Lest We Forget

Episode Number: 10
Season Number: 1.10
Air Date: 2/12/1981
Writer: Donald P. Bellisario
Director: Lawrence Doheny
Producer: J. Rickley Dumm
Exec Producer: Donald P. Bellisario

Recurring Characters

Remi Abellira (Moki)

Guest Stars

Jose Ferrer (Judge Robert Caine), June Lockhart (Diane Pauley), Miguel Ferrer (Ens. Robert Wickes), Anne Lockhart (Diane Westmore), Elizabeth Lindsey (Kiki), Sonny Ching (Maku), Patricia Herman (Jessie), David Palmer (Dutch Mueller), Reri Tava Jobe (Hostess)

Episode Brief

Magnum is hired by a Supreme Court nominee to find the woman he married on the eve of the raid on Pearl Harbor. He was a young Navy Ensign, she was a prostitute, and after their marriage they subsequently became separated in the bombings, with the Judge presuming her dead, until recently, after he started receiving blackmail threats relating to an incident 40 years ago.

Rating

8.8

(64 votes)

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Notes

¹ In an intriguing piece of casting, both June Lockhart (Diane Pauley) and Jose Ferrer (Judge Robert Caine), who were both stars of the black & white "golden age" of movies, play characters in the present day, and their actor offspring - June Lockhart's daughter Anne Lockhart and Jose Ferrer's son Miguel Ferrer - play the same characters in the past (1941). A similar method is used in the episode "Let Me Hear the Music" (5.18), where Dennis Weaver and his son Rusty play the same character, present day and 45 years previously. Jose Ferrer's character's name, Robert Caine, appears to be a nod to his role in the classic 1954 film The Caine Mutiny, where he played an embittered defense attorney.

² Several scenes were filmed on location at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The filming location of the final reunion at the end of the episode was not filmed on the Memorial, as was suggested, but rather at the Memorial visitors center. The white marble wall with the names of those killed is actually on the Memorial, however. The Memorial tour that is seen in the episode (where they were looking at a model of the sunken battleship) was filmed at the museum section (next to a gift shop, not seen) of the visitors center. The limo chase was filmed at Honolulu Harbor (not the Naval base). (Noted by Tim)

³ The Attack on Pearl Harbor footage was taken from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!. The same footage will later be used in the Season Three episode "Almost Home" (3.11). (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

⁴ This episode is dated by a check that Judge Caine writes Magnum, dated January 29 1981 (about 2 weeks before this episode was originally broadcast).

⁵ The flashback scenes involving the Ensign Wickes (Miguel Ferrer) and the hooker, Diane Westmore (Anne Lockhart), immediately before the attack on Pearl Harbor, echoes part of the plot of the classic 1953 film From Here to Eternity. (Noted by Bruce Mayo)

⁶ The great Scatman Crothers makes a brief appearance as "Tickler", a lounge piano player.

⁷ Judge Caine mentions looking at Magnum's 201 File (Official Military Personnel File) and he states the follow facts - Magnum graduated from the Naval Academy in 1967, served three tours in Vietnam and was thrice wounded.

⁸ Higgins has a sister living in Sussex, England who is raising "four monstrous children".

⁹ Elizabeth Lindsey (Kiki) was Miss Hawaii 1978.

¹⁰ "Coops" beer also comes in can form! Magnum and Maku drink one at the beach together. "Coops" in a can will be seen again later in Season One in "Adelaide" (1.14).

¹¹ The closing credits contain the following acknowledgment:

We gratefully acknowledge the U.S. Department of Interior for their cooperation during the filming of this episode.

¹² John Hillerman appeared in a 1975 episode of Ellery Queen (1975-1976) with fellow guest star June Lockhart (Diane Pauley).

Quotes

¹
Moki: Now, that, bra, is what I call a good-looking Wahine.

²
Diane: Ok, Mr. Magnum. You know who I was, or rather what I was. So, just tell me how much you want and I'll decide whether to pay it! Although, it better not be more than fifty bucks, because since the Governor died, I could care less about what anybody knows about my past. But above all, don't toy with me, especially about Bobby! Or you won't even get your fifty bucks.
Magnum: Miss Pauley, he hired me to find you.
Diane: Well you're remarkably preserved for your age. Bobby was killed, forty years ago on the Arizona.

³
Magnum: Higgins, who died?
Higgins: Mr. Blackmore. Heart attack.
Magnum: Higgins, who's playing for Mrs. Blackmore?
Higgins: No one. The funeral's today, the game's tomorrow.
(Higgins leaves)
Magnum: What a strange little man.

⁴
Arizona Memorial Announcer: Of the 1177 sailors and Marines killed in action on the Arizona, 1102 are still entombed in the hull beneath us. To the Navy, these men are considered to be buried at sea. At 07:55, on the seventh of December, 1941, the first wave of torpedo bombers came skimming over Pearl City. They fanned out across the harbor at forty feet and headed straight for battleship row.

⁵
Magnum: It was more ironic than a Robin Masters novel; she thought he was dead, he thought she was dead... and only the chauffeur knew the truth! He should have been the butler! (Narration)

⁶
(to Higgins)
Magnum: I'm sure I can learn bridge. I'm great at poker... What's wild?

Flubs

¹ Just before the 'murder at the brothel' flashback, in a brief close-up of Judge Caine and Magnum in the Ferrari, part of a camera mount can be seen in the right edge of the frame. (Noted by Stefan Gotz)

² After the knife fight, Bobby tells Diane "C'mon get in the car, c'mon". If you look at Bobby's lips when he says that, they are not even moving. (Noted by Mark S.)

³ When Maku comes out of the ocean and shakes Magnum's hand, he is wearing a bracelet on his left wrist. Seconds later, when he sits down, there is no bracelet at all. (Noted by Mark S.)

⁴ In the scene with Magnum driving along with Kiki, just before the hitman takes a shot at them, notice the background noise changing slightly between Kiki's dialog and Magnum's. The closeup shots were filmed seperately and edited together in post-production.

⁵ The WWII knife fight scene with Ens. Robert Wickes features a Schrade Uncle Henry folding hunter knife. The Schrade Company didn't begin to manufacture Uncle Henry knives until 1973! (Noted by Hugh Simpson)

⁶ When Maku is swimming/body surfing in the water, he has black swim fins on, but when he comes walking out of the water, he has no fins. (Noted by Georgiana Vazquez)

⁷ At the King Kamehameha Club indoor bar, in the scene with Magnum, Rick and Moki, Rick's Team Ring, gold bracelet and watch switch from his right hand/wrist to his left hand/wrist during one of the cutaways. (Noted by IslandHopper)

⁸ The shots of Dutch racing away in the limo are reversed back-to-front - the steering wheel can be seen to be on the wrong side of the car. (Noted by Jay-Firestorm)

⁹ At the climax of the story, two of Rick's lines, "Now what's he trying to do" and "I thought I'm supposed to be the driver", are noticeably added in post-production. On the former, his mouth doesn't move in time with the dialog.


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