Kiss of the Sabre (5.11)

[Italian Ice]

Just saw this one. I wonder if the "patient list" of Doctor Ling (around 34 minutes in) makes references to any old time movies, but some may have been made up...

One of the names is Rocks Ibold!

I know it's boxing day and normally I would be shopping and looking for deals, but with over 20 inches of snow.........

[Steve]

I know you guys are going to pull my MAN CARD, or at the very least, put me on double secret probation, but I kinda like Cassie Yates. Now, I have been accused by friends and family many times of having my head stuck in the eighties, but gosh how I love her permed, puffy blonde hair, her boxy padded shoulders, not to mention she has great eyes. Say it with me: I want my (original) MTV, and Nina Blackwood!..damn it......LOL!

[N1095A]

Cassie Yates= fine, no problem.
Collette/Betty Windom= Tolerable
Shelly Faraday= Just wanna smack her.
Remember the Drew Cary show when she played the redneck neighbor?
If I remember correctly Jaime Pressly played her daughter, and the dad was played by Blake Clark (Harry of Harry's hardware store on "Home Improvement").

[Doc Ibold]

Cassie Yates= fine, no problem.
Collette/Betty Windom= Tolerable
Shelly Faraday= Just wanna smack her.
Remember the Drew Cary show when she played the redneck neighbor?
If I remember correctly Jaime Pressly played her daughter, and the dad was played by Blake Clark (Harry of Harry's hardware store on "Home Improvement").

I concur.

I have no problem with Ms. Yates personally, but her characters on MPI.

GAAAAAAH!

[J.J. Walters]

Now, I have been accused by friends and family many times of having my head stuck in the eighties, but gosh how I love her permed, puffy blonde hair, her boxy padded shoulders, not to mention she has great eyes.

Hehe!

She is a fine example of "80s style", isn't she...



"Sebastian!"

[Jay-Firestorm]

I enjoyed this episode marginally more than when I first saw it a few years ago, but like most of the season, it has a sub par feel to it.

[rating=7.5]

An aspiring novelist is staying in the guest house, much to the chagrin of Magnum, but the woman worms herself into his insurance fraud case, using the characters involved as the basis for her novel. Slightly more memorable, but another weak ep of the season…

-----

‘Kiss of the Sabre’ is one of the dressing up / fantasy stories that the series liked to do occasionally. As such, it is one of the marginally more memorable and noteworthy instalments of the season, but still sadly suffers from the second rate feel that most of the fifth season has when compared to the previous ones.

This episode has its fans, but there also legions who don’t care for it much. Sadly I’m in the latter camp. While there might be some fun to be had with novelist Betty Windom’s imaging Magnum and co. as 1930s debonair characters for her novel, the episode is handled very badly; the case is rather unclear at points, and there is too much sudden darting from fantasy to ‘reality’ and back again.
Not to mention, the voices uses on the fantasy versions of the characters are TERRIBLE. I know they are probably meant to be over-the-top caricatures, but even so, they are awful. T.C. (or ‘Winston’)’s voice in particular is just embarrassing.

And like other viewers of this episode, I find Cassie Yates very annoying as Betty. Sometimes, MPI does annoying characters well – they are characters that are deliberately annoying, and all the more fun for it. But Betty Windom is just annoying through-and-through, and brings an already dodgy episode down another notch in my view.

As mentioned above, I got a little confused by the case in some points – the darting back and forth from reality to fantasy was overused, but even more so, I just didn’t care about the plot enough to really pay close attention to it, as much as I tried for the sake of this review.

There was a good idea in there somewhere, and I’ll bet that the concept for this episode looked terrific on paper, but sadly, the episode ultimately falls down, and is another off-target instalment in what has become by now a very disappointing season.

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Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* On the opening trailer for the episode, Magnum says to Higgins: “She has the run of the Estate; how long does she plan to take to finish her epic?” to which Higgins replies “Sometimes it take years…”. In the episode itself, this is part of a longer exchange which we hear off-camera.

* If Betty has the Ferrari, why does Magnum need to rent a car – surely he could drive the Audi or the Jimmy? (Maybe part of this was due to budget restrictions – it was cheaper to get a small, cheap car to be smashed up by the digger instead of destroying the Audi or the Jimmy?)

* The DVD version of this episode has all of the act breaks abridged.

