Despite some decent actors and familiar faces which includes John Astin, Jack Carter, Celeste Holm, Maurice Evans, and Janis Paige, this episode misses that certain something that makes the others much better. The "Beachcomber" was particularly weak, as Astin portrays Charles Preston, a family man who wishes to live free by the beach, and leave all his worries behind; it starts to fall flat when Preston is tricked into marrying an overweight island girl, in order to avoid jail. Astin gives it his all, but he was given an underwhelming story to work with. The end of this story does end nice with his real wife Nancy(Lynn Borden)coming to visit him, as she promises that she and their kids will stop taking him for granted and give him the proper respect he deserves. The better story, although still not that great, has Holm playing her favorite writer, and we soon find out that the famous writer was murdered, and Holm decides to stick around to solve the murder; Holm looks amazingly like Angela Lansbury to this writer. The acting in this story is much better, although I thought the conclusion seemed rushed and too convenient; that being said, I did like how her cat and the butler's dog played a part in catching the killers. The most enjoyable aspect for me was watching Tattoo try to play the trumpet, and how it irritated Mr. Roarke.
Review of The Beachcomber/The Last Whodunnit
