tomsview

I had a happy reunion with his film, which I hadn't seen for at least 50 years. I loved those big epics of the 50's and 60's, made to get us away from our television sets and back to the theatres. This baby was nearly three hours long with an interval to take the strain off our bladders.

I read James A. Michener's book before the film was released in Australia. It was a brick of a thing. I loved it and took it everywhere. I was in my early teens and read those massive novels, there weren't as many distractions back then, and only four channels on TV. Maybe my first reaction to the film was where's the rest of it? They only filmed one of the six chapters.

To be honest though, this was the real core of the thing, the struggle by missionary Abner Hale to save the souls of the Hawaiians, and the struggle by whaling captain Rafer Hoxworth to make sure they had enough sin to be saved from. Both characters struggle for the affections of Jerusha Bromley.

Max Von Sydow, Richard Harris and Julie Andrews brought Abner, Rafer and Jerusha to life, without even explaining Abner Hale's Swedish accent.

At first Max seemed to be laying on the zealotry a bit thick, especially when the last time he brought us the word of God he did it less menacingly as Jesus in "The Greatest Story Ever Told". However by the end we get him, he suffers for his beliefs, often from being beaten up by Rafer. Richard Harris is totally believable as the ruthless whaling captain. Richard projected his real life sense of danger, and true to form, there was no effort to explain his Irish accent. But Julie Andrews delivered a perfect, captivating Jerusha.

Jocelyne LaGarde as Ali'I Nui, Malama Kanakoa, the queen, steals all the scenes she is in, and the beautiful voice of Manu Tupou as Prince Keoki Kanakoa seems to come from the very heart of the islands.

"Hawaii" was one of the Panavision 70 club of about 25 films made between 1957 and 1970, and has that wide-screen sweep. The most spectacular scene recreates the welcome the Hawaiians give the arrival of the sailing ship carrying the missionaries as hundreds of fit, excited natives swim and paddle out to the ship with drums pounding on the soundtrack. I was surprised that unlike the arrival of the Bounty in Tahiti in 1962's "Mutiny on the Bounty", the wahines didn't have their breasts covered with hair and beads, it was 1966 now, and the Production Code was slipping along with the beads.

"The Hawaiians" 1970, which featured another chapter of Michener's novel, showed how good the 1966 film was. Despite a couple of strong sequences, it doesn't have the visual power or emotional depth of George Roy Hill's "Hawaii".

All those epics received superior scores that were close to symphonies. Elmer Bernstein contributed a beauty for "Hawaii". He bought in native drums but didn't overdo them. Elmer could go big, however he could also produce unique themes that capture a sense of loss and nostalgia, and bought that touch to this score, it's one of the reason the final scenes have such impact.

"Hawaii" is worth a revisit. Whatever baggage the stars carried from other films and the tabloids has faded. After 60 years, it's like seeing it for the first time.

Who would have thought watching John Thaw's crochety, puzzle and opera loving, grey-haired Inspector Morse that he'd had such a complex and eventful life as a young copper?

Shaun Evan's Endeavour Morse gets up close and personal with felons, often with revolver in hand. The biggest surprise however is his appeal to the ladies, while in later life he seemed to have none, as the young policeman, he has more beautiful women interested in him than "The Bachelor" at a Rose Ceremony.

Not that I didn't love the "Inspector Morse" series, and when it morphed into "Lewis", I was hooked on it as well. Same with "Endeavour", although it looked an impossible spin-off, within two episodes I was a devotee.

I feel it was the last of those memorable British detective series: "Inspector Morse", "A Touch of Frost", "Dalziel and Pascoe", "Lewis", "Inspector George Gently", which all started with "Inspector Morse" back in 1987. "Vera", another favourite, has also come to an end.

Those shows had key elements in common, which I think was the secret to their success. The main character may have been flawed, but they had sympathy for the human condition. They also had a partner, a buddy to watch their back.

Young Morse had about the best partner of any series, a man who became a mentor, protector and even father figure: Fred Thursday (Roger Allam). "Endeavour" also had an ensemble of characters that was developed more fully than other series: Fred, Win, Joanie, Chief Inspector Bright, Jim Strange, Dr DeBryn and all the others.

Relationships changed over time, but Russell Lewis's brilliant writing was not just in the characters. Two overarching story threads are woven through the series: the disturbing Blenheim Vale School for wayward boys, and the imminent closure of their "nick", the Cowley Police Station. Always clever plots and detective work even if the final culprits sometime seemed a bit random; I'm still not sure what happened at the end of "Terminus".

There was occasional homage: Gatsby, Agatha Christie, and in "Zenana" it was as though Morse had entered his own operatic libretto. In "Trove", Fred gets the best line in the series. After catching up with a couple of thugs who'd given Morse a proper seeing to, he asks, "Suppose you tell me what that was all about?" When one of them replies, "Suppose we don't", Fred, whose expression hasn't changed, says, "Then I'll have to take off my hat!" From the grunts and thumps, we realise that Fred is administering a timely correction.

Then there's the music. Barrington Pheloung created brilliant scores for "Inspector Morse", "Lewis" and some for "Endeavour". Later Matthew Slater took over, capturing the spirit and adding his own touch of class.

The test of a great series is if you can watch them again and enjoy them more each time. "Endeavour" does that for me.