Murder on Voodoo Island, Part 2

DVD, Starsky & Hutch S3 (Murder on Voodoo Island, Part 2)

On paper this would appear to be an exciting prospect for an episode: S&H decide to spring the captive millionaire from the lair of his enemies, Starsky fights Hutch to the death, and there's a car chase round the island with S&H driving them off a ramp into the sea! But what gets written on paper and what actually manifests on screen are two separate entities. The glue that would hold or break apart these story ideas, is motivation, and that is severely lacking or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, isn't very evident on screen. Undeniably, there are some twists that turn things on their head (Thorne's 'nurse,' Charlotte Connery, being revealed as the mastermind behind everything; and Thorne turning out to be the lost Father of Janice Regan wearing a bald cap!), but aside from Connery's desire to get into Thorne's millions by seeming to marry him and then having him die (she's called Thorne's widow by one of her associates at one point), we don't come to understand why her 'Bond girls' (Easy, Silky and Pussycat), do what they do, or, for that matter, how and why Papa Theodore is involved. Are they all doing it for a share in the money? Is it something else? And what was the whole deal with Johnny Doors, who finally gets to be part of things, only for us to find that side of the story was a blind so that we would have someone to suspect, and then they can reveal Connery's role in proceedings?

The tonal problem of Part 1, which dithered between horror and comedy isn't so much of a problem, but that's because both tones are much weaker. While things are less silly (not altogether, but certainly less jokey), and less funny, the vacuum isn't filled with a greater sense of terror at the power and danger of Theodore. He remains a laughable (and cartoon bad guy laughing), figure who continues to throw fairy dust in people's faces (Doors), and appear in grinning closeups in hallucinatory guise, or having a whale of a time playing with dolls and spouting mumbo jumbo. You never get a sense of a brilliant mind or someone of great evil pulling the strings as he's merely a cartoon and, it turns out, almost a pawn of Connery's, certainly an assistant to her rather than the big bad behind it all. And if the dark villain isn't an engaging or powerful presence, his works of magic are even harder to reconcile with the usually more real world setting of the series. The big question left from Part 1 is why Theodore left S&H lying in the surf on the beach, and didn't kill them. Do we take it to mean he had no way to kill them because he hadn't yet created voodoo dolls of them, perhaps waiting for mail order parts to arrive?! He's in league with common criminals so you'd think that if he was serious about offing them he'd just shoot them, or drown them (unless leaving them at the water's edge was a casual attempt at doing so!). Instead they're free to continue to be a thorn in the side just so we can continue to have the threat of Theodore killing them hovering over the story. Except now he had his chance and didn't take it, he loses any power he had in the narrative.

It seems they want to preserve Papa Theodore's mystique and the desire for a brooding atmosphere to hang over the episode, but they failed, even more than in Part 1, while also setting up the ludicrous premise that Starsky would ever be able to be mind-controlled into attacking his partner, to kill him. At least the scene wasn't badly shot, and while the stunt guys earned their pay with the cliff-top tussle, the cuts between them and the real S&H were well done. I just couldn't get past the fact that Starsky's great friendship with Hutch could ever be broken by the use of magic. Having him try to kill his partner is a good concept, but not through the motivation that is presented on screen. There wasn't even a strong impression in the build up, though they had ample time for it as Starsky is right behind Hutch as they clamber over rocks and make it up the cliff face. There's a slight feeling that we're supposed to be concerned, but Starsky never looks out of character until they reach the very top, and if they'd had him shake his head or zoomed in on his confused face to show that his mind was on the verge of breaking, it would at least have given us something to grip onto. If it had been that he was under the influence of Papa's drugs and ended up swaying at the top of the cliff, Hutch realising he was in danger of falling and rushing to help him, and then Starsky was so disoriented that he thought it was Theodore and fought him off, which plunged them over the edge, it would have been a more believable sequence of events. As it is, it adds to the episode making very little sense in the context of the series.

Even stranger, at the end, in Godfrey's office (suspiciously similar to Captain Dobey's, down to the exact same layout!), Hutch expresses disbelief in voodoo, while Starsky's still worried by it. This after he's been made to writhe on the floor, his partner's gone crazy and attacked him, and they've witnessed that Theodore has somehow enthralled Thorne so he can be commanded to obey. It's silly to see voodoo used as a power in the series, but even Hutch must have become a believer after all that happened to him! That's one of the reasons it would have made sense for S&H to play along at the end of the first episode - if their rolling around was all an act to keep from getting killed it would have made some sense, but as it stands, people really were under the influence. The one exception I could cite would be Johnny Doors whose own wild fear throws him into a panic and excites him into losing all good sense and running across a busy road. All because he heard a flute playing! His only purpose was to act as a decoy for viewers who assumed his mob connections were the answer, when in fact he was a friend of Thorne. The same for Chief of Police Godfrey, who initially seemed as sinister as anyone, but becomes an ally, though not the most useful one - apart from jollying along with a motorised dinghy, he doesn't do much. To cap it all, the episode ends with what is supposed to be an amusing aside: Starsky breaks the news to Hutch that Theodore disappeared and escaped prison, and it sort of ends with a 'so there you go.' If they were setting it up for a sequel they couldn't have left it any looser.

