Hawaii Five-O (TV Series) One Born Every Minute (1974) User Reviews

Despite a somewhat rushed ending, a very good episode.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 16 April 2011]

This episode begins with what appears to be an attempted robbery and a shooting. Then, a policeman arrives and takes one of the people into custody. However, the shooting isn't real, the robbery isn't real and the cop isn't even a cop--it's all part of a very elaborate con job being masterminded by a genius con-man (Ed Flanders).

Next, you see another similar con job being pulled by the same gang--but this time it goes from start to finish. However, at the end, something unexpected happens--the victim is so distraught about being swindled that he takes a header off the balcony of his hotel--dropping 15 floors! It should be enough to force the gang to pick up and move to another locale, but they make the mistake of trying one last score before calling it quits.

I enjoyed this episode because it was rather educational. You get to see the swindle and its variations from start to finish and it's both complicated and interesting--making for a pretty good episode. The only negative, and it's not a huge one, is that the ending is a tad rushed. Still, it's well worth watching--especially to get a look at Lynette Mettey--a woman EVERY middle-aged man in the show seemed to like...a lot! By the way, if you watch the DID of an episodes two episodes before (Season 6, Episode 15: The Flip Side Is Death), you'll see about a 2-4 second clip from this episode (6:17). Most of the main characters from "One Born Every Minute" are seen in this clip of them--in their convertible. Why it was used twice, I have no idea--but it's clearly there.

This happens

[VetteRanger · 8/10 · 25 February 2023]

Hawaii 5-0 went straight to a common real con game here, with a bit of embellishment. It's the "Found Money" con, where the cons pretend to find something valuable and get the mark to put up some money to be invested in the payoff when the found money is returned to the "finders".

In this case, the "found money" is a diamond sale where one of the cons has the supposed diamond jewelry collection, and the leader of the cons finds a buyer for 200 grand, and then offers 100 grand for the diamonds. Then he laments he can't come up with the entire 100 grand. A pretty woman who has brought the mark into the scheme promises to come up with part of the cash, and the mark is left to volunteer the rest.

After flimflamming one mark, and then another who can't take the humiliation of losing 65 grand (the actor being a well-known android for the original Star Trek), 5-0 finally gets a hook into the scheme.

One Born Every Minute

[ringfire211 · 9/10 · 14 July 2021]

An excellent scam episode! After the first couple is scammed and we shift to Harry it really takes off and we're hooked, just as Harry is. What unfolds is a very interesting tale, something we never saw before or will see again on this show. When poor Harry jumped to his death that was gut-wrenching. Hated his nagging wife - total lack of sympathy. There's also a great scene before he jumps - he runs out of the restaurant with they key dangling on his finger. You can almost sense his heart racing. Total despair moment for poor Harry. That moment always stuck with me. Ed Flanders played a real scumbag here - total narcissist. He can't believe Harry jumped but there's zero sympathy. At the end he can't believe he got nailed by a "dumb cop". Hope McGarrett got him for murder!

Lots of stock actors here - Tommy Fujiwara, Jimmy Borges, Douglas Mossman, John Stalker, Patricia Herman, etc.

Lynnette Mettey in sexy guest starring role

[belanger75 · 10/10 · 13 November 2019]

Making her ( I believe) only H50 appearance Miss. Mettey is indeed the best part of a con game (run by more routine series guest Ed Flanders) where she baits middle ages fellas with a lot of money into buying fake diamonds. Every minute of the ep clicks and the highly talented Mettey is also a feast for the eyes.

Excellent, Interesting Episode!

[colorsflashing · 10/10 · 2 March 2018]

This is an excellent episode with a lot of meat on the bone, as it were. It concerns a bunco operation run by Joe Connors (Ed Flanders), who has returned to Hawaii after a stretch in prison to fleece the rich, middle-aged male tourists. His band of no-goodniks includes a blonde woman (Lynette Mettey) who acts as the roper, and several other Hawaii 5-0 regulars (Tommy Fujiwara, Douglas Mossman, and Jimmy Borges).

The blonde woman entices the marks, and just as they think they are going to get lucky, she puts them in the path of her cohorts, who in turn lead them into a diamond swindle, and trick them out of their money.

The episode starts by showing us the tail-end of one of these swindles. The whole matter comes to the attention of 5-0 because the crooks use a fake shootout to scare off the mark, and several bystanders report what they thought was a real shooting.

