THE HARDY BOYS: THE MYSTERY OF THE CHINESE JUNK

Rick Gates as Frank and Tim Matheson as Joe

THE HARDY BOYS: THE MYSTERY OF THE CHINESE JUNK (1967). Director: Larry Peerce. 

Frank (Tim Matheson) and Joe (Rick Gates) Hardy of Bayport decide to start a ferry service to Rocky Island with their pals Biff (Rickey Kelman) and Chet (Stephen Jahn). Another friend, Jim Foy (Brian Fong), directs them to an old Chinese junk that they can buy, and they do so. But there seem to be others who have an abnormal interest in the junk -- including George Ti Ming (James Shigeta) -- and another ferry boat operator, "Clams" Daggett (Malcolm Atterbury) is a bit put out that he might have competition. The boys encounter the secretive Dr. Montrose (Edward Andrews) as part of their investigation. Then the Hardy Boys' father, Fenton (Richard Anderson), trying to find a criminal called The Chameleon, is attacked and disappears. It all comes to a head in a dank cavern on Rocky Island.  

Mystery of the Chinese Junk is based on the novel, which was published around 1960. Although there were some changes made -- Chet doesn't take up spelunking, for instance -- the telefilm, a failed pilot, apparently, is pretty faithful to the story. For inexplicable reasons Frank is made a blond and Joe becomes a brunette, although it was the other way around for about fifty years. Fenton Hardy doesn't appear to have a wife in this -- perhaps he's been turned into a widower -- but Aunt Gertrude is around, played in so-so fashion by Portia Nelson. Anderson makes the perfect Fenton Hardy, Atterbury is a reliable Clams, and Andrews is, as usual, quite good as Dr. Montrose. Shigeta is pretty much wasted as Ti Ming but is good. Jan-Michael Vincent appears briefly singing a rock number as Tony Prito. Chet is not as lovable as he is in the books, and there is the addition of a dog for the Hardys, a Great Dane named Tiny who is probably borrowed from the book The Secret Warning, wherein the dog was named Tivoli. The cinematographer, Joseph Biroc, also shot Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte and many others. Aside from the serials on the old Mickey Mouse Club show, the Hardy Boys did not get a weekly series until ten years later and then they were played by Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy. 

Verdict: Much better than one would have imagined. ***.