The Black Orchid (1.16)

Message

#1 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:53 pm

This is the official MM thread for The Black Orchid (1.16). 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: 4/2/1981
Magnum has been hired by a woman to act out some of her rich, bored sister's fantasies. What seems innocent enough at the time quickly changes when he learns that her husband is a wealthy and infamously jealous businessman. The line between fantasy and reality continues to blur when they are attacked by real thugs and the woman is mysteriously poisoned.

#2 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 4:45 pm

Another fun, fun episode from Season One. Thomas gets wrapped up in some extravagant "games" put on by a bored, wealthy housewife played by the perfectly cast Judith Chapman. Magnum gets to have some fun playing one of his idols, Detective Sam Spade. Features two great opening and closing scenes and several good fight & chase scenes. This is truly one of the all-time classic Magnum episodes.

grundle · #3 Post by **grundle** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:42 am

The opening scene is almost always edited out on TV. So at the end, when she says, "This time the drug dealers are using real bullets," it doesn't make any sense.

Since I didn't start watching the show until season 2, buying the DVD is the first time that I ever saw that opening scene. And that made the episode so much better!

Judith Chapman is my favorite guest on the series. She's great in this, and even better in the season 2 episode The Woman On The Beach. It's also interesting that in both episodes, she plays a character who likes to dress up as a woman from the 1940s, although for entirely different reasons.

A little trivia about the color magenta: while most of us were taught as children that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, the actual primaries are really cyan, yellow, and magenta.

#4 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:43 pm

The King Kamehameha Club "Beach Bar" (filmed at a public "flora-covered" pavilion in Waialae Beach Park) is seen for the first time in this episode. Today, just east of the pavilion, on the side of a different building, you can find a plaque that memorializes this location:

Note the date, 1983. This episode aired on 4/2/1981. The show may have actually used two different locations at Waialae Beach Park for the beach bar setting. It's hard to tell because you never really get a good mid-range, straight on shot of the beach bar, but it sure looks like (at least to me, anyway) the same pavilion was used throughout the show's run. The stone columns and roof are very distinctive. Maybe back in the day there were two pavilions that looked similiar, and the location where the plaque is has been built up. Anyway, something else to keep an eye out for when you watch the episodes. Maybe a sharp eye can spot a difference.

Carol the Dabbler · Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:33 pm

grundle wrote:A little trivia about the color magenta: while most of us were taught as children that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, the actual primaries are really cyan, yellow, and magenta.

You're right, there's apparently a good case to be made for cyan, magenta, and yellow (instead of blue, red, and yellow) as the primary colors for pigment (e.g., ink, paint, and crayons). When you make colors using lights, however (e.g., a color computer monitor, or colored spotlights on a stage), the primaries are generally considered to be red, green, and blue.

The reason that there are generally considered to be three primary colors is that most humans' eyes are the most sensitive at three points in the color spectrum. For other species (as well as some humans) there may be two or four primary colors. Here's an interesting write-up from Wikipedia.

Now, please excuse my poor memory, but where does "magenta" enter into this episode?

SelleckLover · #6 Post by **SelleckLover** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:14 am

Just to add my 2 cents: White is the presence of all color and black is the absence of all color.

Just thought I'd share!

Carol the Dabbler · Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:47 am

That's true if you're talking about colored light. But with pigments, it's the other way around.

Confusing, huh?

Carmen · #8 Post by **Carmen** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:10 am

Magenta was tho color the walls were painted in the guesthouse by Mabel Dodge. I love this scenes, when Magnum tells Higgins how much he hates the red painting and Higgins tells him it is magenta, the favoured color of Mabel Dodge for this season. In the very last scene Magnum tells Higgins he wants the walls painted all white again and his furniture cleaned, he starts the Ferrari, says good bye and tells Higgins to send greetings to Mabel Dodge, whoever she may be. A car arrives, a woman opens the door, he just looks at her, asks Higgins if THIS is Mabel Dodge. She just smiles at him, standing there with very very long legs (wonder how they casted her? "how long are your legs - sorry we need them longer" )
Magnum smiles back and simply says "I love your work" ..

Carol the Dabbler · Sat Apr 26, 2008 4:10 am

Oh, right -- magenta walls. Thanks!

#10 Post by **J.J. Walters** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 9:43 pm

A couple of deleted scenes can be seen in the opening preview and the closing credits.

The opening preview shows Christie (in a bikini) talking to Magnum. Magnum says, "That's $500 dollars" and Christie replies, "It's called an attention-getter". This scene did not appear in the episode.

