Who is Don Luis Higgins? .... (6.19)

[rubber chicken]

You're right Sam, that's the one. I saved your post to get back to but forgot you actually pointed out the hotel (honest!) so I found it on my own. I really could have saved time by looking at your post again...

The hotel is now called Hotel Renew and I posted about it in the Faith and Begorrah (3.23) thread.

[Jodykmg365]

Does anyone know how Tom Selleck hurt his foot in this episode? I had heard that it was a real injury.

[lutherhgillis]

I had also heard somewhere that he really hurt his foot. They mentioned it so many times in the epi that it makes me think they were trying a little too hard to explain it away... So it must have been a real injury.

The chess part of this is surprizing to me. If chess were to be such a prominent part of the epi, why didn't they buy a chess handbook? They really fell down on this part of the story. The chess board and castle blitz and Higgins being beaten by Magnum several times and Don Luis winning a mtch pretending to be Higgins after learning the game the night before...Geez, give me a break!

It was good to see the downstairs portion of the boathouse. I'll bet the upstaris was a gameroom for teens or a small pad for a grounds worker. What a cool porch with a great ocean view! I would bunk there for a while!

[MaximRecoil]

And then we have the chess scenes. If you love MPI and chess, like I do, then this is the apex - Magnum and Higgins in the study playing chess. It all goes downhill from there, unfortunately. Higgins apparently loses to Magnum 4 out of 5 games, because of Magnum's "Castle Blitz" (Uncle Lyle's Castle Blitz to be more precise). The "Castle Blitz" is apparently an almost unstoppable opening trap for White, ending with a Black queenside castle checkmate, seven moves out of the opening! Higgins, who supposedly plays at the "expert" level and has the highest ranking on the islands, plays into a mate in 1 and falls for the same opening trap four times!? There's Higgins, with all of his minor pieces undeveloped, playing a4 and right into a mate in 1!? Huh?

If that's not ludicrous enough, Magnum's checkmate (clearly shown on the screen) is not even close to being a checkmate, based on the setup of the pieces on the board! It's so bad, it's actually funny!

Is it even possible to checkmate by castling 7 moves into the game, as Don Luis did at the tournament? I doubt highly that it is. Some pawns would have to be gone from both players, and the opponent's king would have to be moved into a position that lines up with where the rook ends up after castling, and somehow be in a position that he couldn't move anywhere without still being in check, and having no way to block the check. Seven moves doesn't seem like a long enough time to set something like that up, even if you were playing someone bad enough at the game to randomply and haphazardly move his king around at the beginning of the game, as well as coincidentally clearing out pawns and losing other pieces or otherwise making them unavailable to block the check.

Even if such a thing is possible (which I doubt), it could certainly never be considered a trap, because it would require your opponent to make the most ridiculous, random, and improbable moves imaginable. Traps work by creating available moves for your opponent that seem like good moves on the surface, thus "guiding" them into the trap. There is no way to guide anyone into screwing up their pawn structure, moving their king to line up with a castled rook, and putting all pieces out of position to block such a check; and all in 7 moves no less.

Killer chess set, though.

Nice to look at, miserable to play with IMO. That was a ridiculously cramped board, with unfamiliar looking pieces. I refuse to play on anything but a Staunton set (3.75" to 4" King) on a board with 2.25" squares.

If Higgins was a real person and a serious chess player, I'd expect him to have a Jaques of London (the company that introduced the now standard Staunton design in the first place) ebony and boxwood Staunton set, rather than a novelty set. Maybe something along the lines of this:



Only $3600 for the 4" king set or $5200 for the 4.4" king set, (lol). Something like that would be fitting for a traditional British fellow of "proper breeding" (as he likes to put it).

[rubber chicken]

Hmm, suddenly buying Magnum's Rolex seems like a bargain!

[J.J. Walters]

Even if such a thing is possible (which I doubt), it could certainly never be considered a trap, because it would require your opponent to make the most ridiculous, random, and improbable moves imaginable. Traps work by creating available moves for your opponent that seem like good moves on the surface, thus "guiding" them into the trap. There is no way to guide anyone into screwing up their pawn structure, moving their king to line up with a castled rook, and putting all pieces out of position to block such a check; and all in 7 moves no less.

Indeed! It's a flub of epic proportions!

[lutherhgillis]

I agree the whole castle blitz thing is rediculous for all the reasons you guys mention. And to think Mag could beat Higgins several times using the same move ?

And Higgins is supposed to be the best in the Islands ?

And Don Luis learns the game one night and wins a tournament match the next day ?

Maybe its tropical madness...

[golfmobile]

This episode was run twice this weekend on Sleuth, and I watched it both times so I could catch all the details outlined here.

It took a while for me, via Google Earth, to spot the Dillingham Estate/La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls because with only the street address, Google Earth puts Poni Moi Road on the Big Island. But with the words "School for Girls" in the search parameters, GE finds it correctly.

Interestingly, though potentially not accurate because GE couldn't find Poni Moi Road on Oahu, the street on the card for the post office box rental that Thomas got from the postal agent, 73-1203 Loloa Street, GE also puts on the Big Island. Seems the islands all have a lot of the same names -- e.g., Kailua on both Oahu and Big Island, etc., etc.

Now, the thing that bothers me MOST about this episode is the name "Don Luis." The implication was that this was the character's name -- the initials prominently displayed on all his handkerchiefs. But "Don" is a title of honor in Spanish-speaking cultures, I thought, and as stated on the internet:

It’s reasonably well known that the title “don” prefixed to a Spanish given name implies that its holder is a person of some importance – a nobleman, a scholar, or at least a man of wealth.

So as used in this episode, "Don Luis Higgins" is rather . . . . inept?

JMO

golf

[Italian Ice]

First scene where Higgins and Don Luis are in the same room...
Both of them say Oh My God very fast and surprised


Higginss: Oh my God...
Don Luis: Dios Mio....

[Rutledal]

I was wondering if there is a "making of" Don Luis story? Elmo had one, Paddy too, even Soo Ling got her own "making of story". Does Don Luis have one, and if he does, please tell it.

[Doc Ibold]

I was wondering if there is a "making of" Don Luis story? Elmo had one, Paddy too, even Soo Ling got her own "making of story". Does Don Luis have one, and if he does, please tell it.

I don't know if there was a story, as TOLD by Higgins...

But the beginning of the episode shows a Hacienda where a birthday party is going on for a royal family. It gets raided by radicals and the family gets assasinated except for the daughter who flees the radicals.

She runs through the house, and around a corner she is grabbed by a young man in a military uniform (Anthony LaPaglia), she faints and he says something to the effect of "Hello, I'm Albert Stanley Higgins" and grins at the camera.

(Of course because I guess Higginses just hang out in the corners of haciendas while revolts are taking place... wait, given the Higgins family history, that kind of makes sense)

[Tom_Magnum]

Good episode, another Higgins episode theme. I loved every minute of it.

[N1095A]

One of the things that really made this show great was the characters. Sure it was TS who was the "star" of the show, but it truly was all of them that made the show. The more I watch it the more I love it. It's not biased, it's fact. This is the greatest television show ever made.

[MACattack]

The thing I liked most was how Don Luis was different from Higgins. I guess growing up in a tropical South American republic caused him to be a little laid back. He actually sat down and had a beer with Magnum. This is something Higgins would never do. He has too much pride.
MPI really has warm characters. People I wouldn't mind having a beer with, or go kayaking with. I just wouldn't invite Higgins to any keggers at the guest house!

[IKnowWhatYoureThinking]

If you invite Higgins over for scotch remember that civilized people do not put ice in their drink.