Kona Coast

Just happened to wake up at 3am last night and went to watch satellite TV to try and get back to sleep and this came on. This film was so bad that it was compelling viewing and as a result I couldn't get back to sleep!

A quite poor script, and dreadful acting by ALL concerned, but worst of all was the plot which has been explained by previous posters so I won't repeat it here. The film attempts to potray emotion and dignity and utterly fails - not even the funeral of one of the main characters made you care. The characters are completely devoid of any depth or meaning, and you really don't give a damn about what happens to any of them.

Think below average "Hawaiian Eye" episode on location and you pretty much have this awful movie. Compared to it any rando episode of "Magnum P. I." or "Hawaii 5-0" will look like Citizen friggin Kane. The story is so uninteresting that after twenty minutes the question in my mind shifted from "How did Sam's daughter die?" to "Will Dick Boone ever doff that ratty yellow windbreaker?" And speaking of Boone, he has rarely been this lifeless. He seems, with the full cooperation of his buddy, director Lamont Johnson, to have fully embraced the Aloha spirit of "Aint no big deal, brudda". But he is not alone in the Lousy Acting Dept. Joan Blondell supplants Paul Newman in "Mackintosh Man" as the winner of Worst Australian Accent by a Yank award and Chips Rafferty, whose Aussie accent is considerably better because he hails from Broken Hill and not Brooklyn, a la Blondell, decides, in the absence of directorial control from Johnson, to engage in some serious dying burn victim scenery chewing. Hell, even Vera Miles hams it up in her initial meeting with old flame Boone. And that is where I pulled the plug on this bilge. Cannot stand to see a fine actor like Miles, who starred in John Ford's two best films, doing bad work. C minus.

Kona Coast is good drama fare One of the simplest movies to follow and get behind, allowing that you don't follow it too closely. Kona Coast stars Richard Boone (Have Gun, Will Travel) as crusty old Hawaiian fisherman Sam Moran whose daughter washes up OD'd on the beach. Forget the cops, Sam's gonna deal with the lily-livered punk who got his kid strung out. Unfortunately, his own boat is torched when he gets too close, critically injuring an old fisherman buddy of his. Now this old guy wants to die at home "Take me to Kona, Sam..." Using his buddy's crew of three young, distrustful hippie types,including a girl, who seem to be as surly as he is, Sam takes his friend, and his friends' boat to Kona Coast, which is kind of like the Long Beach of the islands; dirty, but people still party. Sam is enough of a thorn in the side of the new luau/drug king to get the guy's attention as he sends his thugs numerous times to mess him over. Sam Moran, it seems, makes friends easily, and enemies three times easier than that! I think it's because he takes a certain percentage of lip off of people. What's the percentage? Well, i'm not sure i got it exactly, but i think it's pretty near...ZERO, my friend. You cross this guy, he hurts your ass. No freakin' joke. He'll slap you, punch you, spank you and sometimes when he's telling you how worthless you are, you can FEEEL the booze on his breath. I have loved this film ever since i was a kid and i think that's one of the aspects i liked about it. He said what he meant, dam the consequences. Some jackass strung his daughter out and killed her. And this same jackass was now screwin' with him. Something definately has to give, and it does. When this baddie (played with comic evil flair by Steve Inhat)gets his, it just plays right. It's raw, it's real, and it makes us all feel better. Joan Blondell plays the sister of Sam's dead friend. I didn't like her in the movie as Sam's friend was from Australia with this thick as syrup accent and his sister was from Queens or something. Whatever. I did like Sam's love interest played by an actress whose name i can't remember. She whined a lot but i think i had a crush on her anyway. Nice hair. This movie is unavailable on video and will probably always be. A shame. It was VERRRY 60's and VERRRY islandy. If you have a copy of it or more info, write.

Creepy men drug up young Dee Carol during a party with lots of beautiful girls. In a haze, she calls her estranged father, charter boat captain Sam Moran (Richard Boone). A few days later, her dead body washes up on shore. Sam investigates by himself without help from the police. Soon, he's beaten up and his boat is burned.

It's a revenge B-movie filmed in Hawaii. Death Wish would come a few years later. That's what this premise wants to be. Sam needs to start killing these creeps one by one. It needs to go full Death Wish, but it's more a Surface Wound Wish. The investigating is not much, but it still has Hawaii.

From the tacky opening credits to the kitschy music, to the meandering script, to a supporting cast blending old stalwarts (Joan Blondell, Kent Taylor) and unknowns, to the "guest star" (Steve Inhant, Chips Rafferty) to the "special guest star" (Vera Miles), KONA COAST screams "unsold pilot." Calling from the home of a rich drug dealer (Steve Inhant) A "party girl" loaded on smack Sam "the Man" Moran (Richard Boone) a bigger-than-life fishing boat skipper. Boone begins a search for the "party girl;" whom, of course, is Boone's daughter. With a minimum of information, Boone shows up at Inhant's home and makes not-so-veiled threats. Though dialogue, we learn four days have passed since the girl's disappears (Aha! Station Break), and the police pick up Sam because the girl has "washed up on the beach". Boone "puts the word out" on the street, and gets beaten up by a couple of Inhant's henchmen. Boone's "neighbor" on the pier (Chips Rafferty), gets his lungs badly burned putting out a fire which destroys Boone's boat. Rafferty, who makes no attempt to act as if he is gasping for breath, asks Boone to put him on Rafferty's boat and take him home to die. Rafferty's Aussie accent is thick enough to spread on a cracker. When Boone arives at Kona Coast (Rafferty's home), he meets Rafferty's "sister" (Joan Blondell), who sounds closer to Yonkers than Sydney. Boone has never met Blondell before, but he know's the local tavern owner (Kent Taylor) as though they were old friends! Blondell runs a retreat for reformed alcoholics, and one of her guests just happens to be an "old flame" of Boone (Vera Miles). Boone meets Miles at the tavern rather than the retreat (I imagine, to save the number of shooting locations), and the tavern owner seems to know an awful lot about both Boone and Miles (?) Of course, none of this has anything to do with solving the case. Not a problem; Inhant, for some reason, considers Boone enough of a challenge to come after him (!) exposing himself to the kind of public scrutiny even the most daring drug dealer wouldn't risk. After all, wouldn't Inhant's suppliers feel "uncomfortable" providing "pharmasuticals" to a man this reckless? Further, Inhant's men don't carry any guns, and are pretty stupid to boot. So, of course, Boone prevails, makes a business partnership with Blondell, and revives a noncommittal romance with Miles. As bad as this movie is (And it is REALLY bad), I've wanted a VHS copy for twenty years. The movie is fun, in a mean-spirited way. Boone is a delight to watch; this man laughs and snarls with such gusto, you can't help but like and respect him; even when the script calls for him to do some incredibly stupid things; and even when he is verbally abusive to Miles. Boone is a man you can BELIEVE would take care of the "baddies." Despite the horrible shot mismatches (closeups aren't even properly posed), KONA COAST is also beautifully photographed, and has a more Hawaiian flavor than either HAWAII 5-0 or MAGNUM P.I. The young supporting cast of Hawaiians and Polynesians is attactive, if not particularly talented. And both Kent Taylor and Joan Blondell make the most of their few scenes and cliched characters. Shut off your brain, watch KONA COAST and enjoy.