The Hotel Dick (6.5)

Rate, review & discuss the episodes from the sixth season

Moderator: Styles Bitchley

How Would You Rate This Episode?

10 (Perfect!)
1
1%
9.5 (One of the Best)
5
6%
9.0 (Excellent)
7
8%
8.5 (Very Good)
14
17%
8.0 (Pretty Good)
28
34%
7.5 (Decent)
15
18%
7.0 (Average at Best)
4
5%
6.5 (Not So Good)
4
5%
6.0 (Pretty Bad)
3
4%
5.0 (Just Awful)
2
2%
 
Total votes: 83

Message
Author
User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

The Hotel Dick (6.5)

#1 Post by J.J. Walters »

This is the official MM thread for The Hotel Dick (6.5). All discussions and reviews for this episode should go here. If you wish to rate the episode, please do so with the poll. The avg. score will be the official 'community rating', which will be used on the episode page (updated monthly).

This thread is also linked in the episode page of the Episode Guide.


Original Air Date: 10/17/1985
All that glitters isn't gold when Magnum is hired to prevent an elusive cat burglar from infiltrating an international convention of jewelry designers at an island hotel.
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Fri Dec 28, 2007 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#2 Post by J.J. Walters »

Another unorthodox episode - No Robin's Nest, and virtually the entire episode takes place at the fictional Hawaiian Gardens Hotel (the famous Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki). And what a cool hotel it is.

Magnum joins a payroll, puts on a suit, and starts punching a clock. Ha, like that will ever last!

We meet two minor recurring characters for the first time, Leslie Emory (Candy Clark) and Cleo Mitchell (Phyllis Davis), two Waikiki call girls. Candy Clark, wow havn't seen her since, well, American Graffiti! And of course, Cleo and Rick will become a couple, but later.

I like how we see more of Magnum's flaws here - His confidence is shaken at times. I LOVED the final scene with Magnum overcoming his fear, and making that final jump! A classic Magnum scene.

A good episode, IMHO.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
IslandHopper
Master Flub Spotter
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:08 am

#3 Post by IslandHopper »

I've always thought that this episode had one of the thinner plots. I know that this is fiction for TV, but c'mon. For example, the robberies in the hotel always occur in the honeymoon suite with a guy rappelling down into the room. Despite knowing this the cat burglar continues to do the same thing. Magnum does wait in the room when a call interrupts his stakeout and scares the burglar away. However, the burglar always takes the same escape route, and ultimately jumps onto an adjoining roof top and descends down a ladder. You would have thought that Magnum would have had an associate with a radio who he can call to wait for the burglar when he descends down the ladder and before he could escape, or maybe stakeout the roof of the hotel and nab him before or while he is rappelling.

I realize that this would have messed up part of the story, but I think the writers should have mixed it up a little by having the burglar take an alternate route or something, or at least address some of those issues.

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#4 Post by J.J. Walters »

All good points IslandHopper. Major suspension of disbelief needed to swallow those scenes. And catburglar? Was that word still used in the mid 80s? ;)

Still, if they hadn't gone through all of it again (i.e. the same rooftop chase scene), we wouldn't of had this killer ending & final frame:

Image

:)

Yet another great trait of the show - good denouements & "final frames"!
Last edited by J.J. Walters on Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
Shermy
Resident Clutterbuck
Posts: 322
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2007 6:03 am

#5 Post by Shermy »

I was a little underwhelmed when I revisited this one on dvd...and then that finally scene appeared. Suddenly, it changed my entire opinion of the episode.

Great ending! :D

User avatar
frog480
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat May 12, 2007 7:35 pm
Location: England

#6 Post by frog480 »

The cat burglar part of the plot, is a bit thin, but everything else comes togther quite well.

Nice to have a change from the normal locations too.

