The Case of the Red Faced Thespian (4.12)

[K Hale]

If I had to pick out a favorite episode, it might be this one. There's literally almost nothing about it I don't love.

Re the discussion of Higgins falling backwards, it was indeed a "trust fall" with nothing to stop him from hitting the unpadded ground if things did not go right: https://vimeo.com/269118983

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

I particularly enjoyed Inez Stuart’s explanation of her grudge against Higgins because Higgins refused to help her trick Robin into letting her play the “tempestuous dancer” in Babes From Babylon. She continues to whine and says: “That movie would have meant my triumphant comeback.” Triumphant comeback? How far must one fall only to have a triumphant comeback from a movie called Babes from Babylon?

LOL!

Ronald Lacey.....who was none other than the evil Nazi henchman Toht in RAIDERS - you know, the crazy little guy in black with the nasty laugh?

Indeed. The "face melting" guy!


I have a couple of screens of interest:

Here's a clear shot of Higgins' stunt double. We don't often get a chance to see Higgins' stunt double!



The building in the background that is next to the water, I can't seem to find it on Google Maps. I don't recall seeing it in other episodes, either. Odd....



Psst! The building, not the hot British lady in the bikini!

Hi J.J.,
The British lady is of course Lady Cynthia portrayed by one June Chadwick. I know the actress's name because I just viewed this episode
and raced over to this site hoping a fellow appreciator of beauty had posted her picture. I should have known a Magnum Mania member like you
would come through.
In the scene with Rick on the beach, Larry looks genuinely enthralled by her. Lady Cynthia definitely rates notice in the gallery of Magnum women, right
up there with Digger Doyle.

[K Hale]

Question. I keep thinking I'm just missing something, but now it's time to ask.

During Magnum's Miss Marple denouement, we learn that Lady Cynthia was not in fact dead, of course. So what was going on with the ambulance, the cops, Tanaka gleefully showing up to arrest Higgins for a murder no one committed, etc.? Was this an entire "catch a thief" plot set up by Magnum and Tanaka and the other cops and ambulance crew were in on it, or what?

I am putting this on FB too because y'all don't read the forum often enough.

[ENSHealy]

Question. I keep thinking I'm just missing something, but now it's time to ask.

During Magnum's Miss Marple denouement, we learn that Lady Cynthia was not in fact dead, of course. So what was going on with the ambulance, the cops, Tanaka gleefully showing up to arrest Higgins for a murder no one committed, etc.? Was this an entire "catch a thief" plot set up by Magnum and Tanaka and the other cops and ambulance crew were in on it, or what?

I am putting this on FB too because y'all don't read the forum often enough.

This bothered me too. Lady Cynthia is sprawled on the bed and Thomas, Rick, and Higgins are all in the room. And nobody thinks to check a pulse? They would have to have been in on it. But how? To be in on it, they would have to have known in advance that Marge was going to conk Lady C on the head, and have arranged the cops and the ambulance. But if they knew Marge was going to do it, there is no need to smoke her out...they know she did it, so why all the runaround?

I think this is just one where the writers expect us not to think too much about it. By the time the denouement rolls around, we're supposed to have forgotten about the ambulance, the cops guarding the gate, etc. I don't think there's a way to plausibly string it together any other way.

[Luther's nephew Dobie]

Question. I keep thinking I'm just missing something, but now it's time to ask.
During Magnum's Miss Marple denouement, we learn that Lady Cynthia was not in fact dead, of course. So what was going on with the ambulance, the cops, Tanaka gleefully showing up to arrest Higgins for a murder no one committed, etc.? Was this an entire "catch a thief" plot set up by Magnum and Tanaka and the other cops and ambulance crew were in on it, or what?
I am putting this on FB too because y'all don't read the forum often enough.

