MovieChat Forums > The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977) Discussion > Death Surf

Death Surf

posted 17 years ago by RikerDonegal
4 replies | jump to latest

After a girl dies in Hawaii, her father hires Frank and Joe to find out who she had become in the years since leaving home. Frank becomes smitten with her memory. It's a plotlist I've seen on shows like Lou Grant and Quantum Leap and I must admit to being a sucker for it. The idea of man falling in love with a woman based solely on her impact on the world around her is wonderfully romantic, I think. And the Hardy Boys version of the story is pitch-perfect.

Parker Stevenson is wonderful as the lonely Frank, haunted by his inability to save the girl (he was near her on the beach the day she drowned), and Shaun Cassidy is likewise great as the younger brother, very worried about his sibling and getting pushing aside when he tries to rein him in. Their fight scene, one of the only times (maybe the only time?) we see the brothers shouting at one another, is powerfully acted. But, across the board it's a strong cast. Jack Jones, Jack Hogan & Maren Jensen (from Battlestar Galactica) are especially good. Jensen appears in several scenes, shown on a large TV screen, as the dead girl performing a song in a local bar. The song is wonderful, and there's no credit given for the real singer (Jensen is miming to what is probably not her own voice).

Being the Hardy Boys, it all turns into light-mystery fare, and before too long their hotel room is ransacked by a bad guy (John Mark Robinson). This always happens in The Hardy Boys. Their room is forever being broken into and searched. In happened last week in the train episode, and the week before in the voodoo episode. In fact, Frank appears totally non-plussed when he walks into the torn-apart hotel room, as if he was just expecting it to happen. Again.

My favourite part? Joe (who as played, and I understand scripted, by Shaun Cassidy is quite adept at witty one-liners in every episode) has been cornered by a very attractive, and forceful waitress in the local bar (a funny turn by Tara Buckman who I recognise, but can't place. Maybe it was her Buck Rogers episode). "What's your sign?" she asks leaning in on him. "Yield!" quips Joe, fleeing the scene.

http://yetanothertvreviewpodcast.blogspot.com/

[–] blueingreen88 17 years ago

Haha! I'm in the middle of watching this episode RIGHT NOW and I have to wholeheartedly DISAGREE with you, my good man! So far, "Death Surf" is striking me as the single biggest Hardy Boys howler yet! The dialogue is unintentionally hilarious and not the least bit believable, and I love how Maren Jensen looks on the old videotape that the Hubba plays for Frank... she looks like she's catching a whiff of some stinky cheese while singing those god-awful lyrics!

I'll get back to you when I finish the second half, but this one is CRACKIN' ME UP!

[–] RikerDonegal 17 years ago

LOL Fair enough.

But I love this type of story. I didn't think I would enjoy any of the episodes after Voodoo Doll, so it was great to find one that I was really, really into.

It's funny. I remembered it very well once it started, but it's not one I remembered over the years.

I'm down to the last two episodes now. One is, I think, a real goofy one, with Nancy kidnapped and forced to dress in an old dress (?).

I don't remember Campus Terror at all. I think. But I do remember their being one where they went back to a large room that had previously been a casino, and it was now empty. So it must be Campus Terror (?).

http://yetanothertvreviewpodcast.blogspot.com/

[–] blueingreen88 17 years ago

Hey... I finished it last week, and it ended just as badly as it began. Maybe the premise had promise, but the execution was just completely off on SO many levels, whether it was the countless, lame references to CASABLANCA; the comical way Joe bounced off the bed after being attacked in his hotel room; the sheer, utter goofiness of Frank falling for someone he didn't even know, simply because "everyone loved her"; that Guy Who Looked Like Lou Reed; that horrible, horrible song Jensen sings; all that time spent at the end to establish just how much Stevenson and Jensen cared for each other, even though Frank would be off somewhere else by next episode; and that GOD-AWFUL role of the female bartender and her unbelievable, ridiculous come-ons to Shaun Cassidy. Just embarrassing!

(The one credit I will grant it: The unexpected--and completely out of the blue--well-played dramatics between Frank and Joe.)

Oh, well. To each his own. I still stand by my earlier post that THE HARDY BOYS, in general, hasn't aged quite as badly as you might expect, but out of the first 2 seasons out on DVD, "Death Surf" is definitely the all-time turkey of the bunch. But in a laugh-riot sort of way!

[–] marshall crist 16 years ago

Are you counting the Nancy Drew episodes? I thought the Santa ep was just dire.