At the beginning of the closing credits, Louise and Christie are seen sitting at a table at the KKC beach bar. This scene also never happened in the episode.

It's a real shame they chose to remove the only swim suit scenes involving Judith Chapman and Kathryn Leigh Scott!

Agatha · #11 Post by **Agatha** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:21 pm

NOT one of my favorites! The plot is jsut too contrived. Or at least I hope it's contrived. Maybe I'm just jealous. I like to think that if I had A LOT of money, I'd spend it...and my time...WAY more constructively!

Jay-Firestorm · #12 Post by **Jay-Firestorm** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 1:58 pm

My first review of this week; I know some love this episode, but personally I find it just an okay-ish story. Not terrible though.

[TV.com rating=7.5; Silly]

Thomas has been hired by a wealthy woman to act out some of her bored sister’s fantasy games with a 1930s P.I. theme, but the “game” turns nasty when her over-protective husband finds out, and when the woman is poisoned. A so-so episode…

-----

‘The Black Orchid’… some ‘Magnum’ fans absolutely love this episode, but I have to confess, it’s not one of my outstanding favourites.

The episode marks the first of a number of times where fantasy elements would play a key part in stories. I for one don’t mind that, it’s just that this particular example doesn’t really do much for me. But hey, a story where T.C. and Rick dress up as 1930’s heavies can’t be ALL bad, I suppose.
In some respects, this story could just have easily come from any of the show’s later seasons, where more eccentric and fantasy-based plots were often used.
And Magnum posing as a black and white-era detective foreshadows ‘Murder by Night’ in season seven.

Judith Chapman gives a good performance as the eccentric rich woman wrapped up in her silly “games”, and she is probably the best thing about the episode.

There are signs that more was filmed for this episode than made the final cut. In the opening trailer, Christine offers Magnum $500 dollars as “an attention-getter”, and on the closing credits, with a shot of Christine and Louise in bikinis talking to Higgins at the King Kamehameha Club (of which, by the way, the commonly-used beach bar is used for the first time in this episode). These scenes were presumably dropped for timing reasons.

When I was younger, I had little time for this story; when I saw it again to review, I didn’t mind it so much, and gets a higher score than it would have done from me just a few years ago. I suppose it has its moments, but it’s certainly one of my lesser favourites from the first season.

(As a footnote, a scene from this episode can be seen being shown TV in Donald P. Bellisario’s later hit ‘Quantum Leap’, in the second season episode ‘Another Mother’).

-----

Other notes, bloopers and misc.:

* Didn’t spot much with this episode; just to say, another case of abridged commercial breaks on the DVD – the second and fourth ad breaks are abridged (I used to think these were the first and third breaks, until I remembered that US broadcasts typically have a break right after the opening credits).

lutherhgillis · #13 Post by **lutherhgillis** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:18 pm

Not a great episode but it is amusing. These rich people are seriously demented! Have they ever heard of volunteering to pass some time?

Anyway, there is a flub. When Louise is on the beach and Magnum arrives to tell her to get lost, two masked thugs show up. One of them shoots through the windscreen of the Ferrari. The hole is clearly seen in a closeup. A scuffle ensues and Louise makes a break for the Ferrari. Watch as she gets into the car and begins to drive away. There is no hole in the windscreen. I froze the frames and zoomed to make sure. Cool, eh?

The masked men were real wimps...

Higgy_baby · #14 Post by **Higgy_baby** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:25 pm

I have to disagree Luther, but I just watched this and did the frame advance thing (geez I'm getting anal or obsessed or both).

Although some frames have glare, some do show the hole or a cosmetic one in the front passenger side of the windscreen as Louise brings up the car. In the next series of shots from a different angle, you can see a glimpse of the hole just before Magnum jumps in.

Want to split the cost of therapy?

PS. I agree those guys were the biggest wimps. What's the line the guy with the gun uses? 'You're in big trouble Mr. Magnum'?? It sounds like a badly dubbed martial arts film.

Henry Lewis · #15 Post by **Henry Lewis** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:43 pm

Just returned from Oahu and after visiting some locations, recognized a unreported flub in this episode. Early in the episode Judith arrives at the estate in the Rolls-Royce. While Higgins talks to the driver about the car, Judith and Magnum walk off to talk in private. In the next scene they are on the beach talking. But the beach they are on is the King Kamehameha Club Beach (Wai'alae Beach Park) not the estate.

The Black Orchid (1.16)

How Would You Rate This Episode?

The Black Orchid (1.16)