This bothered me too. Lady Cynthia is sprawled on the bed and Thomas, Rick, and Higgins are all in the room. And nobody thinks to check a pulse? They would have to have been in on it. But how? To be in on it, they would have to have known in advance that Marge was going to conk Lady C on the head, and have arranged the cops and the ambulance. But if they knew Marge was going to do it, there is no need to smoke her out...they know she did it, so why all the runaround?
I think this is just one where the writers expect us not to think too much about it. By the time the denouement rolls around, we're supposed to have forgotten about the ambulance, the cops guarding the gate, etc. I don't think there's a way to plausibly string it together any other way.

ENSHealy,
What you say makes a lot of sense. But it might also be the case that the on set "continuity person" who is supposed to keep track of making sure the set/wardrobe matches
previously filmed scenes and that the story logic makes sense, screwed up. When productions film scenes out of of order, or film scenes from different episodes on the same
day at a location site(say Hotel street) that appears in both to save money, the actors/writers/directors can lose track of the story.
Famously, in the immortal film Noir flick "The Big Sleep" with Bogart, the scripters(Raymond Chandler included) forgot to explain who murdered the Sternwood family's
chauffeur. By the time Bogie noticed, filming had long been completed, but he asked Chandler anyway 'who done it'.
A surprised Chandler said "damned if I know".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I learned a valuable lesson today. Never trust a pretty girl or a lonely midget"...Evil Roy Slade(John Astin)

[ENSHealy]

In the scene where Higgins is by the tree, and a dagger zips by him and embeds itself in the tree, look closely at the tree – I may be wrong, but there seems to be a notch in the tree from a previous practice shot of the dagger being thrown. I’ve noticed such examples in several other series (it’s a bit like skid marks on the grounds from cars from previous takes), and am pretty sure that this is one such example.

The notch is where the knife/dagger springs out from the target, to make it appear that it was actually thrown. While many knife throwers are real (and indeed throw real knives), I can't imagine they were used on TV show sets, especially when important cast members are involved!

J.J., are you suggesting that the knife is actually pulled from the tree, and the film run backwards? If so, how do you account for Higgins speech matching the video, if it is running in reverse? The knife flies by Higgins as he says "...a dagger I see before me." I agree it definitely looks like it’s on a string, but I don’t know about the “springs out from the target” part.

Interesting to note, the notch you describe is definitely there before the knife arrives:



But when the knife hits the tree, it’s in a slightly different spot and angle, a little below and to the right of the original notch, and tilted slightly:



And then later, it’s in a different, third spot, and appears to be a different knife:

[ENSHealy]

Question. I keep thinking I'm just missing something, but now it's time to ask.

During Magnum's Miss Marple denouement, we learn that Lady Cynthia was not in fact dead, of course. So what was going on with the ambulance, the cops, Tanaka gleefully showing up to arrest Higgins for a murder no one committed, etc.? Was this an entire "catch a thief" plot set up by Magnum and Tanaka and the other cops and ambulance crew were in on it, or what?

I am putting this on FB too because y'all don't read the forum often enough.

Here's another puzzler: if Higgins was faking it, as he seems to imply at the end, then why does he ignore the "body" on his bed and go about with his dramatic balcony speech? He can't have checked to see if she was actually dead, because of course she isn't. And if he was faking it, why? It can't be to find who stole the $20,000 or to smoke out the "killer", because he starts having his "Fearing Pangborn" episodes before either of those things happen. So what was he up to?

[K Hale]

Question. I keep thinking I'm just missing something, but now it's time to ask.

During Magnum's Miss Marple denouement, we learn that Lady Cynthia was not in fact dead, of course. So what was going on with the ambulance, the cops, Tanaka gleefully showing up to arrest Higgins for a murder no one committed, etc.? Was this an entire "catch a thief" plot set up by Magnum and Tanaka and the other cops and ambulance crew were in on it, or what?

I am putting this on FB too because y'all don't read the forum often enough.

