After watching a bunch of duds, this is where it's at. Although none of the performers here were good-looking at all (except for Yale Summers, who barely is heard pronouncing 2 lines in the background and strangely never has a single close-up!) their stories were not only compelling but well filmed, from interesting camera angles and kept me interested, even on the edge of my seat and screaming at the screen (when the phone rang) and being as relieved as the occasional jewel thief when things went his way (de guard, de guard)!
I am not very interested at all in romance stories, so that 2nd story could have been worse but, even though none of the players were lookers here either, it kept moving and the actors were committed and played it well. (Not sure why that other reviewer has a repeat problem each time he posts about any show guest-starring Ken Berry!) Oh and one of the actresses, at some point, does say herself that she isn't 'one of the beautiful people'.
The set decor was nice, in many parts, the jewels, the props made it visually appealing unlike in later seasons. Mr. Roarke's office furniture, however, was prettier in those later seasons (5 & 6).
A pretty good episode, well-balancing the 2 storylines and delivering just enough action to make it fast-paced, but not too much so as to neglect the characters stories. Now, this is the fun Fantasy Island that I remember. My mistake was starting with later seasons. So far this is better than S1. I hope it continues for the next time I stop to catch another one.
GOOF: notice Mr. Roarke's hairdo at the end, after the guests have left; it changes 4 times with 4 different camera cuts between Roarke and Tattoo. Sometimes it is combed differently, other cuts his hair is longer in the sides and even another camera cut and his hair is a tad less gray than the previous. I guess they did retakes in different days, and it shows. Loved, loved Tattoo's greeting cards saying. My kind of text. Fun! 9/10 removing 1 star because the ONLY handsome actor in the show, and a star in his own right who had his own series in the '60s was grossly under-used.