* When Five broadcast this episode in 2002, part of the sequence where Sebastian (Magnum) and Collette (Betty) are surrounded by Dr. Ling was edited, as per usual, for knife use. The dagger still flies past Sebastian’s head into the painting, but the sequence in which Sebastian pulls it out and throws it into one of the approaching henchmen was edited out. Shots of Dr. Ling holding Collette with a knife to her throat were kept in.

[nha trang]

I rated it an 8, which is becoming a habit of mine in this, the 5th season. I am still trying to decide if I find Cassie Yates attractive, there is something there behind the 80s dress up. lol

I agree that the fictional/fantasy/writing subplot makes this episode stand out above some of the other season 5 offerings. I kind of liked the change in pace, would much rather watch an episode like this than more children from orphanages that need help,

Now excuse me while I go play the world's smallest violin...

[Pahonu]

I just looked closely at the computer screen cap James included with this episode. Those criminal names are great: Mack T. Nife, Rock Ibold, Pattyfingers, etc... Somebody had a sense of humor.

[Little Garwood]

I am still trying to decide if I find Cassie Yates attractive, there is something there behind the 80s dress up. lol

While you're still deciding, I can confidently say that I've always had a crush on Cassie Yates! Liking her at all is not a popular opinion here at Magnum-Mania, but I proudly admit that she's attractive, at least to these aging eyes o' mine!

[zebra3]

Although I like that MAGNUM was trying to do interesting/original ideas, this is my least favorite episode ever, at least up until now. I would much rather see mixed doubles again. That blonde lady is so annoying I want to yell at her.

[TC]

Now I liked this episode because of how goofy they were all acting during the fictional parts. It was almost like they knew they were in the best TV series ever and this week they were gonna take it easy and goof around a bit. Half the time it looks like they are all going to bust out laughing. Think about it; what other actors could really pull off an episode like this...
And if you're going to rattle off a list of 80s shows that have done something like this successfully, don't.
Maybe it's just me, but I really like the goofiness of it

[TC]

Now I liked this episode because of how goofy they were all acting during the fictional parts. It was almost like they knew they were in the best TV series ever and this week they were gonna take it easy and goof around a bit. Half the time it looks like they are all going to bust out laughing. Think about it; what other actors could really pull off an episode like this...
And if you're going to rattle off a list of 80s shows that have done something like this successfully, don't.
Maybe it's just me, but I really like the goofiness of it

[MaiTaiMan]

This episode was decent...and I rated it as such. Cassie Yates was, as usual, annoying and irritating! But, the rest was fairly hilarious. Usually I don't care for ridiculous or "stupidity" episodes...but this, and "Red Faced Thespian" are pretty good in that genre.

I love the goof-ball fantasies that are shown with Magnum, T.C., Higgins, and Rick--laugh my butt off everytime!

By no means was this a great episode, or one of my favorites, but it's a fairly entertaining "filler" during the season.

[RamblerReb]

A couple of technical notes:

Sabre's plane is a Lockheed Jetstar (the same kind of plane used by Auric Goldfinger in the Bond film of the same name). This makes Betty calling it a Lear a flub.

The pistols Sabre, Winston, and Boris use to cooly dispatch their strangely enthusiastic assailants at the airstrip are suppressed Walther PPs (not PPKs). Notice how Tom Selleck doesn't flinch or blink while firing, showing him to be an experienced shooter, while John Hillerman does. Since the suppressors aren't real, on the actual location they would have been firing full-power blanks (necessary for the actions to function), and the reports would have been quite loud.

"Sabre Two" is a Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman Limousine. Only about 2700 were built between 1963 and 1981.

Magnum's unfortunate rental car is a 4th generation Plymouth Champ, made between 1979 and 1981. The destruction of Magnum's is probably the best use one was ever put to.

"Canard a l'orange" is roasted duck served with orange sauce, "Epinard au jus" is spinach braised in stock or cream, and "Gratin Dauphinoise" are scalloped potatoes.

The square root of 18 is 4.242640687119285. It might have taken Sabre a second or two to call in those heat-seekers.

"Crepes Italiane" is essentially a cheese-filled manicotti. However, it is normally a dinner dish, not breakfast.

Higgins's Webley Mk VI .455 makes a return appearance, as does Rick's Smith & Wesson.

I guess it's more than a couple of notes. Oops.

As a matter of opinion, I would have strangled that annoying harpy in Magnum's place. Other than that, love the episode.

[J.J. Walters]

The square root of 18 is 4.242640687119285. It might have taken Sabre a second or two to call in those heat-seekers.

LOL!

Welcome RamberReb! Great stuff!