As McGarrett is dealing with the first mark, the roper is going into action with the next victim, a hapless fellow named Harry Maguire (wonderfully played by Michael Strong). (His wife, Natalie, is played by Patricia Herman, who was in a number of other episodes).

It is very interesting to see how they set up the con and get Harry to buy into it.

For me, this portion of the show is very sad. What the thieves do, for them, isn't personal. They don't care about the marks as people; all they want is to separate them from their money. And like their first victim, most of their victims just suck it up and deal with the shame. But poor Harry Maguire is dealing with a judgmental wife and relatives that never let him forget his mistakes. So when the rip off happens to him and he is scammed out of $65K that he had to wheedle out of his relatives, his shame and desperation are palpable. Michael Strong plays this part to perfection.

What the thieves do to him is truly nasty. When Connors hears of Maguire's death, he still doesn't care about Maguire. All he cares about is how it will complicate his own life. Talk about a toxic narcissist!

Fortunately, 5-0 is able to play on the thieves' greed to trap them.

Really excellent episode.

Plot holes but enjoyable because of Ed Flanders

[george_cherucheril · 7/10 · 21 September 2023]

Ed Flanders (Joe Connors) was a good actor and his presence on this episode is a plus. Michael Strong gave a good performance as Harry Maguire. It's also fun seeing many of the stock Hawaiian actors such as Tommy Fujiwara (Sunada).

The episode begins with George Heller (Peter Carew) sitting at a table outside with Cindy Imala (Lynette Mettey) snuggling up next to him. Joe is at the table with them and they are gloating about how much money they are about to make from a big sale. As they leave, Joe sees a man, Big Mardo (Jimmy Borges) rifling through the trunk of his car about to take the merchandise. Joe shouts at Mardo who responds by taking a shot at him. Joe has a gun and shoots back hitting Mardo who responds with another shot at Joe but misses again. Joe shoots again and hits Mardo who is now running away and struggling to stay on his feet. Joe, Cindy and George chase Mardo and find he is down and Joe states that he killed Mardo and has got to leave immediately. He drives off in the car.

Another gun shot is heard. Policeman, Elfidio (Doug Mossman) shoots his gun in the air and tells everyone to hold it. George makes a run for it but Cindy is apprehended by the police.

Next scene Danny arrives and now there is no dead body. He is told by a witness that a policeman took the woman in custody. Upon further investigation, there was no reports of a policeman at the scene Elfidio was an imposter. All the crooks are together with Joe the leader and Joe mocks his victims as pigeons just waiting to be taken.

George is called in for questioning. His wife, Sylvia (Connie Sawyer) is upset with him and makes him tell the truth. George was conned by Joe and Cindy for $35k. George thought they were selling diamonds for a profit but it was all a lie.

Che Fong determines the blood at the scene was "Dracula blood" meaning it was from a tube used by kids for Halloween. Five-O realizes the guns were shooting blanks. George wants to testify but McGarrett tells him the crooks have to be caught in the act. McGarrett tells George if they recover the money they will contact him.

If I were planning this type of con the last thing I would want is the attention of police. It makes no sense to stage a fake shooting scene out in public where police would be called. This chain of events started the Five-0 investigation and they were easily able to identify Joe and Cindy with some simple investigation. It started with George's description turned into a police sketch.

Joe and his team were dumb enough to execute another con, immediately after the con on George. This time the victim was another married man, Harry Maguire. Joe does not seem to realize that Five-O is investigating him. We see them pull of the con on Maguire taking him for money than they took George. Maguire had to borrow some of the money from his brother-in-law. The crooks leave Maguire at a restaurant absconding with his money.

Realizing he has been conned, Maguire returns to his hotel room and is accused by his wife Natalie (Patricia Herman) of being conned and running around with Cindy. Five-O had visited Natalie in a previous scene. Maguire tragically commits suicide by leaping out of the window and falling several stories to his death. We do not witness his death but learn about it in the next scene when McGarrett arrives at the death scene.

Next scene we see Joe and his crew in his hotel room. Joe is upset that for the first time one of his marks killed himself. Joe knows McGarrett is a smart cop and will be watching the airport. Why he did not think about this when he staged the fake shooting scene earlier with George is beyond me. Then, Joe makes the stupid decision to pull one more con while McGarrett is watching the airport. This is the con that gets him caught and arrested.

