Hart to Hart (TV Series) Downhill to Death (1980) User Reviews

Surprising Episode

[aramis-112-804880 · 8/10 · 30 January 2023]

Shelly Smith was a beautiful blonde who bopped around TV shows in the 1980s and even had a series of her own, "The Associates," which had an exceptional cast and should have lasted longer than thirteen episodes.

Jennifer overhears a conversation where Smith's character is plotting murder. She has a tape recorder with her so I don't know why she doesn't just record the conversation and take it to the police. Instead, J&J follow them to Colorado to ski. It's nice to have money. I suppose.

Then: the wrong person is killed. Now what? Who, exactly, is murdering whom? And why?

The great thing about "H2H" is that they went places. I've never been to Colorado so I can't verify where they are; but this series took the Harts wherever jet setters went back then. Including snowy places.

This episode also features Juliet Mills, sister of Hayley and daughter of the great British actor John Mills.

We also have a creepy snowman. How much better can it get?

Champagne Wishes & Caviar Deaths!

[JasonDanielBaker · 16 March 2014]

Freelance writer Jennifer Hart (Stephanie Powers) is interviewing English punk rocker Syd Sado (Michael Des Barres) in a posh Los Angeles restaurant when he is paged. While he is gone she inadvertently overhears a couple at the table behind hers planning to commit murder on a ski vacation in Vail, Colorado. As the couple leave Jennifer recognizes the man - Halsey Mathews (Rod McCary).

Halsey is married to Kate (Juliet Mills) an older woman. It is painfully obvious to pretty much everyone he is having an affair with a twenty-something blonde (Shelley Smith) whom he at various times introduces as either a client or a public relations executive with his firm.

Jennifer and her financier husband Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) like to solve murder mysteries. That is the basis for this series. In this case they drop everything to take their own trip to Vail to keep Kate from being murdered by her cad husband - a guy neither of them ever much liked anyway. Of course things take a wildly unexpected turn resulting in a very different investigation for the socialite sleuths.

As far as TV series that featured Robert Wagner or Stephanie Powers go this one was by far the most successful. This episode two-thirds in to the first season helped establish it as a solid program. The shrewd casting of solid guest stars and immaculate production value played nicely off of the appeal of the leads.

Hart to Hart was one of the guilty pleasures I grew up with. A romance/adventure of the kind begun by 'The Thin Man' series of movies in the 1930s and continued elegantly with Cary Grant's later films 'To Catch A Thief', 'North by Northwest' and 'Charade' the idea was to present an attractive & sophisticated couple in a glamorous setting with mystery-solving as a shared passion.

There would be ever present danger in such mysteries but as with Hart to Hart threat to life and limb would never be taken as seriously as it perhaps should have been. A close call would be laughed off with a dry one liner and the hero and heroine would gleefully venture forth to the next phase of the adventure.

I never could get past the putrid disco soundtrack the show had. In this episode there is a lot of disco and sometimes the volume button on the remote doesn't work quite fast enough.

The Crevice and A Bit of Lionshead, To Boot!

[BradyBraveJoel · 10/10 · 8 February 2022]

This show has become my second go-to these days, just after Columbo, I was fortunate enough to take a Family ski trip to Vail, Breckenridge, and Aspen during this time frame. I got lost and wound up getting on a lift directly behind Gerald Ford. The Secret Service had uzis molded in to their ski boots. I was 10 or 11, and they took care of me. Everything about this wonderful episode reminds me of that great day. The Hofbrau had excellent schnitzel. Great scenes in this, good acting and directing. And, lastly, Good Night My Darling...

One of my favourites

[coltras35 · 10/10 · 6 June 2022]

This is a cracker of a H&H episode with the ski slopes being the backdrop of intrigue, double-games and murder. Basically Jennifer overhears an acquaintance planning to murder his wife on the ski slopes, so she and Jonathan jet off to Vail to prevent it -- but the wife isn't the one who winds up dead.

There's some great scenes such as the bomb in the jacuzzi, a killer in the puppet, endless ski sequences and the snowmobile chase at the end. I have seen this one so many times and it gets me every time with its tautly-plotted presentation and chilling suspense. Plus Juliet Mills is so great, chilling as the snow.