve goes to the meeting, Johnny Kling asks McGarrett to turn on an old phonograph which plays music from "Fantastic 20s", and to open a door: Kellman, mummified, falls stiffly in front of a stunned Steve who feels like a real old thriller.

On a beach, our cracked killer kidnaps Bob Thayler (Don Knight), while Steve, through a sketch drawn by a female witness after Kellman's murder, identifies Johnny Kling as the assassin. With Danny, he goes to his house and finds that his apartment is a real museum dedicated to James Cagney. A little earlier, Kling visited Tommy's sister's grave. The latter swears to Mc Garrett that the man did not know his sister.

Family reunion of all the guests of Hawaii State Police: the projectionist at the cinema is played by Kwan Hi Lim!

Meanwhile, pretending to be James Cagney in "The Public Enemy" (1931), the madman reconstructs the story by threatening Thayler alongside huge vats of gasoline. Steve gets his surrender. But during the arrest, Kling begins to perform a dance move.

This episode deeply disturbed me. Jack Lord wanted to pay homage to the Hollywood cinema of the golden age, but Rich Little plays like a pig. He histrionics and is not for a moment credible. We note that every time the series wants to think outside the box, it's a disaster. Here, the suspense does not take a single minute as Iry Pearlberg's scenario is grotesque. We could compare this opus to the one where the Five O team only arrived after twenty minutes, "Who is the target? (08.05) where a young actress invaded the screen in front of the astounded viewer. Or the episode with Leslie Nielsen in the wild west, 07-07 "Sense of justice". We feel sorry for Jack Lord who wanted to be "original" and create a story that was out of the ordinary, but in the end , it's a total flop. Too anchored in its reality as a detective series, the Hawaii five O saga cannot tolerate atypical episodes.

[ringfire211]

His review of Bells Toll at Noon (a classic!) makes no sense. His claim that Five-O is too anchored in reality to tolerate atypical episodes is absolute nonsense! Where is this coming from? How many weirdos and psychos and schizoids have Five-O dealt with over the years? But for some reason he has a problem with a killer who has a fascination with Cagney??? What about Arthur who killed people who resembled comic book characters? That’s not more far fetched? I think so. Wonder what he thinks of that one. And besides what does he consider to be the “typical” Five-O episode? Or one that’s anchored in reality? Episodes about drug dealers and organized crime? I for one am glad that we got more than just that from this show. Otherwise it would be a pretty dull show. Variety is what made this show great. He also complains about the Leslie Nielsen episode as being too “wild west”? I guess he doesn’t realize that there are ranches in Hawaii and paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys). And he complains about the Susan Dey episode too in the above review. I’m not even sure what his beef with that one is. Hard to understand. But I guess it’s another example of not a “typical” episode.

[John Chergi]

I wouldn't give The Bells Toll At Noon 1 ⭐. Better episode than that I think most will agree. I do have some small problems with the episode that mark it down to about a score of 3 Stars.

1. Johnny Kling has battled back from drug addiction and has a period of sobriety. He has his comedy career back on track. Life back in order. Why would he start killing people? Throwing away all the progress he has made in his sobriety and his comedy career.

2. Johnny appears to be a very coherent organized offender in planning and carrying out the killings but the ending has him jumping back from Kling to playing a character. I think this psychological angle not needed as Kling is an organized revenge type killer.

3. One of my biggest problems...Danno says the older woman hotel owner is all over the place on the description of Johnny Kling. Yet, the final composite drawing of Kling is nearly perfect. Like a Polaroid picture of Kling. That's when McG stops the car abruptly. Noticing the incredible resemblance from the picture and Kling.

4. I think this could have been handled with Kling working with HFO and pretending to be using again. Working with HFO to assist in apprehending the people involved in the death of the young woman he secretly loved.

5. Some things I did enjoy...The Start Anew guy giving some background on Kling and him giving back with the comedy show. Also, the attractive woman near the end when Kling kidnaps Thaler I think that's his name. Liked how they weaved the old movies into the story. Richard Little is still alive today and he had 1 of the most memorable guest acting appearances as Johnny Kling. He did seem larger than life. JC

[Mr. Mike]

I think the problem with this review is that you don't hear Rich Little imitating these actors. Because the show was dubbed into French, you are listening to some French dubber who is imitating the actors, would that be the same guy who is dubbing Rich Little's own voice? Or would they hire some other actor(s) who normally dub other actors like Bogart, Cagney, etc.? The reviewer said "Rich Little plays like a pig," but he's not listening to Rich Little!!