Kona Coast (1968)

When his estranged daughter (Gloria Nakea) is found drowned with needle tracks on her arms, her father (Richard Boone) attempts to track down her killers and avenge his daughter's death. Very loosely based on a John D. MacDonald (CAPE FEAR) short story, this is a pretty lame movie. Outside of the colorful and lush Hawaiian locales, it feels like a standard TV movie of the week or an episode of MAGNUM PI. The aging Boone makes for a questionable chick magnet and watching the lovely Vera Miles as a recovering alcoholic and ex-flame of his pining and lusting over him is disconcerting. The poor Miles is also saddled with the worst of the film's pedestrian dialog. Thankfully, the movie cuts away when Boone starts doing the hula! Directed by Lamont Johnson, a solid television director who didn't have much luck with his film efforts (he directed LIPSTICK). With Joan Blondell, Chips Rafferty, Kent Smith and as the film's gay villain Steve Ihnat, a solid character actor who died at age 37.