Here's another puzzler: if Higgins was faking it, as he seems to imply at the end, then why does he ignore the "body" on his bed and go about with his dramatic balcony speech? He can't have checked to see if she was actually dead, because of course she isn't. And if he was faking it, why? It can't be to find who stole the $20,000 or to smoke out the "killer", because he starts having his "Fearing Pangborn" episodes before either of those things happen. So what was he up to?

I think it's one of two things.

1) Higgins was just screwing around and using this opportunity to fulfill his actor fantasies that were kindled at Eton when he filled in for the other kid.

2) Two or three different people worked on this script and didn't consult one another until shooting started, and then they threw up their hands and decided to let the chips fall where they may.

Maybe this is just one of those things we are supposed to not think too much about.

[ENSHealy]

4.12 THE CASE OF THE RED FACED THESPIAN
Famous guest stars: .5 for Ronald Lacey, but less for his own fame than for his iconic scenes in Indiana Jones.
Hawaiian shirts: 1 purple calla lilies
Tigers Cap: 1

Island Hopper shirts:
Shirtless Magnum:
OMG: 1 45:25
Higgins Organizations:
Higgins musings: 2 3:40 46:45
Negotiations:
Body Count:
Bullet wounds:
Little Voice:
I know what you’re thinking:
When I write HTBAWCPI:
Investigator corrections:
4th wall breaks: 1 22:50
Magnumometer: 6.5
Magnumometer Moments: https://vimeo.com/391372083

Potential magnumania usernames: Sir Fearing Pangborn, Lowell Xavier Jameson

New Flub: The gentleman in the old movie snippet says “deep wounds heal slowly”, but in the climactic scene, TM repeatedly refers to “old wounds”.

It appears Higgins has remodeled his bedroom. In Foiled Again, it looked like this:




But now, it looks like this:


He also apparently reclaimed that room for himself at some point before Foiled Again, because in the pilot and in Black on White, it was a guest room.

One does wonder how Higgins failed to notice the croquet ball before dropping the charges in the "mongoose hole”

[K Hale]

I thought he saw the croquet ball, but thought it was a dud.

He also seems to prefer tiny but elaborate beds. I think the one he had in “The Love-for-Sale Boat” was even smaller than this one, if less gothic.

[ZelenskyTheValiant (Ivan)]

Found this one rather underwhelming, especially considering the love that it seems to get. It's not bad but it's not that good either. I rated it "Decent". In many ways this reminded me of "Of Sound Mind" where everyone seems to looooove the costume ball and all the dress-up stuff which I didn't care for. Found it way too silly and overlong. Actually overall I prefer "Of Sound Mind" because at least that one had an interesting premise of Magnum seemingly inheriting a fortune and getting his own butler (Roscoe Lee Browne was great). So I enjoyed all that, minus the needless costume ball hi-jinx. But here the dress-up gala takes center stage and gets way too silly for my tastes. It's supposed to be a whodunit type mystery (which I would have preferred) but that's almost an afterthought and takes a back seat to all the other silly hi-jinx and Higgins ranting and raving all the Shakespeare nonsense which gets annoying very quickly. Even the whodunit aspect is a cheat because the murder mystery isn't really a murder mystery. No one was murdered. Never mind the obvious questions of why everyone thinks that Cynthia is dead and why the ambulance and cops are on the scene when she was only bonked on the head? Never mind why Tanaka is there to arrest Higgins for a murder that didn't occur. None of this makes sense. Was this all a ruse to smoke out the person (Marge) who thought she killed Cynthia? And everyone was in on it, including the cops and the ambulance and Tanaka, all so that Mag could play out his fantasy whodunit for a murder that didn't actually happen???? To smoke out the person who bonked someone on the head? Wonder what Miss Marple would have thought of this "caper"?

It's all just way too nonsensical. Best parts are Higgins' war against the "mongeese" and June Chadwick and Colleen Camp are easy on the eyes. Oh, and why does everyone keep saying that Higgins says "bloody good show" after he gets hit in the head with the croquet ball? It's so obvious that he clearly says "bloody good shot".