Cindy meets Alex Anderson (John Stalker) who is in town with a convention of meatpackers. Five-0 follows the crooks as they execute the scam. Alex is supposed to bring the money to restaurant. Cindy and Alex get into her car to leave the hotel but the valet parking attendant tips Cindy off that she is being followed. He noticed Ben in another car.

Cindy and Alex go to the meeting but Cindy is able to tip off the crew that Five-O is on them and to abandon the hand off of the money. Joe tells Alex that the buyer demanded more money and that he does not do business that way and the deal is off.

Later Joe and the crew are back in his room. Joe thanks the crew for their help. Cindy and him and preparing to take flight out of Hawaii. I guess back in 1974 you could board an airplane with a suitcase full of bills with no questions asked. Today you would be stopped.

There is a knock on the door, and it is Alex. Everyone runs to the other room except Joe who opens the door. Alex says he got the additional money for the deal to go through. Joe accepts the money and that's when McGarrett and team bust him. Joe arrogantly tells McGarrett there is no way to prove that Alex gave him the money. McGarrett informs Joe the bills were marked. Joe responds to McGarrett, "You conned me. A dumb cop, and you conned me. Me, Joe Connors."

A smiling McGarrett responds, "How does it feel? How does it feel to be conned by a dumb cop? Huh?"

This is a watchable show for the most part because the actors and execution are good. However, you have to suspend belief a little bit. A real con artist would never call attention to himself. The fake shooting scene at the beginning of the episode is what lead Five-O to identify Joe. Even more damning for Joe is that he does not understand this and instead launches a second con on Harry. After Harry commits suicide Joe finally starts using his brains and is worried about the police. He states that McGarret is a smart cop and will be able to track him down and that McGarrett is watching the airport so Cindy and him cannot leave town. The answer then would be to split up and lay low. Instead, Joe makes the incredibly stupid decision to pull off a third con. He justifies this thinking that McGarrett will be looking for him at the airport and thus not tracking his movements. At this point we know from Harry's wife's statement that Cindy was well known going around the beach and throwing herself at men. The last thing you would want to do is have Cindy out there again seeking another target with people already watching her.

If Joe was smart, he would have ended his con with George by leaving him alone at the table like he left Harry alone in the second con. He should have ordered his gang to split up. Cindy and him should have left the island asap. He knew George would go to McGarrett who would investigate him. McGarrett is a smart cop and Joe is a dumb crook.

So good until that fatal stumble at the end

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 21 October 2023]

This is an episode that I wanted to rate a 10, because I found it thoroughly engrossing. Also, Ed Flanders does an excellent job playing a genial con artist, who would be the world's best friend if he was in a more respectable line of work.

The rest of the supporting players are equally good. They don't give us Method Acting type performances, but they all know what role their characters have in the big con and it's fun to watch. Even when the shtick is repeated with the next set of victims, it's still engaging.

But the episode falls apart at the end, because of one fatal flaw that I think the scriptwriter could easily have fixed. The last victim is not really a victim, because Flanders' girl gets wise to the cops tailing them. So at the restaurant, Flanders gives the money back to the unsuspecting mark, and they all scram back to the hotel.

In the next few scenes, which feel rushed as another reviewer stated, McGarrett and company get the last guy to go to the hotel room and offer more money to Flanders, so they can catch him in the act of a fraudulent transaction. But...this doesn't really make sense, because as I said, the last guy was not a victim. He didn't lose any money or valuable items.

He was not technically a victim of a crime, and he would have no real reason to help the police. In fact, he might be afraid of retaliation by Flanders' gang if he did get involved. A guy like that would have just stayed out of it and quickly distanced himself from the whole mess.

Where the writer could have saved this plot twist, is if the last guy had been a relative or friend of one of the earlier victims. So he had an actual reason for wanting to help nail the crooks. Another way this could have had a better more plausible ending is if the wife of the guy who committed suicide had helped McGarrett get Flanders, because she wanted to avenge her husband's death...and Flanders would not have met her before and he would not have guessed she was working for the police.

Again, it defies logic that the last victim, who never lost any money, would want to get even. It's a plot twist that is inconsistent with the story's overall premise, which is that victims want justice. In this case, we have a non-victim wanting justice, which just doesn't make sense.