There never was a sequel, however, and that was for the best as Theodore wasn't much of a character, he was just there to emphasise the horror aspects of the story, which were pretty weak in this part. Neither episode had a strong feeling either way when it comes to the positive or negative portrayal of life in S&H's world, mainly because, like their other two-part episodes, it was all location work and nothing to do with the city they patrol. They really had no business being involved and if it does one thing, it sets the limbo bar for the season so low that you'd think it would be easy to raise it when we get back to what passes as the normality of city life. Unfortunately, I don't think the series could limbo that low and get out the other side still standing (to continue the analogy). The story just smacked of wanting to do something big and get off on a holiday location to open the season, and this time it didn't work. It was too far off the beaten track for the pair to really work well, and they didn't come out of it looking good, what with the botched marketplace snatch, tedious treading water to use up time with not a lot happening, and even their undercover S.L.O.B. act as Knight and Day, only an aside this time for the benefit of Jerry and Phil. Dobey doesn't even appear, and for all the promise of meeting more of Huggy's family members, he's barely in it, showing up at the market and piloting the dinghy at the end.

The car chase almost saves the episode's dignity, as it is pretty fast and fun with the desperation you expect, and multiple vehicles speeding after them when they're only armed with one gun and a wheelchair (Janice losing her grip on the other as she flailed around, uselessly), and you get the familiar style of the pair flying by the seat of their trousers and having to react, all the while getting sarcastic or bantering with each other. A little taste of what the series is all about, but that's about the only taste of it. It made me laugh when, at the beginning of the chase, Hutch bundles Thorne (actually Bert Regan), into the back of a car driven by Starsky, who then speeds off, and Hutch runs across the grass to leap into the back as Starsk passes the bend - hilariously, it seemed to be just for the sake of it! If only it had had a roof, he'd have ended up with his legs in the air as his partner drove away, as happened many times before! For some reason the chase made me think of the one at the end of 'Mission: Impossible 2,' perhaps because they were both on an island setting, dashing round coastal roads. The end of it was typical: they run out of road and just keep going, up a ramp and straight into the sea, something I believe was parodied in the awful film revival!

After the opening montage, there were no opening credits unlike Part 1, and neither episode ever showed the episode's title, which they tended to do on two-parters. Papa Theodore was known as the Haitian Blood Drinker, and they keep talking of 'the mainland,' so it seems that's one confusion cleared up, the location must be Haiti. The scene in the market with Starsky selling hats and necklaces (and spouting 'hats for the sun, necklaces for fun, buy one, get one free-ee'), was quite amusing, if only for the fact that the baddies must be blind not to be able to spot S&H standing out from the other people, especially as Starsky was calling so much attention to himself. It would have made more sense for them to be watching from a secure location and have Huggy doing that as the man on the ground, but the real reason I mention it is because this is one of the clips that would be used in the opening credits. There's also a swimming pool, though no one falls in, it's just part of the joke on either Jerry or Phil (I can't remember which), as he thinks he, his mate and one of the girls are to go skinny-dipping, but in fact the others are clothed when they all drop their towels. An incongruous leftover from Part 1 where that might have made more sense, but I suppose all the scenes around the Playboy Hotel were to remind us of the Bond girls' presence, ready for the reveal of their part in the conspiracy. The old trick of having a good guy talk to someone on the phone, relay important and secret information, then when they ring off, the camera pulls back to reveal their ally isn't alone after all, was used to good effect, although Connery as the baddie was odd.

At least certain characters get to do something this time, such as bodyguard Baron (fooled by the Big Green Voodoo Bird's behind you, trick), so he wasn't that great of a bodyguard after all. Was he always Thorne's bodyguard, or a plant by Connery? If he had been, then he failed his man, as Thorne died months ago, though it's unclear if he died of natural causes or thanks to Connery, Theodore and the gang. I would assume Baron was part of the gang, rather than being fooled into thinking Thorne was still alive. Joan Collins as Janice gets a little more to do, too, though she proves a bit useless, and again, might have been in Part 1 purely as an unknown quantity so we don't know whether she's for or against Thorne's aggressors. Philippe never turned out to be much of a role, and neither did anyone else's, but one thing's for sure: the credits for this episode were a complete mess. You couldn't tell who was in it and who wasn't (certain characters, like Meghan or the Taxi Driver, were very definitely only in Part 1), as the end credits were the same as Part 1, and since there were no opening titles for guest starring roles, the main players weren't even credited. It's as if they designed it to be a single, feature-length episode, which would mean you'd only need one set of credits, but as far as I know that's not how they presented it, unless it had a second life as a TV film? I think this problem existed in other two-parters, and maybe it was the convention of the time, but it's strange to me.

The episode is light on the traditions of the series, with only a few references: 'Rodan Meets Godzilla' is cited as the inflight film for S&H's return journey, but whether this is a genuine film, I don't know; Johnny Doors admits he's no Albert Schweitzer, who was a German missionary who won the Nobel Peace Prize; and Starsky actually mentions James Bond this time, giving greater credence to my suggestion that this whole thing was a Bond homage, or at least, was heavily inspired by some of the Roger Moore entries in the series (as the current Bond of the time) - he asks if this isn't the time when Bond usually fires his rocket launchers, as they flee their pursuers in the car chase. I'm looking forward to getting back to the more recognisable aspects of the series with the succeeding episodes. They may be a little more boring, but at least there are more tropes and connections to spot. I can't say that these two episodes were boring, but they were just too outlandish and messy. They weren't well put together and left loose ends and lacked motivation, and S&H didn't get a chance to really get back into character very much. The rescue of 'Thorne' was getting towards that, as was the ensuing chase, but it was too little, too late, and now that they've allowed magic as a potent force into their world it's difficult to take the series as realistically as before (as far as you can realistically take a series about two cops that often go undercover in a bright red car!), but that's Season 3 for you…

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