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#7 Post by J.J. Walters »

An astute Magnum fan just informed me that the Waikiki hotel used in this episode is the Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa, not the Ilikai! The curved balconies (along with the shape of the building) really give it away. Not quite sure why I thought it was the Ilikai! :?
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

eeyore
Admiral
Posts: 188
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:26 pm

#8 Post by eeyore »

It seems to me that they took the set of Magnum's bedroom at the guesthouse and redecorated it to become his room at the hotel. Note the location of the door, the closet, etc.

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#9 Post by J.J. Walters »

It sure looks that way eeyore. Great observation!
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
IslandHopper
Master Flub Spotter
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:08 am

#10 Post by IslandHopper »

Although not a flub, there is a scene that is worth noting because it appears that TS is either reading from cue cards or he is merely regurgitating his lines in a very mechanical, unnatural way (his lines in Bold). The scene takes place in Magnum's Room/Office at the hotel after he finds the phone number from the bad guy's coat. Magnum dials the phone number and Leslie takes the phone from him and hangs it up whereby the following dialogue takes place between Leslie and Magnum:

LESLIE: "Who cares, I'm gone tomorrow, so are you, it's not our problem anymore. What's it matter?"

MAGNUM: "It matters."

LESLIE: "Why?"

MAGNUM: "It matters. It matters because some time you get to a point where easy rationalizations don't cut it anymore. There's gotta be a place where you stop and examine your life and if it isn't right then maybe you just got to say no, no more, or stop looking in the mirror." What do you think? :?
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

User avatar
Shermy
Resident Clutterbuck
Posts: 322
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2007 6:03 am

#11 Post by Shermy »

It reads like a speech that Humphrey Bogart could've delivered, or something out of a 1940's detective novel. Perhaps that's what TS was going for, since he was playing the "Hotel Dick" of the title?

Of course, this is just based on the text- as opposed to viewing the scene in question.

User avatar
IslandHopper
Master Flub Spotter
Posts: 729
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:08 am

#12 Post by IslandHopper »

You definitely have to watch the scene to get the gist of what I am referring to. Check it out. Maybe someone can post the video of that portion of the dialogue so everyone can see it.
The answer is obvious, old man. Logic is irrelevant. It's simply Tropical Madness. (J.Q. Higgins)

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#13 Post by J.J. Walters »

What a bizarre line delivery! I agree with Shermy. It sounds like a Bogie line, but delivered without the anger or passion. It's like Bogie on meds, or something.

Here's an audio clip of the scene in question: It Matters
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

User avatar
golfmobile
Chopper Pilot Wannabe
Posts: 1203
Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2007 8:47 pm
Location: Atlanta area
Contact:

#14 Post by golfmobile »

Actually, to me, he sounds more like Fox Mulder, when he and Scully used to get into those long, detailed, sesquipedalian-worded conversations, and the delivery was flat, yet it worked for Mulder. It was just his low-key-ness, which characteristic we generally agree TM didn't have usually, but maybe this time TS was trying to play TM and the scene that way -- make it intense and more intense by playing it low-key instead of shouting in his usual manner. So I vote for the imitating Bogie or some other film noir private dick as a kind of tip-of-the-fedora salute to the title of the episode.

golf

(P.S. James, I'll try to get a video clip of those few lines, both video and audio, uploaded for your use this evening, if you would like to have both. LMK)
"Portside, buddy."

User avatar
J.J. Walters
Founding Father
Posts: 4196
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:54 pm
Location: Suburbia, USA
Contact:

#15 Post by J.J. Walters »

golfmobile wrote:So I vote for the imitating Bogie or some other film noir private dick as a kind of tip-of-the-fedora salute to the title of the episode.
Great observation golf!

I'd like to think that this is the case with this scene, instead of Selleck regurgitating his lines by nonchalantly reading off a cue card, because he's tired or had a bad day, or something similiar. :shock:

Don't worry about the video clip. I think an audio clip is just fine for this brief type of scene. But thanks for the offer.
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

Post Reply